What do you look for in a truck stop?

It's been awhile but I can hit on a few good points. The first being cleanliness. It the stop is dirty I don't stop. Parking is a big issue nowadays but cramming trucks in to get as many as you can doesn't sit well with me. The food has to be good and fair priced. The fuel must be priced correctly and the fueling operations should run smooth and quickly. When I say correctly I mean the average price for that area and not a penny more. All of the service must be prompt and polite. Instead of having a junk store, have a store that drivers could really use. A small grocery section would help. Stock the store with truck supplies that a driver might need on the road. Forget all the gadgets because every driver knows he or she can find a better price elsewhere.

Most drivers want a good meal, fuel, shower, and rest. Capitalize on those items. Then you can add a break area and maybe a nice gym.

It's been many years since I've been OTR because my best job was local but these items are what I remeber and I'm sure other drivers can add alot more.

 

If you park you usualy will go in. I don't think I ever have parked somewhere and not bought something.
Good home cooking at a good price and you'll have a line down the interstate waiting to get in. Nothing makes me madder than a truck stop charging double on everything because they think we don't have a choice. There is lots of walmarts out there.
Many company drivers don't get a choice of where to stop since they may only be able to fuel at one brand of truckstop. But those are the ones I prefer to stay away from.

If I could build my own truck stop it would be old skool cool. Seperate sectios for professional drivers,All diner style counters, no tables. Or if there were tables there would only be a few real long ones so you have to interact. at least in the driver section anyways. it's probably freak out the general public.
The waitresses or waiters would HAVE to be friendly. I'd go family style meaning there may be two or three things on the menu all the time but then there would be the meal for the day.
It would have a decent parking lot, lots of parking,full service fuel island, free showers if you have your own towels, security to keep the lot lizards and beggers away. A decent chrome shop and radio shop, a kinfe shop with somene to sharpen knives (you just can't find that anymore and they used to be everywhere)
that's just the begining.

WHO WANTS TO STOP AT MY TRUCKSTOP? lol

 

MedicineMan gave an opinion of an ideal Tstop that the majority will likey side with. He covered it all, and well.

However, I may be the odd one here, since most of the time in my travels, I could care less about the chrome shop, cb shop, shoe shine, barber shop, deli, yada yada.

The primary reason I stop at any given truck stop ("travel center" LOL) is for fuel. After that, I may eat and or shower, or even buy some junk, but the reason I stopped in the first place is because I need some fuel, otherwise I'd have driven on by.

I pay for my own fuel, so I stop anywhere I wish. But to answer the thread at hand, what I look for first and foremost in a TS is the price of fuel. Perfect example is this: I will patronize the Pilot for a .5 cents per gallon savings, vs stopping at a Petro.

Pilot truckstops can't hold a candle to the Petros, regarding extra flair & fluff, but for a .5 cent fuel savings, you know where I will be filling up.

Sometimes I wish I had dual 300 gallon tanks. I'd never have to stop LOL

 

It has to be clean!!! Usually if it is good and clean then most of everything else falls into place. The 101 travel plaza in Cedar Grove TN is a decent place. The big Petro in Oak Grove MO was a really good one, not as clean but good. The best showers I have ever seen at a truck stop EVER was at a Hess and I forget where it was. Somewhere in NC. It was better than showering at home.. I had to hang out in there for awhile it was so nice!


So to sum it up, it must be clean, have a good supply of the things we need for our trucks (oil, grease, fuses, etc), decent parking, no bums wanting to shine my wheels and no lot lizzards. (Prostitutes in case you never heard of them)

 

Well I agree in alot of the suggestions mentioned. But at the same time, I think one needs to be reasonable. This guy already has a truck stop it seems so he isn't building a new one. But if it is a truck stop...then that alone should be a sign of where he should focus...on trucks and truckers.
A few of the suggestions would require an extensive and expensive facelift. What is most important?

Plenty of showers with a free shower with 50 or more gallons of diesel.

Plenty o Laundry machines...washers, dryers...etc.

Lots of fuel islands with space for trucks to pull up and out of the way when finished.

Lots of parking. Some truck stops are fairly creative in how they build their property to maximize parking. Keep in mind that in some parts of the country, truck stops triple in size with trucks when the roads close or weather gets bad.

A decent sized lounge. Maybe a pop happy hour or something in the evenings.

Basic grocery stuff and some fruits and veggies.

stock truck supplies, yes...gadgets...eh.

get something for them to read...magazines or something (pilot doesn't have them!)

A couple of part time grounds and maintenance workers...someone that can do basic repairs as well as upkeep of the store and property.

Mop duty with bleach in the bathrooms every hour at least! fully scrub toilets at least daily. extra ventillation, lol.

enough staff to work the registers so there is not a line of more than one behind the current customer. Keep em rolling.

Lighting and cameras for security and safety.

in the winter, a well plowed parking lot...the pumps are totally messed up when it snows and ice forms. Maybe pay under the table the city to come over and toss some sand / salt mix on the main drives of the lot.

Wireless internet for the geeks on the road.

 

That would be sweet!

 

why don't you tell me what truck stop he owns. There are not mny in shkosh so I have a feeling I know already. But if we know then we can help more. If it's the planeview I already have a few sugestions

 

Parking availability is #1 for me with food other than "fast food" being a close second.

With parking, if it's a small outfit that generally only holds less than 50 trucks I won't stop, since they are probably already full. The lot needs to be configured so that blind-side backing is kept to a minimum. Lots with little room to manuever, I will avoid...not because I can't back but I would be too worried that someone else will run into me while they are trying to back.

With the food, it needs to be edible. I am growing to hate truck stop food. Even the big chain truck stops with a restaurant are not very good. Don't skimp on cheap frozen ingredients, give us a good FRESH homecooked meal and I'll eat there often.

 

If it's not a big chain that is going to have the dedicated fuelers from the big companies then it's going to come down to fuel price in the end. Even $.01 is allot to us at 5mpg and 100k + miles a year.

Another thing is driver cash back. When I wasa company driver I always hit the places that gave the drivers a percentage of the fuel purchase back. Most are like one cent per gallon.