Yahoo Finance Roadchef to boost staff by a third as drivers flood back onto motorways
Motorway service operator Roadchef is to hire 1,000 staff as it braces for surging road traffic in a summer of staycations.
The firm has kicked off a major recruitment drive at its 30 pit stop sites over the next three months, as restrictions ease across the country and more people begin travelling to see family and friends.
New roles are expected to range from entry-level posts to manager positions.
Boss Mark Fox said the roads had been very quiet over the past year as lockdowns prevented all but essential travel.
He said: “The coronavirus pandemic has been incredibly testing for all of us. As the roadmap out of lockdown continues, it is looking likely that we will have another busy staycation summer.”
Forecasts from Visit Britain have suggested domestic tourism spending will hit £61.7bn this year, up around 80pc from 2020. By the end of the year, Roadchef is expecting spending to have rebounded to around 84pc of 2019 levels. Meanwhile, UK holiday firms are expecting a surge in summer demand.
Nick Lomas, the director general of the Caravan and Motorhome Club, has said the lifting of restrictions will be like “a cork popping from a bottle”.
Britons will be able to start taking domestic holidays from today, initially in self-contained accommodation with members of their own household, although people are still being urged to continue to minimise the amount that they travel where possible.
International travel is expected to open up at some point later this year, subject to a traffic light system where some countries are classed as higher risk than others. Overseas holidays could start as early as May 17 according to the UK’s roadmap out of lockdown, although Boris Johnson has warned against booking summer holidays abroad.
