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TRUCKSTOPS TRUCK WORLD
Page 46
Page 47
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I The first purpose-built American-style trucker's centre in Britain is set to open next month just off the M25, near the Dartford Tunnel. The £13 million development at West Thurrock Offers drivers "everything they need for an overnight stay" for the first time on one site, says its founder Graham Marshall In Britain, truck drivers are treated like the "heel of society" says Marshall, who has watched a decline in the quality of truckstops and roadside cafes. "It is time to follow America, change the culture and treat drivers like the ordinary citizens they are." He dislikes the word truckstop, preferring to call his centre "a total facility for truck drivers".
Marshall's idea for the top-quality centre came when, unable to find room in a hotel, he stayed a week at a San Diego truckstop. He was surprised by the standards. "To be honest, I expected a rundown place, but I ended up having a ball," he says.
About five years ago he discovered that 39 hectares of boggy land was for sale at West Thurrock near the Dartford Tunnel — an area notorious for its parking problems. So he bought it for £350,000.
He borrowed £1 million from Mobil (in loans, grants and equipment); £1 million from an investment company and £2.5 million from a French bank, and began build
ing Truck World 13 months ago. Managing director Andrew Wilson, nonexecutive director Henry Nash and development director Graham Marshall own 30% of the shares, and Country Natwest Ventures, Summit, Causeway and Grosvenor are also shareholders.
TWO AREAS
The site is split into two areas about 200 metres apart. One has a 63-room motel, parking and fuelling; the other offers warehousing and servicing. It will open 365 days a year exclusively for truckers — motorists will only be allowed in to buy petrol.
The parking area has 230 numbered bays with room for another 50 vehicles. Twenty-two are for reefers, providing plug-in points at no extra cost (apart from a returnable deposit for cables). They will be maintained by Thermoking. Drivers will be allocated a space and operators can be told what time a driver arrived and is due to leave.
The site has a guarded entrance, with 24-hour security spotlights and a 2.5metre perimeter fence.
Pre-booking will not be allowed. It will work on a first-come-first-served basis,, although operators will be welcome to check when there is likely to be space.: Already Marshall has received applications
from companies wishing to buy parking bays but he has rejected the idea, claiming that it would simply turn the centre into one of the largest truck parks in the world.
The site has 10 diesel and one petrol pump, with fuel bunkering provided by Mobil. There is also a vehicle washer. The motel has 50 single and 13 twin rooms priced from 21 to 28 a night. All the rooms have showers: "If you went into a hotel you would not expect to share a shower with 20 other people, so why should drivers at truckstops?" says Marshall. However, there is a free communal shower for drivers who sleep in their cabs.
The 140-seat restaurant will offer roast lunches, salads, steaks and hamburgers. There will be a bar where drivers will be entertained nightly by comedians and country and western groups, and a games room equipped with pool tables, dartboards and video games. There will also be traffic information screens in the reception, a CB radio, lounge, cafe and shop. The Compass catering firm has been con acted to manage and operate the centre, hich employs 85 staff.
The servicing and repair area will be by Brain Haulage, which already operes a workshop opposite the site and has increased its 12-hour servicing operation to 24 hours. The centre will also provide
an unloading and loading service, using two Truck World livened shunters. Eurocharter, a division of German based Rani& Transport, will offer a backloading service to international drivers. T&G Motors will provide a rescue service with two HGV recovery units.
Nearly 15,000m2 of warehousing is available in 15 units — five of which are already filled.
Although BP has recently opened the first in a network of truckstops at Alconbury, Marshall does not consider it cornpetition, since he believes the two cornpanics have totally different objectives.
Marshall hopes the centre will attract international drivers, but is not dismissing local custom. He sees Thurrock as the hub of London's East End transport, with over 60 operators in the area.
Marshall expects to have a turnover of k.8 to 20 million by the end of the first year and to be in profit after only two or three months of trading.
Plans for a further 10 centres are under way, with the purchase of a Warrington site, expected to be ready in about a year and a Sheffield site to be completed in two years. Sites are also being sought in Hemel Hempstead, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Shildon in Durham, Cambridge and Exeter.
El by Juliet Parrish