Truckie favourite Mortlake Roadhouse is assuring drivers their facilities are still open for business.
The post said the roadie had been running on a “one in, one out” policy, allowing drivers to get their food before continuing their journey.
“Truckies can still use the toilet and shower facility, order your meal and it will be ready in a takeaway container for you can eat in your truck.
“I think guys and gals it would be worth your while to have a container of your own knives and forks in your truck from your home, so you know where you are at utensil wise for everywhere you get food. But we will have sanitised plastic cutlery available.”
The roadhouse owner said his advice to drivers was to use the toilet and shower provided for the drivers because it was “sanitised and completely separate” to everywhere else inside the building.
“You can have the assurance health wise its sanitised and cleaned after each person left as it is only to be used y truckies and not the general public.”
The post asked everyone to “take note of the warnings the government is telling us all” and said, “if we all use our brains and follow directions of officials our proud country will crawl out the other end of this and gradually learn to walk again”.
A new Facebook group was started by the trucking community this morning to keep drivers abreast of the situation – about which roadhouses and service stations they could find food and amenities at.
The group description asks owners to “share your trading hours, location, if showers available and menus”.
Driver Matthew Young said he started it up as “everyone was asking where they could still get a feed and shower” and he didn’t want to clog up other pages with stuff that wasn’t meant to be there.
“Now they can come to my page and post any information they have and as a driver myself I can post as well. It just keeps everyone up to date on where they can get food and a shower. No reports yet on showers shut anywhere,” he said.
Drivers have shared reports of the following service stations and cafes being open to service truck drivers: the Old Junee cafe, Pacific Petroleum at Rocklea, BP Goondiwindi, BP Bulahdelah, BP Coolongolook and the Caltex at the Port of Brisbane.
BP Dandenong management advised that showers were “for truck driver use only” and as a commitment to personal safety they had hired cleaners to sanitise each shower after each use 24/7.
“A cleaner will keep the shower door open for you and keep the key to avoid cross-contamination. Please notify the cleaner once you are finished,” a sign read.
Big Rigs has contacted all the major service stations to ask about their policies surrounding the situation and will let you know when we find out.
Extracted from The Morning Bulletin