POLICE KICK VANNERS OUT OF REST AREA – You won’t believe why!

I recently heard about vanners being kicked out of a rest area by police at midnight after a truckie pulled in to the rest area to find all truck allocated bays were full of vanners! There’s no excuse for this kind of behaviour!

Rest areas shouldn’t be used for long term stays or free camping; they are a short-term option in order for drivers to recuperate before journeying on to their final destination.

We all know that fatigue is one of the biggest killers on our roads – it’s so important to take regular breaks, especially in the early hours of the morning when fatigue is most likely to strike – but it would be sad to see vanners banned from these areas altogether simply because a few in our community aren’t obeying the signage.

I think these vanners were incredibly lucky to only have been kicked out by police, instead of being hit with a huge fine, especially when they had so clearly disobeyed the signs! To me it’s the same as parking in a no parking zone for an ordinary car and vanners should be prepared to cop the consequences if they’re disobeying the rules.

Many of us vanners are on holiday and therefore we can take it a lot easier on the road than truck drivers that are on strict time deadlines. We certainly shouldn’t be misusing rest areas for permanent stays when it is so much easier for us to continue on to free camps or caravan parks, unlike the poor truck drivers who need to get back to work. And surely free camps & caravan parks are much more enjoyable than the side of the road!

Many of us vanners do the right thing and use rest areas for the right reason – to recuperate, not to camp out for days on end. Let’s not let a few vanners ruin our name in the motoring community.

It does raise an important issue though – is the problem that there are not enough rest areas out there or not enough allocated bays for vanners? What do you think? Let me know by emailing: [email protected]