nomiS36:
Colin_scottish:
And thats why i avoid truckstops and service areas.Find a nice spot for food and drinks and then you will be more relaxed and the food will be better.Same for me. [emoji6]
Best of luck finding somewhere off the m25 
It´s the old “Supply and demand” thing again, isn´t it.
Price it as high as you can while still being full plus a 10% overflow as a buffer.
This straight away deters the people without the budget to pay top whack happily. More spaces for those that do. More money for the company.
Just as an aside, still to do with prices…
Since becoming an official old ■■■■■■ I got my Freedom Pass. Basically a never ending Oyster card. I use it a LOT. Evrry time I sit on a tube, train, or bus, I think “YES! Another 1 pound fifty from The Man!” 
So I travel quite a bit.
Have you seen the prices that shops charge at train stations? I mean WTF?
Stuff like cans of pop, sammitches, crisps, junk food basically 
is double, yes DOUBLE, the price of the same thing on the high street.
500ml of Lucozade on the street? quid.
500ml of Lucozade at a station? 1.99.
This has to stop
DickyNick:
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
First time I have parked here for a long time and never again, £30 [zb] quid to park and not even a meal voucher with it
When I asked why you don’t get one they said the garage and cafe are separate things now as he’s gave it up.
Absolute joke that you get [zb] all after parting with £30 if I’d have known I’d have gone to Thurrock services saying that it still gets rammed in here.Is it coming out of your pocket?
If yes…then you need a new job where your company pays the parking
If no…then why do you give any kind of toss what they charge?
That is the kind of attitude these type of robbing 2hats rely on, same as MSAs.
I get paid parking but I refuse to park at these type of crapholes on principle, unless there is absolute zero alternative.
It is those types that have just capitalised on the chronic shortage of proper overnight parking places for trampers, so they think they can get away with anything…as they do because of driver’s attitudes.
I ■■■■ hate the lot of em.
Same old same old ‘‘If everybody etc etc’’ but it’s like ■■■■■■■ in the wind.
Punchy Dan:
nomiS36:
Colin_scottish:
And thats why i avoid truckstops and service areas.Find a nice spot for food and drinks and then you will be more relaxed and the food will be better.Same for me. [emoji6]
Best of luck finding somewhere off the m25
Very rare im down that way last time i was down was when i ask for directions for somewere in Dartford.Which was end of jan i think so doing not bad avoiding the hell of the M25
Colin_scottish:
i think so doing not bad avoiding the hell of the M25
Someone needs to write a song about that. Hold my beer.
Woke up this morning to find some ■■■■ has cut my curtain also I’m guessing one of our brethren and possibly I wasn’t the only one done.
30 quid and…
A slashed curtain. Only in the UK do we pay for that.
Everywhere else it’s free to have your curtains sliced open.
Im sat there now on a break. No need to worry about the curtains though, I’ve got a flat on.
Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
This is why tramping has definitely had its day. I don’t mind an occasional night out, but I try and avoid them like the plague now. No incentive anymore. Even if the company pay, some drivers have fronted £240 before getting half back. No meal voucher is creeping in, as a lot of them are splitting facilities. Paying for showers isn’t uncommon too. And if you decide to park up away from these places, unless you park next to a 24hr supermarket you have no facilities. It’s 2018 and we still have drivers accepting using bushes for toilet facilities. Treated like animals on this job now, and 9/10 drivers only do it to use night out money to subsidise ■■■■ wages
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
Woke up this morning to find some [zb] has cut my curtain also
Mine was slashed at Beaconsfield a few weeks ago. And snap say their sites are secure where your load is safe, diesel won’t get nicked, and curtains won’t get slashed…
robroy:
DickyNick:
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
First time I have parked here for a long time and never again, £30 [zb] quid to park and not even a meal voucher with it
Absolute joke that you get [zb] all after parting with £30 if I’d have known I’d have gone to Thurrock services saying that it still gets rammed in here.Is it coming out of your pocket?
If yes…then you need a new job where your company pays the parking
If no…then why do you give any kind of toss what they charge?
That is the kind of attitude these type of robbing 2hats rely on, same as MSAs.
I get paid parking but I refuse to park at these type of crapholes on principle, unless there is absolute zero alternative.
It is those types that have just capitalised on the chronic shortage of proper overnight parking places for trampers, so they think they can get away with anything…as they do because of driver’s attitudes.
I [zb] hate the lot of em.
