On the A14 last night,I saw a truck parked up fir the night,curtains drawn,he had just managed to squeeze in at the end of a layby but the back of the truck was still hanging out on the running lane albeit only 10 inches or so,but ffs,how can you rest in these conditions?
With 6000 more lorries parking up overnight than there’s spaces in services, MSAs and truckstops and the further south you get the more are having to park in laybys and industrial estates it’s a case of having to, not because you want to.
Probably exhausted.
You’ll sleep under a hedge bottom…if needs must.
commonrail:
Probably exhausted.
You’ll sleep under a hedge bottom…if needs must.
+1…
After say, 14 hours duty and the knowledge that most places are already full, it’s abandon ship and park.
I’m not condoning it but I can see why it happens.
Do you get a seatbelt in your bunk? [emoji33]
yourhavingalarf:
commonrail:
Probably exhausted.
You’ll sleep under a hedge bottom…if needs must.+1…
After say, 14 hours duty and the knowledge that most places are already full, it’s abandon ship and park.
I’m not condoning it but I can see why it happens.
Yep.
Just like how the newbies panic when they think they done 35mph in a 30mph and a police car drove past.
Once your regularly doing 13 hour + shifts you no longer start agonizing over such things. Basically adopt a deal with it happens approach.
Personally would be pretty paranoid about sleeping with any part of the vehicle not being at least a foot inside the dotted line but I can understand what happens you just run out of time and face a possible fine and definite infringement or just do what needs to be done. Loads of motorway services are full at night and I frequently need to stop and take a 45 at the pumps/in a coach bay/or near the exit slip road. They give an inadequate amount of stopping places and then complain about drivers running over 4.5 hours. It’s like demanding a game of football but not wanting to provide a ball.
They need to either give up buying crap or accept that lorries deliver nearly everything they want and need.
As others have said - driver possibly totally knackered after a long shift, maybe almost out of or over hours. Get it into the space as far as you can, keys out, boots off, curtains pulled, into bed & sleeping in a jiffy. Been there!
More common than it used to be…desperation does that to folks.
J
Conor:
more are having to park in laybys and industrial estates it’s a case of having to, not because you want to.
I see your point about lay bys being an absolute last resort (even though they are first option with the unimaginative and those without a second to spare 
) and drivers ‘‘having’’ to park there as you say, but I would not put ind estates in the same category.
MSAs?..I personally refuse to park on them.
I’ll park in a lay by if I’m desperate, and /or if it’s near some facility, , (you get a few behind service stations for instance) but not directly on side of road where I’ll be ■■■■ rocked all night,.I 'll leave that to those who pull their mirrors in, who are totally oblivious to the fact that if you need to do that, it is telling you it’s a no go.
As for Truckstops in this country,… I can count on one hand how many actual GOOD truckstops there are, most are grotty, with poor food, and leave a lot to be desired in comparison with places on the Continent.
So personally speaking,.some of the best places I park are on ind est.s adjacent to town facilities,.as long as they are well lit up for security.
So I can not see a problem tbh.
I did something similar last August whilst working for Farmfoods
On way back from Dover / Ashford to Bristol I ran out of working time and squeezed into an lay-by on the A34 (it was a Friday and getting round the m25 to m4 was a night mare…)
Annoyingly I pulled away at 0100am next morning only to find a decent, set back from the road lay-by about 2 miles up the road, that I could easily have reached. 
Sploom:
On the A14 last night,I saw a truck parked up fir the night,curtains drawn,he had just managed to squeeze in at the end of a layby but the back of the truck was still hanging out on the running lane albeit only 10 inches or so,but ffs,how can you rest in these conditions?
i for 1 would not be sleeping in a layby with 10 inches of the trailer stuck out in the road, i would be doing a printout and writing on it over running hours rules to find safe parking and toddle off to find next suitable ■■■■■■■■■■■■.
if an accident was to happen because your trailer was stuck out in the road and someone was killed then well the consequences could well be dire
bad enough parking in laybyes on a 45 min trying to get some sleep when tired.
i dont know how anyone sleeps in a laybe overnight if honest .traffic passing the noise and the vibration and truck bouncing around