Truck Drivers

[Fred]

This fellow said that the truck stops are often full if he gets there late, and of course there is a fee. Also, some stores and companies prohibit overnight parking in part because of the mess that some inconsiderate truckers leave behind.

[cutsleeve]

I posted the link about where many companies won't let truck drivers use their bathrooms.

[Lee]

I posted the link about where many companies won't let truck drivers use their bathrooms.

Yes, and the article said that drivers have to sometimes wait up to two hours at depots. Imagine sitting there all that time with a bursting bladder!

[cutsleeve]

there is a medical condition known as truck driver's bladder where their bladder gets huge and they look fat not because they are fat but because their bladder is that big, and it does not empty all the way when they go.

https://allnurses.com/infrequent-voidin ... l-t437027/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4191628/

[Tytn]

most truck drivers don't make much so there is a high quit rate in the trucking industry. that's the reason for the trucker shortage. they are not being paid a living wage. many are gay or bi and the companies grind them into the dirt because the companies are used to treating gays like dirt and treating gays as subhuman.

I beleive you are incorrect there.

Yes, transport drivers are treated poorly but that is the same the world over because people think that most are useless and worthless in this world and not worth any time or effort to treat them appropriately. Even here in the UK before Brexit it was the same. Parking on industrial estates, which would be quieter than the main roads, was forbidden by parking enforcement with tickets or clamping running to hundreds of pounds or courts. So drivers have to park in services where they will still be the victims of crime, whether assault, load tampering or fuel being stolen. So most park in laybys.

For those that are not aware of what they are, they are a side part of the road that is usually only long enough for 2-3 trucks and only have a white line between them and the traffic travelling at up to 70mph. Some have physical barriers like a raised concrete kerb. Or even a short grass or hedge area. But there is generally insuffient free parking in the services. Which cost trucks £30 a night.

Then we move to facilities.

In the UK the roadside garages/service stations often have toilets available, but it may only be one cubicle for the entire garage, set out as a disabled toilet. Larger services have more facilities. BP have the larger ones, with usually 2-3 stalls and 3 urinals with sinks and either paper or air dryers. Same with EuroGarages

Shell have single toilet rooms/cubicles and Esso, Texaco and the other smaller independants are the same.

For truck stops and motorway services in the UK most drivers will walk across to the services building to goto the toilet unless its an emergency piss lol, then they sometimes go at the back of the truck that's parked up. Also, we reverse into out parking spaces.

If there isn't a grass verge behind the truck and its just concrete, pissing on that is frowned upon.

The reason drivers walk over to the servies is mostly a bit of exercise. Stretch the legs, and then after using actual hot water hand washing facilities, you can pop over to the shops or something there.

As for the driers orientation. I have not found many gay or bi truck drivers, and they are treated like scum because most people thought thats what we were. Until Brexit. Suddenly there was a national truck driver shortage and our wages pretty much doubled overnight. I can now leave my job and probably have an agency job on max hours before the end of the day. Amazon locally are paying their drivers £25ph. Where a litre of diesel costs £1.50 and a 330ml can of coke costs £1.

I have been a commercial driver for the last two decades and have spent 1/4 of that in passenger carrying vehicles and the rest driving larger and larger vehicles as my licences upgrade. I am currently working for a company driving 44 ton, 60ft articulated trucks delivering to roadside fast food resturants in the UK Midlands area (So West Wales to Kettering, Lincolnshire, up to Hull, across to Doncaster and Sheffield, over to North and South Wales and down to Oxfordshire. 700 stores covered by our depot)

I have only met one gay driver in that time and was so obviously gay that if anyone gave him any greif he stood up to them and put it in their face, and they often backed down. Most drivers like to lead a solitary life, and have their own social systems linked via laptops, mobile devices and phone calls. Some rigs have CBs still but many just have Ham Radio or Network Radio instead.

And yes, I have even met a wheelchair bound truck driver. He would wheel himself around in his chair and then when he wanted to get back into his truck he pulled out a winch line, hooked his chair to it, pulled himself up into the cab and winched the chair in behind him. He didn't do deliveries where he needed to pull the stuff off his truck but he could open doors himself and back onto bays. He was an excellent driver and at the time talked quite a lot with me about what to plan and look for when manouvering in darkness or where you can't see. Which was common back then.

[Tytn]

I posted the link about where many companies won't let truck drivers use their bathrooms.

