The quantity, quality, security, and value for money on offer at the UK’s rest stops have all been castigated by lorry drivers again in the latest edition of the Transport Focus survey.
In the May 2021 Strategic Roads, Logistics and Coach Survey, which monitors the level of satisfaction with the road network run by Highways England, only 11% of those surveyed considered UK rest stops to be either “fairly good” or “very good” value for money. Of that 11%, only 1% responded “very good”.
As bad as those figures are, September’s survey showed even greater levels of dissatisfaction in this respect, with only 8% responding “fairly good” and 0% going as far as to say “very good”.
Photo: Transport Focus Survey, May 2021
When it comes to security, satisfaction levels are hardly much better. Again, only 1% said that the level of security at rest stops was “very good”, while a further 16% responded “fairly good”. It was a similar story when drivers were asked about rest stop quality; 1% responded “very good”, with 17% saying “fairly good”.
As for the quantity of rest stops and the availability of parking spaces, things were a little better. 30% and 24% respectively answered “fairly good” or “very good”.
However, in each and every category, less than a third of the respondents responded positively to questions about the quantity, quality, security, and value for money on offer at the UK’s rest stops.
In the opinion of the Road Haulage Association, the poor quality of facilities for lorry drivers in the UK is one of the reasons behind the current driver shortage. Haulage boss Moreton Cullimore, who recently became chairman of the RHA, campaigned for better facilities back in September of last year.
Since then, a new Moto Services has opened in Rugby to a reasonably warm reception, despite some criticism about the design of the HGV parking areas. However, the overall picture has hardly changed, and truckers still clearly lament the quality of rest stops in the UK.
One driver quoted by Transport Focus said “Driver facilities are terrible. Showers and food availability is awful”. Another told the authors of the survey “The facilities for off-road parking are terrible. They are overpriced and not secure, of all the damage/theft we have to deal with most are in motorway services.”
Meanwhile, the survey found that a majority of respondents are satisfied with Highways England’s work. The roads authority’s road safety measures, traffic information and route planning info were generally praised by the survey participants. However, Highways England’s response to accidents scored poorly, as did the condition of road surfaces on the network.
The survey can be read in full here.
Photo credit: Vieve Forward / Geograph Uk