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A TV advertising campaign claiming that buying Lenor's concentrated fabric conditioner can result in fewer truck journeys has been attacked for treating hauliers like "third-class citizens". Beth Burgess, whose husband runs a haulage firm in Derbyshire, says the environmental claims by Proctor & Gamble (P&G) do nothing but vilify LGV drivers.

The advert states that if everyone in the UK switched to its smaller concentrated bottle of Lenor, then 14,000 truck movements could be taken off  the roads each year. Burgess has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and P&G, pointing out that the firm is attempting to influence the public's buying choices in a way that will make drivers redundant. However, the ASA says the advert won't directly lead to detriment to hauliers.

Burgess says the ASA's response is "patronising" she adds: "I do think it is detrimental to the haulage industry. I do think wagon drivers are vilified these days, very much so. Why should they be penalised?" Tony Pain, marketing director at Daf trucks, says truck drivers should boycott fabric conditioner: "What they are really saying is that for the past umpteen years they have been selling water to carry around the countryside. Now they have taken the excess water out of it they can deliver it much more cheaply. It's cynical of P&G to believe we need [fabric conditioner] in the first place."

The Road Haulage Association says it has received calls from members querying the advert's claims over the number of truck movements. A spokeswoman says: "It's fine to come out with this if you can substantiate your facts. We'd like to know where they got this particular fact."

A spokesman for Wincanton, which carries out some distribution for P&G, says: "You really need to talk to P&G's advertising agency which created the campaign and calculated the figures. We have no way of knowing what parameters they used."

A P&G spokesman says: "The Lenor campaign dramatizes the 70% less packaging that could be saved if everybody in the UK switched from large dilute bottles to smaller concentrate formats. Sustainability experts agree that concentrated formats provide an important environmental benefit in terms of energy, water and packaging savings."