Why are they all the most bland, boring and ugly buildings, and some are thirty years old or more ?
Why not bulldoze them all down and start again with new buildings and modern facilities for all road users ?
Why is there a monopoly of two or three operating owners such as Roadchef and Moto ?
What with Little Chef on A roads and their signs of no lorries allowed ,the big motorway players also view Lgv visitors as second rate citizens .
Their loos stinks like a badgers armpits, Gestapo type warning signs of impeding doom if you dare to fall asleep for over two hours and not pay their rip off parking fees.
But signs from your Government tell you not to drive tired and take a break at ■■■■ Turpins Msa, at least he wore a mask to rob you .
That’s very true, of all but the newer ones. I would cite Gloucester north, and south, as good examples of something different. Beaconsfield, and Cobham are ok too.
The sheer cost of shutting the place down, knocking it down and rebuilding which many of them require would be astronomic vs simply keeping doing little revamps and keeping what is essentially a captive audience. Also most of them now are little more than mini food halls with the various brands under a single roof and very few if any have a MOTO or Roadchef owned restaurant so even less incentive to update.
HGVs should be treated the same as coaches, but I guess the latter produces a lot more money for the size of a parking space. An HGV is provided for simply because it’s in their contract with the government at the time of building.
As for why only a few brands - mostly I would imagine the cost again of building one of these places in the first place and the big players likely have exclusivity contracts with McDonalds, Costa, WHSmiths and such to keep them on their sites rather than any rivals. You’d need to provide the cafe, shops and such all yourself if you were running a new motorway services although that certainly does work if you get the location right, eg: Tebay services (unless it’s changed in the past 20 years).
Most things over 30 are bland,boring and ugly.
Wouldn’t say it to her face though.
Avoid services. There are much better places to stay.
HGVs take up a lot of room and the drivers of said HGVs only use the services for toilets on the whole so on the whole they make very little money from us hence why they’d rather cars than HGVs,it’s simple business nothing personal.
When Cherwell Valley needed a new look, they had a major electrical fault… I saw the smoke from Witney. 
We all know how bad Motorway Services are but if you do your homework you can get some really good offers off of them.
There is one operator who if you send selfies to them of yourself in there facillity they’ll send you a £5 voucher done 2 now got £10 easy moneys lol 
xichrisxi:
HGVs take up a lot of room and the drivers of said HGVs only use the services for toilets on the whole so on the whole they make very little money from us hence why they’d rather cars than HGVs,it’s simple business nothing personal.
Yep true but maybe give better service then we would spend more
I detest refuelling at MSAs because of having to queue up to hand in my fuel card when they don’t actually check it (just stick it on a counter). Then queue up after refuelling, taking longer because you have to queue with all the retards who just as they pay, decide they want a packet of sweets/■■■■/overpriced cd by Little ■■■■ etc.
And worse still, having to wait because the person in front then decides they want a mild lean coffee. When I actually do get to pay, they ask for my mileage and even if I have remembered it after all this time, they put it down wrong. Then they try to direct my attention to the bucket on the counter, collecting for their nominated charity. 
And the crowning cat turd on the new turf, as I walk away some prick walks into me trying to queue jump handing their diesel card in.
Wardaddy:
And the crowning cat turd on the new turf, as I walk away some prick walks into me trying to queue jump handing their diesel card in.
That’s what i would do, and i suspect a lot of others do?
Aren’t they building new ones on the A40?
Most on here seem to agree that services are dung. Why are they all rammed full after 1700 every night then if we hate them so much??
I only use them for breaks and only stay if traffic for example has buggered up my times. There are much better options out there most of the time.
What would the ideal services be then? Other than them having larger parking areas (and cheaper!) and cleaner toilets, I don’t see what else they can do to be improved.
A.
animal:
xichrisxi:
HGVs take up a lot of room and the drivers of said HGVs only use the services for toilets on the whole so on the whole they make very little money from us hence why they’d rather cars than HGVs,it’s simple business nothing personal.Yep true but maybe give better service then we would spend more
But lorry drivers are famous for being tight. If I ever eat on a services, it’s either a McDonalds or a Subway. Last time I got a food voucher on a services, I think it was for £9 and I spent it in a KFC, hadn’t even finished the food and I was thinking about what I’d got in the fridge to fill me up.
I’d much rather park up (and I generally have to pay, unless empty) and venture out in search of better priced and quality food, with a much better chance of not having noisy gits that only need a 45, and not giving a toss about my sleep, usually pulling fridges, parking up 3ft or so from my cranium.
tango boy:
We all know how bad Motorway Services are but if you do your homework you can get some really good offers off of them.
