The recent tragic event on the A5 highlights the problems you have for parking in a safe and secure environment.
A post was made lamenting the lack of parking in public car parks (which all allowed lorry parking at night) well surely there is a case for this to be reintroduced, we live in a society where H&S is paramount, maybe the HSE could work in our favour for once
When parked for the night you are still at your place of work, so just as there must be safety zones in warehouses and yards, there should be a safety zone between a parked lorry and a roadway
There are tens of thousands of members on this website, a petition to the government wouldnât hurt the cause
Since I posted this 39 people have had a look, but not one single comment
Is it any wonder we get [zb]ed over
Remember the squeakiest wheel always gets the most grease
In the USA a driver called Jason Rivenburg was murdered a couple of years ago, heâd parked at a disused gas (petrol) station and got shot in a bungled robbery, because of this a few drivers got together and lobbied their local Senator, bills for Jasonâs Law went through both the house and senate within weeks, the bills called for millions of dollars to be spent by states to ensure adequate truck parking, they spoke up and someone listened
Totally agree newmerc safe parking ie becoming harder to find,and if your looking later in the evening its even worse there must be loads of space off main caragways like the a2 where nells is i think the goverment need to take responsabilty and develope more places like it its deffo a H&S issue that needs addressing we get treated like s t because we allow it
I see a few problems here. Around 50% of the drivers iâve worked with will not pay for parking, even though they get it reimbursed a few days laterâŚâwhy should i pay to park a truckâ? Also assuming no one ever overnighted in a layby (for whatever reason), then you would not get in many truckstops as there is not currently enough parking spaces for all the overnighters we have in the UK. The Government have a policy on parking, and it is that the local councils should work with âpartnersâ i.e transport companies and potential investors in the parking sites. Just how that works on a practical level iâve no idea, nor have they, but thats their policy. Communities and âstakeholdersâ working together in partnership !!! Also, with relation the the current incident which prompted your post, what if ,and i know iâm just guessing and giving a scenario, but what if the driver in the layby was just having a 45 minute break? You still advocate shutting all the laybys down?
newmercman:
Since I posted this 39 people have had a look, but not one single comment
Is it any wonder we get [zb]ed over
Remember the squeakiest wheel always gets the most grease
In the USA a driver called Jason Rivenburg was murdered a couple of years ago, heâd parked at a disused gas (petrol) station and got shot in a bungled robbery, because of this a few drivers got together and lobbied their local Senator, bills for Jasonâs Law went through both the house and senate within weeks, the bills called for millions of dollars to be spent by states to ensure adequate truck parking, they spoke up and someone listened
You should give it a try
We get screwed over, because every single driver union we have, are spineless â â â â â â
Iâm just here to boost the numbers a bit. Never overnighted in a layby and never intend to. I like my sleep and getting thrown about all night (save your witty comments) is not my idea of a good nightâs rest.
Iâve noticed some drivers point the front of the trailer back into the road and have the cab tucked behind it facing into the verge. Does that deflect the wake from passing vehicles or make it more stable and less of a white knuckle sleep or are they just parking wonky for the â â â â âs and giggles?
Mike-C:
I see a few problems here. Around 50% of the drivers iâve worked with will not pay for parking, even though they get it reimbursed a few days laterâŚâwhy should i pay to park a truckâ?
This is the biggest problem. Sure its a pain in the backside having to take ÂŁ50/ÂŁ100 of your own money to pay for parking and then waiting a week to get it back but surely that is better than kipping in a layby not being able to get a wash and having to crap behind a bush usually stepping in the turds of the drivers whoâve been there before you?
Iâve always paid for parking and Iâve always got my money back even with companies that drivers there say donât pay for parking.
newmercman:
Since I posted this 39 people have had a look, but not one single comment
Is it any wonder we get [zb]ed over
Remember the squeakiest wheel always gets the most grease
In the USA a driver called Jason Rivenburg was murdered a couple of years ago, heâd parked at a disused gas (petrol) station and got shot in a bungled robbery, because of this a few drivers got together and lobbied their local Senator, bills for Jasonâs Law went through both the house and senate within weeks, the bills called for millions of dollars to be spent by states to ensure adequate truck parking, they spoke up and someone listened
You should give it a try
This has resulted in amazing changes to service areas on the NY thruway, Ulster service area was the first to be improved and added spaces for about 150 trucks compared to the 30 spaces previously available and a few other areas are being extended.
We get screwed over, because every single driver union we have, are spineless [zb].
here we go again.
nothing to do with drivers sticking togetherâŚitâs the unions.
Just what the [zb] do you expect unions to do?
wave a magic wand.
