Trucker's Top Tips to Finding the Best Truck Stop

The Best Truck Stops

Finding the best truck stop depends on what you're looking for. You can find the basics � fuel, food, bathroom and small convenience store -- at nearly every truck stop in America or Canada. But if you're looking for more than the basics, you could luck out or be out of luck, depending on where you stop.

The Big 5

You usually can't go wrong with the Big 5 truck stops:

• Flying J
• Love's
• Petro
• Pilot
• T/A Travel Centers

Located and designed to serve the needs of long-haul truckers, these truck stops also attract plenty of auto traffic but they continue to offer the services professional commercial truckers need.

What They Offer

Nearly all Big 5 truck stops offer good coffee, ATMs, restaurants, showers, laundry machines, Wi-Fi access, lounge areas with televisions, video game and/or movie rooms and a decent convenience store that usually stocks basic truck maintenance items. Most Big 5 truck stops also have window washing stations for your rig and some have truck washing and/or truck maintenance facilities located onsite or nearby.

Quality and specific services vary somewhat from location to location, but the Big 5 chains offer McDonalds-like reliability. You can count on them to be about the same from state to state. Each chain offers a free app to help you locate their truck stops quickly.

Location, Location, Location

It's nice to patronize your favorite truck stops when you can, but in this job time is money and where you stop is usually dictated by location. Most of the time, truckers are looking for the closest truck stop so they can get the services they need without going out of their way. BigTruckDrivingJobs.com offers a fairly comprehensive alphabetical list of U.S. truck stops organized by state and city. Click on your location for a list of nearby truck stops.

To find truck stops with specialty services, check out our post on the best truck stop apps.