But truckers do more than refuel, eat, sleep and play video games while there. Truckstops, in fact, are where many drivers take care of much of the non-driving parts of their occupation.

For owner-operators especially, taking care of business means a lot more than driving.

More than a home away from home, the truckstop is the place to get work done

Their trucks need to be maintained and repaired. Then there is all the paperwork. There are logs to fill out, payments to make, taxes to pay, permits to obtain, expenses to track. Simply put, the work day doesn't stop when the truckstops.

A number of truckers—those who get to their home base regularly—handle maintenance and paperwork from a home office. But for many truckers, certainly those who spend several weeks on the road away from home, the "office work" gets done in the cab, or more likely, at a truckstop.

"Truckstops are an office out of the office for truckers," says Vincent Mangano, an industry consultant and former truckstop operator based in North Bend, Wash. "They do all their business, whether it's personal or business related, at truckstops or within their cabs at truckstops. So there are a lot of services and amenities made available to them to help meet those needs."

Driver Trading Post
Today's truckstops offer a variety of services for the over-the-road trucker. In an interview shortly before he assumed his new post last December, Bill Fay, president of NATSO, the national trade association representing truckstop and travel plaza operators, likened today's stops to old-time trading posts or general stores.

"Truckstops and travel plazas are like the modern-day trading posts," Fay says. "When I was a kid stopping in truckstops, it was usually a little diner and fuel pumps. Today, you have a whole gamut of services offered as these operators are really providing what their customers need and want."

Along with food and fuel, truckstops also offer amenities and services that make the facilities a "great place for drivers to rest, relax and take care of business," says Jim Miller, partner and general manger of the Sacramento 49er Travel Plaza.

Business Centers
While amenities such as lounges, movie theaters, sleeping rooms and food courts make downtime more pleasant, national chains also advertise the many business services they offer.

Petro Stopping Centers, for example, offers ATM machines, Internet kiosks, Driver Net terminals, fax and mailing services. The chains may also offer access to fuel and credit card programs for owner-operators such as the Pilot MasterCard program, which the company says is designed for owner-operators and small fleets.

Other truckstops offer quick lube, maintenance and repair services. The Sacramento 49er, for instance, recently opened a new, 29,000-sq.-ft. truck shop with two quick-lube bays, two tire bays and two automatic wash bays. Truckers can get an oil change and lube while having dinner.

Bosselman's Travel Center in Grand Island, NB, opened a new shop facility last year. The 20,000-sq.-ft. Boss Shop also includes quick-lube, repair and tire bays and specializes in quick, reliable service.

As befitting a branch office, truckstops stock the things truckers need for running their businesses.

"We have a whole section of business supplies for drivers, such as logbooks, trip reports and other types of paperwork," says Heather DeBaillie, marketing manager of the Iowa 80 Group, Walcott, IA. "It's just like an office supply store with disks, recordable CDs, paper, pens, markers, scissors, tape, everything you need to run an office."

DeBaillie says truckers need the same tools as any other business. "Truckers have to be just as sophisticated in running their business as anyone else," she says. "Just like any business, you have to keep streamlining and becoming more efficient in the way you operate."

Perhaps the most common business-related service provided at stops is phones. "We have phones in the restaurant, the food court, upstairs there's a whole bank of phones with a writing area for when drivers want to do paperwork," DeBaillie says.

A number of these phones also have data ports for plugging in laptops.

"Not every phone has that capability," DeBaillie says, but notes that her facility has a specific area for drivers to plug in laptops.

Internet Kiosks
"And for drivers that do not have a laptop and want access to the Internet, we have a couple of Internet kiosks."

Miller notes that more and more truckers carry their own computers, but he agrees that Internet kiosks remain a popular attraction for drivers. "We have Internet kiosks, of course," he says, "But a lot of drivers have their own computers in their trucks and they hook up with their Qualcomm."

At some truckstops, truckers will find whole sections devoted to cyber business, according to Mangano. "Some locations have Internet cafes or business facilities similar to a 'laptop lane' at an airport," he says. "Other truckstops have actual small business centers for drivers."

Paperwork can't seem to get done without a copy machine and a fax; so most truckstops offer those services as well, Miller says. "We have a fax machine drivers can use to send and receive faxes, things such a permits. We also have a copy machine available to the public."

A number of stops also provide drop boxes for their large fleet customers which are used by those fleets' drivers and contractors. "Some of our big customers, like Knight, J.B. Hunt or Swift," reports Miller, "have drop boxes here for their drivers to send off bills of lading and trip packages. We also have TripPak boxes out front as well as daily Federal Express service," Miller says.

These services are very helpful for truckers. "The services offered by TripPak create tremendous efficiencies not only for the driver but also for the fleets by transferring the driver's manual transaction into a digital transaction," Mangano says.

Another common business service found at truckstops are load boards and driver service information kiosks.

"Load boards are very important for the independent trucker," Mangano says. "But it may be transitioning to a different type of environment. Typical load boards are services put on a computer or some kind of terminal device. Now, a lot of that activity is occurring over the Internet. But that Internet connectivity is still taking place at the truckstop, whether it's plugging in a laptop into a table-top phone or using a kiosk."

Looking for Loads
Iowa 80s’ DeBaillie agrees load boards, such as those from Transcore's DAT Services, are valuable services for driver customers. "I still think that if they have the time to be in the truckstop, they are going to look at the load board to find loads instead of going to an Internet site, as far as the individual trucker goes," she says.

"If you are somebody in the office, running three to five trucks, obviously, you will probably use the Internet for load posting."

Miller says he thinks Internet load-matching services are becoming more popular, but that he still "sees a lot of activity with the load boards."

While truckstops now have plenty of phones with data ports and kiosks for accessing the Internet, in the next few years expect them to offer wireless Internet connections through so-called Wi-Fi services, according to Mangano.

"Not many people are offering Wi-Fi today," he notes. "But a year from now, the industry will be saturated with Wi-Fi."

Wi-Fi, which stands for "wireless fidelity," is a new standard for wireless connectivity between a computer and the Internet. "It does away with the cables," Mangano explains.

"Wi-Fi uses a protocol similar to cordless phones, but that has been adapted to transmitting data," he adds. "A truckstop would provide a wireless Internet access point and truckers would just buy a card that costs anywhere from $39 to $100 and plug it into their laptop or PC."

The wireless connection is limited by distance, but a truckstop could offer access to any truck parked at its facility.

Whether doing paperwork, surfing the web for loads or taking care of truck maintenance, truckers can easily and efficiently take care of business at a truckstop.

Think of your favorite truckstop not just as a home away from home but as the branch office, complete with water cooler.