Inside Formula Premier Truckstop: Exploring their success and relationship with SNAP

Situated in Ellesmere Port, a stone’s throw away from the M53, is Formula Premier Truckstop. Voted UK’s Truckstop of the Year 2023, the site has become a firm favourite among the trucking community. Playing homage to their link to Formula 1 (the site once provided fuel to racing cars around the world), the truck stop is doused in the iconic red, with plenty of sporting memorabilia to keep visitors busy for hours.

As they celebrate their 10th anniversary, we sit down with Operations Manager Ash Evans to discuss everything from new facilities and sustainability goals to driver welfare and their relationship with SNAP.

“We’ve been operating as a truck stop for the last 10 years. We’re open to all truck drivers, large or small, rigids, and arctics. We’ve got a fuel station that’s open as long as you have a fuel card,” explains Ash.

Facilities

The site hosts a range of fantastic facilities to provide truck drivers with a home away from home.

“We have around 150 spaces, an on-site restaurant, gym, and dedicated male and female washrooms. We try to include as much as possible in the price of parking,” states Ash.

As we’re given a tour around the site, we walk through a dedicated gaming room, equipped with a pool and a table tennis table, a lounge area complete with massage chairs and a plethora of games consoles to help relax a driver after a long shift. On the more practical side, the site offers washing facilities, a gym, and a kitchen area to make homemade meals. For those who don’t fancy cooking after a day behind the wheel, they can make use of the on-site restaurant – now offering SNAP meal vouchers.

“They’re always looking for ways to improve the site. The facilities they have make for a pleasant place for drivers. It makes a driver’s journey a lot safer and easier when they know they’ve got these kinds of facilities at the end of it.”

– Stuart Willetts, UK Business Development Manager at SNAP.

Recently, the site renovated its female facilities, with state-of-the-art, spa-like washrooms. Included in this upgrade was a gender neutral toilet and shower room – both areas are kept locked to ensure safety and security.

“We’ve had really good feedback about the new facilities and a big uplift of female drivers on site, which is good to see,” explains Ash.

Discover the new facilities at Formula through our quickfire Q&A with Ash.

How SNAP has benefited Formula

Ash and the team have a close relationship with Stuart Willetts, one of SNAP’s UK Business Development Managers, who is always at the end of the phone to go over any queries.

“The relationship we have with SNAP and have had for a number of years now really reflects how good you guys are at what you do,” states Ash.

Ash explains how offering SNAP meal vouchers has benefited not only the drivers but the site as well:

“In recent years, one of the best things has been the introduction of the meal vouchers through SNAP. Not having this offering used to be a bit of a negative among drivers. To get a meal with their parking and not have to fork out for themselves is a big benefit.

That’s been really good in terms of customer satisfaction and revenue building as well.”

Driver well-being

Driver well-being has been a hot topic of discussion within the industry for a long time. With suicide rates among truck drivers 20% higher than the national average, truck stops play a vital role in improving driver welfare. Something of which Ash believes shouldn’t be difficult for a truck stop to achieve:

“Drivers don’t want a lot. They want a good, clean place to wash, shave, do what they need to do, and get a nice meal. That isn’t a big ask for someone, and that shouldn’t be a big ask for a company to provide it for them.”

This has certainly been a key focus for Formula, influencing everything from their facilities and continuous improvements to the safety and security of those parking up.

“We’ve got ANPR, 80 CCTV cameras, a perimeter fence all the way round, air-lock barrier, and manned 24-hour security,” Ash states.

The industry has a long way to go, and Formula Truck Stop is setting the bar high. We asked Ash what the industry could do to help with driver well-being:

“The biggest thing they can do is make more truck stops that tick the boxes of the wants and needs of the modern driver, with good facilities. We all need to keep pushing towards making that happen.”

Something that Stuart is all too aware must happen, as his role within SNAP allows him to empathise with the day-to-day challenges truck drivers face:

“One of the advantages of my role is the fact that we’re always on the road. So, we get a taste of what it’s like for the drivers to be continuously driving around and to have that need for a break at the end of the day. It gives us a bit of empathy and sympathy for the drivers. That allows us to view our Service Partners with a genuine insight into what the drivers are having to deal with.”

Future growth

The truck stop has come a long way since its humble beginnings. With SNAP helping to streamline operations, the site has been able to concentrate on expanding and pursuing its sustainability goals. With over 195,000 truck drivers on the SNAP network, the site had to add an overflow parking area, giving them an extra 50 spaces, to meet the growing demand.

The site is now focusing on their sustainability goals, Ash explains:

“We’re currently working on a couple of projects, one of them being a new hot water and heating system which will use an air source heat pump and will be really energy efficient.

We’ve also got solar panels being installed this year to help with our carbon reduction.”

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Catch the full interview with Formula Truckstop on our YouTube channel.