Avoid them like the plague! (Motorway Services)

Member Name: IanPaterson

Product:	Motorway Services
Date:	25/09/00 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite frequent

Disadvantages: Over priced, dirty, bad food

In my previous job, I spent quite a lot of time driving between Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield. Being in IT support this is often your lot. My expenses were reimbursed at the end of the month in my salary. Not using credit cards (pet hate #3) I spent cash.

At the end of the month, I had spent over £300 on food alone in service stations! What a rip off! The pricing is entirely aimed at people like me. Travelling on expense accounts, the same as Travelodge, £30 for a room at weekends, £59 during the week.

Often, I would walk out of cfeterias in motorway services because the food looked so digusting. Often it is kept hot all day. I have never seen boiled rice with a skin on it before!

The service station owners try and justify the overpricing for the amenities they have to install themselves like sewerage, water, gas, electricity etc. In the UK, the government make no subsidy towards these costs, unlike on the continent. European service stations in most countries have all the amenities installed first then the sites are sold for development with grant funding making overheads lower and therefore prices.

Having travelled extensively through Europe, motorway services are far superior. In Germany there are regular laybys with picnic areas, toilets and overnight stopping areas to.

It is a strange attitude in this country that the motorist is seen as an easy target for profiteering.

Summary: