Truck stops can be a haven for truck drivers who spend long hours on the road. In addition to refueling yourself and the truck, you can get some rest and park your truck in a safe location. However, not all truck stops are equally safe for yourself or your rig. Even in the safest truck stops, there are risks of damage to your vehicle. Many truck accidents occur in truck stop parking lots, given the tight parking situations. There are also horror stories out there about drivers whose trucks have been broken into and who were put into dangerous situations. As an owner operator or company driver, you can guard your truck, and your safety, by following a few simple truck driver safety tips.

Safety at truck stops

There are many reasons why parking and safety are issues at truck stops. First of all, most trucks are now longer than the allotted parking space. This is because most current truck stops were built a few decades ago when the average truck was much shorter in length. The parking lots haven’t grown in size along with the length of current trucks. There may also be unnecessary traffic at truck stops due to student drivers. Some CDL trainers bring student drivers to truck stops to practice their skills. Unfortunately for you, this means there’s a higher chance that your rig could be damaged by a rookie who is just learning the ropes.

You may be tempted to overlook the chances of damage at truck stops but take a minute to think about the costs.

Even if you have an insurance deductible on your truck as an owner operator, it wouldn’t cover all the damage. It doesn’t take much by a careless rookie to rack up about $5,000 in damage. Add the costs of parts and labor, and the economic loss of downtime, and you’re looking at several thousand in damage. Personal safety at truck stops is also of major concern. While you may think truck stops look safe enough, they can be targets for robberies in the middle of the night. Here are a few truck driver safety tips you can follow to protect yourself and the rig.

Truck safety

There are a few simple tips you can follow to reduce the chances of damage to your rig while parked at a truck stop. First, try parking at the very end of the parking area, away from the fuel island. You may have to try stopping earlier at night to find a good spot farther away. The reason is that there is less parking traffic that occurs here. The farther you are from moving trucks, the better. You might want to avoid the entire truck stop if they have a smaller parking lot. Second, pick a good parking spot.

Parking next to immovable objects like poles makes it less likely that another truck hits you on at least one side of your vehicle.

Avoid stopping next to trucks which had a shoddy parking job, or which seem like they’re going to be leaving soon. In fact, don’t park next to other trucks, or on the ends of rows, if you can avoid it. You may want to consider parking nose-in, so you can back out easily. Your truck won’t be hit by anyone pulling in or out.

You’ll want to take safety precautions for your cargo as well. Pad lock your loads, and consider using the seat belt to secure the door. You can run it through the door handle and fasten it. Lastly, consider investing in dash cams. These handy devices can record events in front of your truck. You’ll be able to view this footage if someone hits your truck and takes off. In such an event, you want to protect your reputation as a driver with your carrier, and have clear evidence of what happened, even if the camera can’t identify the culprit.

Personal safety

In addition to your rig, you need to take safety measures to protect yourself at truck stops. Not all truck stops are equally dangerous. You can save yourself some trouble by reading reviews ahead of time for which truck stops to avoid at all costs. Some truck stops have taken measures like security cameras to make their premises safer. Even at the best truck stops there is always a small chance of robberies or burglaries. The valuable cargo you’re carrying can make you a prime target for such crime. Avoid talking about your freight when you’re in public or within earshot of others. Don’t forget your cargo is precious!

Women drivers in particular may have to think about safety concerns more than men, even though truck stops are taking measures to become more female-friendly.

If you’re staying the night at truck stops, there are simple ways to make your area more secure. First, make sure to lock all doors to avoid break-ins. You may also want to pull the blinds over the front windshield so that your possessions aren’t visible. Most company drivers inform their carriers exactly where they are staying for the night for documentation and record-keeping purposes. Finally, consider investing in more cameras. Dash cams can be placed aside from the front blinds so they can capture footage of any would-be perpetrators.

Keeping these truck driver safety tips in mind will help you secure yourself and your rig in truck stops across the country.

A truck driver’s work and life can be full of inefficiencies. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re losing time and energy because you ended up doing things in the wrong order. Sometimes other people’s schedules don’t match yours. Inefficiency can be annoying, but it can also waste resources like time, money, and fuel. Improving truck driver efficiency means saving more time, money, and energy by doing things in more optimal ways. You’ll feel more productive and get the sense that you’ve hacked some mysterious way of the universe. Here are three simple ways to become a more efficient truck driver.

