It's time to end the great motorway rip-off and inject a little competition onto our roads

Paul Mason Asda

"I would like to see greater opportunities for [the operators of] motorway service areas and off-motorway rivals to advertise their services," said John Vickers, director-general of the OFT.

"The OFT will be talking with the Highways Agency, the motorway service area operators and others to see how to promote competitive pressure on the operators without jeopardising motorway safety," he said.

No billboards

The OFT would not be specific as to what form the advertising could take, though a main purpose should be to inform drivers.

"If drivers are aware of alternatives, the motorway service areas will be under more pressure to improve their services," Vickers said.

We have not found evidence that operators are earning excessive profits or deliberately restricting competition

John Vickers Office of Fair Trading

A spokesman for the supermarket chain Asda agreed that what the rivals want is an opportunity to tell drivers that they exist, in the same way as the official service areas do.

Many supermarkets are located very close to major motorways, he pointed out.

"We would not want an advertising free-for-all; that would be inappropriate," he said, stressing that safety would always be their top priority.

Currently, the only forms of advertising allowed alongside motorways are signs indicating the distance to the next service station and the price of fuel on offer.

The Asda spokesman saw no need to move beyond this because he felt confident that drivers already know that supermarket food is cheaper than the food at official service areas.

Advertising loophole

Asda recently put up a sign on private land to advertise the existence of one of its stores in Greater Manchester.

But instead of the standard blue motorway sign used by official service areas, Asda erected a brown "tourist site" sign.

According to the supermarket, any site that gets more than 250,000 visitors a year is entitled to call itself a "tourist site", and that is how the store justified erecting a brown sign.

Even Asda's own spokesman admitted that this was a loophole, but he said the local authorities had not objected to the sign.

Late last month, Asda asked the highway authorities for permission to redesignate its stores as 'tourist' destinations.

It has not yet received a response.

Cheaper supermarkets?

The supermarkets have long claimed that they can beat the official service areas on both price and service levels.

Where to stop for a cheap coffee?

Asda recently compared prices at its Manchester store to a nearby Granada service station and found that customers could save up to a third by bypassing the official service area.

"An egg mayonnaise sandwich is �1.98 at Granada and just 98p at ASDA, while a litre of unleaded petrol is 81.9p at the service area and 79.9p at ASDA," according to the supermarket.

"The service stations have had their own way for far too long," said Asda's chief operating officer Paul Mason.

"It's time to end the great motorway rip-off and inject a little competition onto our roads," he said.

Not anti-competitive

The OFT went some way to contradict the supermarket's claim, concluding that the main service areas were not behaving anti-competitively, and stressing that there were good reasons why their prices may be higher.

"Consumers are justifiably concerned that motorway service areas offer poor value for money. But we have not found evidence that operators are earning excessive profits or deliberately restricting competition," said Vickers.

"Motorway service areas are unusual in that road safety considerations and highway regulations affect their cost structure, the amount of retail space they are allowed to offer, their product range, ease of market entry, and the ability of the operators and their rivals to advertise," said Vickers.

There were, therefore, insufficient grounds for referring the issue of pricing at the motorway service areas to the Competition Commission, the OFT said.