Fight For Your Rights

Despite stricter Health & Safety regulations, access to toilet facilities is still occasionally denied. It’s time for truckers to make a stand

- Carol Millett

After a long-running campaign, spearheaded by Gillian Kemp at Truckers’ Toilets (UK) and the Unite union, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) announced last November that it was clarifying the regulations to make clear that duty-holders must provide facilities for visiting drivers.

At the same time the HSE launched a campaign to raise employer awareness of this duty. Yet six months on, HGV drivers are still reporting difficulties in gaining access to toilet facilities on certain sites.

T&D and sister title Commercial Motor have regularly received correspondence showing that the problem remains widespread, with offenders ranging from blue-chip high street retail giants, international IT companies and major logistics businesses through to family-owned haulage firms.

Driver complaints include refusal of access to any lavatory facilities, being told toilets are out of order or out of bounds to drivers, and being told to use toilets at nearby filling stations, or even at local pubs.

Other drivers report access being granted begrudgingly, being made to sign for a key to the facilities or being met, once in the toilet facilities, with demeaning notices directed specifically at drivers, lecturing them on how to keep the facilities clean.

Clearly some duty-holders are just not getting the message. So what can drivers do if they are denied access to toilet facilities?

Know your rights