It's not what you know, they say, but who you know.
I've been visiting Welcome Break Membury services on the M4 since the early 1970s when it opened, but it wasn't until I met Rich, who knows Linda, who works there, that I was granted a very special privilege: the freedom to use a discreet service road at the rear of the site that leads to a road bridge over the motorway enabling drivers to rejoin it without driving miles in the wrong direction to the next exit.
Such is the power of Rich Cross, full-time, self-employed service station expert and enthusiast who spends his days visiting the country's motorway and major A-road services, reporting what he finds on his social media page and industry websites.
Basically, anyone who's anyone in the service station business knows Rich - and now I do.
To be honest, before I did, I was worried he'd be a little unusual, in the way someone who has devoted the past five years of his young life to happily paying premium prices for fuel and snacks might be. However, I'm happy to report he is completely normal. This being so, I can see why Linda cheerfully granted me permission to use the top-secret Membury shortcut, which, in case you're considering using it yourself, is policed by a no entry sign and ANPR cameras.
Rich has that effect on people. For example, one of his latest Instagram posts shows him posing with the top executives behind the dine-in and takeaway chain Wraps & Wings and other brands including Mad About Doner, busy chaps with businesses to run but making time to tell Rich about their latest forecourt concept and their search for operators to partner with.
In fact, the franchise model the businessmen are planning mirrors the current trend in service stations whereby familiar big-name coffee shop and fast food brands such as Starbucks, KFC and McDonald's have displaced the large, open-plan restaurants that once served delights including soggy fish and chips, oily bacon and cold beans.
Rich accepts it's the future and that time-poor motorists are attracted to brands they know and trust, but even so, he misses the old communal dining halls and fears that, like high streets, service stations risk losing their identities and what makes them special.
"They're becoming increasingly 'samey'," he tells me over a delicious Starbucks. "Most now have the same brands. There should be more points of difference between them, and I would love to see a return of the plated meal." Rich traces his affection for the latter to the days when, as a young boy, he would accompany his father, an HGV driver, on long journeys when they would occasionally stop at service stations for a Little Chef or Happy Eater sit-down dinner.
