Congress Finally taking a step into providing more truck parking for us!

Kwik Trip got a nice tax incentive to build their largest truck stop to date in Sturtevant, WI. Added 140 parking spots to the area and made life significantly better.

It took a major effort to get KT permission to expand their lot in Richfield. 6 new warehouses got planning permission, no problem. City even paid to expand and rebuild the road and sewers but rejected every attempt to build a real truck stop.

Just saying

 

I don't think I will ever get over just how weird so many OTR drivers are. I made a thread on here once about the state of Nebraska needing more rest areas and/or expanding the existing ones that they have, and before I knew it I had a gang of bullies teaming up on me and bullying me about it, with one person going so far as to send me a private message threatening me with physical violence.

Imagine getting so upset about someone wanting more rest areas and safe places to park that have facilities, so that you can #2 like a respectable human being if the urge creates itself at any time during your 10 hour break?

It's just incredibly weird, and anti-social behavior to get so upset about new rest areas being built or expanding existing rest areas. I will never understand it and actually, in fact, I'll go as far as to say it's a form of mental illness (which needs to be treated with compassion and respect, of course).

 

How many people that want the government’s help when it comes to parking will turn around say the government needs to stay out of our business when they find out how fast we will get to go with the speed limiter proposal?

 

Sirscrapntruckalot -

 

Linehaul route i am on went from 3 truck stops 40 years ago with 24 hour service and parking to NONE…the buildings leveled and parking lots blocked off. Truck parking comes up now and then,,,some politician will do some political grandstanding but nothing accomplished…at night on a 240 mile stretch there is one public heated washroom,,2 stalls… I am fortunate to only run between our terminals.

 

If you think you've got it bad, you should see what long-haul drivers have to do in Europe (and, in reality, most of the rest of the world). When a driver takes a long-distance load (particularly one which crosses international borders), he need to create a carnet de passage, which basically is like a commercial airliner's flight plan; you plan which routes you will take, where you will eat, fuel, and rest, and roughly what times you will be doing this. Customs at border crossings will often require a copy of the carnet. Also, the highway tolling department in many countries (like Germany) require you pre-pay your highway tolls based on this carnet, and will fine you if you decide to go through a day early or late...

 

More and larger rest areas right along the interstates with expanded services would be great. I agree Ohio service plazas are fantastic with the free showers and TV lounges where you can charge your laptop and whatnot. Tons of parking, fuel, food, etc. functionally they do everything a full service truck stop does. But even just tearing down the old crappy ones and building a nice huge new one like WI has done recently and offering some free shower rooms would be fine. The truck stops are a rip off and most shopping center parking lots where Planet Fitness locations are don’t want semi trucks parking there. (I am at PF in Hammond, LA and there’s a bunch here anyway.)

 

More states need to follow Indiana’s lead, rebuild the rest areas with much larger parking lots. There are a few in Indiana that have close to 200 spots.

 

How about Ohio instead? Their turnpike rest areas have free showers.

 

True, but service plazas and rest areas are different animals. The Ohio Turnpike has service plazas. Also, some of the New York service plazas being built have showers also.