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Others stand with their arms perched on the side- rails.
Many recline on plastic chairs placed precariously at the edges of the lorry, their legs dangling over the side.
These are foreign workers on their way to work, sandwiched between poles, tools and equipment that are tightly secured, even when the workers are not.
Last year, 184 of these passengers were injured in accidents and two were killed. The casualty toll in 2006 was 81, when 76 were hurt and five died.
Given the rising numbers, it is high time for a review, said Member of Parliament Halimah Yacob, a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Manpower.
'If the situation does not improve, the authorities should ask searching questions and review the present regulations,' she said yesterday.
If all else fails, she proposed that more 'drastic action' be taken, including a ban on ferrying workers on cargo decks.
'We can't say we need foreign workers to work here and their lives are less important than equipment,' she said. 'It cannot be that way.'
Just last month, two separate collisions involving five lorries within metres of each other in Tuas left 53 foreign workers injured.
Many were thrown off the trucks and hit by the planks they had been sitting on.
The Straits Times spent 10 hours on the roads recently, looking for transport trucks that ferried their passengers dangerously.
For two days, this paper watched five spots along expressways and major roads during the morning and evening rush hours.
Of the 459 lorries carrying workers on their decks, 172 - or about 40 per cent - ferried them in precarious positions.
This included workers who were spotted standing up and those who sat on chairs, planks or crates without holding on to anything. Some of the workers sitting at the edges of the cargo deck had the top halves of their bodies above the side rails.
Some lorries ferried more workers than they were allowed to based on the round Maximum Passenger Capacity label pasted on the rear.
One lorry, which had a label listing its passenger capacity as 13, was carrying 25 workers. The men were sitting cross-legged and huddled shoulder to shoulder.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that, last year, 226 goods vehicles had been caught with too many workers on the decks, down from 293 in 2006.
A spokesman said that the LTA was 'working closely with various stakeholders to explore ways to improve the safety and welfare of workers transported in such vehicles'.
