Was I parked over night in the Sahara Desert or in the Middle East with dust blowing everywhere, no it is several UK truckstops ?
Why do drivers accept these conditions, pay money to be in a Star Wars film set location .
You have taken care of your truck by washing it , then it is filthy again .
Then there is the health issues of breathing in fine particles which is not good for the lungs .
Most truckstops are now hard standing concrete or tarmac.
It is 2016 not the Middle Ages, a local farmer could earn a few bob and use his tanker to spray water on the dust .
Then there would be complaints about the mud …
I’s a lorry, they get dirty. Never mind clean it off or wrap it with this:
I was thinking exactly the same as Toby when I stopped at the Red Lion Northampton in the week when I saw two ECM motors scrape across the yard, sorry the lunar surface.
Brilliant idea of the farmer with tanker spraying water, more cost, he’s not going to do it for nothing!
The owners of the dustbowl cafes don’t want to or haven’t got the money to spend on laying and maintaining large areas of concrete for wagons to screw round or drop trailers on a surface that has cost thousands.
Red Lion is a good example, started laying concrete in sections but must have realised the cost for all that yard. Lockerbie, thousands of square yards of Tarmac, how much did that cost?
As long as drivers continue to park in lay bys every night, the dustbowl places will never improve. And why do they park in lay bys? Because the gaffer won’t pay parking! And why won’t he pay parking? Because they thought it was clever and won’t cost them or the company nothing to park in a lay by!
I was also in the Red Lion and Truckers Rest
Cannock both dustbowls .
At the Red Lion if you drive in more than one mph, you risk the cab lockers emptying their contents on your head and wrecking the truck .
beanie:
I was thinking exactly the same as Toby when I stopped at the Red Lion Northampton in the week when I saw two ECM motors scrape across the yard, sorry the lunar surface.
Brilliant idea of the farmer with tanker spraying water, more cost, he’s not going to do it for nothing!
The owners of the dustbowl cafes don’t want to or haven’t got the money to spend on laying and maintaining large areas of concrete for wagons to screw round or drop trailers on a surface that has cost thousands.
Red Lion is a good example, started laying concrete in sections but must have realised the cost for all that yard. Lockerbie, thousands of square yards of Tarmac, how much did that cost?
As long as drivers continue to park in lay bys every night, the dustbowl places will never improve. And why do they park in lay bys? Because the gaffer won’t pay parking! And why won’t he pay parking? Because they thought it was clever and won’t cost them or the company nothing to park in a lay by!
Well our lot pay parking…But i occasionally will park in a layby…All be a decent one set back of the road…And to be honest…You can get a better nights kip in them too.Without all the trailer changes and reversing bleepers to disturb you.
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Lockerbie main parking is all tarmac and no trailer swaps allowed or even dropping legs £200 fine so nice and clean
If tarmac is expensive, they could try what South Mimms service station seem to have tried - block paving, slightly more suitable for a driveway and probably costing a fortune. Unfortunately it seems they forgot trucks turn corners and have ripped the heck out of the block surface near the entrance…oops.
I once overnighted at J26 truckstop or whatever it’s called a few summers ago when it hadn’t rained for a week or more and Jesus what a dust bowl that was every time a wagon drove in, after a while I shut the windows and just melted into the mattress instead of choking to death .
Thats the UK for you, ■■■■■■■■ truck stops will continue until theyre boycotted. Will that ever happen? Of course not, the lemmings will continue to use them like they always have and always will… 
AndrewG:
Thats the UK for you, [zb] truck stops will continue until theyre boycotted. Will that ever happen? Of course not, the lemmings will continue to use them like they always have and always will…
Boycott them and you loose them! In our industry, we already have drivers that are frightened of going off route to use the dustbowl cafes. Don’t use em and you loose em, so there you go, there’s a lay by by the side of the road!
Swindon truckstop is tarmac but so is the food apparently.
I must be in the minority as in the 27yrs i.ve been driving a lorrry i.ve never once payed for parking, theres plenty of decent spots if you look hard enough
I used to park at the Red Lion until the clientele changed to the point that I didn’t have a language in common with everyone else in the yard. Thats whats killing off truckstops. Too many foreigners who don’t use the additional services mean the facilities go down hill to the point that the brits wont use them. Then we all get the fun and games of parking between two Bulgarian ■■■■■■■■ on the side of the A14 if you are lucky enough to find an available space at 1600hrs.
chaversdad:
I must be in the minority as in the 27yrs i.ve been driving a lorrry i.ve never once payed for parking, theres plenty of decent spots if you look hard enough
I applaud your resourcefulness in not paying for parking in 27 years drive, but what about washroom and basic toilet facilities?
I’m sure you must be very imaginative, but should drivers who are overnighting, not be granted the same or similar facilities that are enjoyed by managers when they are required to be away from home?
I keep packs of baby wipes and supplies of soap and water, and a fresh change of kit, but a nice shower is so invigorating.
Yeah sometimes I’ve had to use lay by or industrial estates, but for 27 years and not paid??
