Stood in que and she charges a driver £3 for a shower , to me it should be free , it’s 2015, billions sent abroad , if not free we should get a shower allowance , as per meal allowance , £15 pw to have a shower, nearly two hrs pay a week
dozy:
Stood in que and she charges a driver £3 for a shower , to me it should be free , it’s 2015, billions sent abroad , if not free we should get a shower allowance , as per meal allowance , £15 pw to have a shower, nearly two hrs pay a week
on the face of it i agree if you are tramping all week, but there isn’t any chance of that happening any time soon ,
My company refund me for any showers I pay for out of my own pocket, which is hardly ever as you always get free ones here when you fill up with diesel. Unlike England, they’re almost always to at least a 4 star hotel standard and thoroughly cleaned between each and every use.
I’m currently parked in Enfield, Nova Scotia and this truckstop has recently being rebuilt from the ground up. It has a large parking area for 50 or so trucks, with plenty of room for maneuvering and backing in etc, and it goes without saying that parking is totally free. The showers here are like something from a luxury hotel, all fancy tiling with a very powerful water pressure from the shower head. The free wifi is good enough to watch movies online without any sort of buffering.
Some photos below from the Pilot truckstop in Port Huron, Michigan. The showers are all of equal quality in just about all of their 500+ truckstops across North America and shower credits earnt at any of their truckstops when filling up with diesel are redeemable at any other location. Plus nearly all truckstops, especially in the US provide free towels. I haven’t had to use my own towels in years now.
Obviously nothing of this standard will ever reach Britain, but the situation you have there now where its either a complete lack of facilities all together, or usually very very poor ones where they do exist is quite shocking for an advanced western country. Link that together with many firms not paying for overnight parking and drivers are treated and expected to become nothing more than tramps confined by law to a spot of dirty waste ground for 9 or 11 hours without the means to get washed properly or have something as basic as a ■■■ in any sort of civilised manner. There’s quite a lot I miss about the job in England, but the parking/facilities situation certainly isn’t one of them.
Building apon this post, what is the WORST shower facilities you have ever come across?
For me, Michael Wood Services on the M5. What a shower of Sh*t… pardon the pun
dozy:
Stood in que and she charges a driver £3 for a shower , to me it should be free , it’s 2015, billions sent abroad , if not free we should get a shower allowance , as per meal allowance , £15 pw to have a shower, nearly two hrs pay a week
Isn’t the night out allowance to cover expenses you wouldn’t have to pay if you had been at home, like showers?
Personally I haven’t got a problem paying for showers if they going to be clean and tidy, but then I get the money back as expenses.
JollyJack:
Building apon this post, what is the WORST shower facilities you have ever come across?For me, Michael Wood Services on the M5. What a shower of Sh*t… pardon the pun
Jackshill
Symons Yat N/bound, are they still in that cupboard by the gents?
muckles:
Isn’t the night out allowance to cover expenses you wouldn’t have to pay if you had been at home, like showers?Personally I haven’t got a problem paying for showers if they going to be clean and tidy, but then I get the money back as expenses.
Yes but you are forgetting that his expenses firm up a goodly chunk of his take home money… I’d resent it too 
robinhood_1984:
There’s quite a lot I miss about the job in England, but the parking/facilities situation certainly isn’t one of them.
Facilities are terrible here, I miss the US, everything is much better & cleaner than in the UK!
I’m probably going to slated for this but a lot of the problems regarding showers is down to a minority of drivers who leave the showers in a state and vandalise the facilities
I can remember when the stockyard first opened within a week the washrooms were starting to get vandalised
That’s why some lorry parks charge for showers talk to the owners of the salt box cafe and whitwood truck stop for example it was costing them a fortune to replace damaged stuff also again some drivers were going in just for a shower and then parking up elsewhere
I reckon showers should be free to all lorry drivers but there’s always the minority who ruin it for the rest
Going back to places with showers which were different
Before Lincoln farm cafe was slightly modernised the showers there were good but the whole pipe work used to rattle and shake whilst having a shower
At the Routemaster in Felixstowe when you went for a shower there they used to give you a watering can rose to put on the end of the shower!!!
