The trouble with lorries

HAVING TO bed down for the night on the side of a busy road or on a deserted industrial estate – after opening the back of your tailer to prove you have nothing inside and checking the anti-syphon devices and fuel theft alarms on your fuel tank – where lighting is scratchy at best, if at all; where there are no toilets and inevitably whatever bins there are, are already overflowing, realising that cat litter is a blessing and that wet wipes are your best friend.

If you are lucky you will microwave a ready-meal or else chomp down on a fast food offering you hastily grabbed before your 11-hour mandatory rest; knowing you will twitch at every sound and be ready to grab the baseball bat you carry in the cab in case someone tries to syphon off your diesel or worse – that’s the all too frequent reality of a Tramper in the UK.

A Tramper, as they call themselves, is a long-haul lorry driver who lives in their truck for multiple nights a week, driving across the UK or Europe. They transport goods, typically spending 4-5 nights away, providing continuous logistical coverage, a crucial part of the supply chain.

“We sacrifice time at home to give people at home a better life,” says HGV operative Neill Colley.

But the question has to be asked – why do HGV drivers park in such places? The answer is distressingly simple; the UK is short 11,000 safe and secure overnight lorry spaces and if that were not enough, and the quality and quantity of truck stops is wildly inconsistent from region to region. Many are old and tired with poor  yardage pitted with crater like holes, poor lighting with inadequate number of toilets and showering facilities and what there is may be  sadly lacking  hygienically. For women HGV drivers it can be worse as facilities may be shared user –  operators forgetting that  there are female HGV drivers as well as male. There are truck stops where drivers would prefer not to go  – and the sad thing is that there are too many of them.

In addition lack of good quality truck stops in the UK is being exacerbated as more warehouses are built with out sufficient parking provision.

Read any local newspaper and there will be stories of communities up in arms about HGVs parking up in the wrong place and of the distressing mess left behind from general littering to pee bottles and bags of human excrement. It is particularly noticeable around larger fulfilment centres. While many of those operating such centres do cater for their own HGV drivers, they do not feel the need to take responsibility for visiting  ones. With one nameless online conglomerate going as far as to say that it does not employ HGV drivers, and that it instead works with other carrier companies – the implication being that it is not their fault.

HGV Driver & NRI Registered Instructor/Driver Trainer Dave Monk explains: “[This kind of thing happens] when there is not enough room to wait on site before being unloaded or else when timings go awry due to traffic issues where you lose your slot to unload, or to excessive waiting times on site due to another vehicle.

“A lot of the time on these private [logistics] estates they don’t want lorries parking outside on the road waiting to deliver, there are cameras set up that will send fines, so the only alternative is to park up somewhere else

“Many RDC sites [and parks] have unsuitable parking restrictions [or indeed any ancillary lorry parking at all] that make it difficult for drivers to safely park their vehicles while waiting to be unloaded. Furthermore, the absence of toilet facilities and rest areas at numerous sites is both unhygienic and disrespectful.”

This is something MyTruckStop director Sue Alty is determined to rectify. Alty is a passionate and tireless campaigner for better provision for truckers in the UK. She set up MyTruckStop often described as the ‘Trustpilot for truckers’, so drivers could leave reviews and recommendations rating truck stops and transport facilities in an effort to improve industry standards.

“It seems,” says Alty, “that truck drivers are forgotten about.”

This ‘forgetfulness’ is not just in the planning of these large logistics developments but also within the design of the individual warehouse itself. “Driver waiting areas [usually to be found in the transport hub] are often too small with toilets opening out directly onto the waiting area so everyone can hear what you are doing with your ablutions and are accessed directly from the outside by a single door. This is where we expect drivers to sit not just for a couple of minutes but for up to four or five hours at a time.”

Truck drivers are not allowed to stay in their cabs – which is where many would prefer to be – while the vehicle is being tipped [unloaded] for very good health and safety reasons. It is common for them to have to give up their keys as well as paperwork and wait until called, in whatever area has been designated.

“You get shoved like cattle,” says Colley, “sharing a few plastic chairs with not even a kettle and then you see the state of the toilet, and you ask yourself – why am I doing this?”

“It’s not been unknown,” says Monk, “for a driver to call the police to say they are being held hostage, so they can get their keys back and leave.”

A recent visit to a property in the Midlands allowed me to see at first hand the prison like structure designed as a truckers waiting area – little natural light, single toilet opening out in the room and cage like entrance. Not exactly welcoming.

