Motorway Services Online

Retrieved from "https://motorwayservices.uk"

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|image = Oxford seating.jpg
|image = Oxford seating.jpg
|description = Information on why motorway services are so expensive, how to reduce the cost of visiting a motorway service station and why the prices are so high at motorway service areas.
|description = Information on why motorway services are so expensive, how to reduce the cost of visiting a motorway service station and why the prices are so high at motorway service areas.
|title = Price Point: Why are motorway services so expensive?
|country = UK }}
|country = UK }}
[[File:Oxford seating.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Service area restaurants are notorious in just about every respect.]]
[[File:Oxford seating.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Service area restaurants are notorious in just about every respect.]]
It's no secret that most services manage to provide the seemingly impossible combination of being both notoriously expensive and notoriously rubbish. This is usually attributed to the fact that services are seen to have a captive market and a monopoly on the motorway, often being the only easily accessible facilities for the next 20 miles.
Since the dawn on time, motorway service areas have been lambasted for their poor quality and high prices. Changes to the [[Food|choice of food]] appear to have addressed the quality issues, but the complaints about the prices remain unaddressed. In [[Transport Focus#2019 Survey|2019]], just 59% of service station customers said they felt they had received value for money, while 91% said the food was "good".


This will no-doubt play a part in the problem, as will the fact that the large companies that own them need to make a profit. However, this page aims to reveal some of the other little-known factors which contribute to the prices and how you can beat them. We wouldn't go so far as to justify the prices charged: we're just providing information.
Now that most service stations are using food and retail brands that can be found on the high street, customers expect the prices to be the same as the high street too. They are not. The vast majority of food prices at motorway outlets are set by the service area operator, so there is no competition between each outlet, and an inflated price applies to most products. This is a situation that service areas share with other transport hubs, like airports and railway stations, which are a much more comparable industry than a shopping centre.


As for the quality of services, things do seem to be better than they used to be, but in most cases poor service is absolutely inexcusable. Staff recruitment and retention is a problem across the retail industry, but is especially difficult for service stations which are usually difficult to get to and involve customers who can be especially stressed. This may be one factor behind some of the complaints we see.
Customers have always blamed this motorway premium on corporate greed: motorway service areas are private businesses out to make money, and they know that the majority of their customers would not be willing to leave the motorway to find somewhere else to stop. Their only real competition comes from each other, and given that most roads are only shared by two or three operators, this has created an oligopoly with relatively little influence over custom levels.


==The Problems==
In addition, the motorway service area industry is a difficult industry to enter. The existing firms know there is not going to be many new operators breaking through: for starters, planning authorities tend to be hostile to motorway service areas, so are unlikely to let two be built close together. It's not impossible, however, and if operating a service station was as easy as it sounded, obvious candidates such as supermarkets wouldn't have turned their noses up at the idea of running one.
===The Situation===
Before we start complaining about the prices of services, we should first work out what we're comparing them to. While the obvious comparison would be a supermarket or High Street shop, a more accurate one would be an airport or railway station - places which are also under fire for their high prices.


The other point which should be considered is that if services were making as much money as some people think they are, there would be more operators and applications for new services.
==Big Spenders==
[[File:M25 Cobham roadworks.jpg|250px|thumb|right|alt=View of motorway with construction area in the middle.|Roadworks on the M25, all paid for by Cobham services.]]
The main reason the motorways have such little variety of operators is that you need very thorough financial backing to get the project done. Building motorway service areas has always been expensive due the amount of work involved, but in the 21st century those costs ballooned at an incredible rate. In 2024, Welcome Break estimated that building [[Roding Valley|a new service area on the M25]] will cost them £155million - assuming inflation stays in check.


It's not a new problem either. In 1967 the Minister of Transport argued that the few services at the time could justify their prices due to the nature of their business.
The first reason for this is that traffic levels have risen so much that new service areas need to be larger than ever before. British motorways tend to have higher traffic levels than other countries, so you need big car parks and dining areas to cater for the peak trade. But what tends to be more expensive is that you also needs much grander slip roads to be able to safely carry high levels of traffic in and out. The tiny little acceleration lanes that we used to see in the 1960s are no longer allowed. Safely carrying out this construction around that much live traffic is expensive too, especially as many motorways don't have hard shoulders any more. You can save money by building at an existing junction, but if you need to widen a roundabout to get the project approved, that could become a multi-million pound scheme in its own right. All of these costs must be paid for by the developer, using money that they hope they will make back from coffee and burgers.


