Rich Cross, a former bus driver from Bristol, has turned his lifelong fascination with motorway service stations into a full-time career. He has visited all 97 UK motorway service stations, a milestone he reached in 2019, and now reviews them professionally under the name The Services King.
From childhood rides to a professional mission
Cross's passion began at age 10, when he would accompany his lorry-driver father on 10-hour trips during summer holidays in the mid-2000s. His job was to follow the AA Road Atlas and track the services marked on the map. While his dad saw stops as a waste of time, Cross loved them, especially when they included a Little Chef's Olympic Breakfast, a massive full English, and a lollipop to finish.
In 2012, at age 14, he discovered the website motorwayservices.uk, which reviewed major service stations. He began contributing photos and reviews whenever his family visited one. After learning to drive at 17 in his two-door Smart car, he would drive to services near his home in Bristol.
Turning a hobby into a profession
After leaving school, Cross worked as a bus driver but found there wasn't enough time for stopping. He continued visiting services on his days off as a hobby, then decided to make it his job. He left the bus company and started posting reviews to the site and his social media channels, eventually making it his full-time occupation. He now writes articles for industry publications and does sponsored posts on social media.
Cross sees service stations as more than just pit stops. "I love the history connected to service stations, how they chart the growth of Britain's road network and our changing tastes in food," he says. "In my view, the services are the destination, not just part of the journey."
What makes a great service station
Cross works away from home four days a week, visiting up to five service stations a day. He photographs facilities and notes what's new, helping drivers plan their stops. He includes history or trivia in his reviews, and his most popular posts are usually new site openings.
He highlights key factors for an exemplary station: a notable landmark, unusual architecture like the Pennine Tower at Lancaster services on the M6, or a bridge where you can sit with a coffee and watch cars pass underneath. Outdoor features like the gardens and fountain at Rugby services are also a plus. He favours stations with proper sit-down areas, such as independently owned Tebay on the M6 and Gloucester on the M5, which have farm shops and restaurants.
Cross acknowledges that some people don't understand his obsession, but he says, "I think of them as one of life's great levellers; no matter who you are, or where you're from, everybody has the shared experience of visiting one." He covers about 25,000 miles a year and even holidays in the UK, where he can't escape services – not that he'd want to.
