intersting reading this.
Because before the stockyard took off, I had a convo with a mate about the land at the back of the morrisons store off M18 J1.
As it had everything close at hand. hotel, shop, fuel bunkering, pub/food/takeaways even a gym.
All someone would have to do would be build a secure compound with hard standing, showers and toilets
And to park a fridge would be £30 minimum, if you plugged it in…whos gonna pay that…
If you want to build a truckstop, you gotta give us what we want:
- Good parking
2.Showers (that work)
3.Good food - Security
A staff force that is polite, courteous, and understands a truckers way of life, but above all it has to be CHEAP.
Giblsa:
i havent looked into this seriously enough to get quotes or anything but for the basics, even if it cost £4 million or £10 million you would make that back in 8 or 15-20 years respectively, with inflation and a bit of private funding it is possible.
Purely by putting £1M into an instant access savings account @ 6% you would gross £60,000/yr. The same money in shares or an investment portfolio should gross £100,000/yr.
So in 8 years I’ve made between £480,000 and £800,000 before tax with no hassle.
Purely on a business note you would have to at least double that return to make it worthwhile.
Stan
If I can give you some ideas…
Some won’t be expensive, but it will matter for example for me and for many others. Some are just my dream truckstop, and maybe you will find something usefull in them?
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It will be good if it will be not only a concrete yard, but if you’ll manage to find some piece of grass to put a shelter with a table and bench there to allow truckers to eat on the fresh air even if weather is not too good (like it’s in Britain).
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There will be good if in the cafe will be own food allowed. You may think, that it’s loss for you, but it won’t. I can explain it from experience of my friend, who’s running a mountain hostel (I know, that a different industry, but in this case it have similarity)
- If someone have his own food and he’ll be not allowed to eat in the cafe, he’ll eat in in the lorry (or in self-catering facilities, as in my friends businness case) and he’ll make himself his own coffe or tea.
- If you allow him to eat his own food in the cafe, he will at least buy a coffe from you. Also, he’ll seat there and chat with other truckers and maybe he will decide to buy something more from you.
- In Cafe shall be something more than burgers and chips. I mean some healthly food - italian pasta’s or something. I for example have really big problems to find some other food then that and if I found (like yesterday) it was in some slow food cafe, i suppouse, as I was waiting 40 minutes for it
I can reccomend you also to consider to serve some eastern europenian food - for example polish. You can buy it everywhere now, including booker’s or even tesco’s and for example something, what it’s not a english word for it and my dictionary is translating it into “boiled dough pockets filled with meat, mushrooms and cabbage or potatoes and cottage cheese” are really easy to prepare (you can buy them ready and just boil or fry them) and that can be a great hit among polish drivers as it’s very popular meal in Poland and lot of them miss it here. According to one of Glasgow’s polish shops they are also popular among brits now.
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Wee shop. But please do not sell there coke 0.5 bottles at prices like “take two for 3 pounds, special offer” but for some decent prices. If it will be cheaper, I’ll buy more. I will even do big shopping there. If prices will be like on motorway services I’ll stop for some superstore as I don’t see the reason to pay double or triple price for something.
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You can consider to split your yard for “secure” and “non-secure” parking. For example secure part will be fenced with security guy at the gate and it will cost 15. Non secure will cost you 5 to park.
I don’t need secure parking, as I don’t carry nothing worth to steal, but I am paid for any parkings anyway. But if i would not, I would try to evade park on paid places if I would have to pay it from my own pocket. But 5 pounds is cheap, so if it will mean for me, that there will be clean showers, good food and peace and quiet, i would be happy to pay it even from my own money.
6.About splitting the yard - it would be good to keep fridges separate, in some distant corner to allow other drivers to sleep. Good idea is to make some change-over facility near the entrance - again for comfort of drivers who are sleeping there overnight. This is made in J38 services on M6 and that’s a good idea.
- It will be good to display some information in other languages - not becouse european drivers are morons, who can’t speak english, but it will jus show them your hospitality and it will be just kind for them. If you would to display some information in polish, just ask me to translate and I will do it for you for free. Use computer translators and you will be the funniest parking in Europe
(Like Morrison’s depot in Bellshill)
The same apply to other slavic languages and (as far, as my french allows me to understand) with french - they just don’t go well with computer tranlators, as that are too complicated languages for them so far.
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Book swap shelve. I seen something like that in hostels or on CalMac ferry terminals on the islands - you can take any book if you leave other one, or pay some small amount of money…
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That’s very common in Poland, but I don’t know how it will work with british drivers. In Poland most of truck-stops have CB radio and you can order your food when still on the road, or you can ask them if they are busy or not, or who is on the site etc. Very usefull.
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IT would be nice if you find place for some chill-out room. Few sofas, maybe fireplace, no TV, quiet jazz in the background, some newspapers on the table…
So that my ideas. But I know, that it’s far from the moment, when you can need them. Anyway - good luck. There is definitelly not enaugh such places in this country.
Forget all your big ideas and how much it will cost right now because it’s all irrelevant… 
You will never getting planning permission. “And no you can’t move it somewhere else because we’re not granting you planning permission for there either. Just forget it, sir.”
300 days? Nowhere near. More like 208 you can guarantee full and maybe the odd few on Friday to Sunday night.
Over in Germany, the usual way things work is that you pay for your parking (5-10 euro) and it comes with a voucher attached to spend in the shop or restaurant. I find it works very well indeed myself.
But given the NIMBY attitude of the nation right now, I’d doubt you’ll find an easy job getting planning permission.