Obviously, it is up to the operator of a particular building to provide (or not) adequate driver facilities; developers, landlords and investors in those buildings will have little say. It is encouraging, therefore, when the big investor developers such as Tritax Big Box make a point of fitting out the transport hubs and gatehouses with kitchenettes and toilet facilities to the same high specification as they do the main office areas and ensure that those toilets do not open directly into communal areas.

It is certainly easier for the bigger investor developers  to design in such amenities and that also includes looking at the flow of facility particularly in the yard. Prologis design specification focuses on secure well lit yard space  with, where possible, 360 degree circulation and plenty of HGV parking which is already ducted for future EV provision.

Alty notes that too often parking [at an RDC] is often ‘round the back’ and a long way from the main building and offices.

The parking issues are getting a lot of publicity and indeed a lot of parliamentary time as well  – not least because the lack of overnight parking is exacerbating freight crime where HGVs and their contents are targeted by thieves – mostly organised crime gangs. The recent  war in the Middle East has encouraged the increase in fuel theft as well.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) notes that more than £110 million of goods were stolen in 2024 alone, as the total cost of freight crime to the economy has topped  more than £1 billion since 2020.

RHA managing director Richard Smith says: “Lorry drivers deserve to feel safe at work, yet they remain easy targets for gangs looking to make good money from stealing goods and fuel.

“With a dearth of parking in many parts of the country, drivers are left parked in isolated, insecure spots like laybys and industrial estates, making them a low-risk, high-reward option for these criminals.

Last year RHA joined forces with The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) and the All Party Parliamentary group (APPG) for Freight and Logistics to campaign for better protection for truck drivers from freight crime. APPG chair Rachel Taylor MP is currently progressing her Freight Crime Bill in Parliament which will give freight crime a specific ‘freight crime’ code to help the authorities better tackle it, among other initiatives.

The Government is trying to tackle the issue of a lack of overnight parking and driver facilities through the planning system. The National Planning Policy Framework para 114 states: “Planning policies and decisions should recognise the importance of providing adequate overnight lorry parking facilities, taking into account any local shortages, to reduce the risk of parking in locations that lack proper facilities or could cause a nuisance. Proposals for new or expanded distribution centres should make provision for sufficient lorry parking to cater for their anticipated use.”

Be that as it may, news of large fulfilment centres for the likes Amazon, Greggs and Tesco all due to go live in the next couple of years have sparked fears that these developments have secured approval without adequate parking provision exacerbating the shortage crisis.

The RHA, in a report to the BBC recently, notes that applications [for HGV parking facilities] ‘when they’re brought forward take a long time to get processed’ and have high rejection rates because people say they ‘don’t want it here, it needs to go somewhere else’.

The RHA says that there needs to be changes in planning law to recognise HGV parking as an essential part of national transport infrastructure.

Certainly, it seems that the Planning Inspectorate is on board, recently approving a 200 space lorry park in North Lincolnshire at appeal after the proposal had been unanimously turned down by the by the council’s planning committee in September 2024.

Some, local authorities are now looking closely at applications – especially for larger strategic sites – to provide not just for the anticipated use of that individual site but also to  provide adequate parking across their regions as a whole – especially where there has been widely publicised HGV parking issues.

North West Leicestershire Council is looking to see if the HGV overnight parking provision at SEGRO’s 5 million ft2 East Midlands Gateway 2 site – a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) currently going through the development consent process with the Planning Inspectorate – as well as meeting its own need  in terms of facilities and overnight lorry parking as a minimum could also contribute ‘towards the need within the District for additional HGV services including overnight parking’ for use by non-EMG1/EMG2 vehicles.

The National Highways ‘Lorry Parking Demand Assessment’ (2024) established that North West Leicestershire has the most severe lorry parking issues of the Local Authorities in England and the highest freight crime rate in the National Survey of Lorry Parking (2018).

Aware of the bad publicity that inappropriate HGV parking can have, some larger industrial and logistics developers are being proactive planning and building their own ancillary lorry parking sites alongside existing and proposed schemes.

Prologis boasts a separate 300-space lorry park at its 7.5 million ft2 RFI DIRFT III scheme in the East Midlands. The lorry park is fully operational and free for site users, with 24/7 access, high-quality lighting, controlled entry to a safe, well-managed environment with welfare amenities such as toilets, BBQs and rest areas.

