Truck parking 30 or so years ago

The black and white no common sense hos and the just in time logistics business model has added a lot of unneeded stress and eroded the hope for a return to the fun time glory days. Truck on!

 

Haven't driven very long, but definitely was less trucks back then.
However, it should only be logical to think there was less truck stops as well.

Loves started in 1964
TA started in 1972
Petro started in 1975
Pilot and Flying J started in 1981

Took time for all of them to get to the size they are now.
Took Loves 14 years to grow to just 60 locations in 1978 and in 2017 had over 400 locations.

 

Don't forget, most of them probably started as mom & pop truck stops. You really need to count from when they became publicly traded, multi location corporations. That's probably where you'll notice the fall off of service in the pursuit of short term profit.

 

Even as recent as 3 years ago, for me to think that I'd be spending a few hundred a year for TA reserved parking, was absurd.

If I was at TA in Burns, WY and it was 7 am I knew that by 1 am, the following day, I'd be sleeping in my bed at home in Chicago.

 

Wow the picture that some painted are right out of the movies.
Always had parking, cops were not the pricks they are today about parking, plenty of empty space back then, not like now where there is a travel center crammed into a small spot with the strip malls on both sides.

Most got out of the truck, only those who were drunk or high or serial killers stayed in the truck.

Getting out of the truck was a must, it meant walking to the diner or restaurant to get food. As my mentor said, "truck drivers are not animals" so after 10 hours of driving in a truck that has two fans running and you are sitting on the engine, you want to feel human.

 

In so much as the building of the interstate highways was necessary, it also meant the death of many mom & pop truck stops that flourished along the state routes.

Without a doubt, this is an issue that sorely needs addressing, yet year after year nothing occurs but silence and inaction. Maybe some journalist on here can take the parking football and run with an expose...

 

Maybe thats one good thing that will come out of this. With the new hos, e-logs, jit, and no parking to be found serial killers will no longer have time for that hobby. Lol!

 

Well the way remember things ( and it is getting pretty foggy in the memory department ) parking on the east cost has always been a pain . Not allot of parking and most of it in combat zones back in the day .

Running a reefer back in the day I remember the parking near major cities on 40 a bit tight at night when the produce was running hot .

Parking in Ontario on 10 would fill up fast and Barstow too . The old roadrunner in Phoenix or the big A in Hotlanta LOL fun times !!

When we did stop someplace for the night I remember we take a lap around the lot to see who all was there that we knew .
If you got there late you didn't get to park in party row you were FORCED to park up front !

The biggest difference I can see is the lack of dirt lot parking that we used to have near all of the old truck stops . Either across the street or like Ontario across the interstate where the built the shopping mall was a big dirt lot spot when the T/A and Petro were full .

We were all allot more social back in the day after running our butt off we would get out of the truck and talk to each other have a meal or coffee heck even have a beer and unwind for a few hours crash for 4 maybe 5 hours and hit it again before sun up .

I could go on for hours on the changes in the last 39 years but even with the way things are now I can't even begin to imagine doing anything else !!

 

i did coast to coast in my earlier years. parking was plentiful and the truckers were not as slovenly fools as they are today. we DID NOT throw our trash on the ground, nor our "yellow bottle bombs".

we were allowed to stay on customers properties, even the roadside cafe`s across the country. WE ACTUALLY SHOWED RESPECT.

we were welcomed.

now mind you too, that street lighting, and parking lot lighting may have been non-existent as well.

and many times, the parking areas were just dirt, or mud if it was raining.

didn't matter the time of day, or the day of the week, i always had found parking, like many of my brothers, back in the day.

you would have to BLAME the many jackwagons of oh..the past 2 maybe 3 decades, for ruining free parking, making a spot, trash throwing, urination, brown crap dumping slobs, for any of the "NO PARKING" signs you see along your route.

 

Something might be done.

Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act 2020

https://www.trucknews.com/health-sa...slation-to-increase-truck-parking/1003137620/