If i am away all week i will call at asda (other supermarket are available) and stock up on fresh food
and bread so that i can make some sandwiches for my dinner and i will also get some tinned food as well so that i can have a hot meal for my tea. If i park on the services for the night i will go and pay for my parking and i will get the parking ticket without the meal voucher so that i am not tempted to go and eat the fast food. I think the prices at the services for the food and in the shop are too high 
why cant truck drivers have a club card like coach drivers have 
i think its about time some one stood up for us drivers.
Can’t afford it in this credit crunch. I’ve been making 3 meals a day in the cab for the last 2 months and I’ve saved about £20 a week and lost nearly 2 stone. I’m in control of what I put in my gut! I’m actually glad they’re over priced. It’s done me a right favour. 
OVLOV JAY:
Can’t afford it in this credit crunch. I’ve been making 3 meals a day in the cab for the last 2 months and I’ve saved about £20 a week and lost nearly 2 stone. I’m in control of what I put in my gut! I’m actually glad they’re over priced. It’s done me a right favour.
Now you know why I’ve been self-catering for the last 10 years. 
i chose the fast food option,because i find that the prices are in line with the high street,and i only do buy from motorway services if im really stuck.this,unfortunatley applies to anything to do with motorway services,because i associate the words “motorway services” with “rip off”.
how can anyone employed as a driver afford to pay to eat on a daily basis in these establishments?.i certainly cannot,and thus take my custom to other alternatives.if these people lowered their prices to acceptable levels,improved the quality and quantity of food on offer,and re trained their staff in customer service,i may consider,parting with my hard earned brass and give them my custom.
My missus sorts it out.
Got a pile of those plastic containers from Lidl for £2.99 so eveything is stored separate to keep it from going soggy.
She makes me boiled egg, crispy bacon, lettuce and a baguette for breakfast (total: £1.20)
Rice, small tin of tuna, small tin of sweetcorn and piece of fruit for lunch (total £1.50)
Breast of chicken, new potatoes, salad and a sachet of salad cream - she gets them free from work (total: £1.50)
1.5Ltr bottle of Diet coke (99p special offer)
1.5Ltr bottle of tap water (free)
Big flask of coffee (virtually free)
Total for the day - £5.19
I got caught out once and left the bag of goodies in the car…cost me about £25 for the day from the msa!!
Never again
Okey-Didley-Dokely:
I only stop at MOTO services to go to marks and spencers, a little expensive I know but the food is always good quality and better than the crap they sell in the restaurants
That will be harthill then? I wont stop there since they changed it. I only buy food from an MSA if im trunking and have no choice. Even then there are only a few i will stop at
I prefer a hot meal from a restaurant but finding a one that has reasonable prices is hard to come by. I mean £10+ for a hot meal and a pot of tea is way over the top, especially with the quality on offer. Harrods is probably cheaper than some service areas.
Pack lunches are now becoming a more of a norm for me now as its saves the cash and you can have a balanced diet. 
Just looking at some of the comments and i cant help but laugh.
I eat at all outlets inc the restaurants in MSA`s. The food is not top nosh but then not any of them are. Burgerking is overpriced crap 5.99 for a meal when you can get a freshly cooked meal in the restaurant for 1 quid more. If i am not happy with the meal it goes back. I complain about everything that is not right as we are the customers and they want to please us.If you do not complain nothing will ever improve. The amount of vouchers i have recieved through the post cause the service they supplied was poor and i complained.
I now know where the good services are but burgerking are at the back of the Q for me i am afraid.
I also have a micro wave in the truck so i suppose i get the best of both worlds but then i am not one for living in the truck as like to get out of it when i park up.
Just remember the MSA`s supply a service to us for use of toilets etc FOC so the prices are high as they are open 24/7 with electrics on etc operating just so you can stop and go for a number 2 middle of the night so thats why they are more expensive than your high street chip shop!!! I aint sticking up for them but i understand where they come from. Get onto the government who implement higher taxes and strict rules which make the prices even higher.
Best wishes Jon
i must admit that over the years i have only eaten in an MSA once, but i mean the restaurant part, and i did order a meal a second time, took it to the till, and when they told me the price…left it with them, including the pot of tea. Now thats a rip off on its own as all i ever wanted was a cup/mug of tea, but you cant buy one, neither can you buy a sausage sandwich, but you can buy a sausage, and 2 slices of bread, and make it yourself.
I mostly use KFC, or mcdonalds as you can walk away with handfulls of milk, sugar, sauces to make up for the sky high prices they charge, along with the extortionate parking charges, in reality, its better to pull off the motorway to eat, and safer to park in a layby.
The vouchers that Moto are now giving (clacket lane) are a rip off as well now, before the vouchers had a value of 50p, which added up could buy a meal, but now they only offer a 10% discount, and only one voucher per transaction can be spent, so when they give you a few vouchers for filling up, most of them get thrown away as you could never use them all before the next fill up.
ex muppet:
Just looking at some of the comments and i cant help but laugh.I eat at all outlets inc the restaurants in MSA`s. The food is not top nosh but then not any of them are. Burgerking is overpriced crap 5.99 for a meal when you can get a freshly cooked meal in the restaurant for 1 quid more. If i am not happy with the meal it goes back. I complain about everything that is not right as we are the customers and they want to please us.If you do not complain nothing will ever improve. The amount of vouchers i have recieved through the post cause the service they supplied was poor and i complained.