1. Attempt early pick-up and drop-off

Every time you get a new dispatcher, find out when the load picks up and delivers. This is important because sometimes they’ll ask you to drive a very short distance to pick up a load, but the pick-up time is five hours away. Let’s say you’re only 70 miles away from the pick-up and expect to be there by 1:00 PM. But dispatch says that pick-up time is 5:00 PM, which means you’ll have arrive four hours early and will have extra time to kill. Or you may find yourself arriving at the delivery location several hours early as well.

Yes, you can take a break during this time, but if you’re interested in efficiency you won’t like that option. Instead, always find out if you can load or deliver early.

Your documentation will usually have some notes on this sort of this, but it isn’t always 100% accurate. If you have the shipper/receiver’s contact info, call and ask whether it is an option to load or deliver early. You’d be surprised how often the shipper wants to send out the freight quicker and how often the customer wants to receive is sooner. If you don’t have their contact info, you can contact your dispatcher and ask them to make the same inquiry. Yes, your dispatcher may get annoyed if you do this repeatedly.  But remember that it’s part of their job to manage efficient fleets. A few instances of successfully changing to an early pickup/delivery time will remind your dispatcher that this is possible.

2. Keep everyone updated on available working hours

By now you’re aware that your ETA and PTA times are important to remember and communicate with others. But wait, what are these again?

ETA means estimated time of arrival and PTA stands for projected time of availability.

To make things more confusing, some people might use ETA for estimated time of availability. This is completely different and is more like PTA. What’s the difference? Your estimated time of arrival (ETA) at the receiver location may be 2:00 PM, however you won’t be available right after. It’ll take the customer an hour or two to unload, so your projected time of availability (PTA) is closer to 4:00 PM. But if either the customer or your dispatcher is using ETA to mean the other thing, then they’ll be confused and believe you are free at 2:00 PM instead of 4:00 PM. If you arrive at the customer location the previous night and don’t unload until the morning, there may be a twelve-hour difference between your ETA and PTA! Make sure your shipper, receiver, and dispatcher are all kept up to date on your ETA and PTA. More importantly, coordinate to see if they are all using those terms in the same way. Otherwise your schedule and route will become very confusing!

3. Plan your route and truck stops

You’ll find trucking to be easier once you have a tentative idea of where and when to stop instead of playing it by ear.

When you do close for the day, consider stopping at smaller or independent truck stops instead of the big chains (Pilot, Love’s etc). Parking fills up quicker at the nationwide chains and it can be difficult to find a spot.

The reason for this is that most trucking companies are getting fuel discounts from the big chains, so they become required fuel stops for drivers. While there is no requirement to park there for the night, most truckers will do so because they’re already there! Parking spaces at smaller truck stops won’t fill up as quickly—you could easily refuel at a chain and then go elsewhere to park for the night. That being said, if you’re looking for laundry, showers, or other amenities, then the chains are your best solutions. It all depends on your needs for the day. Some of the bigger stops have laundromats. If you run into these wash your dirty clothes even if you have plenty of clean clothes. These premium stops are few and far between, so it’s most efficient to utilize them whenever you find them.

How are you going to know your options for stopping, fueling, or parking? Sure the dispatcher has some information, and you have a handy GPS app, but are those enough? Every trucker knows that both dispatch and GPS will fail them sooner or later. Build redundancies by picking up some essential books. The National Truck Stop Directory is an essential guide to the truck stops you’ll hear about, and more importantly, all the ones you won’t hear about. Another gem is The Next Exit, which documents every exit on Interstates in the country. Finally, the Rand McNally Road Atlas is a fantastic guide to turn to when your GPS provides sketchy directions. Planning your route and schedule through these resources will help you locate where you should stop at the end of your day.

Takeaways

The trucking job and lifestyle usually has many competing demands to juggle. Trying to tackle them all without a method can lead to losing time, money, and other resources. Try out some of these methods to maximize your schedule and route efficiency. You may find that using route planning resources, communicating about available working hours, and trying for early pick-ups and drop-offs will make you a much more efficient truck driver.