Boost Sales with Regional Products

WWW.NATS O.C O M
MAY/J U N E 2 014
THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF NATSO, REPRESENTING THE
TRUCKSTOP AND TRAVEL PLAZA INDUSTRY
Boost Sales with
Regional Products
Parking 101
INTERNATIONAL
TRENDS
Split Mountain
Travel Center
Turns a Negative
into a Positive
Take Winning
Photos of Food
with These Tips
How HOS Rules are
Changing Freight
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CHAIRMAN’S LETTER
Recommendations for Remodels
A
TOM HEINZ
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
s truckstop and travel plaza operators,
we all know that curb appeal is
important, but the question we
have to ask ourselves is how much is
a facelift worth? In an article in the
November issue of Retail Leader, author
Ed Avis encourages the reader to take a
more sophisticated approach in planning
renovations or rebuilds.
As someone who reviews metrics daily, I
especially appreciate Mr. Avis’s questions asking how ROI is measured, which elements
pay off, which don’t, how long the benefits
last and what are the tax implications?
Along similar lines, I asked those more
knowledgeable than I for recommendations
for NATSO members considering remodeling or rebuilds. Here is what they had to say:
has been my experience from pe“ Ittroleum
marketers over the years that
when the rehab cost is greater than 55
to 60 percent of a total rebuild, it is
better to demolish and rebuild. Bite
the bullet and be happy with the totally renovated site.”
secret recipe. It doesn’t hurt to hire an
incredible design firm to guide you.”
—Michael Lawshe, Paragon Solutions Fort Worth, Texas
operators wonder, ‘If I only
“ Several
have “x” dollars to spend on the re-
1.
— Francis O. Bologna, CPA,
Francis Bologna & Assoc. L.L.C., Gretna, La.
basic remodel of an existing store
“ Ashould
have a 10 to 15 percent increase
if the store is fairly current. The opportunity for greater increases exists if you
pursue new profit centers or expanded
profit centers. Some of our remodels
have had a 50 to 60 percent increase.
The key is to do some evaluation on
the front end to determine what areas
you are underperforming on as it relates to industry averages regionalized
for your location. Combine that with
an unbiased comparison against your
competitors and sprinkle in some innovation and creativity. That is the
2.
3.
4.
5.
model of my facility, where should I
spend it?’ My personal experience is
that the elements that will have the
biggest impact on the bottom line for
a travel center operator are:
The addition of the right quick-service restaurant (QSR). The key here
is to select the best brand for your
specific location. Secondary and tertiary brands have little value.
Consolidation of cashier pay points
to improve customer flow and reduce labor.
Upgrading showers, but not just upgrading, going over the top to create
a shower that your customer will remember and talk about.
Expanding fresh, open deli programs, which are the fastest growing
category of sales and don’t cannibalize QSR or full-service offerings.
Installation of utility control devices/
controls. This is not as ‘sexy’ as the
other four, but the savings show up evwww.natso.com
3
CHAIRMAN’S LETTER
diminishing returns. Very few
locations will be better off with
more than two brands.”
—Michael Ouimet, Ouimet Resources, LLC, Cheyenne, Wyo.
essential to the successful
“Also
outcome of your project is to in-
ery month and require very little
management.
Here are the elements that I would
recommend operators avoid:
1. Expansion of driver amenity areas, such as TV lounges, game
rooms, etc. Let’s face it. Drivers
are spending less time on site and
more time in their truck. Operators should look to convert this
space to retail or QSR use.
2. Large expansions of retail floor
space. In most cases stores are
poorly merchandised and operators can gain 20 to 30 percent of
additional retail shelf space by
actively managing their shelves,
and/or raising the height of
shelves. Many operators have
made this same mistake in their
full-service restaurants as well.
The additional space also has to
be heated, cooled, kept clean,
etc. Look to maximize current
square footage before adding on.
3. Addition of too many QSR food
offerings. There is a point of
4
May/June 2014
clude a building contractor early
on that you can trust and is experienced in the travel plaza industry. The design firm will have
had experience with contractors
and can head you in the right
direction. Proper consideration
of the following construction
elements during the planning
stage will solidify the decision to
rebuild or remodel:
1. Site Considerations:
Does the site provide adequate
space for a new building or adjustment to the building? How
will the deliveries be staged to
keep out of the line of traffic flow?
Will you have the right traffic
flow when completed? How will
the customers enter and exit the
site. How will the public enter the
building?
With parking, will you achieve
the proper accessibility with the
new construction?
As the surrounding sites have
progressed, has that changed
your drainage needs? Is the
site in a condition that building
heights need to be addressed?
Will the site and/or building
support possible future expansions? Building placement and
access can play a significant role
in the project.
2. Building Considerations:
Will the existing building construction support the remodel
or addition? What is the existing building shell construction,
i.e. roofing, wall construction,
floor finishes, etc. If the building
shell itself is decaying or of older
materials, the cost effectiveness
would be to put the effort into
constructing a new building.
What are the conditions of the
existing mechanical and electrical
systems? Are the services outdated
and/or will not be cost effective to
support the addition or remodel?
Will you need to alter the floor
plan either with new construction or will the existing floor
plan meet your needs? Restroom
conditions are getting to be a main
point of focus, so ensure that they
are handicap accessible and easy access for the customers.
3. Maintain operations and cash
flow during scrap and/or rebuild construction: This is an
area where using contractors experienced in the industry reaps
big dividends. Consider placing a
temporary structure so checkout
can be accessible during construction or phasing of remodel to ensure minimized impact on fulfilling
customer needs. Also ask how your
costumer’s safety will be preserved
during addition or remodel.”
—Dan Schutz, Gil Haugan Construction, Sioux Falls, S.D.
I thank the contributors for great
stuff! ■
Best regards,
Tom Heinz
Coffee Cup Fuel Stops &
Convenience Stores, Inc.
NATSO 2014 Chairman
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MAY/JUNE 2014
THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF NATSO, REPRESENTING THE TRUCKSTOP AND TRAVEL PLAZA INDUSTRY
C OVE R STO RY
20 International Trends
Attendees of the International
Study Tour find new business
ideas abroad.
