The Freight Transport Association is calling for better standards and scale of truck-stop provision in the UK.
In its latest survey, two-thirds of FTA members rated truck-stop driver facilities, their availability and security levels to be “poor” or “very poor”.
Don Armour, FTA’s manager for fleet information, said: “These results confirm just how poor truck stop provision is in the UK, the implications of which are very serious. Aside from providing lorry drivers with the humane standard of basic facility needed for a decent sleep, secure truck stops also mean that drivers are far less likely to be at the mercy of violent truck thieves.”
Truck theft is on the rise, with 793 incidents recorded in the fourth quarter of 2008 – 81 more than the same period in 2007, according to TruckPol.
The level of truck theft is higher in areas with strong motorway access and where load values are higher, such as the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Essex and London.
FTA objected to plans to replace the Night Owl Truck Park in Featherstone, West Midlands with industrial units when the scheme was first mooted two years ago. It says that recent approval of the scheme will leave drivers with “difficult decisions to make” if they want to comply with drivers’ safety rules to encourage road safety.
