Complaint about Moto MSA's and result

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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Hi all.

I have gradually been getting fed up with apalling state of Moto MSA’s and the way lorry drivers are being treated. The final straw came when I was refused fuel at Hilton Park North as there was no staff to serve HGV drivers :open_mouth: As a result of this the following e-mail was sent to Moto HQ-

Dear Sir/Madam.

I’m afraid the time has come, that I feel the need to write and express my displeasure with your motorway service areas.

As a long distance truck driver, based in Cornwall and the holder of a BP fuel card, I find myself frequenting, several of your service areas.

Although, I am grateful for the £1/100litres of fuel, the quality of food falls well below the level, one should expect, I have eaten at Frankley (M5 North), Hilton Park (M6 North & South) and Knutsford (M6 North) and have not had one meal, that meets my expectations. Ranging from undercooked, mildly warm to overcooked, the food always appears to have been on display for eternity and shrivelled up. I have also found staff to be rude and arrogant towards the truck driver, why?

On the subject of being a truck driver, why such an extortionate price to park overnight? I know this includes a meal voucher but with poor quality food, is it worth it? How do you justify £2.99 for 2 pieces of bread & 2 rashers of bacon, portraying to be a bacon sandwich (Frankley North)? Why are your parking spaces of inadequate size and poorly maintained? Why on Wednesday the 9th at 0630hrs could I not get fuel at the Hilton Park North, due to no staff?

On a lighter note, I wish to compliment the staff at Donington Park, they make the truck driver welcome, the food always appears to be freshly cooked and nothing is a problem for them. The site is spotless and parking A1, perhaps staff from other sites, could take notes?

Also, with regard to the vouchers, perhaps a further incentive, would be, to allow us to use them in the shop, for other purchases, such as newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, etc.?

I hope that you will respond to this e-mail, with sensible comments? I am a member of a very well known truck drivers forum and the comments above are echoed throughout, I will also consider passing on my comments to a well known trucking magazine, dependant on your reply.

Regards

John Foss

I have to be honest, I was not expecting a reply, or if I did, one full of the usual excuses but the letter I received was as follows-

Dear Mr.Foss
Thank you for contacting us concerning your visit to several of our MSA’s. I was extremely sorry to learn of the problems that you experienced. Our aim is to make our customers want to choose our company, clearly in this instance we have not done so.
In view of your comments, I have asked the Area General Manager resposible for Knutsford, Frankley and Hilton Park MSA to ensure the remidial action necessary has been undertaken. Please be assured that your experience is in no way typical of our normal high standard of operation.
With regards to our pricing, I was sorry to learn that you were dissatisfied with the prices, as it is Moto’s policy to ensure that our prices are fair and reasonable :open_mouth:

The letter than goes on in detail about business costs etc and contuinues-

We are always grateful to receive feedback from our customers, whether positive or negative and I would like to thank you for taking the time to contact us.
With reference to our HGV parking bays at Frankley, I have been advised by our Head Office Facilities Team, that we are currently in the process of looking at the possibility of redeveloping this site, making the necessary required improvements.
I am sorry that we failed to meet your expectations on this occasion and enclose £10 worth of vouchers as a gesture of good will.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Customer feedback is very important and assists us to provide a better service to everyone.
Yours Sincerely
Emma Wright - Customer Services

Any views :question:

Maybe if enough of us complain, something will be done :question:

Emma Wrights email address - info@moto-way.com

John

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Or we may all get £10 of free vouchers :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :grimacing:

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Result John! nice one.

Do you think that this incident and the general state of things was a case of local apathy rather than a definite policy by Moto. Clearly they have a reputation to protect and if they cannot listen to feed back from regular customers, and act on it, as they appear to be in this case, then they will reap the consequences as far as their bottom line is concerned.

Generally we Brits will put up with a lot before we complain, which is part of the problem, if we were a little more inclined to take these companies to task they would quickly get the message that we expect, No! demand value for money, after all they sure know how to get their charging policy right.

Moan over, take care M8.

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£10■■ Does that mean you can now afford a cup of coffee with your bacon sandwich?? :laughing:

Good on you for complaining, and I would agree with you about Donnington - nice services. However I have never paid for parking in an MSA because - quite frankly it is a rip-off. But on the flip-side, I regularly use their showers. So I would have a cheek to complain about the facilities and do often feel a bit guilty for the people who do pay for the facilities that I am using for nowt. :blush: However, should I see a drastic reduction in parking/food prices I would be happy to stop for the night.

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CM

I agree with what you say, I think Moto may have realised, that the truck driver, is and always will be a key element in the running of their MSA’s, if all truck drivers were to avoid these places, I think you would find several closing.

