Drivers 'sleep with one eye open'

Truck drivers are demanding better protection from thieves who target their vehicles overnight.

Organisation Truckersworld says thefts from lorries have risen by 63% in the past year, with most taking place while drivers are parked up and asleep.

HGV driver Pete Minns from Marsh, Cambridgeshire, told Newsbeat: "There are certain areas of the country where you just wouldn't want to be overnight.

"Thieves target either the cab or the trailer. You sleep with one eye open because you know something is going to happen."

Pete says high-tech HGV cabs come with expensive sat navs and luxuries like TVs and DvD players, making them an easy target for opportunistic thieves.

"I was in the back of the trailer loading it up and two guys smashed the windows of my cab and absolutely cleaned me out.

"Because we live and sleep in these trucks, we have a lot of the comforts you have at home. These guys know this and we are easy prey."

Pete says organised criminal gangs are a serious threat.

"They have spotters: one in front of the cab making sure you don't wake up and one behind taking the goods.

"The curtains on the trailers are only canvas and they can just put a knife through them have a look inside. If it's something they like they are inside whipping them away."

Truckersworld wants the government to provide better overnight security for the industry.

Members are calling for local councils to open up overnight, out-of-town "park and rides" for trucks, with the police carrying out regular patrols.

"Every day we get more reports of crime coming in while we are just sitting ducks in lay-bys," says Truckworld's Barry Pozer.

"It just puts up the price of goods at the end of the day. Every single person in the country is paying for these crimes."

HGV driver Pete Minns was speaking to Newsbeat reporter Jim Reed