last time i was in whitwood i actually walked out as the lass behind the counter was too busy chatting up another driver to take my fuel card, when i asked if she could take my card i just got ignored, so i went to ferrybridge and put in enough there to take me to the next place which was londonderry.
londonderry is ok, sometimes you got to wait to get on a pump as it can be very busy but at least the staff are nice and friendly and helpfull.
golden fleece is alright too, the pumps could be done with speeding up but apart from that its ok, showers are nice n hot n clean, the staff are always happy and friendly and helpfull.
Sack the staff at Whitwood, and burn the place to the ground. In a nutshell the place is ■■■■.
As has been said before, arrogant staff, food fit for a prince, (“Here Prince, here boy.”) dirty plates left on table too long, diesel pumps in the wrong place as the queues can be horrendous.
I could go on, but I can’t be bothered.
Ken.
Thanks to all that have replied so far, only too often there are posts on here asking why various companies never ask drivers what they want, Well some do, and this is one of them !! For having the courage to come here, say “we are obviously not getting things 100% right, tell us what we need to do” I think they at least deserve a pat on the back from us all.
All I ask from you all that all replies are kept courteous. If you do have negative feedback please be clear as to what the issue/problem and state if you have any ideas how to resolve it.
“Went there, thought it was crap,and left” may sum up your personal experience but gives very little useful information to help improve things for your next visit.
And also if something does work well on a particular site(s), say so, so they can then replicate those good points across all their sites.
My only point I wish to make, is in agreement with some of those above… Stop stocking Ginsters- they are horrible and overpriced, Most of your outlets will have a local sandwich maker that will deliver far better quality sandwiches at probably a better price
Havn’t been to Whitwood for a while but my only gripe at that time was the parking they park you to close together when facing the Truck Wash and not enough room to get out in morning, had £3000 damage done by someone going out in the morning.
ive only been A19 north/south. shop is ok and staff good. but why such a good selection of dog food on the shelves? get some tins of fruit or even some fresh so i dont have to eat chocolate and kets. and pot holes if you want them fixing properly you can pm me. but overall 8/10.
M G b:
Havn’t been to Whitwood for a while but my only gripe at that time was the parking they park you to close together when facing the Truck Wash and not enough room to get out in morning, had £3000 damage done by someone going out in the morning.
it may be too much to ask for marked out bays at any truckstop to give us that extra bit of space, as this would in effect limit or reduce the numbers of trucks that can be parked up, not having em so close.
I regularly call into whitwood on a Saturday morning for breakfast if Im running out of leeds to Northallerton, and Im glad to see that unlike other places its open on a Saturday, as there are those of us who dont work Mon-fri. I dont know the footfall numbers going there on a Saturday, so I dont know if closing later than 11:30 would be financial viable. IF it was open till say 4-5pm I might be tempted to call in on my way back down for my dinner/tea. if not opening till 12 noon would suit me. My only issue at Whitwood, is with the breakfast, as I have a full breaky inc tea for £5! is that it seems IMO the portions are shrinking slightly over the time Ive been going there, and the odd inclusive slice of fried bread has disapeared off the inc items, probably because the portions overall are shrinking.
I do like a big breaky on a weekend, but I wouldn`t exactly call that a belly buster
A19 Northbound is great. £2.80 for overnight parking and about £3.60 for a brekky with tea and toast. Southbound is OK too. I’m not fussed on Whitwood, i don’t go to the others.
And don’t get me started on Ginsters stuff, anyone who sells it should be made to eat it themselves. Looks great on the wrapper and everytime i’ve been starving and bought one its the same, one bite,spit it out and bin it !!
Well, heres my humble opinion;-
A19, both North & South, could do with better toilets & shower facilities. The staff are good in both garage & cafe 
(fill the potholes in at that top of N/B )
Fleece is nice, not much bother
Whitwood needs knocking down & starting again!
Londonderry hasn’t changed since I went there with my Dad, 40 years ago! Bring it upto date - in all ways! 
All could possibly do with a truck wash!
Oh & I agree about the pricing of goods and dumping the Cornish crap! 
The good bit all sights do Gas oil.
Never now overnight, but will say the night staff are always friendly.
The promotion last year that basicly gave every driver who filled up a free coffee, WAS WELCOMSE PLEASE ensure your stocks of light bulbs, Headlight/sidelight are not allowed to run low, as at 2 am with a headlight blown, you would like to think a so called Truck Stop has 24 v bulbs as a stock item.
Not bothered if charged a little OTT.
As a night driver I will say the choice of food to take away is not great, but edible,A sugestion at the busy sites, ie golden fleece why not do a all night hot pot/steak pie ect.
Toilets are not gold plated, but with the exemption of Londonderry are cleanish.
out of 10/ 7+
duracell:
The promotion last year that basicly gave every driver who filled up a free coffee, WAS WELCOMSE PLEASE ensure your stocks of light
any fuel stop, if a driver is sticking over £100 of fuel should be entitled to a coffee and a mars bar or something similar. the same with cafes any driver buying a meal of some sort should get a cuppa and refill with their food.
Thank you to all those who have posted comments so far.
Obviously there are some issues that need resolving!!! Please keep posting your views as they are important to us, and where we need to improve our service/facilities we will certainly take into account comments made on this forum.
