Hgv Cab

[Maydup]

Just curious as I drive past the HGV in the layby. Its 8.30pm, the curtains are drawn, what's it like in there? What does the average driver do for food and toilet? How many nights a week is spent in the cab?

[Mamyalynne]

Depends on the vehicle spec really, some are very basic and others quite luxurious.

[Mamyalynne]

eg DAF XF Euro 6

http://tinyurl.com/hqro328

[hc4361]

A heater, a bed. Usually a tv, kettle, sometimes a mini oven for heating pies etc. Also a laptop or tablet.
Many drivers order a takeaway which is delivered to the cab. Even easier with apps just as JustEat where you pay and order online.
They pee behind their lorry (it is legal) if there are no toilets available. Shower and shave at truck stops.

[Baldric]

Some are quite comfortable

http://www.overdriveonline.com/files/2010/06/cab-interior.jpg

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Have you not noticed the bottles of 'Drivers Tizer' left in lay-by's for council workers to collect?

[Maydup]

We are some 50 miles from the nearest motorway, so the best anyone can hope for here is garage sandwich or a takeaway burger. No showers or toilets, but wow, these cabs look reasonable for a night or too. Only for me, the very thought of it makes me need the toilet one more time!

[The Builder]

All of the above... Plus ...... Er .... Hitch-hikers. (I used to drive trucks around Europe in a previous life.)

Girls were glad of a free ferry crossing.

(Double bunks of course...........)

[campbellking]

My friend's husband works on emergency barrier repairs after motorway accidents, and if he has to close a road after a fatal accident, often has the bottles of 'Driver's Tizer' thrown at him by irate lorry drivers.

[Mamyalynne]

On a motorway workers documentary.......

//The bloke whose job it is to pick up rubbish at the side of the lay-by: "On the M5 you find your money, on the M50, you find your porn", apparently, and on both you'll find several bottles of "proper driver Tizer" – aka lorry drivers' wee. "Either we've haven't got enough services or they've just got a fetish for peeing in bottles."//

[Sipowicz]

Maybe the "P" doesn't stand for parking!

[Mamyalynne]

Give a health tip for anyone whose wee is the actual colour of Tizer - get a dip test done ;-)

[Maydup]

So ..... they pee in the bottle as they're driving along? Is that not just as dangerous as texting or talking in a phone? I mean .... it must take their eye off the road and a hand off the wheel?! Or if they stop, then why not pee on the verge?

[Mamyalynne]

With all the cameras they'd likely get done Maydup.

[Baldric]

Perhaps they should have used this one Sipo

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTvezk0wBj9Sig2aIbxb89kEL1MpspW471EvvHQZCU4gS9qWM8Q

[Baldric]

Came across this while I was looking for that other sign ;o)

http://images.mypoolsigns.com/img/lg/S/welcome-funny-pool-sign-s-5608.png

[mikey4444]

I sometimes pee in laybys as well ( I did so this morning ! )

But where do they poo ?

[TWR]

When I started driving there were no sleeper / overnight heater but I alway use to stop in a Town's car park with toilets, your overnight heater was 3 or 4 pints into your sleeping bag ad that was it, then came along the sleeper, it was a gift to us as we trucking the UK, away Monday until Frid if you were lucky, at the time you were allowed 1o hrs driving + Brakes time, I could see the decline in the way the job was going regards the way the customers used to try and speak to you, one clever sod in S.Wales where I was delivering Furniture , I had one Chair he said we are now going to Lunch & that will be an hour, I said I've only one chair, he said with a smile one hour, when he returned he said right driver we are ready for you, I said I'm sorry I'm on a break to which he replied we will take it off, to my reply yes after I've had my break which is one hour, that Izzed him off I was not bothered as my bed was behind the seat, the job was the most hated by the public you were treated like scum if you allowed it to happen, the night in the cab was Watching TV untill about 9 then for a quick pint then Bed, drivers you see from abroad bring vidios with them, a lot have a Freezer and are stocked up wityh food, a lot of their food is in a Box attached to the Near Side of the Tralier, some of them are away for a month or so, they return to their incomming port only to find there has been a trailer shipped out from their own country so he /she is trapping around the UK once again, a lot out there think the job is easy sitting on your rse just driving, far from it, I used to drive with the notion " What If" I was lucky enough to fininsh my driving days accident free, do I miss it, I miss the banter but nothing else, it's thre lonly job in the UK that you can get done for moving your HGV whilst your hours are up just to leave someone else room to park up, I'll leave it at that.

[Mamyalynne]

My late husband was a HGV driver before we married, he loved his job back then and had some fabulous encounters and adventures to recall - of course being in his twenties likely made a difference.

[Maydup]

You talk about banter TWR but it strikes me as a lonely life in the main. No doubt the pressure on time these days, puts a stop to the traditional truck stops where people would meet each other for a chat and a tea.

Is the any kind of hierachy amongst HGVs. Eg are tanker drivers any different to artics, and what about supermarket drivers? Who's the toughest?