Haulage company owners are being urged to sign a petition that calls for making HGV driver facilities a mandatory part of the planning application process for major infrastructure projects.

Moreton Cullimore (pictured), managing director of Gloucestershire-based firm The Cullimore Group, and a member of The Road Haulage Association (RHA)’s national board and chair of its Bristol and Gloucestershire sub-group, said that the problem of a lack of “adequate, safe facilities” for drivers to use has been a problem for too long. He wants fellow hauliers to sign the petition, ‘Review planning legislation to include facilities for HGV drivers’, which has received more than 5,000 signatures to date.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, several drivers and the RHA took to social media illustrating the poor rest facilities currently available, with incidents of drivers being refused access to bathrooms at their drop-off points also common.

“Many drivers are either forced to park in unsafe locations such as laybys because there is nowhere else for them to rest, putting themselves and their loads at risk,” said Cullimore in a video posted on LinkedIn. “Truck drivers have kept the country stocked and supplied during the Covid-19 pandemic and are the unsung heroes of our economy. This is why I am reaching out to the wider haulage sector to show its support for this petition and improve conditions for our drivers.”

The petition can be accessed at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323286.