To wonder how 10,000 truckers are going to the toilet?

[snowisfallingallaroundus]

I can't imagine it's pretty

Doesn't surprise me the state of things, and as usual, it's the people of this country that club together to sort out this government's idiotic lack of foresight and planning before it even occurs to the governmemt to do anything themselves. Useless.

It's like the whole Rashford school meals thing again...."Let's see if we can get away with not spending any money trying to fix these massive issues we've created, and we'll only start to do something when we look massively stupid and uncaring".

I present, the "bivvy loo"

https://www.amazon.es/inodoro-port%C3%A1til-para-acampar-campervan/dp/B0797YCX15/ref=ascdff_B0797YCX15/?tag=googshopes-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=259408940768&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17468060436541274322&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=20273&hvtargid=pla-441439680225&psc=1

@Judashascomeintosomemoney

The military should be down there feeding and fuelling them The army are here. They’re running the testing process.

Which is great, but they have the ability and equipment for mass cooking, means to distribute, and equipment for fuelling vehicles. We can't have maxed out the capacity of the military, and I don't think it's acceptable for volunteers to be put at risk as they currently are in making and distributing the food, as well as the financial side, when the government should be supporting the truckers as vital infrastructure.

Thank you cantdothisnow1

My dh is a truck driver and sleeps in his truck, he has all mod cons, fridge, freezer, microwave but no toilet facilities, he relies on truck stops which can be pretty grimy at the best of times.

I used to live near a Sikh Temple and know how fantastic they are at helping people in need.

A woman on a live phone in on radio 2 this morning mentioned that her son saw a Spanish truck driver trying to collect rain water to drink.

@cantdothisnow1

www.khalsaaid.org/donate

This is not exclusively for the truckers but this charity has funded the 800 hot meals delivered yesterday. Another 1000 to be delivered today.

Thanks for the link.

Total and utter fucking disgrace that the govt so clearly don't give a damn not only about the truckers but their families and the people and authorities in Kent. Where all but one constituency has a Tory Mp! So they don't even remotely care about the people who voted for them!

I agree armed forces should be sent in to manage providing them with what's needed (in as safe a way as possible for the soldiers - but then they have protective gear they could use I think. I'm no expert but I think their gear they have for certain types of attack would also protect them from covid. Any infection and military experts able to comment? My ex hated wearing the stuff but needs must)

Given as several pps and others in sm and in the press have noted it's not even as if the govt have ONLY had the pandemic this year to prompt planning for such an eventuality but FOUR YEARS of supposed (yet clearly absent!) Brexit planning!

I am strongly anti Brexit but even I thought they'd at least have SOME better planning than this farce for the likely issues at the channel crossing! Especially after raabs ill considered comment re Dover's importance led to huge criticism 2 years ago!

They clearly don't listen to or consider anyone in all this. That's not governance that's not leadership that's being awol!

@Graphista you'd think the military would be at less risk from doing it than volunteers at least

Im fed of with people blaming the government for this. The borders were closed with no notice by THE FRENCH. Yes they know Brexit is coming, they would have been working to that deadline, and I dont suppose even Brexit would end up with 7000 trucks stacked up all over Kent.

Re the condoms and sex toys, prostitues get dropped off at the truck stops in the evenings. Sometimes they set them up in a caravan too.

Im fed of with people blaming the government for this. The borders were closed with no notice by THE FRENCH. Yes they know Brexit is coming, they would have been working to that deadline, and I dont suppose even Brexit would end up with 7000 trucks stacked up all over Kent.

The government is entirely at fault for not being able to deal with the situation - particularly as Gove has been challenged on numerous occasions about the lack of preparations for border delays due to Brexit and has repeatedly stated that the UK is well-prepared for any eventuality. Closing the borders 10 days earlier than Brexit should not have made any difference to the government's response - it could just have easily been winter storms or the famous 'fog in the Channel' that had caused the delays.

They clearly were not prepared for this eventuality - and the government has known about the new virus strain for a couple of months, has seen other European countries locking down (Germany, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria) and yet still Schapps was taken by surprise by France closing the border.

As for 7,000 trucks not being predicted - the hauliers have been telling Gove that this would happen for at least the last 3 years, but as late as June he was still insisting that there would be no new lorry parks and that Kent would not become the toilet of England. His boosterism and mis-placed confidence collapsed at the first encounter with reality. Gove also seems to have disappeared again, along with his boss who let Hancock deliver the next round of bad news today.

It's disgusting, a health hazard and will need a huge clean up!

How do they heat their cabs when they aren't driving? Or do they need extra thick blankets?

The better cabs have night heaters, which run on battery. However if you're not driving to recharge the battery you can't use the heater. Modern cabs have good insulation and even double glazing, but it depends on your vehicle. Some will only have lots of extra thick blankets or use calor gas heaters and stoves but that runs the risk of fire and carbon monoxide poisoning.

you'd think the military would be at less risk from doing it than volunteers at least

Definitely

@thereisonlyoneofme it IS our govts fault as their mismanagement of the pandemic and and the announcement re new strain are a major factor in what's lead to france's perfectly understandable reaction.

They're most certainly to blame for - this close to Brexit! - not having decent plans in place for such a situation in Kent they've had 4 years to plan for a very similar likelihood and are clearly completely useless at planning!

