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== How to ==
To limit the amounts of unsuccessful talks in crowded parking lots you can analyse analyze a truck at sight checking a few characteristics:# A truck which has it's its curtains closed is obviously not immediately leaving and might even be asleep or stay in that parking lot for a while, only approach if the driver might be outside# in some countries there are days when trucks aren't allowed to drive. For example in [[France]] and [[Germany]] they can't drive on [[Sunday]]s till 22:00 and in summer even some Saturdays. The only trucks who can are the one with a fridge, because they transport fresh products. You can recognise recognize them because of a running engine while parked (to keep the fridge cold) and because of a differently constructed trailer. A normal trailer is covered on the sides with a plastic canvas, while a fridge has solid, hard sides, which obviously are meant to isolate the carriage.
# in the evening most truckers go to sleep, so after 20h your chances of hitching a truck dramatically decrease. Once again the exceptions are the fridges, who carry fresh products and have to reach their destination as fast as possible. Unfortunately this also means they sometimes have two drivers. Then again, this might mean their insurances aren't cut by the crisis (??). Also, if you hitch a truck throughout the night you might have a comfortable place to sleep - while still progressing your journey.
# most truckers hardly speak any other languages, so talking to them in their own language will certainly increase their sympathy for you. <!-- I always play this a bit. --> You can play with this. Check the plate for the country, and if you speak their language, first ask if they speak English or another language you speak (and they probably don't), they mostly don't and seem a bit annoyed by it. This gives you the opportunity to do the effort of switching to their language. Pretending you just speak a bit of course increases the value of your effort and mostly automatically evokes a smile of sympathy on their face.
If you're on a big parking lot, where trucks can leave as well in your direction as in the opposite, there are a few specific characteristics which make it more clear which trucks might go your way:
# usually truck companies let their employees work in weekly shifts. This means they leave their country more or less on mondayMonday, go deliver somewhere a few thousand kilometers away and return to their country. On their return they will try to load somewhere else (so they aren't driving empty) and deliver their cargo on a location on the way back, before they return to their company's headquarters more or less on Friday. So, you might start approaching trucks by country and day of the week. For example, if you're in [[France]] and going to [[Spain]] and you're hitchhiking on a Tuesday, you'd want to talk first to trucks coming from [[Germany]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Belgium]]. On the contrary, in the end of the week try to catch Spanish and Portugese Portuguese trucks. If none of those work, turn to the others.
# you can also distinguish direction depending on the cargo. For example, a truck from a southern country transporting German cars, will logically be going south. <!-- Though a fridge truck will probably be going north, as transport of fruits and vegetables hardly ever goes from north to south (at least in the EU). <= the Netherlands are one of the biggest exporters of fruits and vegetables -->
