The type of housing system a dairy cow is kept in can affect her welfare. Recently the industry has reduced the use of tethers in dairy cows because they cause stress, prevent social contact and cause problems with movement. More often dairy cows are housed in a cubicle system, but there are also some disadvantages to this system such as mild injury and the cows’ unwillingness to lie in the cubicle. The paper first discusses a survey of various farms in France that used the cubicle system. The survey compared various parameters associated with housing dairy cows in cubicles. It also examined cleanliness, lying/standing movements, behaviour, injuries and size. After the survey an experiment was conducted to compare different types of cubicles. Compliance with the recommended cubicle dimensions was quite low, as the cubicles often were too short or too narrow. The survey also determined that as the number of cubicles available for all the cows within the herd decreases, the level of injuries sustained by the cows increases. One strikingly important feature of the cubicle was the neck rail. More specifically the height of the neck rail in the cubicle can affect how a cow positions herself within the cubicle as well as her ability to stand up or lie down. High neck rails were found to make movement and positioning within the cubicle very difficult and were associated with a higher level of injury.