Blog

Take Flight with a Merchandising and Marketing Checklist

Use a merchandising and marketing checklist every day as part of your basic walkthrough process when arriving and leaving the location daily. More

Nine Ways to Improve Safety in the Truck Repair Business

Safety is one of the most important aspects of a truck repair business, both in the shop and at roadside. Owners and managers must do everything they can to ensure their employees go home safely at the end of the day. More

Six Secrets Truckstop Operators Can Learn from Costco’s Success

NATSO members often look at the best practices of their fellow operators, but it is important to also look at the entire retail, food and fueling landscape. One of the continuing shining stars in today's current retail environment is Costco. While much of today’s retail landscape is driven by the growth and convenience of e-commerce, Costco is continuing to thrive. Here are six key ingredients that contribute to the retailer’s winning recipe of success. More

Join Me Abroad to Take in New Great Ideas and the Latest Innovations

I am a strong advocate for learning all we can from those around us, and I would love for NATSO members to join me in June at the NACS Convenience Summit Europe. Along with retailers from around the world, I’ll be working my way through London and Amsterdam and will gather ideas and trends to share with truckstop and travel plaza operators when I return. The tours, which are led by convenience industry experts, are designed to provide a closer look into retail operations and solutions and a deep dive into discussion-based learning. More

4 Best Practices for Long-Term Truckstop Hiring Success

Truckstops and travel plaza facilities create unique challenges for those who manage them. Unlike many businesses, most truckstops and travel plazas are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and managers must work hard to keep the facility adequately staffed at all times. A location’s team players are the first and last line of contact for customers in a truckstop and travel plaza, so hiring and training the right team players can significantly affect the profitability of the business. With proper orientation and training, operators can ensure from the very beginning that their team players will succeed. Here are four tips for long-term hiring success. More

How to Use Billboards to Drive Your Travel Center's Profits Up

Next time you drive down the Interstate to your facility, look at your signage from the point-of-view of a customer who is visiting for the very first time. Signage is a crucial piece of your business as it serves as an invitation for a customer to stop into your site versus your competitors’ sites! Interstate billboards give you exposure to large numbers of travelers every day and night. I believe that this is one of the most effective forms of advertising. Billboard Pricing and ROI Billboards range in price. Small non-illuminated units may cost $150 to $350 per month. Large illuminated billboards can range from $1,500 to $4,000 per month or more depending on traffic counts and several other factors such as the number of units available in the market, demand for those units and if it is a left- or right-hand read... More

3 Tips to Help You Find the Right Biodiesel Blend

Warmer temps are right around the corner. And that’s the time of year many travel plazas, truck stops and fleets start thinking about the amount of biodiesel that’s blended into their petroleum diesel. It’s one of the most common questions biodiesel producers and suppliers are asked: What’s the right blend for me? It’s an important question, and below I offer three tips to help you answer it. More

Five Retail Trends Your Truckstop Should Be Adapting to and Exercises to Explore Them

In preparation for NATSO Connect, I took a fresh look at the trends influencing the industry. Truckstops and travel plazas should be adapting to each of these trends. More

Highlights from NATSO Connect 2019

Truckstop and travel plaza operators came together in Orlando, Florida, for NATSO Connect 2019 and left inspired and informed. So many amazing things came out of the annual event. Here are a six highlights. Insight Into the Future We all want to know what the future holds, and much of NATSO Connect focused on helping operators prepare for the trends and technology that are coming down the pipeline. During one keynote, NATSO President and CEO Lisa Mullings sat down with Dave Manning, president of TCW Inc. and Immediate Past Chairman of the American Trucking Associations as well as Dan Murray, vice president of the American Transportation Research Institute, to discuss the latest trends affecting truck drivers. Attendees got a first-hand look at how hours-of-service requirements, electronic logging devices and e-commerce are all changing professional drivers’ operating environment. More

Adding Biodiesel to Your Truckstop is an Easy, Proven Revenue Driver

It’s common for those of us in the biodiesel business to get questions from truckstop operators about whether offering our fuel requires expensive infrastructure changes, like new tanks, piping and more. Fortunately for everyone, the answer is no. More

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