There is a recent epidemic of curtainsider trucks being slashed open when parked over night, this is happening all over the UK but mainly in the South.
Protecting your vehicle overnight is one of the most difficult things a truck driver has to deal with, many truck drivers will park up in a lay-by overnight and open there back doors to show what is inside to avoid damage to the truck by overnight criminals.
Recently the curtains on a truck are being cut with a sharp blade so that the criminals can look inside with a torch to see if there are easy pickings, many truckers believe it to be foreign drivers doing this when you are asleep in your bunk then leaving the lay-by or service area before you do your vehicle checks.
David Ellis British Trucking Says
“Over the last two weeks I have had my curtains cut twice one on each side the first time I was in a lay-by where two trucks were parked up behind me the second time was in Maidstone services on the M20, when I left the service area to travel North I noticed at least two other curtainsider trucks with knife cuts in there curtains.”
Repairing the curtains is very costly and will also make the trucks cosmetics look poor also the cuts could severely impact the safety aspect of the curtain in the event of an accident.
Truck parking seems to be getting more risky for the truck and most services and especially lay-by parking have very poor lighting which makes the truck an easy target.
Service areas have very poor security for trucks even though they charge very high prices to park your truck overnight, the signs around the truck parks normally state in the small print that your vehicle is parked at your own risk which doesn’t really help considering you are suppose to be on a rest period and not have to become a night security guard.
Lay-by parking and service areas are becoming full very early these days and there are many foreign trucks using them to park up, I am sure that the majority of foreign truck drivers are simply doing there job like we do but I am convinced that a certain few are carrying out these acts on fellow truckers simply because it is happening far to often and right across the country.
If it was criminals not related to trucking I am sure that the problem would more likely be confined to a particular area.
I really don’t know what can be done to combat this problem and would like to hear your opinions or ideas on what should or could be done.
Please comment below with your thoughts.