FEATU R E S
08
FIND THE TRUE COST
OF PARKING
14
TRUCKSTOP AND TRAVEL
PLAZA OPERATORS,
PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS
MAKE CHANGES IN
RESPONSE TO HOURSOF-SERVICE
Chairman
Tom Heinz
Editor
Amy Toner
President & CEO
Lisa J. Mullings
Associate Editor
Mindy Long
Stop Watch is published bimonthly by the NATSO Foundation,
1330 Braddock Place, Suite 501, Alexandria, VA 22314
Copyright 2014 by the NATSO Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
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16
18
OPERATORS BOOST
SALES WITH REGIONAL
PRODUCTS
D E PARTM E NTS
03
Chairman's Letter
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR REMODELS
06
Great Ideas!
THESE TOP TEN MONTHLY
METRICS WILL RESULT IN
KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR YOUR
TRUCKSTOP
TAKE WINNING
PHOTOS OF FOOD
WITH THESE TIPS
13
24
23
26
Foundation Update
TIPS FOR EMPLOYERS ON
MANAGING EMPLOYEES’
USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Fuel Up on
NATSO Benefits
SAFELY TAKE CHECKS
WITH CHECKLINK
HOW TO PROMOTE A
TRUCKSTOP GRAND
OPENING OR REOPENING
We Want to Hear From You!
Do you have comments, ideas or suggestions? Don’t hesitate to contact us.
The NATSO Foundation
1330 Braddock Place, Suite 501, Alexandria, VA 22314
Email: [email protected] / Phone: (703) 549-2100
http://www.facebook.com/NATSOInc / www.natso.com
Member Profile
SPLIT MOUNTAIN
TRAVEL CENTER TURNS A
NEGATIVE INTO A POSITIVE
Operator 2 Operator
WHAT IS ONE METRIC
YOU REVIEW EVERY DAY?
DARREN’S GREAT
Darren Schulte, NATSO’s vice president of membership and a retail expert, writes a biweekly retail column on NATSO’s
blog. We feature the best here in Stop Watch magazine. Join Schulte on NATSO’s website at www.natso.com/great-ideas
to read his digestible retail tips every other Thursday.
THESE TOP TEN MONTHLY METRICS WILL RESULT
IN KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR YOUR TRUCKSTOP
There are many ratios, key performance
indicators, metrics and comparisons
that operators should be looking at
every month. On the surface, many
of these seem complex, but once you
start using them, they no longer take
on the appearance of being difficult
to measure.
There is a veritable alphabet soup of
metrics and comparisons operators
should look at, including GMROI,
GMROII, PTI, NOC, EBITDA, FMPG
and ROCE.
Tom Heinz, NATSO’s chairman of the
board prefers ROCE—Return on Capital Employed—of the many key performance metric. He recently wrote about
it in NATSO’s September/October’s
Stop Watch magazine. Operators, especially the owners and executives
of the operation, should be looking at
these and other complex metrics.
There are also less complex metrics
that the management team should
look at monthly. These monthly met-
6
May/June 2014
rics, just like the daily metrics I’ve
written about on my blog, should be
discussed and acted upon if you are
going to track them. Whatever metrics
you decide to review monthly must be
done without failure and execution of
the findings must take place.
Collecting the data does not improve
your location’s profitability, but it does
give you actionable takeaways, which
can be anything from “good job everyone, we had an exceptional inventory
count last month” or “we need to take
a look at how we are deploying our labor as it compares to our sales as we
continue to overspend based on our
budgeted dollars.”
Here are my favorite groupings of
simple yet effective monthly metrics.
1.
Gross margin dollar and percent
comparison in all categories compared to last year and budget. You
may also want to consider looking
at fuel profitability as a percent instead of cents per gallon.
2.
Food cost and food cost variation
comparison to last year and budget.
3.
Total labor cost [benefits, training, etc.] comparison to last year
and budget by profit center.
4.
Controllable and non-controllable
expenses compared to last year
and budget.
5.
Inventory shrink variation compared to last year and budget.
6.
Comparable sales for all profit centers, including shop, QSR, restaurants, etc., as well as to budget.
7.
Profit and revenue dollars comparison for “other income” to last year
and budget, including ATM, video
arcade, showers, parking, etc.
8.
Diesel and gasoline gallons compared to last year and to budget.
9.
Fuel margin per gallon compared
to last year and to budget.
10. Total operating expenses divided
by total fuel gallons sold.
HAVE A RETAIL MERCHANDISING, MARKETING OR OPERATIONS QUESTION? Reach out to Schulte
at [email protected] or (703) 739-8562 and he’ll answer your question in the next
Darren’s Great Ideas! for Independent Operators.
HOW TO PROMOTE A TRUCKSTOP GRAND OPENING OR REOPENING
Whether you’re opening a new business or holding a grand reopening,
you’ll want to engage the public and
the media. Here are eight tips to make
the most of your event.
3.
1.
4.
If you have a fleet card or a loyalty
card, give away three times the
points or something similar.
5.
Offer door-buster savings or buyone-get-one-free opportunities to
help get people in the door.
6.
Offer a free fill of gasoline (with a
set maximum of gallons) with the
purchase of a coffee, donuts etc.
Giving away gas creates loyalty
and a memorable experience and
drives your inside sales.
2.
Include the community and invite them to the ribbon cutting
ceremony. You may also want to
consider having an invitation-only
dinner for members of the community or offering some opening
specials for the community.
Create an event in conjunction
with your opening. Not only will
you generate more traffic by having an additional event, such as
a blood drive, Girl Scout Cookie
sale or child identification registration, you’ll increase the odds
that your location becomes a
destination in the future.
Offer some fuel savings opportunities to local fleets and/or regular
customers during the grand opening week. Let them know about
the promotion via an e-mail blast.
7.
Create a one-day sale around the
event, such as 20 percent off the
lowest ticketed price.
8.
