the problem i find with msa are the showers or lack of them in the ladies some dont have any ( like warwick) so i had to use the mens sorry 
cold running water, sorry but i dont like to cleane my teeth in hot water
the price of food & coffee its to expensive
Whats wrong with MSA’s■■?
Nowt…now I dont have to use em! 
Seriously, from my point of veiw.
1, they are too damned expensive.
2, there aint enough decent wash rooms (who likes washing when starngers are using the karzi all round you)
3, They aught to bring the old drivers cafe’s back, and maybe segregate drivers and make our bit cheaper, and less poncy!
4, need more space in most of them
theres a few things anyway.
One thing that I really HATE, is having to queue in the toilet area for a shower, the things put all the way at the back of the toilet area and you feel like some sort of wierdo stood there as if you’re a willy watcher, even though you’ve got your towel and clean grollies under your arm.
Dratsabasti:
One thing that I really HATE, is having to queue in the toilet area for a shower, the things put all the way at the back of the toilet area and you feel like some sort of wierdo stood there as if you’re a willy watcher, even though you’ve got your towel and clean grollies under your arm.
Well if you’re loitering in the toilets with your “grollies” under your arm its no wonder people think your a bit of a george michael 
go buy a sports bag to keep them in 
simon
Dratsabasti:
One thing that I really HATE, is having to queue in the toilet area for a shower, the things put all the way at the back of the toilet area and you feel like some sort of wierdo stood there as if you’re a willy watcher, even though you’ve got your towel and clean grollies under your arm.
I know exacltly what you mean,there is no way you can stand without looking wierd. Also i think they need proper locks.
daxi:
I disagree with McFibble on over heads, due to quantities bought & general site costs etc, they have lower costs per unit than the average village shop yet charge 100% more. its not overheads its greed.
Well, they have to provide parking (lots of land) and toilet facilities that are open 24/7, and most of the people using them (like me) don’t pay anything. Most of them have at least some kind of staff there to provide “service” 24/7 as well. Admittedly, it’s at a reduced level, but you can’t tell me that it’s profitable to have even one member of staff there for the graveyard shift, if they only charged village shop prices. True, the prices are overly-inflated, but I do think that they have a higher level of overheads.
They are simply a place to stop. I only get out to use the toilet and have a walk. They are the most depressing God forsaken places anywhere on earth. I would rather be parked down some (zb) industrial estate with a burger van and a newsagent nearby.
Also if one more RAC or AA man asks me if I need breakdown cover…
Mal:
Whats wrong with MSA’s■■?
Nowt…now I dont have to use em!
Seriously, from my point of veiw.
1, they are too damned expensive.
2, there aint enough decent wash rooms (who likes washing when starngers are using the karzi all round you)
3, They aught to bring the old drivers cafe’s back, and maybe segregate drivers and make our bit cheaper, and less poncy!
4, need more space in most of themtheres a few things anyway.
Hit the nail right on the head for me Mal!! but point 1 is the most important!
maybe we only have ourselves to blame for just accepting their rip off prices and bad facilities. Would the french put up with it I wonder. The rest of europe has free parking at service areas, except some in germany ,which is designed to discourage eastern trucks from taking up parking spaces for sometimes days on end and eating out of therir trailer boxes .However the total amount of their parking charge can be used in the form of meal and drinks vouchers in full in the truckstop bar or restaruant t,so the parking is actually free so long as you buy a meal.Not like our msa expensive parking with a cheap meal voucher ripoff.Also the rest of europe have designed their lorry parking at 45 degree angles so it much easier to get in and out than our 90 degree truck parking spaces …
ray bowden:
Also the rest of europe have designed their lorry parking at 45 degree angles so it much easier to get in and out than our 90 degree truck parking spaces …
Well, if wagon drivers in this country actually knew how to drive then they would find that reversed in a right-angle into a parking bay is a piece of cake (newbies excepted). But alas no! They can’t do that, they’ve got to park round the edges, in the wide/long load bays instead, so that they block the proper space they can’t reverse into themselves without causing ££££ of damage and also the space exclusively reserved for the ‘big boys’.
Cheers.
i avoid them at all costs.
reasons as mentioned by everyone else really .
too expensive by far though is my main gripe.
what we really need are msa,s that are just for trucks only. no cars,coaches or caravans. with realistic parking charges ,decent grub and clean showers and a decent security system. but i would change the name from msa to “truckstop”
but then we take a look at some so called truckstops.
dirty showers ■■? i always clean a shower after i have used in and would like to think that someone else would find it perfectly respectable to use straight after i left.
that strong smell of wee when you first park up ■■? the cleaners dont do it ,the drivers do. ok so you can complain that the 100 meter walk to the toilets is to far, but lets face it, if any msa owner placed a toilet/shower block right next to the truck park then it would be wrecked within days. and every time the cleaner came in and replaced the soap and the loo roll then some thieving git would nick it…
most drivers are not like this, however a small percentage just screw it up for the rest of us.
dave:
i avoid them at all costs.
reasons as mentioned by everyone else really .
too expensive by far though is my main gripe.
what we really need are msa,s that are just for trucks only. no cars,coaches or caravans. with realistic parking charges ,decent grub and clean showers and a decent security system. but i would change the name from msa to “truckstop”
but then we take a look at some so called truckstops.
dirty showers ■■? i always clean a shower after i have used in and would like to think that someone else would find it perfectly respectable to use straight after i left.
that strong smell of wee when you first park up ■■? the cleaners dont do it ,the drivers do. ok so you can complain that the 100 meter walk to the toilets is to far, but lets face it, if any msa owner placed a toilet/shower block right next to the truck park then it would be wrecked within days. and every time the cleaner came in and replaced the soap and the loo roll then some thieving git would nick it…
most drivers are not like this, however a small percentage just screw it up for the rest of us.
