Truckers what do you want from Truck Stops?

I run the deep south. I'm not sure I have experienced either of those in my service area.
Do they have a variety of food choices on the menu? Things like burgers, sandwiches, po-boys, club sandwich etc to chicken, pork chops, fish etc to hamburger steak, & maybe a couple of choices of steaks? I think that's what we're getting at. These specialty food choices, subway, Arby's, BK, McD's, Pizza etc. I mean, these select contract fast food choices we have, day after day after day. Not healthy & limited. Limited to fast food, generally speaking. Nothing wrong with these fast foods when we're in a hurry or got a hankering for, but not everyone is in a hurry & would like a good sit-down at a table with a waitress, turnip green, green beans, mashed potatoes & gravy, some corn bread, rolls etc. Pot roast, pork chops etc.

Look, I understand a restaurant is an expensive investment. Its expensive to operate & its a heavily regulated industry. I get it. I really do. But the truck stop industry has put themselves in this position. They throw up a building with 4 sides and a top, fill it full of basic, cheap, low end consumer goods with a diesel island in the back & call it a truck stop. No it isn't. Its a convenience store designed primarily for the traveling public in 4 wheelers. A travel center.
They put 50 spaces in the back & expect to serve truck drivers. No wonder a sitdown restaurant isn't profitable. 50 spaces???? Invest in 200 spots with a restaurant, local promotions to get nearby residents to come in for a hamburger steak, potato & salad. Promote it, get local customers in there, as well as the traveling public. At this point, I'll be stopping at that place, because I know its got plenty of spaces & amenities I want or need out on the road. Plumbers & carpenters need a place to go, sit down & eat at lunch. Market your investment.

I know I rambled & repeated a lot of stuff in the last post but, that in itself was my point. Its repetitive the way these truck stops are managed. Its like a dog chasing its tail. It spins around & around until it runs out of steam, never catches it's tail & to boot, it still itches.
If the dog would just stop & think about why this aint working, & figure out a solution to the actual problem, rather than just quitting things, he could scratch that itch. If he'd just sit down & pin his tail against the ground, then with a little bit of physics and leverage reach around, he'd naturally lift his tail so he could nip the itch.
In the mega truck stop industry, when something isn't working, you attempt to resolve it by reducing services... removing staff & doubling up on other staff. There by making two departments short rather than increasing staff to ensure good services.

Early in my management experience one of the most important lessons I learned was:
"People dont mind paying for good service."
People wont pay for bad service.

I got my best experience from a manager who believed in providing great service, then look at the bottom line. I got my start in the bar industry. A lounge/dance club in a Holiday Inn. I learned that a man can run down to the convenience store & get a 6 pack, go home, sit down & have a beer for $5, OR he could go out to a club, pay $2.50 for one beer & chase women & get tore up with his friends. The difference is the experience he gets out of it. Again, people dont mind paying for a good time... but if you're gonna charge them $2.50 for a beer, you better have the women waiting on him.
A good product, good service & give the customer what he wants. That's the key to any successful retail business.

The other thing is, you can't sell pizza out of a barber shop. Eventually, the bottom line on the barber shop side is going to go down. When people go in for a hair cut & all the barbers are in the kitchen cooking pizza, hair cuts are gonna decline. Then you're gonna get rid of a barber. Then the pizza side is gonna suffer because you don't have enough cooks to provide a quality product or service.
Instead of removing a barber, he should have been adding cooks.
My point? Its essentially the same thing your doing in the truck stops. You're taking fuel desk staff and sending them to the showers. Now, both departments are suffering and nobody is buying anything so you cut staff again, which cuts service.
The dog chasing his tail.
Cant catch his tail, so he's not stopping the itch & eventually, he's too tired to keep spinning in circles.... and his tail still itches.

Go to the source of the problem. Dont create another problem trying to solve this one.

Great products, great service & give the customer what he needs. Hence, you cant sell a customer a pizza in a barber shop when your customer needs a hair cut. That's the answer.

Sorry for the rambling again but, your words were, we cant provide that. Its not feasible. We need a new store to implement that, etc, etc.
Cant don't want to. Just like most everything else in this bass-akwards corporate world. You want us to do it for you.

Multiple top answers to your question of: what can we do to make your experience better? Then all you offer is to pass along to the board of directors..... they need cleaner showers, quicker.
Their response will be, the bottom line percentage wont allow us to hire the staff to accomplish that.
Then we start all over 6 months from now with another "what can we do to make your experience better?", "Project" thread.
Again the dog is chasing his tail.

Just my two cents.....

..

 

Jack Cardwell was the first to open a big truck stop with self service fueling with the El Paso Petro in @ 1975. Began the downfall of the truck stop industry.