TruckNet UK's Rikki Chequer has been debating the merits of a TV programme on truck crime.
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There is no doubting the issue attracting the most comments on the forums this week: an episode of Cars, Cops and Criminals shown on BBC One last week that highlighted truck crime.
Barrie Tozer, of campaigning website Truckersworld, raised the issue of the lack of secure parking and put across the problems clearly and concisely.
Some of the comments praised the fact that drivers issues were publicised on prime-time TV. Others had concerns: one is that viewers were almost given a step-by-step guide on how to steal from a curtainsider. But some retorted that the criminal grapevine probably works quicker than TV and the Internet, so if anyone was so inclined, they probably already had trucks as a target.
As for the attack on the driver with a highvalue load, the forum users are astounded he was told there was no room in a truck park and he was forced to park in a lay-by.
The reconstruction of the attack shows just how much danger a driver is in when parked up overnight. Surely it should be part of a company's duty of care to its employees that, while away on company business, they are kept as safe as possible?
It is a shame that in such a programme showing truck driver issues and truck drivers as victims, they also showed two trucks caught running illegally. Next-to-no forum users have any sympathy for the drivers caught, but they do ask how many innocent drivers were stopped and checked before the two drivers were discovered.
And finally.., the programme raised a "did he or didn't he" issue and. if he did, was it an offence?
Watching the programme, it looks like the PC who drove the two trucks that were stopped for drivers' hours offences to the nearest safe parking location, did so without putting on a seatbelt. Did he put the seatbelt on out of camera? Or does he have an exemption?