Female truck drivers across Western Australia have labelled the state of their designated bathroom facilities as "a health issue".
There are few stops to go to the bathroom or have a shower on long journeys and those that are available are not up to standard.
Great Southern-based truck driver Julie Gooch said she would rather go into the bush than use most facilities.
"There's not that many [facilities] to start with, and either they're not cleaned or they're just run down," she said.
She describes some facilities as resembling a "pigsty".
"There [are] faeces on the walls, and you just open the door and go, 'yeah no, I'm out of here, I think I'll just stay dirty', and they just don't clean it," she said.
She said the male bathrooms were as just as bad.
Pilbara-based truck driver Heather Jones is also disappointed by the maintenance of the facilities.
"It really has now become a health issue," she said.
"A lot of us just won't even use the toilets now because they're absolutely disgusting."
One of Ms Jones's proposed solutions to the issue is giving truck drivers exclusive access to public toilet facilities.
Unattractive for the industry
The women fear the state of the roadside facilities could deter people from the industry.
"If you are trying to attract more people into the industry … conditions are a big thing, and having a shower is probably a pretty important condition for a lot of people," Ms Gooch said.
"If you could have that facility every couple of 100 kilometres, that is cleaned on a daily basis, I think you would attract more people to the industry.
"I imagine that's one of the things that would put people off, because you are out away from home and it is difficult because you're away from home, and sometimes it's just nice to have a hot shower."
Ms Gooch praised the state of the Cranbrook Shire facilities and hoped other shires would follow suit.
"The good thing about the example in Cranbrook – and there [are] a few others around – is that they're cleaned … they're immaculate," she said.
"So if they can do it there, why can't they do it in more places?"
Main Roads said it was aware of the concerns.
"Due to the remote nature of the WA network and the considerable distance between some of the current roadside rest areas and Main Roads' maintenance depots, the capacity to provide and maintain toilets is limited," it said.
As of June 2020, there were 1,639 rest areas on the state road network.
Toilets were provided at 144 of those sites.
Main Roads is reviewing the state's rest area strategy.
