Drivers go hungry at lilbury Docks
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• Drivers heading for Tilbury Docks have been banned from using its canteen—now they face a five-mile detour to Thurrock if they want a square meal. The ban has been imposed in an attempt to cap the increasing costs of subsidising the canteen, up to half of whose customers were truckers. The port says the subsidy is designed solely for dock workers.
"It's the problem of policing it," says port promotion manager Terry Martin, "and to pass on the true cost of the meal, we felt, wasn't really feasible." But United Road Transport Union president Dave Holden says he is pressing the management to change its mind. "We're talking to these people," he says. "If the guys left their freight on the docks I'm sure the docks would be keen to reinstate the canteen."
He says he has received several angry phone calls from drivers faced with a choice of sandwiches from a snack bar half a mile away or a five-mile trip along the A13 to the Thurrock Truckstop.