Hold a friends and family event
with a special meal for family
members. Create a reason for
people to eat in the restaurant. ■
www.natso.com
7
FIND THE TRUE
COST OF PARKING
BY MINDY LONG
Truck parking is one of the most important amenities travel plazas and truckstops
offer. While truck parking is often free for drivers, it comes at a cost to the nation’s
truckstop and travel plaza operators. To better understand the level of investment
they’re making and their return on that investment, operators can do some simple
math to help them understand the true cost of their parking lots.
8
May/June 2014
parking facilities, even if they don’t
charge for the spaces.
“Most of us understand that it is a
loss leader, but it is also important to
understand what the true cost is. If
you don’t understand the magnitude
of that number, you can’t make future decisions,” Schulte said, adding
that operators can also tie the costs
of parking in with inside sales to further understand their numbers.
“As an example, if the cost is X
amount of dollars a day to upkeep
your parking lot and you know people are parking there at night, you
can see how much you do in sales
and how much you do in fuel in
that period of time they’re there,”
Schulte said.
Knowing the numbers is also important for operators that may be
considering charging for parking
spaces.
CALCULATING PARKING COSTS
T
ruckstop and travel plaza operators know that truck parking
is a valuable service. Whether
drivers need to shut down to rest
for the night or need to reset their
hours-of-service clock so they can resume driving, they need a safe place
to park their trucks. Those parking
spaces come with a price tag, and
most operators are bearing the expense of truck parking, which they
provide for free.
Darren Schulte, vice president,
membership for NATSO, said that
it is important for operators to
understand the true cost of their
To fully understand their costs, operators should factor in all expenses
related to parking operations, which
go beyond just asphalt installation
and repairs, Schulte said.
“Many operators don’t figure out
what the cost is to illuminate the
parking or the price tag on security
cameras. Or the cost for landscaping if they have shrubs and plants
or a fence,” Schulte said. “They also
have to factor in the cost of someone to pick up the trash and snow
removal if they do snow removal.”
Dan Alsaker, president of Broadway Flying J Truck Stops, has calculated the cost of his parking down
to each individual space. “We always assigned the value of $8,000 a
space,” he said.
To get to that figure, Alsaker
looked at the cost of the actual
ground, the asphalt and the initial
development of the parking lot.
Then, he looks at his ongoing maintenance costs, which average about
$3,000 per asphalt acre each year.
He also spends about $10,000 each
year on maintenance on each dry
well, which collect storm water run
off, at the locations. Every five acres
have two dry wells, Alsaker said.
“A dry well is a perforated dry well
tank and all of the asphalt slopes
into that. All the fluids from the
truck drip off in the rain in snow
melt. You have residue diesel and
oil, all of that has to be captured
and dealt with,” Alsaker said.
Every three to five years, Alsaker said Broadway Flying J has to
completely dig the dry well out,
and then reinstall it to make sure it
drains properly.
“We also have to stripe the parking spaces each year. That takes man
hours. We also have snow removal
in the winter. We throw in about
$150 a year per spot just for general
maintenance,” Alsaker said.
For operators looking to calculate
their costs, Schulte recommends
they look at the role employees play
in maintaining the lot, break out
the specific time on each task, then
calculate the cost based on their salary. “If you do snow removal, you
can calculate that it takes X amount
to pay for someone to remove the
snow, plus the cost of vehicle and
the driver and the gas,” he said.
CHARGING FOR PARKING
TravelCenters of America allows drivers to guarantee a parking space with
its Reserve-It program, which is available at select TA and Petro locations.
Drivers pay for spaces and reserve
them with a credit card or in person
at the fuel desk at the participating
site where they want to park. They
www.natso.com
9
WHAT IS THE TRUE COST
OF A PARKING SPACE?
Add up all costs.
Don’t forget the
hidden costs.
Typical expenses include
asphalt installation, repairs,
lighting, security cameras,
landscaping, snow removal,
trash removal and striping
the parking spaces.
Divide the cost by the
number of spaces.
Now you know the true
cost of each space.
can also reserve spaces online or via
a mobile app for their smart phones.
The check-in time for Reserve-It
spaces is 4 p.m. and check out is before 3 p.m. the following day.
TA and Petro sites offering Reserve-It have set aside a small percentage of spots, generally 5 percent
of the spaces on average, for reserved parking. These locations still
maintain a high number of traditional “unreserved” parking spaces
available on a first-come basis.
Schulte said very few independent
operators charge for parking and
those that do tend to be in urban
areas where parking is scarce.
10
May/June 2014
The Sacramento 49er Travel Plaza
in Sacramento, Calif., has had success with paid parking for its 250plus spaces, said Tristen Griffith,
president. “Because we’re a terminal
location, we have to charge for parking otherwise our parking lot would
be filled with people storing vehicles
here rather than people who need to
park,” she said.
Drivers can park for free at Sacramento 49er if they purchase 75 gallons of fuel or have $50 in combined
receipts, Griffith said, adding that
drivers always get four hours of free
parking. For those that do pay, the
rate is $12 for every 24-hour period.
Even if drivers aren’t paying to park,
tracking their entry and exit helps
Griffith better calculate the value each
truck brings to the location. “Let’s say
I get 100 tickets and we had $1,000
in sales. I know each truck was worth
$10,” she said, adding that the information is valuable. “I want to get
more trucks into those gates because
every truck is worth X amount.”
When drivers enter Sacramento
49er, they go through an unmanned
ticket gate and obtain a ticket.
When they exit, they turn in their
ticket in to an employee and pay.
Griffith also has coffee and bottled
water for sale at the exit. “It is one
last little chance for a sell,” she said,
adding that they also give away dog
treats to drivers traveling with pets.
Sean Flynn, manager of Flynn’s
Travel Plaza in Shrewsbury, Mass.,
allows carriers to lease parking
spaces, which are primarily used for
trailers, in an off-site lot. “Carriers
will drop the trailers until they’re
ready to load. A lot of companies
don’t need a terminal or cross docking, but they just need somewhere
to drop their trailers,” he said.
For example, UPS might need
a seasonal area for a lot of trailers
or there may be a company that
Entry to Sacramento 49er Travel Plaza's parking lot is
through a manned gate.
has dropped a load but there isn’t
a load out, so they drop a trailer
and pick up a load somewhere else,
Flynn explained.
