The headline numbers
| Measure | 2022 survey |
|---|---|
| Truck stops and service areas with HGV parking | 328 |
| HGV spaces at those sites | 16,761 |
| Lorries parked on site on the survey nights | 13,916 (9,400 UK-registered, 4,516 foreign) |
| Share of spaces in use | 83% |
| Sites with more lorries than spaces | 61 |
| Lorries parked in lay-bys | 4,157, at 3,241 lay-by locations |
| Lorries parked on industrial estates | 3,161, at 827 locations |
Put together, roughly 7,300 lorries spent the survey nights outside a truck stop or service area: in lay-bys, many without toilets, and on industrial estate roads. Of the 3,241 lay-by locations recorded, 60 had toilets and 409 had lighting.
The 2022 survey covers England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not in this data; the lorry parking finder on this site lists places there from OpenStreetMap.
Region by region
DfT has long treated 85% use as the level at which parking becomes critical: drivers arriving late in the evening struggle to find a space. Four regions were at or above it.
| Region | Sites | HGV spaces | Lorries parked | Spaces in use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East of England | 44 | 2,009 | 1,906 | 95% |
| South East | 64 | 3,729 | 3,488 | 94% |
| East Midlands | 49 | 2,661 | 2,443 | 92% |
| West Midlands | 36 | 2,228 | 1,871 | 84% |
| North West | 37 | 2,107 | 1,686 | 80% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 37 | 1,954 | 1,292 | 66% |
| South West | 44 | 1,466 | 932 | 64% |
| North East | 12 | 320 | 165 | 52% |
| London | 5 | 287 | 133 | 46% |
The pressure follows the freight corridors: the Channel ports in Kent, the A14 and A1 through the East of England, and the logistics belt of the East Midlands along the M1. In the South East more than half the lorries parked on site were foreign-registered (1,962 of 3,488), which is the cross-Channel traffic queuing for and returning from the ports.
The biggest truck stops
| Site | Region | HGV spaces |
|---|---|---|
| Ashford International Truckstop | South East | 650 |
| Lymm (Poplar 2000) Moto services | North West | 400 |
| Motis Truckstop | South East | 350 |
| Eddie Stobart Rugby Truckstop | East Midlands | 300 |
| A1 Truckstop, Colsterworth | East Midlands | 250 |
| The Stockyard Truckstop | Yorkshire and the Humber | 250 |
| Stop24 Services, Folkestone | South East | 230 |
| Welcome Break Rothwell | East Midlands | 230 |
| Lincoln Farm Truckstop | West Midlands | 230 |
| Roadking Cannock (Hollies) | West Midlands | 216 |
Several of the busiest sites were over their capacity on the survey night: Lymm had 439 lorries for 400 spaces, Extra Cobham 274 for 190, Stop24 Folkestone 251 for 230, Red Lion Café and Truckstop 240 for 200. Over capacity usually means lorries on access roads, verges and car spaces.
What the sites offer
The 2022 site data does not record facilities, but the 2017 survey of the same network did. Of the 312 sites in the 2017 list, 291 had toilets, 271 a cafe, 219 showers, 109 CCTV and 85 a security fence. Secure parking, the thing operators of high-value loads look for, was the exception rather than the rule.
On this site the lorry parking finder shows each DfT site with the number of HGV spaces counted in 2022 and, where the postcode matched the 2017 survey, its facilities.
What it means for a driver
- Plan the stop before the shift. In the East and South East the good sites are full by the evening; the driving limit runs out wherever you are.
- Know the rest rules. A regular weekly rest may not be taken in the cab; a daily rest or a reduced weekly rest may, but only with the lorry stationary and a bunk for each driver. The drivers’ hours page sets out the limits.
- Check the site before you rely on it. Capacity changes: sites close, expand and start charging. The numbers here are from 2022.
About the data
DfT released three files under FOI-00080318: the 2022 site list with capacity and the number of UK and foreign lorries counted on site; the 2022 lay-by and industrial estate counts; and the 2017 site list with facilities and coordinates. Names of third parties were redacted by DfT. All the figures on this page are our own sums from those files and may differ slightly from DfT’s published survey report, which applies its own definitions and corrections.