Travel Centers of America is failing and will declare bankruptcy within five years.

What I find sorta hilarious is drivers paying to park in late morning, early afternoon when usually half the lot is empty in some places. 35 years or so ago PETRO, Truckstops of America and orange ball were the best you would find along with small regional stops. Now they went to ####. We have the Loves Garbage and peelot and J
Thank god for the independent fuel stops

 

Maybe just maybe charging for parking is a step toward their roots ......i see unmanned guard stations at a lot of the legacy ta and petros I believe when they were at thier zenith you either paid for parking or fuel to park there

 

Yeah on the coasts like CA and the NE
Some paid parking. I mean I get it to some point. Drivers come in use facilities, don’t buy anything leave trash and human waste in the lot. Also consider that cities where they are located are raising property taxes pretty high. I mean after all those lousy truck stops and clientele are taking up valuable real estate.

 

The biggest issue i see.. is the amount of reserve parking they’re doing… i’m fine with a small percentage of the parking lot set aside for reserved parking but when they have some of their lots were 50 to 60% of the lot is paid parking that is absolutely completely absurd and then they wonder why they’re going out of business and some of those locations that are doing that are in areas were truck parking is not an issue

 

Stopped at the TA Express in Mt.Vernon, Texas for my first time. Great place. Excellent BBQ, all kinds of snacks/souvenirs, nice showers, big parking spots.

Its $10 to park unless you buy 100 gallons of fuel. That just helps keep the free loaders packed into the loves across the highway. Works 4 me.

 

$10 is reasonable.

$30 in Oak Creek, WI is not, especially for spots designed for 55 foot overall length vehicles.

 

Not only that,but in recent years with most of these truck stops charging for paid parking a lot of the drivers who can’t afford it are parking on the shoulders of on/off ramps near their locations,basically creating a hazard.

 

Georgia-$300 fine
Wisconsin
Virginia-fine & points assessed against your license-STRICTLY ENFORCED
Tennessee
North Carolina
That’s all I can think of offhand.
Even then I always find somewhere safe to shutdown depending on where I am so I don’t have to worry about interference from law enforcement.