===Regulations===
Related to that is that most of the easy places to build a service station have already been taken. The proposed [[Colne Valley|Colne Valley services]] on the M25 is going to need the Slough Road bridge to be moved out the way, part of the M25 to be widened, and gantry signs to be modified, just to make enough space to build the four slip roads. These would all be expensive projects in their own right, but the developer has to pay for it if they want the only space that's available. The same goes with the cost of buying the land: while people assume motorway service areas are in rural areas, actually most new sites are on the edges of urban areas, where land is much more expensive.
The motorway services industry claims to be one of the most highly regulated around. As you'd expect, the [[MSA Policy|regulations]] are there to stop irresponsible behaviour, but they also appear to stop services from taking advantage of their locations. Examples of this include:
* In the 1990s, [[Granada]] expanded many of their services and introduced a whole host of shops, so a limit was put on the size of shopping areas and what they can sell.
* Many services reduced operating costs by building a bridge between their two sites. Bridges have since been banned from all new services.
* Newer services tried to save money by building a single site at a junction. The Highways Agency have since said that such designs are to be avoided.
* Some services have tried to expand by providing facilities for local people, this has since been banned.


All of these regulations were put in for good reason, to stop services cutting corners or failing to meet their main purpose, but in doing so this also reduces their cash flow.
These two issues tie into one big one: planning costs. Almost all motorway service areas face a public inquiry; they also inevitably receive detailed objections from other operators and a petition from a residents' group. The required environmental statement and transport assessment are novels in their own rights, which will have to be rewritten if a flaw is found. Plans to build a service area on [[Solihull|one field by the M42]] have been in the planning system for effectively 60 years. Deep pockets and experienced minds are required to survive the legal process.


The most obvious example of the regulations is with advertising. There is a blanket ban on services, although this has been loosened over time.
A final point to consider is that the rise in demand for electric vehicles means that local electricity infrastructure has to be reviewed to make sure the new facility will be equipped for the future.


===The Expenses===
While [[Extra]] were developing [[Cobham|Cobham services]] in 2010, the company fell into administration. They had registered plans for a number of different motorway service areas but only around 1 in 3 of them had secured planning permission.
[[File:Fleet exit slip.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Long sliproads are property of the operator too.|alt=Fleet services slip road.]]
People often ask why services in other countries can afford to be cheaper, and the answer appears to be in the way they are run. In the UK, all the ancillary works relating to a new service area must be funded by the developer, whereas in most of Europe the equivalent of the Highways Agency will often have agreed on the need for the plans and agreed to support them.


In many countries it's common for the roads authority to run the whole complex but lease out the building to a catering company. In the UK, the whole facility - including the slip roads, car park and picnic tables - are funded and ran by the operator. This includes any repairs to the sliproads (or not, which is what seems to happen), plus the costs of lighting up a large building, car park and petrol station even though there may not be any customers in the middle of the night. Even the costs of repairing the signs on the motorway must be met by them.
==Running Up A Bill==
[[File:Fleet exit slip.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Long slip roads are property of the operator too.|alt=Fleet services slip road.]]
The obvious problem service stations have to contend with is the requirement to be open 24 hours a day, selling fuel, food and drinks even in the early hours of Christmas morning. The vast majority of customers - previously thought to be as many as 70%-90% of them - are only using free facilities such as the toilets and the car park, which are provided at great expense.


The other big difference between services in the UK and in mainland Europe is the size. As the UK's motorway network is one of the busiest, and has services at much more infrequent intervals than in some countries, their services need to be much larger to compensate. This pushes up both the cost of building a new service area (which is estimated to be in the region of £40million) and the cost of running the facility at quieter times when there are few customers.
This regulation can be so constraining that some developers are now opting to build a site next to a motorway but not register it as an official service area (which would involve signing a [[Traffic Signs Agreement]] and placing signs on the motorway). Doing this allows them to make the site as small as they wish, discourages non-purchasing customers and means the developer can open and close whenever they want.


Many services have worked out they can increase their sales by [[franchise|franchising]]. This means the operator can run a branch of [[Costa]] and set their own prices, but the price paid by the customer will be split between revenue for the operator and revenue for Costa.
Some service areas are located in remote areas and recruiting and retaining staff for what is essentially a retail job can be difficult. (Retail work is usually badly paid so normally attracts candidates who can't drive; service stations have to find a solution to this as they are unlikely to be safely accessible on foot.) Staffing is made more difficult by the fact that trade levels can be very unpredictable: at one moment several coaches may stop together, at the next the motorway may be blocked by an accident. [[London Gateway]], for example, lost three days of trade, hotel bookings and stock because the M1 was closed for an incident. At the other end of the scale, as service areas are mostly only used when they are needed, there is relatively little they can do to encourage more people to visit.