As a precaution, Flynn added a
release of liability to the form carriers fill out to lease parking. “For the
lease lot we have a month-to-month
form they fill out with vehicle information, contact information and a
standard release like is on the back of
the parking receipt,” he said.
PREVENTING THEFT
Carriers that charge for parking or
are considering charging for parking
need to implement checks and balances to prevent theft, Schulte said.
“A lot of people think if they put
in parking, they’ll make money,
but these are often cash transactions, which increase the risk of
theft,” he said.
Sometimes, operators find that
charging for parking isn’t worth the
effort. Alsaker charged for parking for years, but ultimately ended the practice. “We don’t charge
any longer for a variety of reasons.
When we did we put fencing and
had to have it staffed,” he said.
“We stopped charging for parking
around the time they put in the
ShorePower or IdleAir units.” ■
FEB. 16–19 • LAS VEGAS
KNOWLEDGE
CONNECTIONS
SOLUTIONS
ahead-of-the-curve
experts
good advice from
fellow operators
great new products
and services
SAVE THE DATE!
FOUNDATION UPDATE
Tips for Employers on Managing Employees’
Use of Social Media
B
usinesses today are plugged into
social media as an integral part
of their businesses, but many
employers struggle daily with how to
manage their employees online. Aliah D. Wright, author of A Necessary
Evil: Managing Employee Activity
on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…
and the Hundreds of Other Social
Media Sites, said banning employees’
social media use just doesn’t work,
but managing it with policy does.
“Too many companies, whether
from fear, confusion or a stubborn
inability to embrace change, are
continuing to ban employee use
of what has essentially become our
new telephone,” Wright said.
Wright has the following tips for
managing employees who access
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
other social media sites:
1. Familiarize yourself with the
social media networks your
employees are using. Are they
using Facebook? Instagram?
Google+? Pinterest? Twitter?
Don’t know? Ask them.
2. Encourage your employees to
use social media responsibly.
Employees are legally allowed to
discuss their jobs on social media.
Help them build their brands
(while enhancing your company’s
image) through their very own
blogs and contributions to Twitter chats, LinkedIn and the myriad of other online forums.
3. Give employees guidelines for
appropriate social media use
and behavior. Provide guidance and treat employees like
responsible adults who do the
jobs you hire them to do. Remind them that nothing they
delete from a social networking site ever really disappears.
It lives on the site’s servers and
can be subpoenaed if necessary—just like people.
4. Make the case for external
social media engagement in
your company by showing
the strategic value of being in
the same social spaces as your
clients, peers and colleagues.
Having a social media strategy
that applies to the entire company is critical. It ensures that
the commitment, energy and
time invested in social media
activities have been worth it.
Recognize, too, that if you are
not in the space your competitors are, you're leaving your
firm at a possible disadvantage.
5. Be mindful of friending subordinates and colleagues on
social networking sites—especially if you are managing
their performance. Remember: people use social media in
different ways and for different
reasons. Some people adjust
privacy settings regularly. Others do not. As an employer, you
may encounter things you are
not legally supposed to see.
6. Don’t just exist on social media; be engaged. Be attentive.
Be honest. Be transparent and
apologetic when necessary. Provide feedback whenever possible.
Most of all, be present. Investing
the energy, talent and resources
required to maintain your corporate presence within the social
media sites you choose to inhabit will be beneficial over time.
7. Institute a policy on social
media engagement. Outline
parameters, and decide who the
stakeholders will be. HR? Public
relations? Marketing? Analyze the
use and adoption of your network and discuss both offline.
“Good companies pay attention to
the social networking sites that their
customers and employees inhabit,”
Wright said. “They watch their behaviors and listen to their concerns.
They apologize when their companies make mistakes and they are
transparent and honest. And they
engage their audiences and employees to foster growth, increase brand
awareness and tap their collective
knowledge to improve their bottom
lines,” Wright said. ■
www.natso.com
13
Truckstop and Travel Plaza Operators,
Professional Drivers
Make Changes in Response to
HOURS-OF-SERVICE
BY MINDY LONG
By law drivers must adhere to federal hours-of-service regulations,
but recent changes in those regulations aren’t just changing the
way drivers operate. They are also changing business operations of
those who serve them.
C
hanges to the federal hoursof-service regulations that
dictate when professional
truckers drive are shifting driving
times and causing truckstop and
travel plaza operators to shift staffing
periods. Operators are also introduc-
14
May/June 2014
ing more grab-and-go items for drivers that are looking to get back on
the road quickly so they can adhere
to the regulations.
Jim Goetz, president of Goetz
Companies, which operates Petro
Travel Store #353 Plaza in Portage,
Wis., is seeing a shift in when professional drivers stop, with more
coming in during the early evening
hours. “In the past 10:00 or 11:00
at night was more typical,” he explained. “The challenge for all of
us is that it is compressing our business rather than spreading it out over
more hours. Your sit-down restaurant is busier at 4:30-6:30 p.m. It
challenges your facilities and your
team players.”
Dan Alsaker, president of Broadway Flying J Truck Stops, said,
“Drivers are changing their schedules so they’re doing more driving
during the day. Our peak hours have
changed and we’re just not seeing the
traffic at night that we used to.”
The new hours-of-service rules
took effect on July 1, 2013, and include provisions that limit use of
the 34-hour restart and require a
rest break before driving after eight
hours on-duty.
Dave Osieki, vice president for
safety policy, American Trucking
Associations, said, “The new restart changes are definitely having
an effect on when fleets operate.
One way or another drivers are using the restart and it is longer than
it used to be, so their off-duty time
is longer. If they don’t use it they
are back under the old 70-hour
rule and it is more complex.”
Osieki said he believes more
freight is moving Monday to Friday, because that is when businesses
are open for pickups and deliveries,
which minimizes the time drivers
spend waiting in the truck.
He added, “A lot of drivers are forgoing those Saturday runs so they can
take their restart over the weekend.”
