how does the continent compare to the UK with regards to parking? what makes it better over there?
They’re clean, tidy, better organised, either free or you get the money refunded when you buy food [almost always decent well priced food 
] facilities, ie showers and toilets are almost always clean tidy and working.
There may well be some that are substandard [haven’t come across any personally, but ■■] but the vast majority are immaculate in comparison to the s/holes in the UK
Yes. the filthy dirty ones go out of business or are shut down by the authorities. Some of the French places are old and well worn, but the food is good, the showers work and the amount of customers dictates the quality stars.
A Spanish restaurant full of British trucks and no locals will be on par with Ross on Wye 
You get full waiter service without moaning.Clean cotton table clothes,with multidude of cutlery and several sizes of wine/cognac glasses,and clean,modern dining areas.Discount cards if eat so many times.(Loyalty cards) and Autogrill in Spain give 25 per cent discount for HGV drivers.Some places a free shower with a meal.
Let’s put it this way, Orwell is considered one of the best truckstops in the UK. By European standards, it wouldn’t even deserve a mention. European truckstops, by and large are far, far superior.
In France, Spain and Italy, a litre bottle of wine is placed on the table before you’ve even ordered and in 99% of those your in for a three course meal for an all in price and when your wine bottle is empty, wave it at the waiter and another and another is brought over at no extra cost.
Scanny77 try reading the transtop web site , when you get on there have
a look at the truckstops, many have their own web sites, have a look
as you can then see why the are better than the ones in the UK;
Many people may remember the ““GATES CAFE”” on the A2 many years ago
this was a cafe which had high standards, and was excellent, with fresh food,
clean floors, toliets and showers and this was in 1980,s unfortunatly little chef
took it over, result… total rubbish,
Parking at ALL MSAs is FREE!!
Clampers are unheard of and no one will hassle you for parking on the coach or car parking areas when the HGV places are full.
Parking is in angled rows, so that you drive in forwards, none of this reversing in at 90 degrees (more often than not on the blind side) crap that you get in the UK. The parking spaces are long enough to accommodate an 18m drawbar and not just bloody artics!!
Half the HGV parking area is not taken up with cowboy pallet and truck wash operations!
All MSAs will have clean showers. These cost on average about 2.50€.
Invariably floodlit parking area. Diesel theft and curtain slashing unheard of.
The food in the majority of MSAs is OK but expensive. For better value for money and craic, it’s best to leave the motorway and head for a proper truckstop.
Between MSAs, there will usually be a couple of parking areas with toilet blocks and picnic facilities. These are well maintained and cleaned on a regular basis and nobody feels the need to trash them as would undoubtedly happen in the UK.
Inselaffe:
curtain slashing unheard of.
definitely not, a week doesn’t go by when I don’t hear of a friends curtain being slashed, I had the pleasure of three smileys when weekended near bordeaux in january, along the other 20 or so trucks parked up there.
milodon:
Inselaffe:
curtain slashing unheard of.definitely not, a week doesn’t go by when I don’t hear of a friends curtain being slashed, I had the pleasure of three smileys when weekended near bordeaux in january, along the other 20 or so trucks parked up there.
This only ever happened in Italy years ago, since the East European immigrants have been let loose, this is happening every where now and has gotten to the point it’s best to carry your own repair kit.
brit pete:
Scanny77 try reading the transtop web site , when you get on there have
a look at the truckstops, many have their own web sites, have a look
as you can then see why the are better than the ones in the UK;
Many people may remember the ““GATES CAFE”” on the A2 many years ago
this was a cafe which had high standards, and was excellent, with fresh food,
clean floors, toliets and showers and this was in 1980,s unfortunatly little chef
took it over, result… total rubbish,
i will do a search for that tomorrow with a proper internet connection mate. sounds like it could be valuable. the reason for this thread is to preach to non drivers to show how poor parking conditions are here in the UK. obviously i know myself what the MSAs are like here but i dont do international travelling, never mind trucking. i need to know what i am comparing against. european services are perfect since i am talking to eurosceptics and they wont like high standards over there compared to what we suffer over here
If your ukip your wasting your time, they 'ent going to have any MEPs after 4 June.
milodon:
Inselaffe:
curtain slashing unheard of.definitely not, a week doesn’t go by when I don’t hear of a friends curtain being slashed, I had the pleasure of three smileys when weekended near bordeaux in january, along the other 20 or so trucks parked up there.
Trailers do get cut in Europe, the same as anywhere. Look around the big cities in France and see the graffiti and damage done to unattended vehicles. However some of the secure sites are very good with regular patrols from the Douane & Gendarmes.
Inselaffe:
Diesel theft and curtain slashing unheard of.
OK, maybe I should edit that sentence to read:
Diesel theft and curtain slashing does occur occasionally depending on your whereabouts but not in the epidemic proportions that it has reached in the UK.
