Food At Truck Stops

Some years ago there was a driver who posted here that he just had to eat his meals in a sit down restaurant, truck stop or other, but I think it was mostly restaurants attached to truck stops. He was spending about $900 per month in checks and tips. Wow, eating outside of your truck can get mighty expensive plus clog up your arteries.

Even if you don’t have a microwave or electric skillet or crock pot or refrigerator, it’s still very doable to get good food at a grocery store to eat in the truck. And it’s very economical to boot. Walmart actually has a pretty good produce department. Deli departments have pre-cooked meats. If you carry an ice chest/picnic cooler all you have to buy is ice or get a Coleman that plugs into a 12 volt port. Or have the wife pack the cooler full of food. In my case it’s cheaper and less problematic to do it all myself than to get a wife.

I'll continue to cook my own meals on the truck.

PackRat’s TruckStop and Good Eats!

I'll have to agree on The Tennessean truck stop in Cornersville, Tn. off I-65 exit 22. By far one of the nicest Mom & Pop stops still available. The Creek Travel Plaza off I-65 exit 54 is another good Mom & Pop stop. 1950's themed restaurant.

I'll continue to cook my own meals on the truck.

Yuummm! I'll be right over 😉

Laura

I'll have to agree on The Tennessean truck stop in Cornersville, Tn. off I-65 exit 22. By far one of the nicest Mom & Pop stops still available. The Creek Travel Plaza off I-65 exit 54 is another good Mom & Pop stop. 1950's themed restaurant.

Is the restaurant back open? I know they had a fire there last year.

My question was not about cooking in a truck vs going to a restaurant every day, and even less so about our personal preferences. People are so different, some don't cook at all, or don't like to cook, or even worse, don't care what they put inside themselves - my dad is one of them :-) So there is for sure a huge demand for good food (which doesn't have to be expensive) among thousands of truckers. Look at Texas, at most construction sites or other places where Mexican people work, a pickup truck comes at lunch and offers homemade Mexican food. Yes, you can have good tamales or burritos at a restaurant, but believe me, those are the best! I worked for a few years in a forestry, and a wife of one of our guys delivered that food almost every day. It was many years ago, but I still remember that great taste! And I don't think that it is so difficult to have something similar at a truck stop.

With construction sites and forestry, it's different because you can count on repeat customers and even take orders in advance. Truckers bounce all over the place and you don't know who'll be there tomorrow. Delivering food is even more difficult because now it's cooked and the shelf life is short.

Then take into account the distance between rest areas. They're about 60 miles apart. That's an hour of time, two to three gallons of gas one way, 2% of a maintenance interval and 60 miles of depreciation. It'll get very expensive very fast with no guarantee of a profit.

And I don't think that it is so difficult to have something similar at a truck stop.

The thing is, Andrey, unless the truck stop owns the food truck, they will not allow other people to come in and sell food to the truckers...unless those people contact the truck stop and set up a contract. However, up until the present time they never have. Truck stops have contracts with the fast food industry and certain restaurants and that is all they will allow on their property.

My breakfast supper is waiting...made just now in my electric skillet:

Laura

Having worked construction for most of my life, I can tell you that we forbid our guys from eating at the roach coach (food truck). And absolutely would not let them eat from the lovely senorita that comes by with the mystery Mexican food in the trunk of the car.

We've had way too many of them get deathly ill from them. Almost without fail, we'd have them cutting out and going home, if they could make it that far anytime one of them are from it.