Alsaker expects to see traffic patterns and peak periods continue
to shift, particularly as more and
more drivers adopt e-logs. “Statistics show that 70 percent of drivers
on the road are using paper logs.
The paper logs are what you want
to put on that log,” he said. “With
an e-log, they have to shut down
when the rules dictate. They can’t
push a little further to get to their
favorite truckstop where they can
get a nice steak and a shower.”
Changes may also be on the horizon as many in the industry continue to challenge the rules. Late
last year, trucking industry executives told the House Small Business
panel that the new hours-of-service
rules, including the 34-hour restart
provision, are counterproductive,
force drivers to spend more time
driving during peak traffic hours
and decrease productivity.
Duane Long, chairman of Raleigh, N.C.-based Longistics, was
among those who testified on behalf of the trucking industry. He
said the impacts of the rule were
particularly hard on team drivers.
“They resent the intrusion of the
government on their daily work
routine,” he said, “they resent the
new restart restrictions and the effect they are having on their ability
to make a living.”
The American Transportation
Research Institute (ATRI) found
that 53 percent of drivers said they
have spent more time in traffic
congestion due to the 1 a.m. to 5
a.m. rule, which requires certain
breaks during those periods.
ATRI’s report, Operational and
Economic Impacts of the New
Hours-of-Service, also found that
82.5 percent of commercial drivers
surveyed said the new HOS rules
have had a negative impact on their
quality of life, with more than 66
percent indicating increased levels
of fatigue. A large number of drivers—67 percent—reported decreases in pay since the rules took effect.
In addition, more than 80 percent
of motor carriers surveyed have experienced a productivity loss since
the new rules went into effect, with
nearly half stating that they require more drivers to haul the same
amount of freight, ATRI reported.
American Trucking Associations
Chairman Bill Graves called on
Congress to support the TRUE
Safety Act, a bill introduced by
Reps. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.),
Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Michael
Michaud (D-Maine) to suspend
the new rules until an independent
review is done.
Regardless of whether or not the
rules change, truckstop and travel
plaza operators said they will continue to add to and alter their offerings
to best serve their customers’ needs.
Driven in part by HOS, Big Boys
Truck Stop in Kenley, N.C., now
gives drivers the ability to phone in
their food order from the fuel island, which lets them get back out
on the road quicker, said Wendi
Powell, the location’s manager. The
location is also adding a warmer
to have hearty grab-and-go meals,
such as meatloaf with creamed potatoes and green beans, available
for drivers.
“We want to have a type of fresher
TV dinner or microwavable dinner that
they can take on the road that doesn’t
have the preservatives in it,” she said.
Powell said the location is trying to meet drivers needs, but still
wants them to come in and sit down
for a meal. “The actual taking the
time to eat their meal and relax is
huge to their health. It plays a big
part in their de-stressing from being
on the road,” she said. ■
www.natso.com
15
Operators Boost Sales with
REGIONAL PRODUCTS
BY MINDY LONG
Travelers often like to tap into the local flair of the communities they visit,
and savvy truckstop and travel plaza operators are tapping into regional
products to increase sales and please customers.
16
May/June 2014
F
rom locally made food to unique
knick-knacks, a number of independent operators are adding regional products to their offerings and
boosting sales while giving travelers a
taste of the local culture. Operators
said regional products are appealing
to professional drivers, passenger vehicles and tourists alike. At Frog City
Travel Plaza in Rayne, La., frogs are
king. Rayne is the frog capital of the
world, and the location capitalizes
on it.
“It has frog ashtrays, frog t-shirts,
you name it. The tourists love it,”
said Ron Hicks who oversees operations at both Frog City and Silver’s
Travel Center in Breaux Bridge, La.
“It is surprising to me how many
people buy frog items.”
At Silver’s Travel Center, crawfish
rule, as does Cajun lore. “We’re in
the heart of Acadiana [French Louisiana]. It is Cajun country, so we
sell a lot of Cajun cookbooks, Cajun lore, voodoo books and witch
doctor books, ghost books and one
thing or another,” Hicks said.
Crawfish are both on the menu
and on the merchandise. “We serve
gumbo and have a crawfish etouffee.
We also have crawfish key chains
and crawfish hats,” Silver said, adding that the town’s annual crawfish
festival helps bring in customers
looking for local flair.
Dave Shoemaker, Shoemaker’s
Travel Center in Lincoln, Neb., sees
an uptick in business on game days
for the University of Nebraska. Not
only can fans stop for food and fuel,
they can buy ice cream that is made
right at the University’s agricultural
college. “It is good ice cream and has
been selling well,” Shoemaker said.
Shoemaker also sells local meats,
including a bison jerky in the cstore and steaks in the restaurant.
“I’m spoiled, and I don’t think you
can get a good steak out of Nebraska. We use a local meat distributor—Del Gould—who has good
meat,” he said.
Rick Boyer, store manager at Trails
Travel Center in Albert Lea, Minn.,
is also finding success with local
meats. “Our most popular item is
Nick’s Meats. It is a local company in
Haywood, Minn. He has jerky, bacon, hot dogs and summer sausages.
That is a huge success for us with the
locals and the travelers,” he said.
Trails Travel Center has a
25,000-square-foot travel center/cstore area, which means they have a
lot of room to feature unique items,
Boyer explained. They are also a
destination stop for passenger vehicles and busses.
To further capitalize on the local
offerings, Boyer sells Minnesota soy
soaps and canes and walking sticks
hand carved by a local carver.
Boyer is also tapping into the expertise of his employees. “We have
an employee that makes Grandma’s
Gourmet Jams and Jellies as a side
business and we sell that. People like
that homemade label and look that
they can’t find anywhere else,” he said.
Tara Yokiel is Trails’ fudge master
and hand makes the fudge the location
sells. “We have different flavors and
have done that for six months now. It
is big with the travelers,” Boyer said.
Trails Travel Center also sells
Kringla—a Nordic soft cookie.
Minnesota has a large Norwegian
population and Boyer said many
travelers say they have a hard time
finding Kringla. “The casino bus
trips make a special stop here and
the older folks load up on fudge and
Kringla,” he said.