===Frugal Customers===
The remote locations can raise other operating costs too, including the cost of building a sewerage system that can handle the high customer levels, as well as the costs associated with calling out contractors and arranging deliveries. As each operator usually owns a network of service stations that are thinly spread across the country, they are normally limited to working with national firms who can supply anywhere in Britain. For sites which lease their land, that can cost another £2.5million per year.
It's clear that most users of service stations visit with no intention of spending any money - ironically because they think they're too expensive. This is understandable, but it creates the vicious circle where the services need to increase their prices to compensate for people not buying things as the prices are too high.


In an attempt to tackle this, many services have spent several years finding brands which are most likely to gain customer approval, provide a good value service and encourage customers to part with their cash. [[McDonald's]] and [[M&S Simply Food]] are two successful examples of this, but there are many more, including [[WHSmith]] and [[Starbucks]].
The large parking areas and supporting infrastructure mentioned above all have to be maintained, too. Unlike in most other countries, British service stations are responsible for repairing their own road right up to the motorway boundary, including its signs and lampposts. They also have to maintain their own signs on the motorway, which means hiring a contractor who is trained to safely close motorway lanes.


==Making the Most of a Bad Situation==
The final issue is that many of the UK's motorway service areas were built in the 1960s, and are now over 50 years old. These buildings can be difficult to manage, not just because their layout isn't good for modern catering, but because they require regular maintenance, they often straddle the motorway and they quickly look tired.
 
===Government Solutions===
As early as 1965, a government statement responded to growing criticism by saying "we cannot dictate prices but we are concerned that they should be reasonable". However, they remained reluctant to accept there were any issues. They said that the nature of the business meant there were high running costs, especially at night, and [[Prior Report|when they investigated]], they found prices were not as high as they had been told to expect.
 
The first problem was the rent arrangements which had been made. Service stations used to pay rent as a proportion of their turnover, not profit, so any investment that attracted more customers would immediately mean paying more rent even if the profit margin hadn't increased. This meant several early operators struggled to break even (an estimated 3 out of 12 were losing money in 1966). Service areas were eventually sold the freehold of the land they were built on.
 
Since then the government has always had one word in response to price complaints: deregulation. Initially the motorway was one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country, with limits on shop sizes, little control over the site layout, a total ban on promoting your facilities and a rule that effectively [[Destination in its own right|prevented them being too popular]]. These all ate at costs, but regulations were cut back on in 1979, 1992 and 2013. Now the industry is much more free market, leaving operators free to try out new ideas, while still being free to charge whatever they like.
 
==Customer Tricks==
[[File:Cardiff West Greggs.JPG|250px|thumb|right|alt=Cardiff services Greggs.|Customers at this Greggs are asked not to eat here, for tax reasons.]]
[[File:Cardiff West Greggs.JPG|250px|thumb|right|alt=Cardiff services Greggs.|Customers at this Greggs are asked not to eat here, for tax reasons.]]
Some people will go to great lengths to avoid spending money at a service area, from packing their own food to even heading down unknown a-roads in a desperate bid to find fuel. For many people this isn't practical, so they may instead prefer to head for the fast food chain for lunch or just [[WHSmith]] in order to find enough snacks to keep them going until the next stop.
{{fulldetails|Mobile Apps}}
Some people will go to great lengths to avoid spending money at a service area, from packing their own food to even heading down unknown B-roads in a desperate bid to find fuel. For many people this isn't practical, so they may instead prefer to head for the fast food chain for lunch or just [[WHSmith]] in order to find enough snacks to keep them going until the next stop.
 
Service areas do occasionally run their own promotions, which are listed below, but these are becoming rarer now that they rely on big-name food brands. Most food brands now have their own app with discounts or loyalty points, but tread carefully: the nature of the franchise agreement means that a brand's promotions or loyalty points may not be valid, so always check the small print and confirm with staff.
 
Franchising also means that food and shop brands will probably charge different prices depending on who runs it. [[McDonald's]] franchises tend to have only a small mark-up, while [[KFC]] franchises tend to have a much larger one. This was reflected in the 2023 [[Transport Focus]] review: customers of Moto and Welcome Break were revealed to be far less satisfied for the prices they were charged than customers of Roadchef and Extra. This tells us customers are noticing something we already knew: Moto and Welcome Break run their own food franchises and inflate their prices; Extra normally let the brand charge its own prices and Roadchef do run McDonald's franchises but with normal prices. When [[Burger King]] was first introduced to the motorways, prices were marked up by as much as 87%.
 