JollyJack:
Building apon this post, what is the WORST shower facilities you have ever come across?For me, Michael Wood Services on the M5. What a shower of Sh*t… pardon the pun
I take it you mean the southbound one ? Because the 2 on the northbound are bang on , nice and hot
Come on dozy your off your tree
dozy:
Stood in que and she charges a driver £3 for a shower , to me it should be free , it’s 2015, billions sent abroad , if not free we should get a shower allowance , as per meal allowance , £15 pw to have a shower, nearly two hrs pay a week
Night out money is supposed to cover for showers etc,out of the £20 plus night out money and meal allowance how much is left spare in your pocket that you use to subsidies your personal spending money
A lot of showers in truckstops are just ill thought out and of poor quality that are not up to heavy usage ,imo a good shower should be of industrial construction large cubicle ,quarry tile floor ,large steel water pipes with taps like Susies used to have to a large shower head ,shower curtains should be banned ,a normal domestic shower is just no good ,you can’t always blame drivers for the shower condition .
lolipop:
dozy:
Stood in que and she charges a driver £3 for a shower , to me it should be free , it’s 2015, billions sent abroad , if not free we should get a shower allowance , as per meal allowance , £15 pw to have a shower, nearly two hrs pay a weekNight out money is supposed to cover for showers etc,out of the £20 plus night out money and meal allowance how much is left spare in your pocket that you use to subsidies your personal spending money
this above is exactly why a whole lot of drivers have ■■■■■■ me off since the early 90’s when they speak about great wages which 99% of the time include 4/5 night out money in it, this isn’t part of your wage.
Although there are some decent quaity showers around theres some dodgy ones where flip flops are an essential part of ones kit.
Theres also plenty of free ones.
If it helps doze take a shower at unusual times of day this will ensure no ques, I like a dinner time shower myself as these can be golden to feel fresh and clean till the next day. Obviously depending on what work is done for the rest of the day.
Also look at using showers on customers premises, never ask though just use them and act daft if questioned by an analy retentive later on.
For me 2-3 showers a week is enough and I dont mind paying if its in work time which most of my showers are, even the golden ones.
If caught short a bowl of lightly soapy water and flannel or wetwipes is enough to keep ones lady bits in tip top condition. At a push I will strip down to me undercrackers in the gents loos but thats more of a hobby.
Dipper_Dave:
Although there are some decent quaity showers around theres some dodgy ones where flip flops are an essential part of ones kit.
Theres also plenty of free ones.If it helps doze take a shower at unusual times of day this will ensure no ques, I like a dinner time shower myself as these can be golden to feel fresh and clean till the next day. Obviously depending on what work is done for the rest of the day.
Also look at using showers on customers premises, never ask though just use them and act daft if questioned by an analy retentive later on.
For me 2-3 showers a week is enough and I dont mind paying if its in work time which most of my showers are, even the golden ones.
If caught short a bowl of lightly soapy water and flannel or wetwipes is enough to keep ones lady bits in tip top condition. At a push I will strip down to me undercrackers in the gents loos but thats more of a hobby.
unfortunately this will never change…
put yourselves in the owners/operators place… they spend good money on good facilities only to have some complete kn0b wreck them, costing them more money. agreed that kn0b will be a minority, but he still exists, and still bugg3rs it for the rest of us, can you blame them?
no one remembers the 1000 that have passed through without causing damage, just that 1 that did ■■■■ in the corner and rip the rails off…
I tip at Fyffes now and again and there are free showers for drivers,on the door there is a notice warning drivers that “if the damage/graffiti to these free facilities persists they will be permantly closed”
Need I say more!!!
stobarts at sherburn had their driver shower/toilets re done, lasted a week before they were wrecked…
not by the stobart drivers either, or the flip flop brigade… but by good old english drivers…