For travelers passing through Wisconsin, cheese curds and Wisconsin
cheeses are a staple, said Seth Miller,
manager at Petro Travel Store #353
in Portage, Wis.
“We do business with a local
cheese house called Jim’s Cheese
out of Waterloo, Wis., and they
create wonderful cheddar cheese
wheels encased in wax the old fashioned way,” Miller said. “We also
have a relationship with Carr Valley Cheese from La Valle, Wis., and
they are nationally known for their
award-winning cheese curds and
have that special ‘squeak’ when you
bite into a fresh curd.”
Like other locations, Petro Travel
Store #353 also does well with locally made meat snacks. The location
purchases products from Wisconsin
River Brands in Mauston, Wis.
“They specialize in sausage sticks
made from beef, venison, elk and
buffalo and are a favorite with the
customers,” Miller said.
After all that meat and cheese,
customers also like to have a glass
of wine, Miller said, adding that the
location does business with Wollershiem Winery located in Prairie du
Sac, Wis.
“They are nationally known for
their award-winning wines and in
particular ice wine, which is made
from frozen grapes when natural
sugars are very potent. It creates a
very sweet dessert wine,” he said,
adding that only a few wineries have
the ability to make ice wine.
While customers like local products they can purchase and take on
the road, Wendi Powell, manager
at Big Boys Truck Stop in Kenly,
N.C., said restaurant customers also
like local products. Big Boys tries to
use as many locally produced products as it can, including cornmeal,
sweet potatoes, sausage and meat.
“We are using a locally grown, steroid-free beef from Wheeler Cattle
Farms and people love it,” Powell said.
“I would love to see us branch off into
that more in the coming year.”
Operators told Stop Watch that
they turn to local goods because
they get a quality product that is
in demand. The bonus is helping
their neighbors.
“A lot of the things we are using
are putting money back into our local economy,” Powell said. ■
www.natso.com
17
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Take Winning Photos
of Food with These Tips
BY MINDY LONG
Not only can quality photography of your food showcase your products, it can entice customers to choose your
location over a competitor. Unflattering photos, though, may do more harm than good. Whether you’re uploading
food photos to your website, pinning them on Pinterest or posting them to your Facebook page, your images need
to make your food look appealing and highlight its best qualities.
Here are seven tips to help you get flattering photos of your latest dishes.
TRY DIFFERENT ANGLES
DOCUMENT THE ENTIRE PROCESS
SHOWCASE THE CHEFS
Food, like people, might have a
better side. When shooting pictures,
try different angles—left, right, top
and bottom. Consider getting a
bird’s eye view by standing on a
chair and photographing from up
high. Then take some close ups.
Shooting from a wide variety of
angles will give you plenty of options
to choose from.
Food photography doesn’t always
have to focus on the final product
on the plate. Consider shooting the
individual ingredients—a photograph of
a beautiful bowl of strawberries sitting
next to a rolled-out pie crust may be
just as appealing as a picture of a
slice of pie.
People like to connect with the food
they’re eating, and sometimes that means
connecting with the cooks and servers.
When snapping shots, be sure to get
a few with the team that has helped
prepare the food.
SHOOT IN NATURAL LIGHT
Food often looks better when
photographed in sunlight instead
of using a flash. Position food near
a window to take advantage of
natural light.
FOCUS ON THE DETAILS
When shooting a photo, pay
attention to the plate, cutlery and
even the napkin in the shot. Try to
incorporate some contrasting color
between the background and the
food. For example, red cherries on a
red plate won’t pop like they would
on a white plate. Also, garnishes
can make a big difference in the
overall appearance of a dish.
Consider adding crumbled bacon,
toasted nuts or fresh cilantro on
certain dishes.
SHOW FOOD IN DIFFERENT STATES
Start with photographing the whole food
product, then take a bite and snap another
shot. That missing bite could make the
photo look more natural. Or, instead of
photographing a single slice of pie, shoot
the pie with one slice missing.
CONSIDER FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY TRICKS
Food stylists know that food sometimes
needs a little help to photograph well.
For example, a blowtorch can create that
perfectly browned edge on a hamburger
patty, white glue can be used in place of
milk when photographing cereal, a scoop
of mashed potatoes can stand in for a
scoop of ice cream, and a spritz of glycerin
can make fresh fruits and salads glisten.
www.natso.com
19
INTERNATIONAL
TRENDS
BY MINDY LONG
Sometimes the best ideas come from putting a new take on a proven practice or finding another way
to look at well-known data. To spur innovation and increase insights, business operators frequently
look to their peers. For the past three years, NATSO members have taken things a step further by
traveling abroad to learn from their international counterparts.
D
uring NATSO’s 2013 International Study Tour,
Sept. 22–27, truckstop and
travel plaza operators took part in
hosted retail study tours in Amsterdam and then traveled to London
for the ‘Future of Convenience’
conference and exhibition, where
over 100 companies and 40 countries were represented.
20
May/June 2014
“In the European market there is
a passion for quality and customer
service. They are also dedicated to
creating a positive work environment and place a strong emphasis
on the human resource part of the
business,” said Tom Heinz, president of Coffee Cup Fuel Stops, Inc.
Darren Schulte, vice president of
membership for NATSO, also not-
ed the focus the European market
placed on human relations. “Unlike
the United States where creating a
culture is spoken about a lot but not
often executed, creation of positive,
people-first culture is leading to improved and profitable results first
and foremost with operators we met
and listened to,” he said.
European operators also focus on
their customers, and in order to delight shoppers, operators abroad focus on understanding who their customer really is, Schulte said. They
look at what customers really want,
when they are buying—morning,
daytime or evening—and what they
are buying. They also look at the
differences between a shopper and
a buyer, he said.
Schulte said there is a strong focus on
store layout and design as well as the
creation of the shopping experience.
Operators abroad are also implementing customer friendly technology, such as self check-out registers
and systems that allow customers
to order on their way to or from
work or while on the train so they
can pick up products on their way
home, Schulte said.