Lostpup

I’m with you on the parking front, if the prices were to be reduced to a sensible figure and we be given the oportunity to pay without having the meal option, I would possibly park in MSA’s.

The reason for this thread, was to show that maybe they will listen to us and that if you are unhappy, complain, NOTHING will be done unless they are aware of the problems.

John

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Glad to hear your effort did not fall on the stoney ground that many others have, enjoy the tenner, but I wouldn’t expect any changes. :wink:

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well done cornish on the £10 voucher, i stayed i rownham service on wednesday night and the food was excellent,not over expensive, and freindly staff,when i paid for the overnight parking i asked if that included a free breakfast and a cup of tea in bed,the nice lady whispered to me to go away :open_mouth: :laughing: :laughing: but with a nice smile,

8

Nice one!
I also mailed Moto this week regarding Poplar 2000 at Lymm.
Working for Willi-Betz (Oi!,no sniggering at the back!) we have a parking account with Moto and I asked them how we would get on with parking at Lymm seeing as you need to pay to get out of the place.
Apparently whilst Poplar 2000 is owned by Compass Group,the same as Moto,it is branded seperately and therefore not under Moto.
Which seems strange,seeing it’s got there name on it?

So,no worries about hordes of Willi-Betz trucks being parked there for weeks on end.

Mind you,I didn’t get a £10 voucher either.
But he did say he’d pop a bit of roadkill in the post for me :wink:
Now,where’s me recipe book?

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It’s a bit different to the response I got fromRoadchef to this email

north surrey haulage:
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:29 pm Post subject: Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post
Dear Mr Neil Byard

Having read recently in the transport periodicals that you are trying to encourage more H.G.V drivers to use your facilities I find it hard to see why you are at a loss as to why they don’t.

I used the toll road for the first time this week and decided to visit your site at Norton Canes as you seem so proud of it in the press.On arrival I saw that the H.G.V parking area was completely empty which for professional driver is never a good sign.When I parked I saw the reason why.

A, The H.G.V parking has been put as far away from the building structure as you can get it.

B, You have put in a moat with only one small footbridge (that I could see) to cross it

C, When you eventually get into the services building and queue for 10 minutes at the Wimpy franchise you are told the food voucher is not accepted.

May I make a few suggestions that may help in your plight to attract the professional drivers you seek.

A, If you wish to segregate the professional drivers from your occasional users (car drivers) why not build the H.G.V parking area to the rear (or opposite) side of the building to the occasional users with it’s own entrance.This way the professsional drivers will not have to do a hike to use the facilities especially the toilets

B, Instead of putting in a moat which is a physical and psychological barrier between the parking area and the facilities, Why not put up some security fencing and cctv so that operators using the site feel they are getting somthing for their money?

C, Why is it that your Wimpy franchise does not accept the meal voucher when it is common practice for all the other M.S.A’s to do so.I’m assuming that you own the franchise to the Wimpy onthe site so I cant really see a problem why the meal voucher is not accepted.I will assume that your defence will be that hot food is available from the On-Route restaurant, but the variety on offer is usually minimal and you normally have to make a contribution on top of the face value of the meal voucher when paying,Whereas with the fast food franchises you get a meal with a drink at no extra cost.

Please note this is an open letter and will be posted on trucknetuk.com in the drivers roundtable section as will any replies recieved from yourself.

trucknetuk.com is a free internet forum which is visited by more than 31,000 visitors a month

yours Sean Phillips

proprietor

North Surrey Haulage

I’m Sill waiting for a reply :open_mouth:

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Commercial Motor have also done a survey on the amount of trucks using the M6 Toll and the service area.

Strangely the numbers publicised by the Toll Road Management differ substantially from the CM survey.

Who would you believe? :stuck_out_tongue:

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This has just prompted to send another email to Neil Byard site director for Norton Canes Roadchef (M6Toll)

North Surrey Haulage:
I feel I must write this email with regards to your customer service.
I wrote you an email in which I made a complaint about the service I received at your suposed flagship services at Norton Canes.
At the time of writing I forewarned you that I would be posting a copy of this email & your response on www.Trucknetuk.com which is a forum for professional drivers with around 31,000 visitors per week.

I am also going to put a copy of this email on the site as well.

