Attn: All Truck Stop Managers…
Posted on May 11, 2009 - 10:01pm by Marshall J. Gruskin in Trucking
I know many of you like to hide somewhere inside your truck stop, in the stock room or behind a closed door to your office. You don’t care how many customers are waiting on line or how stressed out your overworked-unpaid clerks are. You don’t care if there is almost empty pails of dirty oily water to clean buggy truck windshields out at the fuel pumps.
You don’t care if the bathrooms are filthy. You don’t care if there is no French vanilla cappuccino – just stinky brown water. You don’t care if there are any more fatty-unhealthy hot dogs and stale rolls available. You don’t care if no one is answering the CAT scale page or pump #23 doesn’t work. And you don’t care how long drivers have to wait for a shower. I’m talking to you – Loves, Pilot, Flying J, Ambest, Petro, T/A, Sapp Brothers and all the other truck stops across the nation.
I want to cut ya’ll some slack, but I just can’t. I have never managed a truck stop, but that’s not my problem. That’s what you’re paid to do. And, it’s not about these “difficult” times. You never patched your parking lot even when times were great. I really truly find it unforgiveable. You see the stuff to the left? It is for patching “deep” holes in pavement. It costs ONLY $9.95. It’s ready-to-use. No mixing or special prep involved. All you need is a shovel. Why don’t ya’ll buy a pallet of the stuff and patch those holes now that Spring is here. Spend less time hiding in that office of yours. And while you’re at it, fill that cappuccino machine, put out some fresh hot dogs and get those showers ready faster. And go help your clerks help us.
Photo credits are: http://airportshotelsandparking.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/potholes.jpg and you can find the $9.95 Latex-ite Super Deep Pavement Patch at The Home Depot
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You’re dreaming…right?
Potholes? What potholes? Oh, you mean those CATFISH pounds that are deep enough to hide a compact car and full of water even though it hasn’t rained in days?
I remarked to a truckstop manager once that I wished that truckstops were inspected like trucks were and put out of service if enough things weren’t working.
He was not amused.
I have a permanently swelled ankle from one of those trucklot potholes! And they wonder how we all get hurt so often! But my pet peeve is the non-card readers at the pump (yes, Pilot, I mean YOU!). Those darned things worked fine just long enough for you to take the fuel island phones out-then they quit. You never mark them Out of Order-you let me stand out there in a snowstorm freezing my buns while I enter ALL of the info-THEN it gives me the out-of-order thumbs-down! So, I go get in line with every other ticked-off trucker to put my info into “the system”, go back out and find your overworked clerk never turned on the pump! Trudge back in and stand in line and remind them, I’m waiting….back out and hope it works this time, while trucks line up behind me, annoyed they cant get to a pump!
I used to wonder why they would annoy the customer to that extent, then I realized-as a company driver, I’m not the customer-my employer is! And he’s not here and he doesnt care! They dont care-as the real customer is happy with his cheap fuel price on the volume discount! So, they shouldnt be at all surprised that all truckers end up with ‘an attitude’ when in their godforsaken establishment!
The pumps don’ work, the parking lot has pot holes. Blame your company for most of that. I think that Linda hit it on the head when she said, the companies don’t care they are getting the cheap fuel. To overlay a parking lot with a 2″ cap
today costs over a million dollars. If the trucks that parked on the lots didn’t let fuel leak or change thier oil then maybe the lot would last longer. I know it’s not your problem, it’s thiers. Thats the kind of attitude that got this country in the mess we’re in now.
When was the last time you pulled into a independant truck stop and bought fuel? Wel if you did and bought 100 gallons at 2.49.9 they made $10.00 off that and hen they had to pay comdata if you used a comdata card $3.00.
The clerk has to be paid, the shower cleaner has to be paid.
That lazy manager has to be paid. The lights and water has to be paid. You think because you drive for a company and they make you fuel at a specific location, thats hard. Try owning your own truck, or running one of those truck stops. OHH I forgot, it’s not my problem.
HI, Today I bought fuel at your Tye , TX location and I used the squeeze to clean my windows and lights and I cleaned a few bugs off the grill area of my truck . But I used simple green to spray on the area’s I’m going to clean to make it easier to get the bugs off. When I was done fueling my co driver went inside to get the fuel ticket. But the cashier would not give the fuel ticket to my co driver unless she purchased the squeeze that I used to clean the bugs off the window’s and lights and a few bugs that was on the head light and grill area. She said we used it on something other than the windows and would have to purchase it. Well under an act of extortion my co driver paid for the squeeze at $2.70. When she came back out and told me what had happened, I could not believe it .But when she showed me the ticket she also said that the cashier would not give her the fuel ticket unless she paid for the squeeze. And cashier claimed that I had ruined the squeeze by using it on the grill. But She never looked at the squeeze. It was still in brand new shape no tears or anything wrong with it. This is a first this has happened in over 20 years I have been buying fuel at the Flying J, and using other services like the checking account that I have with the tab bank. But when I went inside to right this Wrong, the cashier, I think her name was April would not refund the money back. She sayed that I used the squeeze on the grill and that I Had to buy this itemed she was not going to refund my money. But I told her she has not posted any signs not to use such items on the truck and I wanted a refund .Well she still was a cashier-zillia. And I wanted to talk to the manager she called the manager and then told me that the manager will not refund my money back either. Now the manager show’s up and was dumb founded that the cashier charges me for the squeeze and told her to refund my money. This is the first time I have ever had this kind of problem and I’ve had my cdl license for 33 years ago. Here is the ticket info 08-25-2009, invoice # 13003214, original Invoice # 13003199; location 05064, frequent fueler # …4202, for code 048374090074 at 2.49 plus tax, tax of .21 equals 2.70. It is not about money here it is the principal that I was charged for this item when there was no sign not to use this item on the grill. Also I didn’t mess up this item up by using it on the grill area. .So after this I’m going to rethink about buying my $55,000+ a year in fuel from the flying J and my checking account’s that I have at the tab bank.
Sincerely, Joe Hall
this is the e-mail I sent to J corp in utah