Truck stop

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A truck stop is usually located on or near a busy road, consists (at the very least) of a fueling station and convenience store, and has a large enough parking area to accommodate from five to over a hundred trucks and other heavy vehicles. Most truck stops also offer a range of services for professional drivers to rest and refresh themselves, often with accommodation and other amenities available. Many truck drivers will spend their DOT mandatory rest time at one of these facilities.

While not closed to other drivers (referred to with varying degrees of friendliness or contempt as "four-wheelers"), special areas are frequently set aside for truckers. These areas may contain tables with phones so truckers can privately call families and conduct other business, bathrooms and showers, a television, high speed internet access for laptop computers, and internet kiosks. When there is an internet kiosk, usually it is placed between the "truckers only" area and the rest of the establishment.

Depending on the size of the facility, services might also include a diner restaurant, a small video arcade, a movie theater (usually just a projector with attached DVD player), showers, convenience stores of various sizes, and possibly a motel. When a large truck stop does not itself include a motel, frequently there will be one adjacent. The refueling area almost always offers dual pumps, one on each side, so that large trucks can fill both tanks at once (the second pump is referred to as the "slave pump" or "satellite" pump). Newer truck stops may offer one or more fast food outlets in addition to, or instead of, a traditional sit down restaurant.

The retail stores in large truck stops frequently offer a very wide selection of 12-volt products, such as coffee makers, TV/VCR combos, and frying pans; although primarily targeted towards truckers, these can also be convenient for anyone who spends large amounts of time on the road. Likewise, such shops generally offer a wide selection of maps, road atlases, truck stop and freeway exit guides, truck accessories such as CB equipment and hazmat placards, movies, and audiobooks. Increasingly, as interstate truckers have become a large market for satellite radio, the retail store also sells various satellite radio receivers for both XM and Sirius as well as subscriptions to those services.

The exact distinction between "truck stop" and the newer term "travel center" is undefinable, but the important differences are size, proximity to interstate highways and major roads, number of services, and accessibility to automotive and RV travellers.

[edit] Fictional depictions

Truck stops are often depicted in films and novels as being somewhat seedy places frequented by aggressive bikers, petty criminals and prostitutes (e.g. the "lot lizards" in the JT LeRoy novel Sarah). This is in general an outdated stereotype, as most modern truck stops are generally clean and safe, becoming a "home away from home" for many truck drivers. However, it should be noted that most truck stops do reflect the social environment of the area they are in; consequently, one still occasionally finds seedy truck stops in seedy areas.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

(Note: the Unocal 76 Travel Centers popular with both older truckers and in popular media[citation needed] have been bought out by TA (see above))

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