'Bear in mind this is where you live as well as work," says Andy Hartwell, a truck driver from Bury St Edmunds, describing the cab of a lorry – though he adds this is no excuse for a lot of the behaviour he has seen on the road. "I saw one trucker come past me and he was watching a film on a laptop. I've seen drivers [reading] a book resting on the steering wheel."
At the weekend, French officials, worried about the increasing number of lorry drivers being caught watching DVDs behind the wheel, increased the fine from €135 to €1,500 (£111 to £1,237). One driver has even been found practising the drums.
In 2010, 324 drivers were caught watching a film in France, but according to British drivers it is increasingly happening in the UK too. "I saw it a couple of weeks ago, I think I was on the M25," says Simon Matthews, from Taunton, who has been driving trucks for 12 years. "I was in the first lane and a driver came past me in the second lane. I could see straight into his cab. He had his hands on the wheel, but the laptop was in front of his steering wheel and it wasn't small either – it must have been a 16in screen. I haven't seen that when it's directly in front of the driver before, but I've seen many where they've got a screen on the dashboard angled towards the driver." He thinks it is becoming more common. Why?
"Technology," he says. Laptops and portable DVD players are cheap. He has also seen drivers heating up food on small portable stoves by their seats "and then eating out the saucepan as they're driving along".
Michael Stopps, a driver from Milton Keynes, says he has seen other truckers driving up the M1 while watching a DVD – "they're all over the road a lot of the time" – and has heard of people cooking or getting changed behind the wheel. "I went past one driver at 7am and he's taking half of the hard shoulder up, half in the slow lane and he's pouring a bowl of cornflakes and getting the milk out." He gives a bewildered laugh. "You have to wonder what these drivers are thinking."
