In an Insider survey, eight truckers reported that they face difficulty finding restrooms on the road whether at warehouses, shipping yards, ports, or along the highway. Shippers and receivers often bar truckers from using restrooms in warehouses, which can be degrading. Several facilities offer outdoor porta-potties as an alternative, but they aren’t always well maintained or suitable for extreme temperatures.
Many male truckers told Insider they frequently relieve themselves in bottles or buckets in their trucks. 6 female drivers who spoke to Insider said the lack of bathroom access can be more of an issue for female drivers. Carmen Anderson, who has been driving long distances solo since the 1980s, said she limits her liquid intake throughout the day to avoid getting stuck without a bathroom. Previously, she carried a porta-potty in her truck, but there’s no room for it now. Anderson now urinates in a cup or bucket filled with kitty litter.
‘It’s really sad that we have to do that, It’s like they’re treating us like second-class citizens’, she said. According to 26-year-old trucker Sally Feinen, many drivers started buying in-cab toilets during the pandemic because social-distancing measures prevented them from leaving their vehicles. ‘We may have been treated like animals, but we didn’t want to act like them, I throw the remains in dumpsters and use hand sanitizer after. It’s the best I can do’, Feinen said.
Laura Holmes, who began team trucking with her husband last year, says the lack of restroom facilities is especially frustrating during her menstrual cycle. Many recruiters are hoping women can fill the vacant seats in the trucking industry by 2023, due to a shortage of 100,000 drivers. According to a 2019 survey, women make up approximately 10% of the trucking workforce. Founder of the non-profit Women in Trucking, Ellen Voie, told Insider that she doesn’t believe the lack of bathrooms impacts the recruitment of women drivers, but it contributes to a feeling of disrespect that affects retention.’ It’s about respecting the driver and allowing them to use your facilities,’ she told Insider. Voie said she asked warehouse managers why they don’t allow drivers to use their restrooms at a recent industry conference.
Their answer? ‘They want the drivers in and out,’ she said. ‘They don’t want to provide accommodations for drivers because they don’t want them to be there very long’. Drivers typically wait at least two hours at shipping and receiving centers. The lack of bathrooms on the road is also an infrastructure and hygiene issue. Multiple truckers told Insider they’ve spent days on the road without access to a shower and waited in lines as long as 6 hours for a shower stall to open up at a truck stop. Veteran trucker Trish Bennett said some truck stop facilities have significantly cut back their hours in response to the national labor shortage.
Bennett said sometimes truckers have to choose between taking a shower, staying on the road, or getting rest. There is no law requiring warehouses to provide truck drivers with bathrooms. In early January, a legislator from Washington State introduced a bill that would make it an obligation for ‘retail establishments’ to provide restrooms for drivers.
Post Your Comments