Hauliers, logistics experts, health and safety experts and planning experts have been telling them they needed to plan and what they needed to include in those plans for at least that long and they have obviously not listened to a damn word!

@Spittingchestnuts

This is appalling. Especially as it's lorry drivers (among other key workers) who have basically kept the world turning during the pandemic and allowed those of us who are lucky enough to be able to wfh, to buy food and other goods on-line on-line. And how do we treat them? Like they are sub-human.

Little consideration for their comfort or dignity, virtually no consideration for their health during a global pandemic, and no consideration for the fact that many of them now will not get back to be with their families at Christmas.

Schapps and Give should be ashamed. Yes, Covid-19 has added an extra dimension to this crisis, but potential blockages and delays at the ports were being discussed back in 2016.

Surely this is on Macron rather than any U.K. minister. It is Macron insisting in the tests and the one who has closed the border in the first place after all. The drivers I heard on the radio are all blaming Macron anyway- one was Yerman , the other Romanian. Macron also stopped French citizens returning to France. Can you imagine the U.K. gov refusing U.K. citizens returning home from France without a test that the French government had to provide?

Surely this is on Macron rather than any U.K. minister. It is Macron insisting in the tests and the one who has closed the border in the first place after all.
The drivers I heard on the radio are all blaming Macron anyway- one was Yerman , the other Romanian.
Macron also stopped French citizens returning to France. Can you imagine the U.K. gov refusing U.K. citizens returning home from France without a test that the French government had to provide?

Well if it is Macron's fault, he has just brought forward what was going to be happening from 31st December onwards ... it's literally a matter of nine days ...sanitary provision should have been made for drivers in the event of blockades and delays whoever caused them! Especially in the middle of a global pandemic when hygiene is crucial.

Prostitutes get dropped off?

Or enslaved trafficked women?

A driver at Manston said he is very low on petrol, has no money, battery almost dead.

@thereisonlyoneofme

Im fed of with people blaming the government for this. The borders were closed with no notice by THE FRENCH. Yes they know Brexit is coming, they would have been working to that deadline, and I dont suppose even Brexit would end up with 7000 trucks stacked up all over Kent.

You obviously don't live in Kent the queing started way before the boarders closed. That just compounded the issue.

The government should have prepared for this and didn't. They should be reacting now with more competence they aren't. There's going to come a time when simply blaming the French/Europeans isn't going to cut it.

We moved from Kent a few years ago and one of the reasons was Operation Stack (or Stuck as it was known). When it was being used all the roads round us (including small village roads) were full or lorries and it took us up to 1.5 hours to drive the 9 miles to our nearest town with nose to tail traffic.

It must be four sorts of hell now.

@Spittingchestnuts

*Surely this is on Macron rather than any U.K. minister. It is Macron insisting in the tests and the one who has closed the border in the first place after all. The drivers I heard on the radio are all blaming Macron anyway- one was Yerman , the other Romanian. Macron also stopped French citizens returning to France. Can you imagine the U.K. gov refusing U.K. citizens returning home from France without a test that the French government had to provide?*

Well if it is Macron's fault, he has just brought forward what was going to be happening from 31st December onwards ... it's literally a matter of nine days ...sanitary provision should have been made for drivers in the event of blockades and delays whoever caused them! Especially in the middle of a global pandemic when hygiene is crucial.

Agreed but it is the tests that are causing the problem now. Luckily macron has backtracked on the pcr tests and will accept the speedy ones but really this is on him and it is European drivers and french citizens he is inconviencing the most! Plus the people of Dover. And I bet any money France already has this new strain and has had it for a while too so really the whole thing has been political posturing and made him look ridiculous. He has enough problems in France at the moment and should really be concentrating on that rather than pissing off the rest of the EU in order to get back at Britain.

Agreed but it is the tests that are causing the problem now. Luckily macron has backtracked on the pcr tests and will accept the speedy ones but really this is on him and it is European drivers and french citizens he is inconviencing the most! Plus the people of Dover.
And I bet any money France already has this new strain and has had it for a while too so really the whole thing has been political posturing and made him look ridiculous. He has enough problems in France at the moment and should really be concentrating on that rather than pissing off the rest of the EU in order to get back at Britain.

I don't disagree with some of that but tbh Brexit and the entire process of the UK leaving Europe is the epitome of political posturing imho and if Macron sees fit to exercise his sovereignty and close his borders - as the UK was always able to do - and to make a political point now after the trouble we have caused in Europe, then I don't really blame him. It was us who started it all!

Fair dos! But it is his own citizens he has affected plus EU lorry drivers and food suppliesrs so seems an odd action to take really. Anyway it has backfired on him as all the other EU countries have basically told him to stop being a dick

I agree with a PP that Operation Stack is a regular thing and there need to be (more than one) planned parking areas with proper facilities to direct trucks to. If you hold trucks for any length of time they will need as a minimum loos, shower facilities, somewhere to buy food (ideally cooked food), water and a cashpoint.

None of this is rocket science and it is disgraceful this does not exist already. Brexit just makes it more of a priority.

Just waiting for the first outbreak of cholera or dysentery as a result of these insanitary conditions - then the government will definitely need to do something.

Why would this have happened anyway? Sorry

Thanks @BaronessBomburst I thought it'd be something like that. If they're stuck in one place for days obviously the battery will go flat.