New survey of UK transport managers shows record high rest stop dissatisfaction

Transport Focus' latest Logistics and Coach Survey has found that only 8% of respondents believe UK rest stops offer good value for money. This is down from the 11% recorded in 2021 and 9% last year, showing that Motorway Services are increasingly considered to be a rip off by vehicle managers.

Describing the survey results regarding rest stop satisfaction, Transport Focus report states:

“Vehicle managers frequently mentioned rest stop facilities and vehicle security, especially where they have paid for vehicles to park. Vehicle security was rated good by 11 per cent and driver facilities good by 13 per cent. The highest rated measure was the number of rest stops, with just under a quarter (23 per cent) rating this good and lowest rated was value for money of rest stops with less than one in ten saying this was good (8 per cent).”

When compared to previous years, the figures also show that the already-low satisfaction rates have dipped further since 2021 and 2022.

The number of respondents who believe rest stops in the UK offer “very poor” value for money increased from 39% in 2021 to 45% last year. In 2023, the equivalent figure was 46%.

A similar trend can be observed when it comes to security. In 2021, 59% of respondents said they considered security at UK rest stops to be “very poor” or “fairly poor”. That increased to 63% last year and has risen again to 65% this year.

When it comes to the overall quality of services, in 2021, 19% of survey respondents considered UK rest stops to be “fairly good” or very “good”. This dropped to 15% in 2022 and is sitting at just 13% in the latest survey.

“Motorway services are very expensive. Drivers for trucks may spend 20 minutes getting from the vehicle to shops, toilets and back to vehicle in a 45 minute break. Poor showers. At night curtains on trucks always getting cut,” said one of the respondents quoted in the latest Transport Focus survey.

As regards the road network as a whole, satisfaction was notably higher, albeit nothing for National Highways to rave about.

“Overall satisfaction for the freight sector was also 49 per cent. Among those using articulated lorries (made up of two separate sections – a driving cab and a trailer) satisfaction was 51 per cent. Among those using rigid lorries (those without a separate driving cab) satisfaction was 48 per cent. Overall 46 per cent of the coach sector were satisfied,” writes Transport Focus.

When compared to previous years, overall satisfaction declined from 55 per cent in 2020-21 to 46 per cent in 2021-22 before rising again to 49 per cent in 2022-23.

Commenting on the results of the survey, Anthony Smith, Chief Executive of Transport Focus, said:

“The survey shows that in 2022/23 around half of lorry and coach businesses were satisfied that the SRN is meeting their business needs, unchanged on the previous year. These results suggest that National Highways need to reenergise its approach to meeting the needs of these key customers. In the year ahead we will be pressing them to do just that.”