Truck Topics

Truck Stops: Keeping Up With The (Changing) Joneses

Like society itself, the truckstop/travel plaza industry is an ever-changing entity. What started with a lunch counter and a gas pump some 75 years ago has evolved into a multibillion-dollar service business housed in multimillion-dollar facilities stretched across the length and breadth of the nation.

Over the years, the lunch counter has given way to the full-service restaurant. The lone gas pump has been replaced by canopied fuel islands that can handle as many as 24 trucks at once. The sale of a few cigarettes, candy bars and fuses at the cash register has blossomed into full-scale merchandise marts.

There was also a saying that If the truckers eat there, it must be a good place to stop for food. Just about everybody believed that except the truckers. But the myth was perpetuated by the fact that few nontruckers ever ventured into a truckstop restaurant.

The coming of the full-service dining facilities changed things for the better. Although the manufacturers of antacid remedies saw their sales decline, truckstops began to live up to their reputations as good places to eat.

Now the pendulum seems to be swinging almost all the way back to the lunch counter era. The family-style, sit-down restaurant, complete with sizzling steaks and saucy waitresses, seems to be giving way to the eat-and-run fast-food franchise.

Sadly, it would appear that the quality of food is not as important as it once was. The trucker of today has grown up on a fast-food diet, and a burger and fries will fill his belly and get him back on the road quicker than waiting for a heaping plateful of tasty, cooked-to-order grub to arrive hot from the kitchen.

Many truckstops have attempted to provide both quick service and hearty food with a buffet. But too often these steam-table offerings taste and look like warmed-up leftovers. Compared to the rubbery chicken and shriveled ham slices, a greasy burger is haute cuisine.

As a result, popular-brand fast-food eateries will continue to proliferate, and the bold letters on a travel center's signage will highlight its fast-food facility.

Two major drawing cards for travel centers will continue to be parking and showers. While parking is not normally a money maker, it is vital to a truckstop's survival. Indeed, the nationwide shortage of truck parking spaces is forcing operators to expand their lots despite rising real estate prices and the high cost of asphalt and its maintenance. And that is almost certain to translate into paid parking at most locations in this decade.

Modern technology may ultimately solve the problem of sold-out parking lots with a satellite-linked system that will let the driver do an onboard search for a truckstop with vacancies and then reserve a spot while he's still a hundred miles down the road.

Showers aren't real money makers, either but they have become a must for weary driver-customers. Thus, smart truckstop operators continue to upgrade their shower facilities. There's even a beginning trend toward providing whirlpool tubs. TA already pampers its customers by providing oversize bath towels. And most truckstops are meticulously fussy about keeping showers squeaky clean.

The biggest challenge is to get the driver to stop at a particular facility. Low-priced fuel isn't always the answer. In fact, two out of three trucks on any given parking lot do not fuel at that site. More often, a given location's reputation for something unique like its apple dumplings or its well-stocked trucker store provides the incentive for drivers to pull in and park. And once they've become a captive audience, there's great likelihood they'll spend more than just time they'll spend money.

As more travel centers become aware of the potential in serving the nontrucker traveler, the customer mix will continue to move increasingly toward the four-wheeler side of the ledger. In fact, some upscale travel centers are already garnering greater profits from the nontrucker trade.

That's going to require a whole new way of thinking and a new way of doing business. It's also going to require superb balance with a tightrope-walking act that satisfies the needs and wants of both customer groups without tilting too far in either direction.

The outward appearance of a travel center weighs in heavily with a highway traveler's decision to visit. If a facility is really old, no amount of paint will make it attractive to the owner of a $150,000 motor home. Hence, if a major makeover is needed to keep even with the competition down the road, it should be done.

Success depends on changing and adapting. Except for some die-hard holdouts, most truckers are adapting to the idea of sharing their once sacrosanct turf with the four-wheel set. And families are becoming less and less reluctant to visit a travel center that has a hundred big rigs idling their engines in the back lot. Change. It's been called the only real constant in life. But it's almost always a change for the better.

This article was from reprinted with the kind permission of Truckstop/Travel Plaza magazine and the Publisher.

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