New Arizona Love’s adds 100-plus truck parking spaces

October 20, 2023

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Love’s Travel Stops has opened a new location in Nogales, Ariz., providing 113 truck parking spaces among its amenities.

The new location off Interstate 19 also has 65 car parking spaces, eight diesel bays, showers, laundry facilities and a CAT scale. A Speedco is scheduled to open at the Love’s in December. Its food options include a McDonald’s and a Subway within the store’s 14,000 square feet.

“We’re pleased to announce that Love’s will now be providing another clean place and friendly faces at a 16th location in Arizona,” Shane Wharton, president of Love’s, said in a statement. “The opening will provide customers in the southwestern part of the U.S. another place to stop for convenient amenities, fresh food options and clean restrooms, along with parking and truck care for professional drivers.”

As is customary with the Oklahoma City-based company’s grand openings, Love’s is donating $1,000 each to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona and the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz County Inc.

Truck parking discussion

Adequate truck parking remains a nationwide issue, with lawmakers recently putting more emphasis on it in certain states.

In Pennsylvania, for example, the Pennsylvania Transportation Advisory Committee revealed a shortage of some 4,400 truck parking spaces across the state.

“This predicament is further compounded by several other factors, including facility types, enforcement of highway safety laws, idling restrictions and federal truck driver hours-of-service regulations,” Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, said.

Heffley’s proposed resolution to the state’s truck parking problem includes a study to provide recommendations for achieving adequate truck parking.

“By taking proactive measures and implementing strategic initiatives, Pennsylvania can overcome the truck parking shortage and ensure safe transportation and truck parking practices throughout the Commonwealth,” Heffley wrote in a memo to House lawmakers.

Nothing new

According to the American Transportation Research Institute, the lack of truck parking has been a top-five concern in the trucking industry since 2015.

ATRI produces an annual report compiled from surveys of professional drivers, motor carrier executives and other industry stakeholders.

In 2023, truck parking was within the top three concerns.

The report suggests the following proposed strategies for addressing the truck parking crisis:

Advocate for a dedicated federal funding program to increase truck parking capacity at freight-critical locations
Encourage local and regional governments to reduce the regulatory burdens limiting the construction and expansion of truck parking facilities
Research the relationship between parking availability and highway safety

Owner-operators participating in this survey also included fuel prices and speed limiters as top concerns, in addition to truck parking. LL