We have all done that,who wants to share a cabin with a stranger,as the ferry firms say it helps the costs to clean the cabin when they change over in the ports,i hope they will go up to paying tourists and say you must share a cabin with someone they do not know.
Would the human rights act come in to play with this,the person in the cabin could be a mass murderer or a thief,how would we know,and we all slept with our wallets underneath us.
If the ship catches fire,or an Adr incident occurs,while resting in the truck,while sailing,nobody would know where the driver was,if if sank,what a way to go,imagine that on you tombstone.
The engine fumes are toxic,leading to headaches afterwards,from from the ships motor,and air con units down in the dungeons.
toby1234abc:
Would the human rights act come in to play with this.
No, of course it wouldn’t. 
No one is forcing you at gunpoint to use the cabin. Use it, don’t use it, your free choice. If the cabins are shared I don’t use them or I pay for my own cabin from my night out money, simple.
Remember if you are using the crossing as part of a daily rest, the regulations only say you must have access to a bunk, they don’t say you actually have to use it.
toby1234abc:
We have all done that
not all of us tobester
toby1234abc:
If the ship catches fire,or an Adr incident occurs,while resting in the truck,while sailing,nobody would know where the driver was,if if sank,what a way to go
isn’t that why the ADR trucks are either on an open deck or near the doors so that they can be pushed off in an emergency? not sure if thats a drivers myth or not
welshboyinspain:
toby1234abc:
We have all done thatnot all of us tobester
toby1234abc:
If the ship catches fire,or an Adr incident occurs,while resting in the truck,while sailing,nobody would know where the driver was,if if sank,what a way to goisn’t that why the ADR trucks are either on an open deck or near the doors so that they can be pushed off in an emergency? not sure if thats a drivers myth or not
Drivers Myth I think 
so why do all ADR trucks get put on open deck or get priority place at the doors?
not all ADR stuff is bad for the little fishies
The ships have a large fire hydrant at the front of the ship,on the top deck for an ADR emergency,not sure why we have to put the hazard lights on while boarding,any ideas?
toby1234abc:
The ships have a large fire hydrant at the front of the ship,on the top deck for an ADR emergency,not sure why we have to put the hazard lights on while boarding,any ideas?
They use Hazard lights to identify ADR to the loading officer as you come through the doors, don’t know why he cannot see the orange plate though. 
welshboyinspain:
so why do all ADR trucks get put on open deck or get priority place at the doors?
not all ADR stuff is bad for the little fishies
As compensation for carry dangerous stuff they get first pickings of the food before it has been mauled over by all and sundry. 
toby1234abc:
The ships have a large fire hydrant at the front of the ship,on the top deck for an ADR emergency,not sure why we have to put the hazard lights on while boarding,any ideas?
Not all ferries use that system.
Stena on the Dublin - Holyhead route don’t ask you to put on hazards while carrying ADR, the loading officer knows you have it on as he has just radioed the shore side penguins to send the ADR trucks on. They do ask you to use it if you are a fridge, or another vehicle, which requires a plug in so the loading officer can identify them.
I often sleep in the truck on the ferry and I’ve not woken up dead yet.
when i was running regular to Greece, depending on who walked thru the door, i would shower eat drink etc, then sneak down to my truck to play my PS2 for 6 or 7 hours, then go to bed, up in the morning, back to cabin, shower, breakfast etc.
Sometimes i would pay for my own cabin, in summertime it wasnt always possible as the boats were heaving.
I booked on Anek Lines once, got my keycard, went to cabin hoping to have my own room, there were 3 Bulgarians, (iirc) their washing was hanging up everywhere, room stank of ■■■■(doesnt really bother me as i smoke like a train, but they were smoking Camel or something similar) it was minging, i told them in truck drivers language i would shower then sleep in my truck, come back in morning for another shower. they were happy enough with that as they had the room to themselves.
After 43 years as a rufty tufty trucky i am still enjoying the chosen vocation, but hate the part that say’s i am a second class citizen that can be ignored, discriminated against, and generally pushed about by numbskull’s who have the job of loading/unloading cargo. This includes being told that i am not deserving of a clean bed and bathroom to myself as i am only a lorry driver, plus not being “innocent until proved guilty” in the event of some illegal cutting the roof of my trailer on the ferry and entering uninvited. The problem is that some of my so called colleague’s are a driver’s worst enemy when i watch the way that some of them act i can see why joe public think of us as second class.
This thread has shown me how guilable I am.
I’ve been on loads of different ferries and never once considered sleeping in my truck (I just didn’t think you were allowed). I even got the train from Dresden once and I was the only Western European on the thing. I just got my sleeping bag and dossed down with everyone else. I think there was about eight of us per compartment.
