Owners of the Johns River Tavern, Rosie's Cafe and Moorland Cottage received a phone call before their trailer signs were confiscated, but no written warning.

According to Di Studdert, the owner of the Moorland Cottage, the short notice left her with no options.

Now she'll have to hire a truck to retrieve her sign from the RMS compound at Nabiac.

"We're not unreasonable people, we would have done something if they had given us more warning," Di said.

Confiscating their signs before such a busy period was a cruel blow for the businesses which rely heavily on the patronage of passing travellers.

"When you're in food tourism those periods are the height of your activity," Di said.

"It's extremely frustrating."

Di's sentiments were echoed by Rita and Keith Allen, owners of Rosie's Cafe in Johns River.

Rita said it was the "wrong time" for the signs to be taken away before the October long weekend and the last weekend of school holidays.

"We missed so many people and travellers in comparison to last year, we have lost $10,000 to $12,000," she said.

She said they had had to cut operating hours and put off staff due to the shortfall.

"If we don't get travellers, this shop is finished basically," Rita said.

"They didn't have the courtesy to write a letter or at least tell us a reason," said Keith.

Owner of the Johns River Tavern, Anthony Galati said he can understand why the RMS wanted an "even playing field" but he too was frustrated by the RMS process.

"I can understand they wanted everyone to be on an even playing field, otherwise everyone would be chucking trailers out," he said.

However, the removal of a large coffee and knife and fork sign which signified a rest area had been incorrectly removed as well he said, meaning Johns River had no signage approved or unapproved signifying a rest area.

"At the moment I'm probably losing 40 cups of coffee a day without any signage," Anthony said.

A RMS spokesperson confirmed that they had "contacted business owners at Johns River last month to advise the non-approved signs on the Pacific Highway will be removed."

"The businesses were advised removal would take place due to concerns received about driver distraction and the signs were removed before the expected increase in holiday traffic on the October long weekend," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that new approved signs which comply with Australian standards will be installed on both directions of the Pacific Highway indicating the availability of services in Johns River by the end of November.

Greater Taree City deputy mayor David West expressed outrage at the timing of the signage crackdown.

"The individuals involved with the signs were coming up to their biggest trading weekend of the year," Cr West said.

"All that was required of the RMS was to act like local government - speak to the business owners, understand it was their biggest weekend coming up and agree to confiscating the signs at a later date."

lachlan.leeming@fairfaxmedia.com.au