News

Rikki Chequer, community manager of TruckNet UK, reports on current hot topics at the driver forum. TruckNet UK is gearing up for the show season, which kicks off with the CV Show at the NEC next week. We will be there, sharing a stand with our sister titles CM, Motor Transport and Roadtransport.com. Many users of the TruckNet UK forums have already said  they will be attending and dropping by. If you have never quite got the idea of TruckNet UK, I will be only too pleased to show you the website and explain what we do.

Soon after the CV Show ,Truckfest Peterborough looms up on us. This year's stand looks, in planning, to be even better than last year's, which was a great hit with the TruckNet UK members attending. More details to follow closer to the date.

On the forums this week one user asked the question, "what do you want from a truck stop?". The replies called for a variety of facilities most were pretty obvious but two suggestions caught my eye. A surprising number of drivers would like a gym, with one saying: "I reckon it be a good idea. I'd be happy to pay £2 or so on the door to go in and at least kid myself I'm trying to do something good for myself!" But the (tongue-in-cheek)  suggestion that has most caught the forum users' imagination is to have a sniper on the roof to eliminate those who are too lazy, stupid or ignorant to walk a short distance to the toilet and instead urinate wherever they stop.

Truck drivers on radio and television got a lot of discussion going this week. A TV programme about the dangers of left-hand-drive vehicles and blind spots received mixed responses from drivers, with many unhappy with the programme makers. Go to the Professional Drivers forum to find out what has raised such feelings.

Finally, one of the regular contributors to the forums - who regales us with photo diaries of his trips to Romania for a charity - tells how London TV news filmed a novel way of getting ageing trucks through London without paying the LEZ levy. Again log on to the forums to see how they avoided Ken's new tax.