Hi Guys,
I’m new to the forum but have been reading it for a long time now. Some very useful info in all the forums.
I have been driving all over Europe for 6 years now and although I have various truckstops I use on a regular basis I have been in the situation of searching for a decent place to park when I end up in a crap services because I didnt know there was a great Routiers or an Autohof at the next junction.
Now from reading the forums here I have seen that some people have great guides to truckstops but what I would love to see is a definitive guide to all truckstops (everything included here from a dedicated truckstop to a butty wagon) around Europe.
Ok enough babbling, Here’s the plan.
I have experience in web design (Tried to get out of the driving game at one stage, didnt work!!)
I can design and develop the structure of a web site to list all these truckstops (by country, city, Motorway etc) and enter as many truckstops as I know of.
Thats where you come in !.
I cant do this without the help of as many drivers as possible, so here’s the deal -
Would you be interested in a web site like this ? (full google map integration and a load of features for truckstops)
Would you be willing to contribute ?
Can you provide the following info, Truckstop Name, Address, Main features, Fuel cards accepted, opening hours (days) etc.
The site will have a very easy to use form to fill in with the details and it will have a google map with a moveable pointer so you can pin point the place.
It will be totally free to post listings. This is NOT a money making venture on my behalf, I just want a site that will grow to be the best resource for hungry tired truck drivers.
One last thing, To the moderators of this forum, by writing this post I am not trying to advertise the website and It will not in any way affect your site. It will be a separate resource for drivers to use in conjunction with help they already get from your site.
Thanks for reading this long post. I expect to have the site ready to accept listing submissions in a month or so, It wont be fully finished by then but I will need as many listings there before I launch.
Leave your comments here and I’ll check back to see if you think it will be worth my time.
You can download Centres Routiers, German and Austrian Autohofs and probably truckstops from other countries too as POIs for TomTom satnavs and I imagine that this could probably not be bettered by a web-based system, but I’ll wish you the best of luck with it anyway. One problem I forsee is that very few of us go into mainland Europe now, you might do better posting this to a Polish or Lithuanian truckers’ website.
One of our members, Ossie, has been compiling a POI download for sat-navs and laptop mapping programmes. If you ask him by pm, he’ll send you a copy. It’s got around 1500 sites in it now.
Harry, I think i’ll leave the polish drivers to themselves !, most dont use truckstops due to the cooking ban !!!.
#simon,
I have seen some of ossie’s work and its a great help but as far as I can see a lot of drivers have mobile broadband now and could have a lot more info as to what kind of stops they are looking at on a sat nav, e.g. the sat nav doesn’t give you opening hours, we all know great routiers but are the open on weekends, I got caught out 2 weeks ago when I ran out of time at a closed routiers. Not a nice place to be for a 45 hour break !.
I would just like to have the option to have all that info to hand when planning a route.
we’ll see how it goes, maybe i’m mad but it will keep me busy when i’m on breaks instead of going to the nearest bar !!
Keep the comments coming, interesting to hear what you have to say.
I’m using this site now I’ve found it which is regularly updated.
It is a site using info from French Drivers about non Tourist Routiers, ie Truck Stops as opposed to those aimed at having menus over 13.00€ and the condition of them as regards Food, Toilets and Washing Facilities, Showers and Staff.
It might be an interesting project… While looking for the info, you might encounter information in foreign languages…
If you will need anything to be translated from Polish or Czech (or French, if you are really desperate), PM me.
Thanks for the feedback boys,
Here’s the thing !, I know about most of the sites you talk about and have used them before. Just a quick mention of the quality of the sites, I hate list sites, Endless lists of names on a black background with mad coulored links. Does my head in !!. Some are not that bad but if you were presented with a large map of Europe with all (someday !) truckstops would the whole experience not be a lot easier and faster.
To answer some of the comments -
I think a one stop shop for all of europe is best,
Searches can be done by zooming in on your desired location or by a search fields for country, town, motorway etc, and best of all “My Location”, This allows Google to Geo Locate your position and this will automatically zoom the map to your location.
Commenting on each location will be on the site and I am developing an upgraded rating system based on stuff like How clean it is and how good and how cheap the food is and more. Giving an overall score so you can see at a glance if it is worth looking in to.