On the whole, Western Europe is a civilised place and is not plagued by hordes of workshy, thieving, soap dodging, benefit scrounging ■■■■■ scum. 
Inselaffe:
Inselaffe:
Diesel theft and curtain slashing unheard of.OK, maybe I should edit that sentence to read:
Diesel theft and curtain slashing does occur occasionally depending on your whereabouts but not in the epidemic proportions that it has reached in the UK.
On the whole, Western Europe is a civilised place and is not plagued by hordes of workshy, thieving, soap dodging, benefit scrounging ■■■■■ scum.
A lot depends on where you are really, anywhere near any big city and there is a lot of slashing goes on it does not matter whether you are in Germany, France, Spain or the UK, pond life can be found anywhere.
skorpio:
but the vast majority are immaculate in comparison to the s/holes in the UK
not been around very much then have you mate ? take a trip down to Italy and look at some of the pathetic MSA’s.
The best 2 countries for clean facilities are Austria and Sweizerland although the Scandinavian countries are very close behind.
Germany most of them tend to be clean and well kept although there is still the occasional tip to found if you look hard.
Holland the big ones are ok but the smaller ones tend to be useless and if you check you will find that there are only about 2 in the whole country with 24 hour eating facilities.
Belgium has a few modern ones that are quite good but don’t get too close to the coast or the trailer will be full of immigrants, another country wher trying to get anything to eat after about 22.00 is mission imposible.
France has over the last few years invested a lot of money in renovating their service areas and the results can easily be seen unfortunately Vemars just before Paris is not one of them and place definitley comes in to tip category.
Getting Back to Italy most of them are very small with extremely limited parking possibilities which leads to drivers having to park up in little emergency bays along the hard shoulder for the night.
Spain the few motorway areas that exist are now mostly getting old and wear and tear is easily seen, do not use any of them going down the meditterranean coast because your curtains will get slashed, Valencia and Castellon are also favourite cab break in areas.
That is just a quick run down
believe me in all country’s there are good AND bad areas ok in the UK you pay for parking but you do not pay tolls, on the continent you pay tolls, vognette or maut whatever you want to call it and the parking is free, I call it swings and roundabouts.
brit pete:
Scanny77 try reading the transtop web site , when you get on there have
a look at the truckstops, many have their own web sites, have a look
as you can then see why the are better than the ones in the UK;
Many people may remember the ““GATES CAFE”” on the A2 many years ago
this was a cafe which had high standards, and was excellent, with fresh food,
clean floors, toliets and showers and this was in 1980,s unfortunatly little chef
took it over, result… total rubbish,
Bloody hell Pete i forgot about that one till you mentioned it and im from canterbury
Vascoingles:
skorpio:
but the vast majority are immaculate in comparison to the s/holes in the UKnot been around very much then have you mate ? take a trip down to Italy and look at some of the pathetic MSA’s.
The best 2 countries for clean facilities are Austria and Sweizerland although the Scandinavian countries are very close behind.
Germany most of them tend to be clean and well kept although there is still the occasional tip to found if you look hard.
Holland the big ones are ok but the smaller ones tend to be useless and if you check you will find that there are only about 2 in the whole country with 24 hour eating facilities.
Belgium has a few modern ones that are quite good but don’t get too close to the coast or the trailer will be full of immigrants, another country wher trying to get anything to eat after about 22.00 is mission imposible.
France has over the last few years invested a lot of money in renovating their service areas and the results can easily be seen unfortunately Vemars just before Paris is not one of them and place definitley comes in to tip category.
Getting Back to Italy most of them are very small with extremely limited parking possibilities which leads to drivers having to park up in little emergency bays along the hard shoulder for the night.
Spain the few motorway areas that exist are now mostly getting old and wear and tear is easily seen, do not use any of them going down the meditterranean coast because your curtains will get slashed, Valencia and Castellon are also favourite cab break in areas.That is just a quick run down
believe me in all country’s there are good AND bad areas ok in the UK you pay for parking but you do not pay tolls, on the continent you pay tolls, vognette or maut whatever you want to call it and the parking is free, I call it swings and roundabouts.
Don’t disagree with “most” of what you say especially the last paragraph, but I will stand by what I stated in the quoted sentence, ie majority
I was in the UK recently on one of my very rare and reluctant visits and apart from the one on the M61 that looked like a left over relic from the early 60’s most of them were not too bad, I have seen a lot worse, admitteldy countries like France and Belgium have benefited from recent upgrading programmes and particularly the French have spent vast amounts on improving both service areas and the accompanying parking areas, not so much because they wanted to but because the vast increase in traffic transitting the country in the last 10 years has increased drastically. I will say that 90% of continental facilities do tend be kept tidier and better kept than in the UK