Name The Best And Worst Truck Stops In America And Canada.

"Truck stop" can be any establishment that has provisions for a tractor-trailer (at least a single semitrailer) to legally park to do business as a patron for meals, showers, exercise equipment and showers.

Usually these places are chains.

I am a germ freak and seek the absolute CLEANEST places on the map to eat especially. I don't want to see cooks in restaurants unshaven and/or covered in tatts.

Is truck driving a career for germ freaks?

I don't believe having blue-collar employment means one has to look and dress like a slob.

Is truck driving a career for germ freaks?

Absolutely not. You're spending every minute of your time outside of your truck in public places - restrooms, restaurants, showers, hotels, terminals. And you're sharing all of this public space with truck drivers, arguably the least hygienic people in America.

And I think it's a Federal Regulation that truck stop cooks must not wash their hands before cooking the food.

And everyone has to sneeze on the buffet - that's a given.

Yeah, you're gonna have a lot of fun with that.

Wait till you smell the pavement on the way into that pigsty. You won't know where the bathroom begins or ends. Make sure to dodge the used condemns on the way across the parking lot too.

And why do you associate tattoos when being unclean?

Hahaha I thought this was going to be a good thread when I saw the title. My friend, you stop where you can in this business. If you know how to manage your clock well, you can usually give yourself a good selection of places to go, but you will always have those times when you just have to stop somewhere, anywhere, so you can shut down to take your break.

And for the record I never got sick from eating food prepared by people with tatoos.

My niece on my sister's side is a germaphobe. She's had a bottle of hand sanitizer on her key chain at least as long as she's been a mother. She wouldn't be caught dead in a truck stop bathroom.

My great niece on my brother's side is more on the slovenly side. She started carrying sanitizer on her key chain last summer, after she started riding in her dad's semi. I never made the connection before today.

Ravenswood, your post is an open invitation for a good T-T ribbing, as you see. The replies are all based on truth. Yes, the parking lot stinks. Your colleagues are mostly not presentable in an office environment. You know the minimum requirements: CDL-A and a DOT medical card. Personal hygiene is not on that list.

However, many, many truck stops do keep to a level of cleanliness to the point that some T.S. chains boast their showers (they are private rooms) are as good as "hotel" clean. The shops and restaurants are as clean or better than any Denney's or McDonalds. The restrooms do get lots of use, but they are often almost as clean as the restaurants.

But on a day-to-day basis, there are professions that are more fit for germophobes.

some T.S. chains boast their showers (they are private rooms) are as good as "hotel" clean

To a germaphobe the expression is "hotel dirty".......there's no such thing as "hotel clean"

So, nobody here can truly rate truck stops by name? I tend to think of people who wear tatts as unclean.

What I have heard is that things at truck stops are rather expensive as meals. I think there is no excuse with such high revenues that these establishments receive that there should be a shortage of janitorial service.

I went to a T/A restaurant in Boise, ID with a friend in 2005. The cook wore long hair and a beard. No hairnet or facial cover. It grossed me out.

I am going to put my interest in driving as a career at the bottom of the barrel.

I was an American soldier for seven years. I would appreciate a work, meal and living environment to be at least "military clean".

My grandfather was a union heavy equipment operator, an Operating Engineer on diesel tractors. Still, he always maintained a neat and gentlemanly appearance. Les Schwab Tires has a corporate policy that all male employees be clean-shaven and this is not even a business in food or healthcare. I wish federal law provided that for food handlers nationwide.

People in the military are clean cut and clean-shaven. Mustaches, if worn, must be trimmed neatly. Mess cooks must always wear a hat and clean white uniforms. Have you seen any truck stops where the cooks were at least clean-shaven? I find it appalling and gross wherever I see male employees in beards handling a customer's food. I worked at a national chain hamburger joint back in 1985. The owner was very tight on males' being clean shaven. I once showed up for work with a slight five o'clock shadow and was given a cheap Bic razor to go into the men's room. Even the owner told the manager to shave off his mustache.

Are there any true ladies and gentlemen who drive trucks in America for a living and look the part in their demeanor and dress?

Yes, it is a blue collar thing to "put the hammer down", but at $50,000+ per year, it is not like an unskilled peon, an ex-con, with a shovel at a construction site.

Are there any true ladies and gentlemen who drive trucks in America for a living and look the part in their demeanor and dress?

You consider yourself a gentleman, but yet you talk about people like this:

it is not like an unskilled peon, an ex-con, with a shovel at a construction site

That's not a gentleman. It takes a lot more than a clean shaven face to be a gentleman.

I am going to put my interest in driving as a career at the bottom of the barrel.

Then best of luck to you at whatever you decide to do.

I think Ravenswood is more of the type of person who spends most of his time trying to decide what not to do.

Which is probably why he's not doing anything.