Opening times on POI’s are ok but dont normally give details about weekends and holidays, when I start to put together the info I will be emailing each truckstop so they can claim their listing and from there they can add as much info as they want. for example, If you or me adds a truckstop we may not have that much info, The owner can them claim it and edit the info when needed.
Ok, post getting too long, In a crap services on the A22 near Verona, Italy now cause I couldn’t find a good truckstop, Maybe there’s a site for that !!!
Keep the comments coming.
Thanks.
I will post a full run down of the options that will be available when adding a truckstop but
When I used to go over the water I had a strict formula that I used to find good places to eat, if there were a group of British Lorries parked outside, drive past the place
If there were lots of ‘local’ drivers parked outside, you could almost guarantee good food at reasonable prices and the BS would be in a different language too, so a double bonus
Good, now provide the link, so we can login and add truckstops
I have also one more idea: what about some nice parking places that arent truckstops? Deep Laybys, forest parks that allow trucks, spacy industrial estates, stuff like that?
And also, if it would be possible, to mark areas that lorry parking on the street is not allowed?
orys:
Good, now provide the link, so we can login and add truckstops
I have also one more idea: what about some nice parking places that arent truckstops? Deep Laybys, forest parks that allow trucks, spacy industrial estates, stuff like that?
And also, if it would be possible, to mark areas that lorry parking on the street is not allowed?
No link yet, I’m still developing on my own machine, It will be live shortly (working but un-finished)
There can be an unlimited number of categories for places like you mention. I’ll add these ones and if anyone else has more Pm me or just let me know in this thread.
Dont know if its possible to mark “No Parking” streets, You could mention that in the description section of the parking area you are posting.
orys:
I have also one more idea: what about some nice parking places that arent truckstops? Deep Laybys, forest parks that allow trucks, spacy industrial estates, stuff like that?
And also, if it would be possible, to mark areas that lorry parking on the street is not allowed?
You can take the man out of Poland, but you can’t take Poland out of the man!
eurotrucker10, please please do not include industrial estates. Why would anyone want to park on one? no facilities etc. etc. You only have to look at industrial estates in the UK and see the state they are in after the EE have left there disgustingly filthy mess behind.
eurotrucker10, please please do not include industrial estates. Why would anyone want to park on one? no facilities etc. etc. You only have to look at industrial estates in the UK and see the state they are in after the EE have left there disgustingly filthy mess behind.
I suppose your right. although I have had to park in them sometimes. When I thought about the suggestions a little more it seemed that forest parks would also not be very relevant, I dont know any that allow hgv parking. I post a list of the categories I think are relevant and we can discuss what should be in or out.
Thanks for the feedback, This is just the sort of thing I need.
Does anyone have suggestions of anywhere else I should go for feedback, I dont want to take from this forum but the more potential user input I get the better the site will be.
GBPub:
You can take the man out of Poland, but you can’t take Poland out of the man!
This post is invalid without trendy anti-Polish rant, heh?
eurotrucker10, please please do not include industrial estates. Why would anyone want to park on one?
Because when your only alternative is crap MSA or some truckstop with stone age facilities and greasy snax van, you might be much better of. Ask Harry Monk or other of your fellow English truckers, they can lecture you on how crap infrastructure for truckers is in UK.
You only have to look at industrial estates in the UK and see the state they are in after the EE have left there disgustingly filthy mess behind.
Yeah, all Eastern Europeans are so busy with littering in UK that they have no time to litter back home or in Germany
This is why Britons have the signs “do not litter” “picking litter puts workers life in danger” etc written in ENGLISH, becasue as we all know this is native language for all of the people of Eastern Europe
orys whilst most MSA’s in the UK are poor in comparison to many in Europe, they at least have toilet and showers.
However my point was that I don’t see the need to include industrial estates anywhere not just in the UK, so that you have the above facilities on hand. You commented on another thread about smelly drivers, well I am sorry but you need to take off your rose tinted glasses as the smelly ones are invariably the EE drivers and the reason is not a lack of facilities but the lack on their part to have a shower.
As for litter, wherever there is EE drivers parked up then you will find litter and excrement, most of them (not all) are filthy disgusting pigs with no regard for anyone. Yes you will find other nationalities who litter, but nowhere near as many percentage wise as the EE.
