Lorry Driver: 'i Feel Like A Prisoner In My Own Lorry'

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39275153

The BBC gets a lot of stick on here, albeit from a few of the Usual Suspects, with their constant rants. But yet again, we must thank the Beeb for exposing what is happening in the world of business.

I am not remotely surprised that IKEA should be responsible for this latest scandal, but why has taken the BBC to expose this....why weren't IKEA not aware ?

[naomi24]

As far as I'm aware long distance lorry drivers have always slept in their cabs. Some lorries have a couple of bunk beds in the back of the cab.

[Baldric]

// Usual Suspects, with their constant rants.//

Talk about Irony, Pot and Kettle spring to mind.

Klaxon please.

[Jackdaw33]

I was thinking the same Balders. Am amazed he hasn't put the blame squarely on Trump and Farage.

[naomi24]

... or the Conservative government.

[youngmafbog]

Truck drivers around the world do this. It is usually to save money.

A Usual suspect.

Go Donald.

[Baldric]

///I am not remotely surprised that IKEA should be responsible for this latest scandal,///

The driver in the Link is a Romanian employed by a Slovakian Company so I doubt Ikea even know of his exsistance tbh.

[murraymints]

occupational hazard ! a lot of cabs have quite fancy bunks with heating telly ..fridge..etc..not all granted...but you plays the game you knows the rules !

[-Talbot-]

All the billions sloshing about the EU coffers (lovely 300million space-egg HQ btw) all the millions of billions of hours debating and passing regulations and ... it seems companies can exploit loopholes in EU law.

[waterboatman]

Quite minty. Most of them have cookers too.

[anotheoldgit]

I don't know if it is still the same, but at one time drivers chose to sleep in their cabs overnight so as to save the extra overnight accommodation allowance that they were given.

[ToraToraTora]

So what part of EU legislation is forcing these guys to do this job?

[mikey4444]

This isn't about drivers spending the odd night in a layby....its about drivers spending months living in inadequate and insanitary accommodation, because they are not paid enough.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes but I assume they are not forced to do this job.

[Baldric]

From the link;

///Bring says it follows all National Rules regarding pay. It says Emilian can go home whenever he likes.///

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// This isn't about drivers spending the odd night in a layby....its about drivers spending months living in inadequate and insanitary accommodation, ///

Oh so some journeys take months on end do they, and they never return home in all that time?

[-Talbot-]

mikey, the BBC report is scant and you haven't provided anything else ... what do you think is the problem here, could you provide a little more information please?

Surely this kind of thing can't happen in the EU?
Or is this how the EU works?

[Berniecuddles2]

if you dont like your job change it..no one is forcing you to drive for your company

[Samjenko]

If you stopped listening to the BBC, mikey, you might avoid shooting yourself in the foot with these nonsense posts.

[Baldric]

If he bothered to look at the links he posts it would have the same effect Sam.

[mushroom25]

this is not a new issue - here's a report from 2011 or 2012:-
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/news/lorry-drivers-are-no-angels-48502/
the authorities will clamp down on this in one area, which just moves it elsewhere. a favorite spot at the moment seems to be the ACW underpass at Cobham Services on the M25, where there have been punch-ups as drivers jockey for the best spaces under the bridge. paying the drivers more is unlikely to make any difference, they sleep in their cabs because they can pocket their subsistence allowance.