Working out if it's a franchise or not can get confusing. Most motorway food and shop units are ran by the operator, while a store on an A-road could be run directly by the brand, or as a franchise from another operator. Our [[Services Search|guide]] lists who runs each facility under "operators".


It's also possible to get discounts on the prices at service areas. When you pay for [[parking]] you will often get the choice of paying £2 extra for a meal voucher, and there are a few other ways you can save which are outlined in the further reading section below.
Holders of discount cards such as Blue Light, Forces and Veterans discounts should always check, as most cards are accepted.


Coach and HGV drivers often have no choice but to use a motorway service area, so the operators often provide special discounts to attract them to their facility in particular: these are detailed on the [[Professional Drivers]] page.
Coach and HGV drivers often have no choice but to use a motorway service area, so the operators often provide special discounts to attract them to their facility in particular: these are detailed on the [[Professional Drivers]] page.


It's also possible to find vouchers for services on various websites.
Discounts and information posted on this page were correct when they were added, but policies may have changed since. You should always check with staff on site.


===Further Reading===
==Further Reading==
* '''Moto'''
* '''Moto'''
** [https://moto-way.com/deals/ Prices] - a list of the "best value deals" at their services.
** [https://moto-way.com/app/ The Moto App] - Moto offer two "daily deals" to app holders
** [https://moto-way.com/app/ The Moto App] - Moto offer two "daily deals" to app holders
** [http://www.theaa.com/member-benefits/moto The AA Members' Club] - get a little-publicised 20% discount when you show your card at Moto services.
** [https://help.moto-way.com/knowledge/do-you-offer-any-discounts List of accepted discount cards]
** [https://moto-way.com/contact-us/ Why do prices at Motorway Service Areas sometimes seem so high?] - as the ones who charge the prices, sure enough Moto have an excuse ready.
** [https://help.moto-way.com/knowledge/why-do-prices-at-motorway-service-areas-sometimes-seem-so-high Why do prices at Motorway Service Areas sometimes seem so high?] - as the ones who charge the prices, sure enough Moto have an excuse ready.
** <span class="twitter">[http://twitter.com/motoway @motoway on Twitter]</span> - Moto run promotions and competitions on Twitter
** <span class="twitter">[https://x.com/motoway @motoway on Twitter/X]</span> - Moto run promotions and competitions on Twitter/X
*'''Welcome Break'''
*'''Welcome Break'''
** [https://www.welcomebreak.co.uk/our-campaigns/ Latest Offers] - Welcome Break's list of some of their ''offers''.
** Merlin annual pass holders receive 20% off most items at Welcome Break (as of {{current|June 2021}}).
** [http://www.welcomebreak.co.uk/faqs/ FAQs] - Welcome Break's FAQ page, which tackles their prices.
** Camping and Caravanning club members receive 20% off most items at Welcome Break (as of [https://www.welcomebreak.co.uk/caravans/ {{current|September 2021}}]).
** <span class="twitter">[http://twitter.com/welcomebreak @welcomebreak on Twitter]</span> - Welcome Break run promotions and competitions on Twitter
** <span class="twitter">[https://x.com/welcomebreak @welcomebreak on Twitter/X]</span> - Welcome Break run promotions and competitions on Twitter/X
*'''Roadchef'''
*'''Roadchef'''
** [http://www.roadchef.com#deals Offers] - Roadchef's offers page. They frequently email 20% off vouchers out.
** [https://roadchef.com/deals/ Deals] - Roadchef's offers page. At the moment, they are providing instant access vouchers.
** <span class="twitter">[https://x.com/roadchef @roadchef on Twitter/X]</span> - Roadchef run promotions and competitions on Twitter/X
*'''Extra'''
** <span class="twitter">[https://x.com/extraservices @extraservices on Twitter/X]</span> - Extra run promotions and competitions on Twitter/X


* [http://www.offmotorway.com/ Off the Motorway] - A site guiding you to mostly independent alternatives.
* [https://justoffjunction.co.uk/ Just off Junction] - A website listing a variety of locations near the motorway, including petrol stations and supermarkets  
* [http://justoffjunction.co.uk/ Just off Junction] - A site listing a variety of locations near the motorway, including petrol stations and supermarkets  


{{Portal}}
[[Category:How Things Work]]
[[Category:Features]]

Latest revision as of 23:20, 3 February 2025

Service area restaurants are notorious in just about every respect.