If the unions balloted the truckers to strike, what kind of response would there be.
Lots of drivers donât do overnights, so I canât see them voting in favour of a strike.
Those that do overnights would be too concerned about losing pay to strike, so what strength does that give any union to fight with.
The idea behind unions is to organize the members in order to generate strength, not to wipe the members Ars** for them.
those of you who have seen my posts in the past know that I rarely use insults or censored language, but this response has me spitting my beer over my keyboard.
FFS.
You havenât used censored language this time. If it needs altering to get it past the auto censor thatâs the [zb]ing clue itâs not allowed. Just type the word and let the auto censor decide if itâs allowed or not.
We get screwed over, because every single driver union we have, are spineless [zb].
here we go again.
nothing to do with drivers sticking togetherâŚitâs the unions.
Just what the [zb] do you expect unions to do?
wave a magic wand.
If the unions balloted the truckers to strike, what kind of response would there be.
Lots of drivers donât do overnights, so I canât see them voting in favour of a strike.
Those that do overnights would be too concerned about losing pay to strike, so what strength does that give any union to fight with.
The idea behind unions is to organize the members in order to generate strength, not to wipe the members Ars** for them.
those of you who have seen my posts in the past know that I rarely use insults or censored language, but this response has me spitting my beer over my keyboard.
FFS.
Well every other non driver union seem to get what there members want, so perhaps if they started to show some balls, they would maybe increase there member numbers to a point were they could actually do something.
Been in this industry 22 years, and still waiting for 1 of them to do something positive, except line there fat man trouser pocket.
We get screwed over, because every single driver union we have, are spineless [zb].
here we go again.
nothing to do with drivers sticking togetherâŚitâs the unions.
Just what the [zb] do you expect unions to do?
wave a magic wand.
If the unions balloted the truckers to strike, what kind of response would there be.
Lots of drivers donât do overnights, so I canât see them voting in favour of a strike.
Those that do overnights would be too concerned about losing pay to strike, so what strength does that give any union to fight with.
The idea behind unions is to organize the members in order to generate strength, not to wipe the members Ars** for them.
those of you who have seen my posts in the past know that I rarely use insults or censored language, but this response has me spitting my beer over my keyboard.
FFS.
Well said. Itâs not anything unions or driver strikes can do, itâs a matter of just parking where you feel safe regardless of what others protest about the govt should do more.
As Del so delicately put it Why should a union wipe your arse for you and how many people have actually asked the union to get involved in the first place
The whole point is that nobody that can make a difference is aware of the depth of the problem, hauliers donât even know the full extent because drivers park wherever they can, whether itâs a back road on an industrial estate or a layby, the only people who experience the problem are drivers
Online petitions have toppled opressive regimes in recent times, whatâs the harm in bringing this subject up
Even emailing the red top newspapers would bring the situation into the publicâs eye, if an editor receives a 1000 emails on any subject you can guarantee it will feature in the next dayâs paper, the whole thing doesnât even need organising, you can all individually email your local councillor and the editor of whatever paper you choose, itâd take 5mins at most
As Del so delicately put it Why should a union wipe your arse for you and how many people have actually asked the union to get involved in the first place
The whole point is that nobody that can make a difference is aware of the depth of the problem, hauliers donât even know the full extent because drivers park wherever they can, whether itâs a back road on an industrial estate or a layby, the only people who experience the problem are drivers
Online petitions have toppled opressive regimes in recent times, whatâs the harm in bringing this subject up
Even emailing the red top newspapers would bring the situation into the publicâs eye, if an editor receives a 1000 emails on any subject you can guarantee it will feature in the next dayâs paper, the whole thing doesnât even need organising, you can all individually email your local councillor and the editor of whatever paper you choose, itâd take 5mins at most
Well ya on here moaning because nothing gets done to help drivers in situations like this, no one is asking them to wipe our arses, just to stand up for drivers issues, which is what they collect dues for.
As Del so delicately put it Why should a union wipe your arse for you and how many people have actually asked the union to get involved in the first place
The whole point is that nobody that can make a difference is aware of the depth of the problem, hauliers donât even know the full extent because drivers park wherever they can, whether itâs a back road on an industrial estate or a layby, the only people who experience the problem are drivers
Online petitions have toppled opressive regimes in recent times, whatâs the harm in bringing this subject up
Even emailing the red top newspapers would bring the situation into the publicâs eye, if an editor receives a 1000 emails on any subject you can guarantee it will feature in the next dayâs paper, the whole thing doesnât even need organising, you can all individually email your local councillor and the editor of whatever paper you choose, itâd take 5mins at most
Well ya on here moaning because nothing gets done to help drivers in situations like this, no one is asking them to wipe our arses, just to stand up for drivers issues, which is what they collect dues for.
I donât park in laybys so it doesnât affect me one little bit, just trying to sew a few seeds, if youâre not interested and wish to continue being treated like dirt, crack on driver
As Del so delicately put it Why should a union wipe your arse for you and how many people have actually asked the union to get involved in the first place
The whole point is that nobody that can make a difference is aware of the depth of the problem, hauliers donât even know the full extent because drivers park wherever they can, whether itâs a back road on an industrial estate or a layby, the only people who experience the problem are drivers
Online petitions have toppled opressive regimes in recent times, whatâs the harm in bringing this subject up
Even emailing the red top newspapers would bring the situation into the publicâs eye, if an editor receives a 1000 emails on any subject you can guarantee it will feature in the next dayâs paper, the whole thing doesnât even need organising, you can all individually email your local councillor and the editor of whatever paper you choose, itâd take 5mins at most
As much as itâs a fine sentiment Mark, you know full well that itâs a different world in the U.S⌠Generally drivers and the industry are better respected than over here. You donât see many trucker appreciation days over here, for example. The U.S. does a better job of recognising the need to court the public. From the likes of the charity convoys to the Drive and Deliver movie and the country songs. Over here itâs Rip off Truckfest, Fast Eddies TV Elves and headlines full of killer juggernauts wiping out families. We are woefully short of what we used to be and need to be again in the publics eye in order to garner there sympathy, understanding and support.
Sad but true Itâs a change that has to start with the drivers and there attitudes and 5 minutes on here will tell any man that aint gonna happen any time soon.
I have already gave my opinions on this on the âA5 Crickâ thread, and I agree with a lot that newmercman says about the problem, maybe we should start some kind of petition, I,m not naive enough to be sure it would work, in fact I,m reasonably confident that it wouldn,t, but at least by rattling a few cages in high places it would be brought to their attention, and we would be at least seen to do something, instead of taking any old crap that they dish out to us drivers like they normally expect us to do.
God I never thought I would say this , but we should me more like the French.
I would have thought that the Insurance companies would hold a little bit of clout on the subject as I would like to hope that with all the theft and damage occuring that the insurance claims would be flying in. Insurance companies hold quite a big shout on getting things sorted so that they dont keep getting claims and I dont just mean by putting up the premiums as they know themselves that prices are already at an all time high. If they would come on board then they could also lobby against goverment/local authorities to sort out the security of its customers.
Health & Safety has a part to play in this also, someone else has aready touched on this but the HASAW 1974 does state that an employer will where reasonably practible provide a safe working enviroment for its employees (It also states that sufficient welfare facilities should be provided, i.e. toilets and washing facilities, but thats another topic). MMmm? I think that there is now enough evidence to support the fact that overnight parking in a dodgy, dark, unsecure and noisy layby does not meet HASAW act legislation, therefore the HSE should come on side and get the situation sorted.
I could go on a lot more but there is only so much Health & Safety â â â â I could think about at this time of night
robroy:
I have already gave my opinions on this on the âA5 Crickâ thread, and I agree with a lot that newmercman says about the problem, maybe we should start some kind of petition, I,m not naive enough to be sure it would work, in fact I,m reasonably confident that it wouldn,t, but at least by rattling a few cages in high places it would be brought to their attention, and we would be at least seen to do something, instead of taking any old crap that they dish out to us drivers like they normally expect us to do.
God I never thought I would say this , but we should me more like the French.
So, lets get the ball rolling then, and involve the unions as well since they bang on about looking after drivers interests.
I am sure there will be members on here who are in these unions who could ask them back this campaign.
I would have thought that the Insurance companies would hold a little bit of clout on the subject as I would like to hope that with all the theft and damage occuring that the insurance claims would be flying in. Insurance companies hold quite a big shout on getting things sorted so that they dont keep getting claims and I dont just mean by putting up the premiums as they know themselves that prices are already at an all time high. If they would come on board then they could also lobby against goverment/local authorities to sort out the security of its customers.
I very much doubt it, that would cost them money in reduced premiums.
But the premiums are only high at the moment because of the risk, the insurance companies dont want to push the premiums up anymore as they already know that companies are on the bones of thier arse at present, so Iâm sure they would rather try and keep them going and keep getting the current premium rather than loose them all togethor. Just a thought, as I think if this problem is going to be looked at seriously by the powers that be then it is going to require a big bloody stick to beat the drum.
Why should a union wipe your arse for you and how many people have actually asked the union to get involved in the first place 
Itâs a change that has to start with the drivers and there attitudes and 5 minutes on here will tell any man that aint gonna happen any time soon. 