If you pull into a travel lodge or a premier inn, it’s only a few pounds more for a decent room with shower.
Would you share your parking sites??
Cheers in advance drive.
chaversdad:
I must be in the minority as in the 27yrs i.ve been driving a lorrry i.ve never once payed for parking, theres plenty of decent spots if you look hard enough
+1.ive never worked for anyone who would pay it,so I wouldn’t be paying myself no matter what the value of the meal voucher.
you don’t need to look hard to find somewhere,you just need to take a moment and think if your vulernable to the gypgops or diesel fairies.its easier if your self suficient with a cooker and grub though.
dieseldog999:
chaversdad:
I must be in the minority as in the 27yrs i.ve been driving a lorrry i.ve never once payed for parking, theres plenty of decent spots if you look hard enough+1.ive never worked for anyone who would pay it,so I wouldn’t be paying myself no matter what the value of the meal voucher.
you don’t need to look hard to find somewhere,you just need to take a moment and think if your vulernable to the gypgops or diesel fairies.its easier if your self suficient with a cooker and grub though.
Do a 15hr day and park up with nowhere to get a shower and have a tom ■■■? Must be a bit of funky smell in the cab by the morning.
Conor:
dieseldog999:
chaversdad:
I must be in the minority as in the 27yrs i.ve been driving a lorrry i.ve never once payed for parking, theres plenty of decent spots if you look hard enough+1.ive never worked for anyone who would pay it,so I wouldn’t be paying myself no matter what the value of the meal voucher.
you don’t need to look hard to find somewhere,you just need to take a moment and think if your vulernable to the gypgops or diesel fairies.its easier if your self suficient with a cooker and grub though.Do a 15hr day and park up with nowhere to get a shower and have a tom ■■■? Must be a bit of funky smell in the cab by the morning.
I would be doing my tom-titting outside of the cab. As for showers well, most services give you thefirst two hours free…go figure.
Conor:
dieseldog999:
chaversdad:
I must be in the minority as in the 27yrs i.ve been driving a lorrry i.ve never once payed for parking, theres plenty of decent spots if you look hard enough+1.ive never worked for anyone who would pay it,so I wouldn’t be paying myself no matter what the value of the meal voucher.
you don’t need to look hard to find somewhere,you just need to take a moment and think if your vulernable to the gypgops or diesel fairies.its easier if your self suficient with a cooker and grub though.Do a 15hr day and park up with nowhere to get a shower and have a tom ■■■? Must be a bit of funky smell in the cab by the morning.
as stated by yourself in the cab funk thread
Conor:
Christ what with drivers complaining about getting dirt under their fingernails and now this there are some right fannies working as permanent drivers in this job.Just drive with the [zb] windows down a bit for a week.
some of us dont work like clockwork toys,some of us have varied shifts,some of us have trucks that are kept as clean as we wish,some of us can go for a shwer/shave or tom ■■■ as and when the occasion arises.not chugging on a night trunk is someone elses ■■■■■■■■■■
hence the witty and topical piece of rivetting prose also from the cab funk thread…
Re: Cab funk
Postby dieseldog999 » Tue Aug 16, 2016 11:13 am
id think it was due to the fact that limpers are constantly getting the shagmobile of the fleet when the regular drivers off that after a while they get immune to the wiff.there not exactly going to give a good drivers pride and joy to a limper to trash when he is on holiday.
[/quote]
What, even the worlds greatest limper Conor Norris? 
[/quote]
limpers are limpers great and small.
even roboconor who is above them all
he does his trunk day and night
then comes on here,spouting turkish delight.
it must be great to be the best
rising head and shouldners above the rest
if zero hours is your full time job
then in my book,that makes you just a nob.
nightshft trunking and being a plobber
means your really just a dobber
you can boldly trunk and show no fear
even if your claiming 42k per year.
everybody wants to employ him because he does no wrong
and hes happy to drive trucks that pong… 
[/quote]
id have thought someone might have done a 2nd verse by now…no budding truckie poets amongst us?? 
They’re truck stops FFS!!! The parking areas are downtrodden by 40T lorries, in the winter it gets wet and boggy, in the summer it dries up and becomes dusty,( I know which one I prefer ), even after a while those with tarmac surfaces will degrade. The majority of the good ones will do their best to fill in the holes, but it’s at “their” expense, Junct26 M25 springs to mind, they even demolished some old buildings to increase the parking area, didn’t see any price increases, you would ALL be ■■■■■■■■ if the owner suddenly tarmac’d his parking area and doubled the parking fee or the price of the food!!! If it’s that much of an inconvenience, don’t go back there, but you will, because all your mates go there and you can all chat, or should that be shout so everybody else there knows how hard you’ve worked during the day, about all the K’s you’ve done during the day, all the aggro you’ve had at the Tosco booking in desk, how many hours you had to wait to be tipped etc. etc. etc.
You’re truck drivers not airline pilots, the food is good, it’s off the road so you get a good nights sleep and the majority of them have good facilities. If they haven’t then you find another one.
Crappy close to the road lay-by no facilities or dusty truck stop ■■?
I know which one I prefer !!!