I would like to know what promotions would attract drivers to our sites. We ran a promotion last year (25p shop voucher for every 100 litres) was this considered a good promotion by the drivers?
We are considering an offer of a free coffee on fuel purchases. On the last promotion we did you would have had to get 5 vouchers (ie 500 litres) to get a free coffee, was this considered reasonable? Although a lot of vehicles can get 500 litres in one fill-up, alot of sales are 100-200 litres this means collecting vouchers etc,
Any suggestions of what you would prefer would be apprciated. Possible other offers we could do: meal deals(sandwich,coffee + chocolate bar?), prize draws (get a raffle ticket each fill up to win a decent prize), 3 for the price of 2 on shop goods?
Can i point out that all the cafe premises on our sites are owned by Exelby Services Limited but the cafe’s are not operated by us. However your comments are still appreciated for both the fuel services and the cafe’s.
Keep posting!!
Keep em coming folks…
Although I do believe that the MAJOR issue that has been raised was not addressed in Eggmans reply
The untold horror that is Ginsters pies and Sandwiches, they are truly awful in my opinion, and I believe as they are sold within the fuel outlets they do come under the direct control of the management.
I know I drive past the Excelby A19 outlet and travel to the Jet Garage near Thirsk to buy my sustainence for my regular trips to London as the quality of localy produced sandwiches is far better and often far cheaper in price than the Ginsters. as a consequence that garage also benefits from getting my fueling custom and also from me buying my huge quantities of nicotine I need to cope with the A1 .
Ref Ginsters
I am surprised at so many negative comments about Ginsters. The A19 sites stock Sandwich King range of sandwiches/buns as well as the Ginster’s range. In fact all sites stock an alternative to Ginsters.
I accept that the Ginsters sandwich is no better than most other make, and personally I would choose any other type for quality and value for money.
However, they do sell well. Mostly because people buy those products they are familiar with.
It would be fair to say truck drivers are not the main buyers of sandwich products and I have always thought that this was because truckers were using the cafes instead.
I will certainly look into stocking a locally produced/ better quality/value for money range.
Please let me know what other brand range/types you would all prefer! Let me know what other fuel service stations stock etc and i will go and have a ‘research trip’.
Keep the comments coming good or bad! We want your business, and for us to give you what you want we need your feedback!!
Antonie Hoyle
Sites Manager
Exelby Services Limited
i find them generally okay use most of them pretty regular…apart from a19 northbound which i cannot fit my truck in due to the lowest canopy for hgv pumps in the whole of the uk.the business you must loose because of that must be pretty significant.
i would rather pull into one of your stops rather than a typical motorway services,as you are cheaper,have a pretty varied stock and the staff are okay too.
Eggman, I thought the 25p promotion was a little derisory, but obviously have a big tank so got the free coffee, and somthing is better than nothing.
Whilst appriciating you are running a business to make profit, I would imagine the cost to yourselves of a coffe to be quite small, and to sell at £1.25 has a very good profit margin, your profit on each litre of fuel is probably decided by the fuel card issuers, and is a small % of the sale value.
Most drivers like to get somthing as a perk, free brew, ect, will help them decide where to fill up, along with the cards they have to use.
As stated I work nights, and also use gas oil, which means I sometimes have to head for your services, as a hobsons choice, but regularly fill my road tank at a station not far from whitwood as I know I get a free brew as a matter of course.
Nice to see the comments and the replys from Eggman.
I’ve been thinking about this post over the last couple of days when I’ve been up & down the A1/A19 (sad I know isn’t it lol )
There must be an opportunity to exploit things a bit here.
Due to the current works to upgrade the A1, theres now very few decent places to stop South of Scotch Corner, with the exception of the new services at Wetherby.(typical MSA to be avoided!)
Rainton & Bedales gone, as has the green caravan & the Shell garage. Haven’t stopped at Quernhow since the Poles took over & it went downhill (although I’m told they’ve now left). The guy (Tony I think) who owns Leeming Bar doesn’t seem interested in attracting our patronage so if Eggman could invest in upgrading Londonderry & A19 services, even a wee bit, from the above suggestions, then post it on here, he’d be onto a winner surely?
Good luck with it all anyway Eggman
so which one are you then eggman, the tall one with the goaty beard? just wondering as i get on well with all the staff on both sides of the A19 and just wondering if i,ve seen you about
chaversdad:
so which one are you then eggman, the tall one with the goaty beard? just wondering as i get on well with all the staff on both sides of the A19 and just wondering if i,ve seen you about
LOL
The person I think you are trying to descibe is Jonathan Tarran, the Site Manager at the A19 South.
zebadee:
Eggman could invest in upgrading Londonderry & A19 services, even a wee bit, from the above suggestions, then post it on here, he’d be onto a winner surely?
Ref Londonderry Garage - Once the A1 has been upgraded the intention will be to invest in the Londonderry site…big time!! The plan is to provide a site with all the facilities/services any trucker would need. Suggestions please!!!
Ref A19 sites - The comments raised on this forum have highlighted the fact that we need to offer more choice in the shop for truck drivers (ie better sandwich choice/ more offers?) We intend the review all matters raised over the next few weeks so watch this space!
Antonie Hoyle
Sites Manager
Exelby Services Limited
I called in at the a19 south yesterday, for the first time in years, I found the staff very pleasant, and the food wholesome, I did not use the toilets so I cant comment on them.