Worst one though was the night boat from DK to Sweden they ran out of cabins and a group of us had to kip on the “couchettes” in the dining room. It was a bit of a laugh if I’m honest but I was glad to get off the thing. I made sure I got a cabin on the way back.
Good job I’m an ex Submariner and can sleep on a washing line…
W
It is a case of getting spotted by the loading marshalls,and get on the cab bunk while nobody is looking,some have seen me stay in the cab,and have turned a blind eye and walked off,if a ships officer saw me doing it,he may get me out and knock on the door.
AlexWignall:
This thread has shown me how guilable I am.I’ve been on loads of different ferries and never once considered sleeping in my truck (I just didn’t think you were allowed). I even got the train from Dresden once and I was the only Western European on the thing. I just got my sleeping bag and dossed down with everyone else. I think there was about eight of us per compartment.
You have to sprint down the track with your bags and trappings and make sure you get a lower bunk, the third one up is like sleeping on a washing line
Wheel Nut:
AlexWignall:
This thread has shown me how guilable I am.I’ve been on loads of different ferries and never once considered sleeping in my truck (I just didn’t think you were allowed). I even got the train from Dresden once and I was the only Western European on the thing. I just got my sleeping bag and dossed down with everyone else. I think there was about eight of us per compartment.
You have to sprint down the track with your bags and trappings and make sure you get a lower bunk, the third one up is like sleeping on a washing line
Thats the posh one from Milan.
The Dresden one was like a British Rail thing from the Seventies.
I got on early and crashed in my camping sleeping bag.
When I woke up there was seven blokes all politely waiting on the other bench for me to make room.
Happy memories.
W
Back when i used to ship out of Ramsgate on the Sally or the Oostende lines ferries i always got a cabin to myself. But on the Sally frighters out of Ramsgate or Dartford always had to share, was ok if you were shipping out with drivers you knew from other crossings,but if it was full (12 drivers) of dutch then i would go down to the depths for a good nites kip in my truck! bit nervy though goin down those steep metal steps with all your gear and while at sea hoping no one see s you 
In the 80s-90s used to quite often give the food a miss and stay in the cab for a kip, the loaders used to bang on the doors to wake you up, that was Dov-Cal.
On the Greek run we used to have the Truck on the top deck and kip in that, that was the norm…
Monday afternoon I slept in my truck but then it was a seafrance boat and had ADR on and I too woke up alive
welshboyinspain:
so why do all ADR trucks get put on open deck or get priority place at the doors?
Since dangerous goods have been mentioned, I’ll chuck in a quick 2p worth to try and help with one or two myths.
It’s not really a “priority place,” but vehicles carrying dangerous goods can’t be parked just anywhere on a ferry because of what’s written in Maritime law.
Whether a load containing, or of dangerous goods is or is not subject to ADR is of absolutely no interest to a ship’s crew because they use a completely different set of Regs called the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, otherwise known as IMDG. ( = ADR is completely irrelevant at sea.)
For instance, IMDG does not recognise the orange plates used on vehicles that we see on the roads.
IMDG has its own ( = no connection with ADR) methodology and marking requirements for road vehicles carried on board ferries.
Just about any dangerous goods in just about any quantity will come under IMDG, and therefore a DGN will be needed. ( = That doesn’t necessarily mean that the load would be fully subject to ADR.)
IMDG has very strict rules on whereabouts a road vehicle carrying dangerous goods may be carried on a ship. As already mentioned, road vehicles carrying dangerous goods can sometimes be carried like other vehicles, but some other vehicles carrying dangerous goods are required to be carried ‘out front’ or on what IMDG calls a “weather deck.”
IMDG 1.2.1…
“Weather deck means a deck which is completely exposed to the weather from above and at least two sides.”
To decide whereabouts dangerous goods may be carried on a ship, IMDG uses “stowage categories” which are letters A -to- E. Each dangerous substance is given a letter (A-to-E) in the IMDG dangerous goods list, and from that, the loading officer will know where the goods may be placed. IMDG uses phrases such as “clear of living quarters” or “on or under deck” for where a vehicle may be parked, then they’ll consider segregating certain types of dangerous goods from certain other types, for which IMDG uses the phrases “away from…,” or “separated from…”
IMDG also makes a distinction between ships that have more than a certain number of passengers on board Vs. the length of the ship in meters, so sometimes a road vehicle carrying certain dangerous goods can only be carried on a cargo ship.
BTW, the (old) triangular Marine Pollutant mark (the first pic in Malc’s post above) has been got of and is now replaced by the diamond-shaped “fish and tree” sign, as in the second pic in Malc’s post above.