Meanwhile Marq Logistics (formerly GLP) has brought in private infrastructure investment firm Guardian Smart Infrastructure Management to build, own and  operate a new state-of-the-art HGV parking facility at Magna Park Lutterworth. It will work in partnership with Keoma Hubs to provide a fuelling station  that will include 32 high capacity chargers serving 179 HGV bays as well as providing  state-of-the-art amenities  through German sustainable lounge solutions specialist bk World.

The site will be TAPA 2 certified. TAPA (Transported Asset Protection Association) certification is a globally recognised security standard for supply chains, specifically designed to minimize cargo theft and loss for high-value goods. It ensures that warehouses, trucking operations, and parking sites, meet strict, industry-driven security requirements. TAPA 2 approved sites  typically feature 24/7 surveillance, access control with controlled entry and exit points, security personnel with screened and trained staff and quick response teams as well as adequate perimeter protection with good lighting and fencing.

Whether it be an RDC, an allocated parking area within a logistics park, a dedicated truck parking facility on the strategic road network or even a motorway service area – one thing comes through loud and clear in the UK – quality varies hugely and the majority have a lot to be desired to such an extent that many drivers would actually prefer to take their chances on a layby.

Independent, statutory consumer watchdog representing the interests of transport users in Great Britain Transport Focus has been carrying out a three year study into Lorry driver facilities in the UK. It has in the past two years interviewed 1,300 HGV drivers. In its latest Lorry Drivers Facilities Survey published at the end of 2025, 62% of drivers were dissatisfied with the quality of available sites in the UK and 61% with the number of stopping locations. A total of 62% of drivers were dissatisfied with the quality of food and drink available.

“We are not asking for the red carpet to be rolled out just basic amenities,” says Colley – preferably as they do on the Continent where lorry drivers seem to be treated with ‘more respect’.

“There are plenty of truck stops, with good neat and tidy amenities and a place to get freshly cooked food. Even the rest stops [like laybys] have toilets and shower blocks and picnic tables that are clearly looked after – everything is better on the Continent.”

Monk agrees: “In Europe they look after their lorry drivers a lot better. Over here I suspect a lot of it comes down to money – a lot of motorway service areas are privately owned and they want a profit.”

Many drivers  feel that the lack of, and poor quality of facilities in the UK, is a symptom of a lack of respect  for HGV drivers generally. “In Covid you couldn’t get enough of us,’ says Monk, ‘lorry drivers made sure there were medical supplies available and food in the shops –  everyone needed truck drivers – now that’s finished it’s a case of everyone  saying, ‘do we have to have them?’.”

Colley adds: “[Everyone] needs to up their game and treat drivers more as people  instead of  just ‘drive’ [the description often used instead of a name when transport offices deal with outside/visiting truckers] or referring to us as ‘steering wheel attendant’ or ‘just a driver’.

Many HGV drivers do themselves a disservice and accept the sobriquet of ‘just a driver’. For Alty this is not acceptable “Nobody is ‘just’ anything. But there is real snobbery around it. We’ve lost aspiration for the role, we’ve lost pride in the role, and we are in the process of losing  the profession which is sad.”

While the recruitment of HGV drivers is not the problem, she says: “It’s retaining them that is.” Having good quality driver amenities would go a long way to turning retention on its head. It is one of the most frequent reasons cited for leaving the industry along with retirement and better pay elsewhere.

As one HGV driver eloquently put it: “If perception of an HGV driver needed manifestation it could be found in the poor quality of driver facilities in the UK.”

Monk says: “Better facilities, improved waiting times and a culture of respect are not just desirable – they are essential.”

As has already been said, HGV drivers are not asking for much – just the basics says Alty. Somewhere safe, somewhere clean where they are welcomed can have hot fresh food and a place to relax – it doesn’t have to be super modern.

Alty notes: “Drivers will make anything fit the purpose, even though it’s not fit for purpose – because they don’t have a choice.”

“What’s that old adage – walk a mile in their shoes – I’d like the people who provide the [amenity] space to do that – walk a mile in their shoes.”

In 2024 HGVs registered in Great Brtain carried 1.59 billion tonnes of goods and travelled 19.4 billion kilometres within the UK According to Transport Focus: “This scale of activity underpins supply chains for retail, manufacturing, construction and essential services – without it, the economy would stall.”

“Improving conditions is not just about supporting drivers – its about safeguarding the flow of goods that powers growth and sustains everyday life.”