I must be one of the most hated people in society as I drive a lorry, tow a caravan and drive a 4x4 but I’m on my hols so dont give a fig. Thats what has got me thinking.
With parking charges of up to £20/night to park a lorry why have I only had to pay £40 for 7 nights parking in Devon which works out around £5.72/night. Ok so I dont get a meal voucher but I get spotlessly clean showers and toilets which are cleaned numerous times a day. I also get a resteraunt open from breakfast until 11pm, 3 bars, a shop and a fish and chip shop. Their is enough space per pitch to park a lorry.
I know you have the initial expense of tarmacing a lorry park but this place has expense to, like the fact their is so much grass someone is employed full time just to look after it.
The more I think about it, their are a lot of liars out there saying they cannot make money from lorry parks. Hopefully they wont sell up and invest the money in a caravan park!
There’s quite a few differences though.
Most caravan sites own the land they’re on whereas truckstops lease/rent it and because the value of the land is higher, the rates are higher too. Tarmaccing a bit of land to park lorries on isn’t that simple as due to the weight of the vehicles, it needs quite a bit of sublayer so it’s not cheap.
Conor is right. To tar a large area you would need ■■■■■■■■, then sub-base (MOT), then some road base, then maybe another layer of say 20mm base and then a layer (or two) of topping.
Being as I’ve been paying eight quid a tonne for MOT (cheers Mr Brown for aggregate tax 
) and quoted over 60quid a tonne for tarmac it soon adds up. I can’t see how truckstops make anything unless they own the site 
bristolron:
I must be one of the most hated people in society as I drive a lorry, tow a caravan and drive a 4x4 but I’m on my hols so dont give a fig. Thats what has got me thinking.
With parking charges of up to £20/night to park a lorry why have I only had to pay £40 for 7 nights parking in Devon which works out around £5.72/night. Ok so I dont get a meal voucher but I get spotlessly clean showers and toilets which are cleaned numerous times a day. I also get a resteraunt open from breakfast until 11pm, 3 bars, a shop and a fish and chip shop. Their is enough space per pitch to park a lorry.
I know you have the initial expense of tarmacing a lorry park but this place has expense to, like the fact their is so much grass someone is employed full time just to look after it.
The more I think about it, their are a lot of liars out there saying they cannot make money from lorry parks. Hopefully they wont sell up and invest the money in a caravan park!
The simple answer is that private equity companys do not own caravan parks whereas they do own/run MSA’s. Just dismiss the previous ‘■■■■■■■■’ notions as fanciful. Its all down to large profits, franchising, and a captive market. They are the only three things you need to know!!
Having been involved in the construction industry for many years I know how to tarmac a lorry park and know the costs involved. I have also run a grounds maintenance business and therefore know the costs involved in that including machinery costs.
If you own land and use it for business purposes you should still be incorporating a charge even if only to cover for loss of interest.
Sorry butI am not going to change my opinion about someone making large profits.