Driver Lifestyles

A Brief and Incomplete History of the Truck Stop

Just about everything in the trucking industry has seen advancement beyond what we possibly could have imagined in its early days.  The truck stop is no exception--from its early days as modest gas stops and restaurant combinations to their current could-be-a-superstore cultural centers.

For an outsider to the trucking lifestyle, the truck stop seems like a microcosm of the whole of its culture.  The bustle, the flow of people in and out, the maze of trucks parked around the lot, the food, the shops.  In some ways, the truck stop is a microcosm of the trucking lifestyle, but it doesn't tell the whole story.  Of course, you know this better than anyone else.

But what of the growth of truck stops over the last 70 years?  They started in the 1940's, answering a need for a reliable source of diesel, and they've never stopped answering the needs of truckers.  Be it a moonpie or two, a hot meal, or diesel, the truck stop is there--and it's showing no signs of stopping.

The growth in popularity of the truck stop is, sensibly enough, tied fairly tightly to the expansion of the Interstate Highway System, which had been in its planning stages from the 1910's through the 40's and into the 50's, when it finally became a reality.  With the new arterial byways being built, the increased possibility and eventual demand for professional hauling created a deeper need for trucker-specific options that were convenient to those same highways.

Through the 1940's and 50's, many of the truck stops in existence tended to be smaller, mom-and-pop-type operations.  This continued until corporatization took over and shortly thereafter, truck stops quickly became a large business full of chains and franchises--names you know and love today, like Road Ranger, Flying J, Pilot, and Truckstops of America (now TravelCenters of America).  The move from small companies to large companies, generally speaking, facilitated the literal growth of truck stops over the years, from those simple diesel-and-food stops to the supercenters that are so common today.

A major hand in the growth of the truck stop, aside from mere corporatization, was the National Association of Truckstop Operators (NATSO), which was first established in 1960.  They describe their birth as such:

By 1959, the interstate system was growing rapidly, and it was evident in virtually every state in the union. Hardly a month went by without one state or another staging the opening ceremony for a brand new freeway or throughway. The modern concept of the truckstop had its origin in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when a small number of 24-hour roadside facilities, designed to provide fuel and a complete range of services to the trucker, sprung up independently across the country. This was, of course, long before the modern interstate system, when highways such as the legendary U.S. Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles and U.S. 1 along the East Coast were the arteries that carried America’s truckers from farms and factories to the consumer. By the 1950s, however, companies such as Pure Oil, Amoco and Skelly began to develop divisions particularly oriented toward the truckstop segment of the marketing departments. During a series of exploratory meetings in 1960, the idea to create a national association of truckstops was born.

NATSO, at the time of their inception, organized themselves with three directives in mind.  The first of these was to ensure that truckstop operators were acting in cooperation to advance the "common purposes" of the truckstop industry.  Second, NATSO provided numerous business and advocacy services like creating a financial ratings system, business analyses, and holding an annual convention.  Third, the organization began publishing a trade magazine for the truckstop industry.  From there, NATSO branched out into additional advocacy services, all in the name of advancing the quality and proliferation of the truck stop.

In short, it worked.  In spades.  Today, there are more than 10,000 truck stops in the United States.  Too, the services that truck stops offer have greatly expanded over the last 60 years.  While fuel, food, parking and showers are and will continue to be staple products and services for truck stops, that's not the least of what you'll be able to find.  To be sure, all of you know this already, but there are loads of trucker-specific products available for sale at many truck stops, and there are even some that have small movie theatres, maintenance services, truck washes, and perhaps even motels (though, these are often just adjacent to a larger truck stop).

Clean or dirty (but, you know, hopefully clean), large or small, the truck stops you frequent are an important part of your life, and their history on a grand scale are definitely richer and more involved than one might expect--they're woven into the fabric of the country fairly tightly and, for what reputation they might have through trucking culture and to perhaps a smaller degree popular culture, they're measurably more important than what we might sometimes give them credit for.

Additional Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_stop
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/library/the-truck-stops-of-america/
http://www.natso.com/Content/NavigationMenu/AboutNATSO/NATSOsHistoryMission/default.htm
http://television.aol.com/show/extreme-truck-stops/10268703/main
http://deanesmay.com/2008/07/08/truck-stop-blues/
http://www.expeditersonline.com/forum/general-expediter-forum/35304-truck-stop-customer-service-improving.html