Do they get the sack if they leave their truck, as when i was running around Europe i would aim for a decent place that had a shower at a swimming pool or restaurant that would be open at the weekends.
I know they are self sufficient and are good cooks, as they eat from the side locker on the trailer, some have a fridge at the side of the trailer ,a mini size one.
The boredom factor, with a 45 off in the middle of nowhere, there are only so many DVD`s they can watch, some may wait a week or more for a return load to Turkey or Iran, on a TIR journey.
I would close my cab curtains, and leave an old pair of shoes on the door step of the cab to give the impression someone was about, and leave a cheap hand held radio on in the cab, or a small cab light on if i was coming back late from a 40m mile bike ride.
Simple reason apart from money! There are no decent facilities in the Uk for foreign truck drivers,often spoke to foreign lads like the dutch or Spanish & their impression of English grub was not good! There is no Geiselwind or Carisio,Granbuffet type of place for them to head for just some dirty parking area that charges upto £25 & serves up crap!
jacko22:
Simple reason apart from money! There are no decent facilities in the Uk for foreign truck drivers,often spoke to foreign lads like the dutch or Spanish & their impression of English grub was not good! There is no Geiselwind or Carisio,Granbuffet type of place for them to head for just some dirty parking area that charges upto £25 & serves up crap!
This^^^^^
There can be few things that are more grim than being weekended in the UK. Absolutely no proper facilities and if there are they are priced beyond any reason. You’re not allowed to bobtail off card to access other facilties and live like any other normal human being so you’re crammed in the cab living out of boxes in a layby etc. I used to get weekended regularly in Folkestone but thats right in the old harbour by the town centre. Anywhere else, I wouldn’t have entertained the idea.
jacko22:
Simple reason apart from money! There are no decent facilities in the Uk for foreign truck drivers,often spoke to foreign lads like the dutch or Spanish & their impression of English grub was not good! There is no Geiselwind or Carisio,Granbuffet type of place for them to head for just some dirty parking area that charges upto £25 & serves up crap!
Can’t argue with that mate, but an industrial estate at the edge of a town, even overnight let alone weekended, is better than some sh.hole lay by.
I remember closing up the yard one xmas eve, and a Russian driver turned up to tip. I spoke to boss and hung around to tip him. Done about 6pm.
I used to do the odd gate shift at weekends, to cover. Went in the following Sunday (27th I think) and he was still there. He had to wait for back load. Spent most of the day watching the TV with me in the hut, and he cooked me a meal from his side locker. He was still there when I returned to work on the 30th and 31st. Did security again on the 1st, still there. Went back to work on 3rd, still there. Got back that evening, he had left. 10 days over xmas, sat in our yard. Poor fellow.
I once spent Christmas and New Year in Dublin and that was bad enough. I would probably have been better off out in the sticks because the hospitality of the Irish was fantastic. Lack of funds is probably the main reason why they park up in lay-bys.
Agree completely. I spent last weekend at an Autohof in bunde up near osnabruck… There’s a fantastic restaurant (families come out for a meal and sit alongside drivers at the weekend)…
If you don’t fancy that there’s both burger king and also subway next door.
The showers are good, hot, and the attendant cleans them out after every shower.
It cost me €10 per day. I got €8 in vouchers to use in the shop or restaurant.
Show me somewhere like that in the UK.
There’s no wonder our European neighbours don’t like msa’s here is there?
Clunk:
I remember closing up the yard one xmas eve, and a Russian driver turned up to tip. I spoke to boss and hung around to tip him. Done about 6pm.
I used to do the odd gate shift at weekends, to cover. Went in the following Sunday (27th I think) and he was still there. He had to wait for back load. Spent most of the day watching the TV with me in the hut, and he cooked me a meal from his side locker. He was still there when I returned to work on the 30th and 31st. Did security again on the 1st, still there. Went back to work on 3rd, still there. Got back that evening, he had left. 10 days over xmas, sat in our yard. Stupid fellow.
