The CEO of the UK’s biggest motorway service station operator is complaining National Highways “red tape and bureaucracy over signage” is blocking his plans to cut fuel at his sites by 10-12p per litre.

Moto Hospitality runs nearly 70 service stations across the motorway network, but Auto Express magazine reports it has been embroiled in a three-year bureaucratic wrangle with National Highways over the signage it says it needs to advertise proposed lower fuel prices.

Moto’s chief exec Ken McMeiken joined the company three years ago and says he immediately recognised that high fuel prices were deterring drivers from filling up at motorway services.

“It definitely came through in all the research when I joined, that people would like to see lower fuel prices,” he told the magazine. “I got the backing of Moto’s owners that we would look to reduce fuel prices, but only if we can get permission and actually get fuel signs onto the motorways.

“More than two years ago I went to National Highways and the Department for Transport and said, look, I want to lower fuel prices on motorways, but to do that I’ve got to tell motorists what the actual price of fuel is. That needs a change in signage on motorways, so that drivers can make an informed decision about whether they’re prepared to turn in.”

The concept was trialled in 2020 in an experiment with SWARCO (pictured).

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(Picture – SWARCO)