I am sorry that you dont see professional drivers worthy of a reply to a complaint and I feel this shows the true colours of your organisation in repect that you obviously ony "put up " with our profession as you are under a legal obligation to provide parking for “all”.
Maybe this explains why you treat us in the shoddy way that you do unfortuneately the “only” way open for me to protest your company is to remove my custom which I have already done since the issue raised in my original email (a copy of which I enclose in case you have lost the original)

Compare this to the response a fellow member received from a complaint to Moto and you will see why they will be getting my custom in the future

I shall let my fellow members decide for themselves who they would rather do business with

Sean Phillips

Proprietor

North Surrey Haulage

I’m not expecting a reply :unamused:

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The thing that REALLY suprised me was that MOTO did not write back saying they were going to sort out Donington Services for letting the company down :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

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Just received a reply to my email to Roadchef

Neil Byard:
Dear Mr Phillips

Thankyou for your email and a copy of the original email sent.

Please accept my apologies for not responding to the original email, this unfortunately I did not see at the time, for reasons which are now too long after the event to investigate.

I will be happy to discuss your concerns re our site layout and cctv facilities which provide full cover the HGV park should you use the M6 toll and call into site.

The service issues which you experienced regarding the food section of your parking voucher have been resolved and this is now accepted in our OnRoute self service restaurant, Costa Coffee and Wimpy.

Regards

Neil Byard
Site Director

North Surrey Haulage:
I’m not expecting a reply :unamused:

I stand corrected :wink:

14

to be fair with Moto, they DO take feedbacl on board, and respond and quite often they act upon it.

The kennel club pointed out lots of people make journies with dogs and other animals that need their legs stretching now and again, and fresh air and to cool down, with MSA’s being prime choice sites. So they arrange for fresh dog biscuits and water to go down daily.

Several bikers (many of them me, under various pseudonyms with various letters posted from across the nation when trade-plating :laughing: ) wrote to complain there’s nowhere to put crash helmets etc when in the MSAs which can be difficult when you’ve got a tray in one hand, looking for a table, moving chairs out etc - and even more to the point, we often take refuge in a deluge and would like to get out of wet leathers for an hour or so, have a hot drink and food, regain morale before carrying on - but there’s nowhere to hang leathers - ans so there’s lots and lots of MSAs now sporting “MotoBiker” lockers tall enough to hang a 1-piece set of leathers with an area for the helmet, a drip-tray for the water to go in, and well ventilated to help them dry out without need for heat (which can damage them).

a brilliant response really as if there’s someone treated worse than truckers, on our roads, by other road users, authorities and service providers - it’s bikers.

15

Stayed at Gordano this week for two nights, i hate the place, they have potacabins for toilet’s as they are doing the others up, so i am there having a wash and the manager walks in and starts picking rubbish up off the floor, so in with both feet i asked him what his other customers must think when they see us having a wash, would it not be better for us to have a seperate washroom, he said he understood and that they are spending a £1,000,000 doing the toilets up and putting in four showers, so we shall see .

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Is it not worth also reporting to Trading Standard’s or is there Ombudsman you can try, but the best way to get the point across , is not use their service’s

17

It goes to show that with a little moan …we can get results…but its not worth complaining to the girl behind the counter…its got to be the manager…and as most of us carry a pen and paper it wouldnt take too long to write a polite letter stating why you wont be using that services again…unless things improve…and dont forget to tell them about the mention on trucknet…should get them thinking…on another note…is it illegal to advertise what service station sells which diesel …or do they consider it unfair competition…it is annoying when looking for say a shell only to have to go in the station first to find out which one it is…would be a lot easier if it was on the motorway sign advertising the services…not all of us have super photogenic memories…just wondered…

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I have stopped at around a dozen service areas in the last two weeks or so and I have to say that I was entirely satisfied with each and every one of them.

Without fail, each was clean, well-maintained and well-lit, with more than enough parking places for trucks, which was free in every case.

Each and every one had spotless facilities -including showers at every single one- and good cheap food cooked to order by friendly and helpful staff.

I was even given a 25% discount on every last meal simply because they appreciate truckers so much.

Viva la France!

Vince

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truckyboy:
on another note…is it illegal to advertise what service station sells which diesel …or do they consider it unfair competition…it is annoying when looking for say a shell only to have to go in the station first to find out which one it is…would be a lot easier if it was on the motorway sign advertising the services…not all of us have super photogenic memories…just wondered…

Very good and valid point. Over here we have Shell and Aral fuel cards, although they can be used at other companies. They don’t always advertise which brand of fuel station is at the next Autohof but there is nearly always the tallest (and I mean tall!!) sign at the fuel station that you can see before you even turn off the Autobahn!!

Ours are Euro fuel cards and the biggest problems we have are when in UK, trying to find the right brand of fuel. :angry:

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I can still remember the days when at the bottom of the sign with the prices on they used to list all the cards that were accepted…That all seems to have stopped. Even alot of the people taking the money are unsure of what cards they can take.