Yes, and the article said that drivers have to sometimes wait up to two hours at depots. Imagine sitting there all that time with a bursting bladder!

Mwuahahaha. So. What you do is pull the curtains, kneel in the passenger footwell and reuse an empty 2L water bottle. That's why the drivers carry them. The site facilities at most delivery sites are horrendous and disgusting. Sites often try to restrict drivers and up until about 3 years ago was quite bad but now the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) is getting involved and any companies that are known to restrict the access to toilets are getting a site visit and warning by the HSE.

Bearing in mind the HSE can shut down a site on the word of an Inspector without any comeback.

I say about using the passenger footwell because in the UK most trucks can have their passenger seat fold up and out of the way and many UK trucks now have CCTV cameras watching the driver, and then 360 view all around the outside of the truck. So you have to be creative.

UK companies are also notouriously bad at tipping on time. A 2 hour wait? That's quite short.

Consider 5-8 hours instead. This is one of the reasons why we're short on drivers. The warehouses don't have enough capacity to unload the trucks quicker than 1-2 hours per bay, and there might only be one member of staff with a MHE pallet truck to unload the pallets of goods. Then you've got 3-7 bays. So most drivers turn up a bit early, then put their tachograph on break or POA and have a nap on the bunk or just read stretched out. They have all their supplies in there.

American trucks are massive. UK trucks have the forward driving area and then enough room behind them for a bunk. Under that is the fridge and storage in either side locker, and those with a top bunk can have storage on there too.







This last one is a single bunk 'occasional sleeper' with no fridge etc. But they'll still have a driver out in in that with nights out 1-2 times a week (in a 5-6 day week).

I often drive a Mercedes 2545 (3 axle 450bhp) or 1840 (2 axle 400hp) tractor unit, pulling a twin axle refridgerated trailer with a tail lift for store deliveries.

[Fred]

Tytn, thank you for this first-hand information! I just watched another video that said that there is a phone app for finding some of the smaller truck stops that have parking spaces available. They may have fewer facilities to offer but would at least have a toilet!

[Sam70]

Thanks Tytn especially for the pictures.

In the area I live truck stops and/or truck stop/convenient stores are very common. Many of them have pumps for gas and diesel, a convenient store, places for trucks to park and showers available for a fee.

On a 2.5 hr drive to a larger city, there will be several truck stops. All of the truck stops in my area also serve the general public so it is easy to forget that some convenient stores are also truck stops.

Some convenient stores in the area where I live serve a varied fast food menu with places to eat inside.

[Fred]

Being a trucker would be hard on relationships, and though there may few who are openly gay, I imagine that they might "accommodate" each other from time to time. Those that do similar routes regularly might see each other often, and perhaps they would want to occasionally share a motel room as a break from sleeping in their trucks.

[Sam70]

there is a medical condition known as truck driver's bladder where their bladder gets huge and they look fat not because they are fat but because their bladder is that big, and it does not empty all the way when they go.

https://allnurses.com/infrequent-voidin ... l-t437027/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4191628/

Infrequent voiding syndrome affects many vocations including nurses, teachers, truck drivers, taxi drivers and any vocation that significantly limits restroom use when needed.

In time, the bladder can become smooth and lose the elasticity needed to squeeze the urine out of the bladder.

I know that the bladder can become as large as 50 oz. The average bladder is 16 oz for an adult. The bladder may not be able to push out more than around 5 oz. This results in the need to urinate again within the hour.

This is also can be a cause why some of our lads piss their pants after drinking too many pints. The lads go to the urinal and "think" they have drained all the piss out, but they may have only half emptied the bladder. With all the new urine that is draining into the bladder from the kidneys, these lads' bladders become completely full again within an hour and perhaps 30 minutes.

Anytime we push our bladders close to 100% full, it would be best if we went back 10 minutes later after the bladder has reduced its size to the point where we can piss out the other half of the urine that we had in those almost 100 % full bladders.

The above information is what I remember my own urologist telling me after I started to need to piss every 30 minutes. My bladder was holding 50 oz more than three times the average size. I was only able to piss out five or less oz of urine. The urologist prescribed medication to reduce the effects of nerve damage that caused the problem.

I had to piss every two hours and then try again 10 minutes later. I was able to get my bladder back down to 25 oz within months. I was younger than and my body was able to repair the bladder damage. My bladder now holds about 16 oz.