Highway Hospitality

Honoring Truck Parking

We now give a hearty shout-out to . . . the parking spot.

Not trying to find a place to park on a crammed side street in Brooklyn or downtown Dallas or in the Chicago Loop.

No. How about a parking spot at a truck stop?

And not just a single spot. Let’s go with 130 of them.

That’s exactly what Love’s Travel Stops has just opened up for truck drivers at its new location in Brookville, Pennsylvania, 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Store #829 is now open for business ⏤ and rest, and food, and diesel.

As our friends at Truckers News describe it, the new 24/7 location includes:

• Wendy’s
• Nine diesel bays
• Seven showers
• Speedco
• Laundry facilities
• CAT scale
• Fresh Kitchen concept
• Mobile to Go Zone with the latest GPS, headsets, and smartphone accessories
• Dog park

Greg Love, the co-CEO of Love’s, describes it as part of the company’s “highway hospitality” program, a combination of gas stations, quick-service restaurants, and convenience stores, along with a network of heavy truck tire business and light mechanical service shops.

While the numbers are fluid, The 2020 FHWA report showed 313,000 truck parking spaces in the country ⏤ 40,000 public, 273,000 private. Those numbers sound impressive, until you factor in the number three million: that’s how many commercial trucks are on the road every day. The more safe parking spots, the better for everyone.

In 2012, truck driver Jason Rivenburg was murdered during a robbery as he was searching, unsuccessfully, for a safe parking spot in South Carolina. (A teenager saw $7.00 on his dashboard and killed him for it.)

From that came Jason’s Law, whose proponents are championing an increase in driver safety. It’s not without its setback, yet the work continues.

Providing 130 parking spots for trucks honors truck drivers, who’ve long been the unsung heroes of interstate commerce and the nation’s economy, and our ability to literally put roofs over our heads and food on the table.