Fixed that one.
There is no way I would do that for anyone…ever…
Truckulent:
Clunk:
I remember closing up the yard one xmas eve, and a Russian driver turned up to tip. I spoke to boss and hung around to tip him. Done about 6pm.
I used to do the odd gate shift at weekends, to cover. Went in the following Sunday (27th I think) and he was still there. He had to wait for back load. Spent most of the day watching the TV with me in the hut, and he cooked me a meal from his side locker. He was still there when I returned to work on the 30th and 31st. Did security again on the 1st, still there. Went back to work on 3rd, still there. Got back that evening, he had left. 10 days over xmas, sat in our yard. Stupid fellow.Fixed that one.
There is no way I would do that for anyone…ever…
Road transport is unpredictable, things change, that is part of the fun of the job, but there are lorry drivers and drivers of lorries.
Stupid Fellow
drivers pay 20 pound for parking .each years some company get millions pound from lorry parking.but where this money.what was improved in last 5 years.just one new services at M25,where millions pounds was spending for new petrol station and KFC,M DONALD.BUT for drivers don t need KFC AND … FOR DRIVERS NEED NORMAL PARKING AREA,shops for normal price but not shop where sale 1 bottle Cola(0.5.litre) for 2.20 pound.must build simply parking space.why every services need petrol station,KFC…if build just parking it is can be much cheap.and why need build services,lay by just of Mottorway.can build 1 mile away where much cheap land,.AND in some serviceces company cant re paint lane marking,but want 20 pound for night
- Availability: europe ~30km vs. UK’s MSAs every 30-40miles, many small places don’t allow overnight stays or lorries in general. Where do you park on an industrial estate without causing chaos next morning? Where can you do your morning business on an industrial estate?
- Facilities: typical UK MSA = slot machines, WHS, costly coffee, king/donald - very poor choice of hot food, prices higher than in europe. You can get a ready meal from m&s but there’s nowhere to heat it up if you don’t have a microvawe in the cab. Thank God for little chef! - dissapearing in favour of next door fuel station with cold plastic sandwiches
- money: £20pn in UK, nothing in layby. many bosses refuse to pay overnight parking in UK (how come weekend in DE costs 10-15e but £40 in GB??) if driver does not want to pay out his own pocket…
- 561 - it may be legal to occassionally drive over your allowance but try exlaining it in a mixture of foreign languages to a foreign official - so drivers stop where they possible when the time’s up
- errrmm… many drivers realized that their biggest enemy is another driver and prefer to stay on their own
When we had the scrapyard we had drivers delivering to the mill further up get weekended, we let them shower in our place and use our facilities (not the best but better than nowt)v showed them where the shops were (small town centre 5 mins walk away), as the drivers became regular it saved us paying for security on a weekend, and we never went short on cigs or booze 
Truckulent:
jacko22:
Simple reason apart from money! There are no decent facilities in the Uk for foreign truck drivers,often spoke to foreign lads like the dutch or Spanish & their impression of English grub was not good! There is no Geiselwind or Carisio,Granbuffet type of place for them to head for just some dirty parking area that charges upto £25 & serves up crap!This^^^^^
I agree…
A long time ago, I travelled from the N coast of Spain to the South coast and back again (going to/from N Africa)
As I recall there were frequent roadside stops called ‘Hostels’, which seemed to be a combination of a small lorry park, a village pub, a transport cafe and a simple hotel.
They each seemed to be run as independent family businesses, and catered for local Spanish people/truck drivers/budget business travellers rather than tourists. They were cheap, decent and friendly. We were riding motorbikes, and it was hosing down with rain. At the places where we stopped they put the bikes out of sight of the road and did their best to dry our kit out for us…no English spoken by them, no Spanish spoken by us, but all done with sign language and smiles.
At the time I though it made a bit of a contrast to roadside facilities in the UK.