European operators also are improving their fresh produce, deli and
specialized food offerings, Heinz
said. Those innovations, along with
great store offerings, are helping
them offset low fuel margins.
Dan Alsaker, chief executive officer of Broadway Flying J Truck
Stops, said Europeans are focusing on bringing fresh back into the
marketplace. “They are working to
be that corner store,” he said.
The next NATSO International
Study Tour will be held Sept. 6–13
in Santiago, Chile.
As in the past, the 2014 tour will provide
NATSO members an opportunity to tour retail
locations and network with innovative fuel retail
business in other nations.
“A study tour gives you a learning experience
like no other,” Pamela Hayes, vice president,
strategic partnerships, said. “Don’t discount
what you can learn from others, and be ready
to step out of your comfort zone by traveling
to another country. You will be very glad you
accepted this adventure!”
Corey Berkstresser, general manager for Lee Hi
Travel Center, said, “Last year was the first time I
was fortunate enough to attend the International
Study Tour with NATSO. I wasn’t completely
sure what to expect at first, but quickly any
expectations were met and exceeded. Where
else could I have the opportunity to visit in a
single day a market, restaurant, coffee shop,
supermarket, convenience store, petrol station,
rest area and café?”
SANTIAGO
Chile has proven to be the most progressive
country economy in Latin America in the
past two decades. Attendees will meet with
executives and tour facilities of COPEC, one
of Chile’s most successful companies.
Learn more at www.natso.com/
internationalstudytour.
www.natso.com
21
Schulte said fresh bread is a growing market segment and fresh flowers continue to be a staple.
Heinz said that many European
operators have had success with
vending machines. “They offer wall
vending with fresh sandwiches, pies,
cakes and fruit. They also have a wide
variety of coffee vending options and
electronics vending,” he said.
Stores in Europe tend to be smaller than those in the U.S., and space
European retailers are focusing on bringing fresh back
into the marketplace.
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May/June 2014
constraints force operators to have
productive product and focus on
top sellers.
Interestingly, the Europeans
don’t focus on fountain drinks and
instead focus on the cooler. “Beverage in coolers is SKU-management
focused. Certainly they are lacking
space, but focus on SKU management even in larger stores within other categories is apparent,”
Schulte said.
Heinz said he walked away with
several new ideas for his locations.
“Learning what they’re doing there,
can give us new ideas of what we
can do here,” he said.
European operators also have a
lot they can learn from U.S. operators. “In Europe, coffee programs
and coffee focus is all the rage, as in
the U.S.A., however they are far behind us in development and look,”
Schulte said. ■
NEW MEMBERS
FUEL UP ON NATSO BENEFITS
BY AMY TONER
WE KNOW NATSO MEMBERS don’t have tons of time to research
all the knowledge resources and business solutions
NATSO offers. It is a good thing we are experts in all things
NATSO. Read on to learn about just one of the many
resources NATSO provides.
NEW TRAVEL PLAZA MEMBERS
PRIDE TRAVEL CENTER
363 Burnett Rd.
Chicopee, MA 01020
PHONE: (413) 737-6992
CONTACT: Robert Bolduc
PRIDE TRAVEL CENTER
77 West St.
Springfield, MA 01104
PHONE: (413) 737-6992
CONTACT: Robert Bolduc
NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
DICKERSON HOLDINGS
60 Clyde Dickerson Rd.
Olive Hill, KY 41164
PHONE: (606) 738-5373
CONTACT: Christopher E. Dickerson
THE DAGES COMPANY, LLC
10035 Sliding Hill Rd., Suite 1
Ashland, VA 23005
PHONE: (804) 314-7870
CONTACT: Carter C. Dages
WATFORD CITY LODGING, LLC
199 State St., Apt. 9D
Brooklyn, NY 11201
PHONE: (310) 261-5351
CONTACT: Kenneth L. Hartog
NATSO CHECK-LINK™
Check-Link™ is a member-only program that provides check verification
for thousands of professional drivers and offers NATSO’s assistance in
collecting bad debt for an additional fee of just $30 per month.
This exclusive NATSO member service allows truckstop operators to verify
participating drivers’ checks directly through their point-of-sale device.
NATSO’s database of thousands of drivers is updated hourly to protect
operators from bad checks, which saves locations thousands of dollars in
potential lost revenue.
Check-Link™ is a great marketing tool that enables truckstop operators
to grow their direct bill and owner-operator business. Check-Link™ has
more than 1,150 subscribing truckstop locations already using the service. ■
ALLIED NEW MEMBER
K & S UNIQUE, LLC
Expressway Business Park
3468 Webster Ave.
Perris, CA 92571
PHONE: (951) 657-8411
FAX: (951) 657-8812
CONTACT: Ken and Sharon Neiswonger
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.knsunique.com
For more information, contact NATSO’s Member Care Specialist, Kimberly Roberts,
at (703) 739-8573 or [email protected]. Check-Link is a members-only program.
www.natso.com
23
SPLIT MOUNTAIN
TRAVEL CENTER
TURNS A NEGATIVE INTO A POSITIVE
BY MINDY LONG
REBUILDING AFTER A CATASTROPHIC EVENT
On March 3, 2013, the Split Mountain Travel Center in Vernal, Utah, was destroyed when a nearby business
exploded. The blast, caused by a propane leak, came shortly after midnight.
“O
ur store was completely
devastated. The only
items that were not
damaged in the explosion were my
underground fuel tanks and our
cooler doors,” said Tracy Honeycutt,
the location’s manager. “The store
24
May/June 2014
was gone, but by the grace of God,
no one was hurt. If it had happened
twelve hours earlier, it would have
been a different story.”
While the store was gone, Honeycutt and her team were able to get the
fuel islands up and running the next
day. However, it took four months to
renovate the rest of the location.
“The process of rebuilding the
store was a daunting and overwhelming experience,” Honeycutt said.
