• Earlier this year we ran stories detailing Trusthouse Forte's
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treatment of truck drivers at its M25 South Mimms services. Then we wrote about how truck drivers were refused entry to the services.
Last week, four months later, two of our staff had recourse to pull in to South Minims for a bite to eat. The experience was not good. Service in the restaurant was an unpleasant hybrid of self-service and waitress service. You ask for your food at a counter and they give you a plastic table-marker (in temporary lieu of a meal) which dominates the tray. After paying for the meal you have yet to see, you take a seat. We sat down and were immediately distracted by an incensed gentleman who had been waiting an hour and a half for his meal. After ten minutes a lady appeared with three plates and a quizzical expression. This expression appeared to derive from her myopia; she kept calling the table numbers for the food, with no apparent understanding that the appropriate numbers were on the table in front of her.
We eventually caught her attention and she immediately placed a plate of steak in front of our vegetarian staff member. When alerted to her mistake she swept away the steak and, with one movement, threw a plate of fish and chips in its place, pausing only to spill a pot of coffee on the way. Throughout the meal diners were regaled by panicky staff trying to find table numbers to return to the food counter, and by the plate lady calling "37, who's got 37?"
And what about cost? Well, a plate of fish and chips, a plate of salad, a cup of coffee and a cake came to 28.24. With service and prices like these, South Mimms is not likely to attract the business of many truck drivers. • Straight from our department of weird press releases comes the following gem. Apparently Richard Jaques-Turner, principal of Paragon Investigations International and vice-president of the World Association of Detectives, has been invited to present a paper at the forthcoming Milipol-Asia '88 conference in Singapore.
This estimable event is endorsed by ALSIA, the Association of Licensed Security and Investigation Agencies (Singapore). We are not told whether llya Kuryakin will be dropping in, or whether Raymond Chandler will sign copies of his latest, but they wanted you to know, and now you do.
• Sealink raised over 21,000 for ITV's Telethon appeal when it organised a truck-pull competition at the port of Folkestone.
Four teams of eight pulled a 16-tonne the length of 10 metres The winning team, the Folkestone Herald, took on strong man Dave Gauder who pulled the truck on his own.