I now know where the good services are but burgerking are at the back of the Q for me i am afraid.
I also have a micro wave in the truck so i suppose i get the best of both worlds but then i am not one for living in the truck as like to get out of it when i park up.
Just remember the MSA`s supply a service to us for use of toilets etc FOC so the prices are high as they are open 24/7 with electrics on etc operating just so you can stop and go for a number 2 middle of the night so thats why they are more expensive than your high street chip shop!!! I aint sticking up for them but i understand where they come from. Get onto the government who implement higher taxes and strict rules which make the prices even higher.
Best wishes Jon
It appears that the majority of us have registered our complaint, by voting with out wallets.
There should be little cause for complaint and I for one don’t like having to complain about everything that’s put on a plate claiming to be a meal. So I don’t even bother trying to get a meal in the first place. Complaining and receiving vouchers through the post, to try yet again for a decent meal at yet another MSA is not the way I want to waste my time. I can waste it in far more fun ways than that.
Simon:
‘…
It appears that the majority of us have registered our complaint, by voting with out wallets…I can waste it in far more fun ways than that…’
Yep, any fool can be skint/hungry/insulted without necessary recourse to the national disgrace of British MSAs.
PS. Lidl’s butties are decent value - under a £1 for a basic & a little over for a BLT, etc, whilst often sited in unfashionable bits o’ town for easy-peasy parking (though they’re invariably right at the back of the shop & the checkout queues can be dismal).
I usually carry enough food to last me all week, I stop at supermarket and stock up on fresh stuff, ie bacon, gammon eggs salads etc and eat in the truck, I only ever eat my own food, in an MSA car-park!
Will never eat the congealed rubbish they serve up as “food”, would the MSA managers dare to hold a lunch for their fat-cats, and i mean the same stuff they expect joe public to eat? The stuff that sits there for up to an hour screaming at you to save them from the heat lamps?
Fast food outlet if atall ! And not burgler king cos its way too expensive . Will not pay restaurant prices for the poorest food available to man .
Bring back the days when all MSA,s had a seperate transport restaurant and prices were
affordable too. Surely others can remember this.
Nowadays i,ve gotta be starving before i eat in them .( fast food or restaurant )
When I was UK Tramping I rarely used the MSA’s, but if I did it would probably be for a sandwich at dinner time or takeaway food at night.
I remember a few services which had driver restaurants, but to be honest why would the MSA’s want to encourage trucks to park on their facilities? We take up a great deal of space for very little return.
And lets not blame MSA’s totally for the situation we are in. Government and their money grabbing and outdated regulations on MSA’s must take much of the blame.
The Motorway regulations only allow service at certain intervals and the services must provide certain facilities 24 hours a day 365 days a year, but cannot find other forms of incomes, so much for Thatcherite and New Labour belief in free competition.
Then to top it all. For the privilege of having a site, for which you have to pay a sky high fee for the land and then have to pay to build everything from the slip road, you have to give the Government a massive wedge each year before you even make a profit.
It’s not until you get abroad you realise there is a better way.
So what are our unions and trade association’s doing?
A few month back they were all tripping over themselves to represent us when when an off the cuff remark was made about truck drivers on a light entertainment show, but their silence on subjects that really affect drivers is deafening.
Unless it’s one of those Moto places with an M&S, it’d be the fast food every time. It’s fresh, it’s not usually over-priced, and it won’t taste like crud. M&S rules as far as motorway services goes, good food for sensible money. Outside those choices, it’ll be cab-cuisine every time.
allikat:
‘…it’d be the fast food every time. It’s fresh…’
It’s fresh? Hmmm …methinks freshly blasted from frozen by microwave/stale oil having once been freshly processed with healthy saturated fat, salt, MSG ‘flavour enhancer’ E numbers & sugar by a wholesomely bosomy lady in a cosy thatched cottage with loading bays perhaps…
if i use MSA for a break and eats usually McDs or Burger Kingif i have a voucher
not healthy
but a little of what you fancy is ok now and then
On very rare occasions, I may go in for a Burger. When I come out I see dozens of Truckers all sat in their cabs. They all want to be sat at a table putting the World to rights, having a meal & a mug of tea. If MSAs charged half the price they would be full to the brim.
I also think that if the MS were cheaper more people would use them, I see long lines of people at the KFC and the Maccy Deees , The Wimpy and Burger King are not normally so busy because they have joined in the MS monopoly and put up prices for the privilege of eating their food.
When I go to a MS, most of the time the average motorists are all rushing about buying expensive , sweets, drinks and magazine, fleeces, folding chairs , dvd’s , basicly they are in Holiday mood.
We are at work and really its a case of never the twain shall meet. They don’t really want us eating and parking with them. look how far away they make us go.
I think this is a big contributor towards British drivers poor health and should be tackled on a national level.