In the UK we seem determined to let the roadside market be cared up between catering vans at one end and huge corporate megasites at the other with nothing in between. There is no room for a small business to invest, even though they can provide a far better service than both at a sensible price.
main proble just one.all Motorrway services running by one company.no competition.long time ago goverment must introduced competition between servicices.or sale now for different company.
Sensibly the lads tend to find somewhere to park together and look after each other, self sufficient they pool resources, cook and drink together, Laybys can be OK if they’re off road ones that used to be an old parallel road.
Don’t blame them avoiding MSA’s, too expensive and apart from toilets and showers they have nothing to offer these usually poorly paid blokes, even if they could afford to no sane person would eat at the holes out of choice.
Bloody glad i don’t have to do it, they’re not stupid just ordinary blokes trying to earn a crust same as the rest of us.
Truckulent:
Clunk:
I remember closing up the yard one xmas eve, and a Russian driver turned up to tip. I spoke to boss and hung around to tip him. Done about 6pm.
I used to do the odd gate shift at weekends, to cover. Went in the following Sunday (27th I think) and he was still there. He had to wait for back load. Spent most of the day watching the TV with me in the hut, and he cooked me a meal from his side locker. He was still there when I returned to work on the 30th and 31st. Did security again on the 1st, still there. Went back to work on 3rd, still there. Got back that evening, he had left. 10 days over xmas, sat in our yard. Stupid fellow.Fixed that one.
There is no way I would do that for anyone…ever…
You can not understand this, cos you are British (I think). Eastern european guys have to spend d 6 to 8 weeks on tramping, all over Europe. They got paid by mileage, and sometimes they are not allowed to pay for truckstop, or Mway services… Poor fellas.
Personally, I’m glad they don’t much use the services and truckstops we have as when you get a load together from the same firm then it usually ends up in one great p155 up till late when everybody else is trying to sleep. Seen it many times and if I’m honest, done it myself when parked up abroad but I’m a bit older and wiser now
robroy:
Can’t argue with that mate, but an industrial estate at the edge of a town, even overnight let alone weekended, is better than some sh.hole lay by.
But it’s hard to know all industrial estates everywhere in Europe… And European truckers are used to that most of the roads off the motorways are closed to HGV’s, so they don’t even try.
Clunk:
I remember closing up the yard one xmas eve, and a Russian driver turned up to tip. I spoke to boss and hung around to tip him. Done about 6pm.
I used to do the odd gate shift at weekends, to cover. Went in the following Sunday (27th I think) and he was still there. He had to wait for back load. Spent most of the day watching the TV with me in the hut, and he cooked me a meal from his side locker. He was still there when I returned to work on the 30th and 31st. Did security again on the 1st, still there. Went back to work on 3rd, still there. Got back that evening, he had left. 10 days over xmas, sat in our yard. Poor fellow.
Why? Russians are orthodox Christian, they go along the old calendar, they have their Christmas somewhere in January… So Christmas have nothing to do with it.
And if I had a decent cab to sleep and was paid to sit in it, or going out and making friends, cooking meals for them, watching TV and reading books while doing nothing jobwise, I would be very happy 
Truckulent:
Stupid fellow.
Well, you showed lack of knowledge as to when Russian have their Christmas. Then you assumed that everyone are like you, that would not be happy doing such stuff. And then you said that if someone does something you wouldn’t they are stupid… I can’t really say to whom that word is more appriopriate.
FYI: I am stupid as well. I don’t like all this Christmas crap, I am not a family man… Two years ago I left Glasgow on Boxing day to go to Norway. On the way there I stopped to visit my friends. I drove 3 days around Norway, people in every places I’ve been were in very Christmas mood, friendly and happy, roads were empty, weather was amazing, beautiful, cold winter with plenty of snow and sun… I came back together with new years fireworks And I have to say, these were one of my best Christmas ever