Yep. Don’t forget the drivers than urinate and take a ‘no.2’ in the showers too. [ZB] DISGUSTING. Makes your stomach churn.
Cheers.
If you want to have toilets in the lorry park, then you will have to put up with the batty boys lurking round them 
UK Service Areas, total ripoff from entering to leaving!
ATM Charges!
Cigarettes +50p per packet extra
£1.25 for a small bottle of coke
£3.00 plus for a manky sandwich
Crap food served by low lifes and security [zb] who are probably linked to organised crime.
If the shops were run like a corner shop offering things people might need rather than gift wrapped kendal mint cake and shortbread.
Small one.L.
Wheel Nut:
£1.25 for a small bottle of coke
£3.00 plus for a manky sandwichCrap food served by low lifes and security [zb] who are probably linked to organised crime.
If the shops were run like a corner shop offering things people might need rather than gift wrapped kendal mint cake and shortbread.
Been a while since you’ve been in one then Malc .
500ml bottle of coke now £1.49 and marky sarnies start at around £3.99 and go upwards.
Agree with the rest of your post though - interesting thought on the security issue too 
.
Cheers.
TheBear:
More truck theft happens on a MSA than anywhere in the UK!!
41% of all truck crime in the UK to be precise.
Security is a major concern for me ,statisically speaking I am more secure parking in a (free) layby than on any M.S.A or truckstop.
I would like to ask this M.S.A operator what precisely we are paying for,I should expect they will mention the usual maitenance excuse but I have been driving for a living for 19 years and I honestly cant remember ever seeing an M.S.A parking area being properly resurfaced (apart from the odd pot hole) or another excuse is the rent they have to pay for the lease but a lot of the older ones are on a peppercorn rent
The food is lousy (unless you use the franchises) & it seems a coincidence (?) that there is no meal on any M.S.A menu that you can pay for just using the “meal voucher” without contributing to the cost from your pocket
The toilet facilities being a mile round trip (Norton Canes has even built a moat around the lorry parking area ) from where you are parked is pathetic no wonder people urinate in the parking area it’s their way of telling the M.S.A’s what their opinion of that is.
If they want to seperate us from their occaisional (car and coach parties)customers as their only regular income providers I would have thought the least they could do is put the building in the center of the plot of land with a parking area to either side and have separate entrances to the building.
Or perish the thought but how about putting some toilet facilities actually in the parking area.
There is more but this post would go on too long and nobody would bother to read it once halfway through 
Dratsabasti:
Be honest with yourselves, if you were running the business of running a parking area, which would you rather have.
- Cars with two or more people spending £5 a head, stopping for an hour.
- A coach with 52 passengers spending £5 a head, stopping for an hour.
- A truck with one person in it spending £5 a head, then stopping for up to 12 hours and taking up the space of 4 cars or 1.5 coaches, Oh, and paying a measly £10-15 for the parking.
My answer would be No 2, followed by No 1, with No 3 a looooooong looooong way behind.
Well I am running a business (not an M.S.A but lets assume it is) and to be honest I would rather have the third option because :-
option 1, unless it is a rep or sombody driving for a living then these people only visit my site a couple of times a year so not a lot of profit there then
option2, Most coaches that stop on M.S.A’s are the holiday firms as the regular route co’s such as National Express dont usually stop en-route, so these are once maybe twice a year customers again not a lot of profit there.
option 3, A truck driver who visits my site 3/4 times per week paying £10 - £15 per visit and spending money in the shop (no discount or voucher here) on the arcade machines (a lot of drivers use these as a way of “winding down” at the end of a days work) and they come 48 weeks of the year si it’s not seasonal ergo a lot more profit and regular as well!
So it is only good business practice to look after your best customers isnt it?
just look at how well the ferry companies treat the truckers in the summer obviosly they and the M.S.A’s go to the same customer service training company 
Not just MSA’s that rip you off either.
I had the misfortune to go into Whitwood and was charged £5.40 for something that resembled a school dinner from 1970
Mrs Minging who brought my dinner to the counter looked as though she was changing the gearbox oil on the trucks in the yard 
The toilets were filthy too.
Another point was the warning about parking, “private security is employed and will keep knocking on cab doors until you move your truck, if you dont move it will be clamped”
Maybe the security man is on the game
I was about to post the same thing Rob, especially at Hopewood Services it seems. Then you can;t get into the space because some ■■■■ can’t be bothered to back in to one and has parked right on the corner so you’ve got to graze the kerb to get around the corner and they’re parked down the front so no one can get out. It’s not just me either, the guy after me couldn’t get in either .
about security on msa parking,boss reckons why pay to have your curtains ripped when you can park in a layby and have them done for nowt !!!
oddsodz:
about security on msa parking,boss reckons why pay to have your curtains ripped when you can park in a layby and have them done for nowt !!!
Eh 
. Why would anyone want their curtain ripped, and more importantly, why would they pay to have it done
Cheers.