Since the dawn on time, motorway service areas have been lambasted for their poor quality and high prices. Changes to the choice of food appear to have addressed the quality issues, but the complaints about the prices remain unaddressed. In 2019, just 59% of service station customers said they felt they had received value for money, while 91% said the food was "good".

Now that most service stations are using food and retail brands that can be found on the high street, customers expect the prices to be the same as the high street too. They are not. The vast majority of food prices at motorway outlets are set by the service area operator, so there is no competition between each outlet, and an inflated price applies to most products. This is a situation that service areas share with other transport hubs, like airports and railway stations, which are a much more comparable industry than a shopping centre.

Customers have always blamed this motorway premium on corporate greed: motorway service areas are private businesses out to make money, and they know that the majority of their customers would not be willing to leave the motorway to find somewhere else to stop. Their only real competition comes from each other, and given that most roads are only shared by two or three operators, this has created an oligopoly with relatively little influence over custom levels.

In addition, the motorway service area industry is a difficult industry to enter. The existing firms know there is not going to be many new operators breaking through: for starters, planning authorities tend to be hostile to motorway service areas, so are unlikely to let two be built close together. It's not impossible, however, and if operating a service station was as easy as it sounded, obvious candidates such as supermarkets wouldn't have turned their noses up at the idea of running one.

Big Spenders

View of motorway with construction area in the middle.
Roadworks on the M25, all paid for by Cobham services.

The main reason the motorways have such little variety of operators is that you need very thorough financial backing to get the project done. Building motorway service areas has always been expensive due the amount of work involved, but in the 21st century those costs ballooned at an incredible rate. In 2024, Welcome Break estimated that building a new service area on the M25 will cost them £155million - assuming inflation stays in check.

The first reason for this is that traffic levels have risen so much that new service areas need to be larger than ever before. British motorways tend to have higher traffic levels than other countries, so you need big car parks and dining areas to cater for the peak trade. But what tends to be more expensive is that you also needs much grander slip roads to be able to safely carry high levels of traffic in and out. The tiny little acceleration lanes that we used to see in the 1960s are no longer allowed. Safely carrying out this construction around that much live traffic is expensive too, especially as many motorways don't have hard shoulders any more. You can save money by building at an existing junction, but if you need to widen a roundabout to get the project approved, that could become a multi-million pound scheme in its own right. All of these costs must be paid for by the developer, using money that they hope they will make back from coffee and burgers.

Related to that is that most of the easy places to build a service station have already been taken. The proposed Colne Valley services on the M25 is going to need the Slough Road bridge to be moved out the way, part of the M25 to be widened, and gantry signs to be modified, just to make enough space to build the four slip roads. These would all be expensive projects in their own right, but the developer has to pay for it if they want the only space that's available. The same goes with the cost of buying the land: while people assume motorway service areas are in rural areas, actually most new sites are on the edges of urban areas, where land is much more expensive.

These two issues tie into one big one: planning costs. Almost all motorway service areas face a public inquiry; they also inevitably receive detailed objections from other operators and a petition from a residents' group. The required environmental statement and transport assessment are novels in their own rights, which will have to be rewritten if a flaw is found. Plans to build a service area on one field by the M42 have been in the planning system for effectively 60 years. Deep pockets and experienced minds are required to survive the legal process.

A final point to consider is that the rise in demand for electric vehicles means that local electricity infrastructure has to be reviewed to make sure the new facility will be equipped for the future.

While Extra were developing Cobham services in 2010, the company fell into administration. They had registered plans for a number of different motorway service areas but only around 1 in 3 of them had secured planning permission.

Running Up A Bill

Fleet services slip road.
Long slip roads are property of the operator too.

The obvious problem service stations have to contend with is the requirement to be open 24 hours a day, selling fuel, food and drinks even in the early hours of Christmas morning. The vast majority of customers - previously thought to be as many as 70%-90% of them - are only using free facilities such as the toilets and the car park, which are provided at great expense.

This regulation can be so constraining that some developers are now opting to build a site next to a motorway but not register it as an official service area (which would involve signing a Traffic Signs Agreement and placing signs on the motorway). Doing this allows them to make the site as small as they wish, discourages non-purchasing customers and means the developer can open and close whenever they want.

