The Transport Committee is to examine the progress made on improving facilities for HGV and coach drivers almost four years after the previous Committee wrapped up its inquiry into the road freight supply chain.
The inquiry by the Transport Committee in the last Parliament was prompted by difficulties in supplying essential goods to the UK’s supermarkets, petrol station forecourts and other marketplaces during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It found that rest facilities for HGV drivers were often lacking or poor quality, and it made a number of recommendations relating to these facilities.
Wednesday’s one-off session with five expert witnesses will see Committee members looking to establish whether the situation has improved or worsened since the previous Committee’s report in 2022, and whether the Government has acted on any of its recommendations.
MPs will try to pin down the biggest issues that HGV drivers experience when trying to access parking or rest facilities and they will ask about the variation that exists between different types of stopping facilities.
They will also explore the impact that lack of proper rest facilities could have on drivers’ health and wellbeing, and they could ask about how has this affected the number of drivers joining or leaving the industry.
The previous Committee’s Road Freight Supply Chain report was published in June 2022 and recommended that the Government should take action to improve the standard of facilities and increase parking capacity.
