Are you afraid of the dark???

I'm at a TA in a major city and spots on both sides of me still open and it's 2300. Depends on the area, I stopped at a loves one day and it was packed tight by 7, came back thru next day and it didn't fill up that whole night.

 

Perhaps the other truck drivers also have similar or identical time schedules as yours to make their deliveries.

 

Learn science. It shows they are human beings.

 

I like to strart my day in the early hours, like 2am or 3am... so my 14 runs out around 1600 or 1700...
That helps me avoid rush hour traffic and I like ending my day in the early evening. ...

 

If the load doesn't call for it I'm not waking up before 930-1000.
So yea, that's me rollin into the truck stop around 2200 sometimes midnight.

Only time I've ever had to pass up a truck stop cause the thing was completely full was somewhere in SD (i90). Other than that I almost always find a legit park, or I'll make one but never where it's difficult for someone else to get out.

I'm guessing those that stop before 1600 are sitting there idling their truck for hours until the sun goes down... No thanks, I'll keep my fuel bonus.

 

Sounds like you spent too much time with the door open. 13.5 hours to drive out yur 11. Maybe better preplan will help.

 

I'm with you on not rolling out early if it's not needed but sometimes the truck stops just get full quick. For example, I'm in FL at the moment. Have a delivery south of Daytona in the AM. I tried the TA just south of Jacksonville and the J in St. Augustine (around 1830). Both full to the point people are parking on the curbs and in the case of the J on both sides of the old scale. And I knew ahead of time not to even mess with the Loves in Daytona unless I could make it in around 1500-1600 at the latest. So I'm in a rest area instead. It is what it is.

 

There's a giant difference when you run east and when you run west. In the west, parking is a bit easier to come by and there's a little bit more courtesy in the truck stops. The east is every man for himself. And the southeast? I won't even go there.

 

makes it even harder with the trucker mentality of only working 8 hours a day. just so they can roll every day of the week.

that's 15 hours a day they're parked, probably idleing the engine.