Same old same old ‘‘If everybody etc etc’’ but it’s like ■■■■■■■ in the wind.
rob I do worry about your blood pressure when this subject crop’s up………….and breathe.
p.s. for what it’s worth i agree with you.
Also I may add to get the benefit of having a shower after parting with £30 you either have to buy a meal otherwise they’ll rob you of another £2.50
m.a.n rules:
rob I do worry about your blood pressure when this subject crop’s up………….and breathe.
I agree…
This is a subject very dear to Rob’s heart and for the most part I agree with him. Why should drivers have to put up with crappy MSA’s, rip-off truck stops or middle of nowhere crap-in-a-bush lay bys?
Rob’s knowledge of where to stop overnight far exceeds mine but, just for arguments sake, where would you stop in Kent, or running out of time on the M11 or M25 Rob?
It’s not a challenge or a gauntlet being thrown down but, you do the same run pretty much all the time and that (to my knowledge) is usually the West country.
steviespain:
Colin_scottish:
i think so doing not bad avoiding the hell of the M25Someone needs to write a song about that. Hold my beer.
I wont be singing it.My singing would scare people. 
I used to use the cafe there quite a bitand he fills up every night due to limited parking in the area parking area is rough but cafe is quite decent food.
I guess the rates are dear there and if people are willing to pay it we would all do the same.
Friend of mine runs a few motors and spoke to him about using it as an operating centre he was told no problem but each space will be at full nightly parking price per night as he can fill it up and has to turn people away.
Even at weekends there’s usualy a good 30 motors parked up
yourhavingalarf:
m.a.n rules:
rob I do worry about your blood pressure when this subject crop’s up………….and breathe.I agree…
This is a subject very dear to Rob’s heart and for the most part I agree with him. Why should drivers have to put up with crappy MSA’s, rip-off truck stops or middle of nowhere crap-in-a-bush lay bys?
Rob’s knowledge of where to stop overnight far exceeds mine but, just for arguments sake, where would you stop in Kent, or running out of time on the M11 or M25 Rob?
It’s not a challenge or a gauntlet being thrown down but, you do the same run pretty much all the time and that (to my knowledge) is usually the West country.
Only done that W.Country run for last 4 yrs mate, pretty much done everywhere else and then some in the past.
I’ll grant you that Essex and Kent are maybe the worst areas to find somewhere where you aint gonna get ticketed robbed or both, but with the greatest respect mate I aint going to put my parking places on a public forum (even if maybe some or most are no longer there since I was down that way…8/9 years ) that is how they disappear after dirty twunts leave all their crap behind them, so there is only a select few mates that I share little known places with bud…sorry and all that.
£30 Parking £30 Night out payment nil profit but who cares
I quite often night out, but I only drive a Transit.
I’ve parked up in truckstops within the last month and been charged full rate.
Ok, fair enough, but I can tuck myself in a corner.
It’s actually cheaper for me to get a Travelodge for the night with free parking and a free hot shower in the morning.
Sad but true.
Think yourself lucky, this happened there last night and 2 pallets of gin stolen from their “secure” parking.
scottie0011:
Think yourself lucky, this happened there last night and 2 pallets of gin stolen from their “secure” parking.0
LOL.
Parked overnight in an open access truckstop with pallets of gin on a curtain-sider? Nope, didn’t see that one coming . No sympathy for thick [zb]s like that.
As for all the usual suspects here criticising the truckstops for charging the amounts they do : if you were the business/land owner you’d be doing the exact same thing and anyone that says they wouldn’t is a liar. It’s a captive market and as the hauliers continue to blame the government and everyone but themselves for the problem instead of joining forces with each other (as some hauliers already do) to park in each other’s yards at night without any charge, then nothing will ever change except the truckstop/MSA prices will continue to rise. The light fingered trucker and Caravan Utilising Nomadic Traveller [due credit to Vince] types know that there is zero chance of them being caught or apprehended emptying a diesel tank or trailer, even at the stops where there is a security bod as there’s no way he’s leaving his wooden hut to confront a bunch of randoms that may be armed at 2.30am when he’s only being paid NMW - and who could blame him? There are no police to, er, police things anymore as they don’t get involved in any sort of crime that doesn’t generate them cash and/or means they’ll have to get up off their arses, so forget anything that can’t be done by pointing a speed gun out of their window of their 5 series - “we don’t have the resources/it’s a civil matter, sir” (delete as appropriate).