Cleanliness, for one. The current state is "everyone bans truck drivers", which means that any place accepting truck drivers will be swarmed by truck drivers to a degree it may actually cause traffic jams - because who would not use the only toilet for a hundred miles? - and you simply can't have enough cleaning staff on hand to deal with that.
The obvious solution for that would be to do what is the law in Germany - you can't get a license for a highway rest/gas stop without offering toilets for travellers of all kind.
Wait, the rest stop ban truck drivers? That is fucked up.
From OP I thought it was the logistics companies. As in the place where you deliver to.
Germany has also a truck driver shortage, but the infrastructure has been improved. As in the truck stops and what not. Should be easier to get a shower compared to UK.
> From OP I thought it was the logistics companies. As in the place where you deliver to.
I have read more than enough reports of both happening - and the logistics companies banning truck drivers from toilets is a direct consequence of not being enough toilets and other facilities on the road, because people who have been on the road non-stop for days without a shower, sleeping in their trucks, don't exactly smell good.
> Should be easier to get a shower compared to UK.
>>It should be, but well... corona has led to massive issues
Not a truck driver, but I was in the centre of Manchester around February time this year(pretty much peak lockdown in the UK), and it was impossible to use the toilet anywhere. I went from business to business, cofee shop to coffee shop, literally begged to use their toilets as I really had to go, no one agreed, corona restrictions, bathrooms only for employees etc etc. The only public toilet on the main square was out of order too.
So I ended up going behind some bins in a back alley. Absolutely bonkers and stupid.
Not familiar with UK laws, but in most countries, giving customers access to a restroom is a mandatory condition for an F&B license, precisely so that they don't need to go poo behind the bins.
There is the same law in the UK but it was suspended during lockdown, you could walk into a Starbucks to buy a coffee, but their customer toilers were literally taped up and locked from use. I assume staff had their own toilets in the back but they wouldn't let me use them.
I had similar problems in city centres (Manchester included) and petrol stations. I'm definitely of the opinion that it was due to furloughed staff more than a safety aspect. I complained to my MP because our 24-hour train station decided toilets could only be open 7am-7pm due to "lack of staff due to COVID". Absolutely bonkers. They've returned to more sane opening hours now luckily.
Denying people the right to go to the toilet while away from home was one of the many, many lowlights in the response to COVID.
The sad consequences of the combination of a number of causes:
1) ridiculous rat race to the bottom in pricing by customers always going for the cheapest trucking supplier
2) inter-European right of free movement and work - which means that in Germany, there are truck drivers at domestic minimum wage (9.60€/h) and truck drivers from e.g. Romania for a less than a quarter of that - 2€/h (https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter...).
3) a serious lack of unionization among truck drivers - hard to contact people when they are constantly on the road
Right now, people are actually looking at the plights of truck drivers because of the crunch, but I can guarantee you nothing much will change and especially no one will bat an eye at the situation once the crunch is over.
It's because some minority of truckers will trash the bathrooms ruining it for everyone else.
These guys eat a lot of junk food and a lot of them are from countries with different default bathroom practices so if your facility takes truck deliveries it's going to be an occurrence in proportion to the number of truck deliveries.
I'm also going to say something that is anecdotal, borderline speculation, but I think the diet of truck drivers by virtue of being on the road a lot ...it's not exactly conductive to smooth bowel movements.
This of course will impair cleanliness. That being said I'm not really sure if i have witnessed constraints on toilet use by truckers, other than parking a big rig in a small lot can be a major issue.
The Barnes and Noble store near my home is in a super clean, nice mall. The store itself is awesome, except the bathroom. I guess any toilet open to the public is going to be bad, unless it is some high end establishment with someone full time maintaining it. I guess most businesses are unable or unwilling to spend money doing so, it is easier to simply restrict access, even if it is dehumanizing.
I wonder if it is possible to design trucks with a airplane sized toilet? I don't know how much it would cost or how it would work, but at least it is worth thinking about?
Long haul trucks have very limited space. Many truckers do bring a portable chemical toilet but it wouldn't really be practical to install a flush toilet like in an airliner lavatory.
An entitlement, rather than a right, but the problem again is who cleans these things up to a workable standard. Is a public facility worth much if clogged and overflowing with human waste? If antisocial actors spread such waste and other fluids on the walls? It becomes worthless as a public accommodation and so effectively ceases to exist again. Solution for public facilities is probably automated effective sanitation and/or a Singapore model of disincentives for being gross in public.
Or just do what we do when people shit on the sidewalk routinely: we pay people on the city payroll to clean it up. Governments can provide services for the public good; it doesn’t have to all be for profit or have a positive ROI. Governments exist to support the people. Forcing people to shit on the sidewalk is in nobody’s best interest.
Even in private facilities open to the public, the poo bowl isn’t kept very well at all, profit motive be damned. Cities do pay people to do this but either not enough people or not well enough paid cuz the job they do sucks too. I don’t know the answer but I don’t want to do the clean-up work myself, and I’m not sure I want the city paying what I would require to do the work. Robots, baby!
Cleanliness. Find a truck stop near you, go use one of the toilets, more often than not the facilities are beyond filthy unless the station cleans them several times a day.
Gotta disagree. I've taken many interstate trips across the U.S. and must have used the bathroom in a truck/travel stop dozens upon dozens of times; I've never once seen a disaster. (No doubt due to heroic efforts by the staff, but still.) 99% of the time they have all three of soap, water, and clean surfaces. Much better luck than with auto-oriented gas stations, which often are as you describe.