After the fire marshal cleared
the building and allowed essential
OF GOD, NO ONE WAS HURT. IF IT
“ GRACE
HAD HAPPENED TWELVE HOURS EARLIER, IT
THE STORE WAS GONE, BUT BY THE
WOULD HAVE BEEN A DIFFERENT STORY.”
personnel in the c-store, Honeycutt was among those that did the
initial walkthrough. One of the
first things she did was to retrieve
all three of her handhelds so she
could start the inventory loss process. “Thank God I had charged
them all three days prior and had
the backup batteries charged also,”
she said.
Ultimately it took several weeks
for Honeycutt and her staff to scan
all the inventory they lost.
Honeycutt credited her team,
who showed up every day to clean
up the store and help get it open
again. “Our task of cleaning up
was overwhelming at times. I have
to say I had an excellent staff. We
all just hiked up our bootstraps
and dove in,” she said.
The location’s employees helped
remove perishable items that
would spoil without power and donated them to the local food pantry. “Once all the perishable items
were removed, two of our owner’s
started the process of securing our
store windows and doors with plywood,” she said.
Clean up lasted for several more
weeks and then Honeycutt and her
team started planning the rebuild. She
turned the negative into a positive by
incorporating changes into the design,
re-designing everything from the register area to the floor to new counters
and paint. “We completely flipped our
store. What wasn’t working before, I
could now change,” she said.
Prior to the rebuild, the counter area
ran from east to west with the registers
facing south. “Our entry doors were
located east and west of our building
also. This posed the problem of not
facing our customers when they entered our store,” she said.
That meant employees couldn’t
make direct eye contact when greeting customers, which was something
that was important to Honeycutt.
“I also extended our old coffee island and made it longer and wider
so our customers could access and
make their coffee from either side.
Our coffee island is our ‘watercooler’ for our customers,” she said.
“They love to congregate there and
have their morning chat. Now the
coffee island is big enough to accommodate the chatters and the
grab-and-go customers.”
They opened the c-store on July 3
at 1:03 pm. “We were by no means
done with construction, but I was
able to pass inspection and open for
business,” Honeycutt said. “The café
reopened on Oct. 15.”
Today the location boasts 6,000
square feet and 25 parking spaces in
front of the store and 55 behind it.
The truck wash remains the same
way it was the morning of the explosion, with the exception of the security
fencing surrounding it. “It has been
condemned and we are in the process
of obtaining demolition bids,” she said.
Being closed took its toll on Split
Mountain’s customer base, which includes over-the-road truckers, locals
Split Mountain Travel Plaza is located on
Highway 40 on the east side of Vernal,
Utah, near the Colorado/Utah border.
and the oil field companies in town.
“My goal is to bring back our customers and draw in new ones.”
However Honeycutt said many of
her customers were supportive and
she credited her staff ’s excellent customer service. “I have the very best
staff,” she said. “I can’t stress enough
that engaging with our customers
makes them feel welcome and appreciated. We were told numerous
times how much we were missed and
how happy our customers are with
the changes I made and that we were
finally opened.”
Honeycutt’s advice to other operators is to make sure they back up their
computer on a thumb drive and charge
their handhelds and backup batteries
every night. “These two small tasks
saved our business. Without them, I
can honestly say I have no idea how we
would of maintained accurate records
of our loss and all our data on all of our
computers,” she said. ■
www.natso.com
25
OPERATOR 2 OPERATOR
What is one metric you review every day?
T. MICHAEL SIBLEY, LAPLACE TRAVEL CENTER, LLC
Our point-of-sale system sends me an
email every day with the day’s diesel gallons. I review it to make sure it is at least
at a certain number and if it is below that
number, I take action. Thank goodness the
system can send those emails, because it really forces me to review the number daily.
For our restaurant, I also look at our daily
sales and discounts. If the number of discounts given is too high, I’ll remind my
staff to not over discount.”
SEAN FLYNN, FLYNN’S TRUCK PLAZA
I always check out gallons and
our drawer over shorts. If gallons
are good and over shorts are
good, then everything is good.”
DON DEMKO, DEMKO INVESTMENT GROUP, LLC
I look at fuel gallon sales and margins on gas and diesel. I also look at the daily
sales report in our Dairy Queen and convenience store. I check by category and
look at the amount of credit card sales. I also look at the volume of house accounts
and balances.”
WANT TO BE FEATURED IN THE NEXT OPERATOR 2 OPERATOR? Our next question to discuss is "How do you appeal to four-wheel traffic during
the holidays?" Submit your answers to Darren Schulte at [email protected] by July 1, 2014.
26
May/June 2014
Nominate an Employee
as a Truckstop Superhero
The travel plaza and truckstop industry serves as the
concierge of the highway, providing safe, thoughtful and
courteous hospitality to both truck drivers and four-wheel traffic.
This hospitality frequently results in truckstop and travel plaza
employees performing exceptional acts of kindness or courtesy.
However, their heroic acts are seldom shared outside of
their location.
So! The NATSO Foundation created the Truckstop Superhero
award to recognize those truckstop and travel plaza employees
who go above and beyond the call of duty.
But we need your help! Nominate a Truckstop Superhero
today. When you know of, witness, or experience an
exceptional act of kindness or courtesy by a travel plaza or
truckstop employee, please take the time to nominate them at
www.natso.com/truckstopsuperhero.
Your nomination will help publically recognize the industry
employee for their act and help the individual employee take
pride in their profession. Examples include a driver taken to
the hospital or taking stranded customers home for the night.
Superheros may also simply offer customer service that has
a profound effect on the customer’s day.
For additional information, visit
www.natso.com/truckstopsuperhero.
NATSO FOUNDATION’S
DISASTER RELIEF FUND
The NATSO Foundation is committed to doing its part to help victims of tragedy.
Through the Disaster Relief Fund, the Foundation provides charitable funds to support people within our very own
travel plaza and truckstop community affected by a disaster by providing access to immediate financial resources.
Charitable awards are made by the Foundation Board of Directors based on an objective determination
of need or distress to truckstop and travel plaza customers or employees, truck drivers and small
motor carriers impacted by disasters.
Donations to the fund can be made online to help support people
from our own industry who are in urgent need. For more information
about the NATSO Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and to donate, visit
www.natso.com/natsofoundation/disasterrelief.
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