Some service areas are located in remote areas and recruiting and retaining staff for what is essentially a retail job can be difficult. (Retail work is usually badly paid so normally attracts candidates who can't drive; service stations have to find a solution to this as they are unlikely to be safely accessible on foot.) Staffing is made more difficult by the fact that trade levels can be very unpredictable: at one moment several coaches may stop together, at the next the motorway may be blocked by an accident. London Gateway, for example, lost three days of trade, hotel bookings and stock because the M1 was closed for an incident. At the other end of the scale, as service areas are mostly only used when they are needed, there is relatively little they can do to encourage more people to visit.

The remote locations can raise other operating costs too, including the cost of building a sewerage system that can handle the high customer levels, as well as the costs associated with calling out contractors and arranging deliveries. As each operator usually owns a network of service stations that are thinly spread across the country, they are normally limited to working with national firms who can supply anywhere in Britain. For sites which lease their land, that can cost another £2.5million per year.

The large parking areas and supporting infrastructure mentioned above all have to be maintained, too. Unlike in most other countries, British service stations are responsible for repairing their own road right up to the motorway boundary, including its signs and lampposts. They also have to maintain their own signs on the motorway, which means hiring a contractor who is trained to safely close motorway lanes.

The final issue is that many of the UK's motorway service areas were built in the 1960s, and are now over 50 years old. These buildings can be difficult to manage, not just because their layout isn't good for modern catering, but because they require regular maintenance, they often straddle the motorway and they quickly look tired.

Government Solutions

As early as 1965, a government statement responded to growing criticism by saying "we cannot dictate prices but we are concerned that they should be reasonable". However, they remained reluctant to accept there were any issues. They said that the nature of the business meant there were high running costs, especially at night, and when they investigated, they found prices were not as high as they had been told to expect.

The first problem was the rent arrangements which had been made. Service stations used to pay rent as a proportion of their turnover, not profit, so any investment that attracted more customers would immediately mean paying more rent even if the profit margin hadn't increased. This meant several early operators struggled to break even (an estimated 3 out of 12 were losing money in 1966). Service areas were eventually sold the freehold of the land they were built on.

Since then the government has always had one word in response to price complaints: deregulation. Initially the motorway was one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country, with limits on shop sizes, little control over the site layout, a total ban on promoting your facilities and a rule that effectively prevented them being too popular. These all ate at costs, but regulations were cut back on in 1979, 1992 and 2013. Now the industry is much more free market, leaving operators free to try out new ideas, while still being free to charge whatever they like.

Customer Tricks

Cardiff services Greggs.
Customers at this Greggs are asked not to eat here, for tax reasons.

See also: Mobile Apps

Some people will go to great lengths to avoid spending money at a service area, from packing their own food to even heading down unknown B-roads in a desperate bid to find fuel. For many people this isn't practical, so they may instead prefer to head for the fast food chain for lunch or just WHSmith in order to find enough snacks to keep them going until the next stop.

Service areas do occasionally run their own promotions, which are listed below, but these are becoming rarer now that they rely on big-name food brands. Most food brands now have their own app with discounts or loyalty points, but tread carefully: the nature of the franchise agreement means that a brand's promotions or loyalty points may not be valid, so always check the small print and confirm with staff.

Franchising also means that food and shop brands will probably charge different prices depending on who runs it. McDonald's franchises tend to have only a small mark-up, while KFC franchises tend to have a much larger one. This was reflected in the 2023 Transport Focus review: customers of Moto and Welcome Break were revealed to be far less satisfied for the prices they were charged than customers of Roadchef and Extra. This tells us customers are noticing something we already knew: Moto and Welcome Break run their own food franchises and inflate their prices; Extra normally let the brand charge its own prices and Roadchef do run McDonald's franchises but with normal prices. When Burger King was first introduced to the motorways, prices were marked up by as much as 87%.

Working out if it's a franchise or not can get confusing. Most motorway food and shop units are ran by the operator, while a store on an A-road could be run directly by the brand, or as a franchise from another operator. Our guide lists who runs each facility under "operators".

Holders of discount cards such as Blue Light, Forces and Veterans discounts should always check, as most cards are accepted.

Coach and HGV drivers often have no choice but to use a motorway service area, so the operators often provide special discounts to attract them to their facility in particular: these are detailed on the Professional Drivers page.

Discounts and information posted on this page were correct when they were added, but policies may have changed since. You should always check with staff on site.

Further Reading

  • Just off Junction - A website listing a variety of locations near the motorway, including petrol stations and supermarkets