There is one operator who if you send selfies to them of yourself in there facillity they’ll send you a £5 voucher done 2 now got £10 easy moneys lol
I’d rather not save the money than send selfies. I hate the obsession with them and will strive to photobomb anyones’ efforts with obscene gestures.
animal:
xichrisxi:
HGVs take up a lot of room and the drivers of said HGVs only use the services for toilets on the whole so on the whole they make very little money from us hence why they’d rather cars than HGVs,it’s simple business nothing personal.Yep true but maybe give better service then we would spend more
I wouldn’t,I go work to earn money not spend it
Wardaddy:
I detest refuelling at MSAs because of having to queue up to hand in my fuel card when they don’t actually check it (just stick it on a counter). Then queue up after refuelling, taking longer because you have to queue with all the retards who just as they pay, decide they want a packet of sweets/■■■■/overpriced cd by Little ■■■■ etc.
And worse still, having to wait because the person in front then decides they want a mild lean coffee. When I actually do get to pay, they ask for my mileage and even if I have remembered it after all this time, they put it down wrong. Then they try to direct my attention to the bucket on the counter, collecting for their nominated charity.
And the crowning cat turd on the new turf, as I walk away some prick walks into me trying to queue jump handing their diesel card in.
All the years ive been in to take my card in ive never queued just walk down pass them the card and away you go most shop attendants call you down anyway.
Is it too hard to write your mileage down?
Most card readers you do yourself now so i don’t understand lol
As far as I know, the various outlets within the MSA are franchises of the brand, operated by the MSA itself (e.g. Costa/Starbucks, BK/KFC/McDonalds) I assume the same applies for the M&S/Waitrose/WHS outlets.
The parking for LGV’s in almost every MSA is pants.
It should be a legal requirement to provide adequate parking and facilities for LGV’s, given that there is a legal requirement for LGV/PCV drivers to take breaks and rest periods.
Given also that local councils/Highways England (and/or Scotland/Wales/NI) are legislating against parking of LGV vehicles;
- by way of parking restrictions/7.5t zones; yellow lines and (s)camera’s/Wardens
- issuing permits to salmonella vans to legally occupy lay-bys
- closure of lay-bys during road works on many A roads (to store machinery and aggregate/tarmac, etc.)
- Closing lay-bys overnight for LGV parking (if close to housing) - there is a large lay-by on the A421 with such a restriction (closed to LGV from 19:00 to 07:00 iirc) but the other side of the fence is residential tbf, but you still see non-UK trucks in there most nights.
Overnight parking is a serious issue that the authorities seem to have no solution for.
NIMBY’s dont want LGV parking near them,
MSA dont want LGV parking as us drivers dont spend enough (and they can allocate the space to punters spending more)
Industrial Estates dont want LGV parking (probably as some drivers abuse the place leaving litter (and worse)
Lay-bys are insecure, un-sanitary and usually no-where near any facilities (toilet/food, etc.) and mostly FULL!
For a night-driver, it is almost impossible to find a location to take a break, as MSA are normally full, as are lay-bys.
Luckily, as a supermarket driver, I often have a couple of runs of a night, so I can take my break in the depot between runs, but if I have a longer single run, I have to try and grab a break at the store. This is not always a popular move, as most stores are on a “silent delivery scheme” which means the store want to get you in and out asap.
It should be mandatory that local authorities provide LGV parking AND MSA provide no-cost parking.
The MSA should be encouraging LGV trade and providing facilities that are adequate and fit for purpose. We use their facilities 24/7/364 days a year, but are treated lower than a snakes belly!
Unfortunately, it appears that the world we live in now is purely profit orientated and no-one appears to give a stuff about providing a quality service or product any more.
dsbu. Your post is an excellent effort mate.
Problem is…human nature. There will always be some ’ drivers ’ who damage/abuse facilities. There will always be bone idle ■■■■■■■■■ who throw rubbish on the floor. There will always be some who block the toilet, and can’t be arsed to report it.
Etc,Etc… . Passing an LGV test or two, sadly does not make people more considerate, respectful and generally decent.
andy187:
Wardaddy:
And the crowning cat turd on the new turf, as I walk away some prick walks into me trying to queue jump handing their diesel card in.That’s what i would do, and i suspect a lot of others do?
Me too !!
I haven’t used the facilities in a MSA for many years now, as they just vastly overpriced. Even the fast food franchises in them charge way over the odds compared to their franchises in the towns. Before someone mentions overheads, shops on the high street aint cheap to run and they have to pay unsocial hours etc to those staff too, but still make a healthy profit, without purposefully ripping people off.
Give me a lay-by every time for my forty five. At least I can pee up the wheel without an audience. 