As anyone who does haulage work knows, there are few things more annoying than having to go out of your way to refuel. It’s always annoying having to spend longer at the wheel and take longer to complete the job. But it feels especially bad when you have to detour to fill up, as you know that some of the money you’re paying at the pump is just to cover getting there and back.
On top of that, drivers have to schedule journeys around these extended detours, cutting down on rest time and contributing to stress.
Given all this, you’d expect most major routes to have refuelling stations close by and easily accessible. Luckily, planners seem to be agreeing, as Certas Energy’s new fuel station at Holyhead shows.
A Place to Rest
Located on the island of Anglesey in Wales, Holyhead port is the single most important freight connection between Britain and the Republic of Ireland, with a staggering 400,000 HGVs passing through every year.
With such a close connection to haulage work, it’s no surprise Roadking picked this site to open their luxurious new truck stop in May 2015.
Facilities include:
•A professional security team
•24-hour bars and restaurants
•Showers and a laundrette
•Overnight accommodation
Perfect for truckers breaking up a long day. But if you needed to fill up, you still had to take a significant detour.
Until now.
The New Refuelling Site
Shockingly, before 2019 there was no dedicated HGV refuelling site on Anglesey. Having worked with Roadking before, at Cannock’s Hollies truck stop, Certas set out to change this.
On the strength of this new state of the art facility, they seem to have succeeded. Its high-speed refuelling system can pump up to 120 litres every minute, while its multiple pumps allow as many as four HGVs to fill up at the same time.
All this, Certas states, is more than enough to handle even larger than expected increases in traffic, and the company hopes to repeat the success it enjoyed at Cannock, keeping queues and wait-times to a minimum and drivers happy.
Roadking director Nicholas Whatmore was especially enthusiastic at this project. ‘This site’, he wrote, ‘will provide a one-stop destination’ for all those doing haulage work. Such new facilities, Whatmore continued, are ‘vital’: Holyhead is the UK’s second largest roll-on roll-of port, and it’s crucial to provide ‘top-quality facilities’ for all who use it.
The Future
Given the success of their existing collaboration and the strength of the Holyhead site, Certas and Roadking are keen to continue working together to provide first-class amenities for haulage work.
With projects like this being worked on, infrastructure is set to meet the challenges of a changing industry and keep the haulage business moving fast down the right track.
Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Haulage Exchange provides services for matching haulage work with available drivers, and are now the fastest growing Freight Exchange company in the UK.
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