Trucking 101: Truck Stop Showers and Trucker Hygiene

[Tobin S.]

Some people wonder how truckers manage to stay clean out there on their travels. If you've ever spent time around truckers you'll know that many of them don't. But most of us at least try. When I was a long haul trucker I tried to get a shower every day, but it wasn't always possible. There are things you can do to keep from getting too grungy in the event that you find yourself on a lengthy stay at one of your friendly customer's loading docks- brush your teeth, comb your hair, put on some deodorant, take as good of a bath as you can in the men's room sink. But nothing is a good substitute for a good ol' fashioned truck stop shower.

If you buy enough fuel at a truck stop they will give you a shower for free. Sweet deal, eh? Most of them require a 50 gallon purchase, but some require a 75 gallon purchase. If you don't buy fuel they will charge you anywhere from $3 to $10 for a shower depending on how nice the truck stop is and its location. That's the way it was 3 years ago when I last drove over-the-road anyway. So you buy your fuel and park your truck in the lot, grab your shaving kit and a change of clothes and hit the showers. You go to the fuel desk again and show them your receipt or give them some money. If you're lucky or in there in the middle of the night, you won't have to be put on a waiting list. Otherwise, it could be a while. So you have your receipt that has a number on it. They will call it out on the intercom when your shower is ready. You go back to the fuel desk and grab some towels and a key to the shower. Some truck stops require $5 or so as a deposit on the towels which you will get back when you return them.

Most of the time you get what you pay for when it comes to truck stop showers. If you're in a run down, little mom and pop's place that the big chain truck stops haven't managed to run out of business yet, your shower may not be the greatest. No hot water; mildew stains; thin, small towels that have been in use since 1973; dim lighting that gives the room the atmosphere of a dungeon; and it probably hasn't been cleaned in a day or two. You might actually feel dirtier after your shower than before you went in to one of those. If you get a shower in one of the big name places, it usually gets cleaned after every use and is somewhat similar to what you would find in a decent hotel.

The most adventurous shower I've ever had was at some little mom and pop's truck stop down in southern Florida. The shower cost $2 and they didn't supply any towels. The shower stalls were in a little shelter type building away from the truck stop. The building was actually open around the top of the wall about two feet down from the roof. No hot water (who needs hot water in southern Florida? :)), and a community bar of soap. No sinks or mirrors. I guess they didn't expect anyone to need a shave. That truck stop did have a bar, however. They certainly had their priorities in order. :party:

Edit due to MiddleFingerMom being a smarty pants.

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. A shower with a BAR?!?!?!?!?

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Man, I'd be perma-pruned before that shower was over.
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[Tobin S.]

3. Okay smarty pants. On edit:

[MiddleFingerMom]

6. Smarty pants? Some people LIKE the way I dress.

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:hi:

[Brickbat]

2. I find these posts fascinating.

I love behind-the-scenes information. Thanks for sharing all this.

[Tobin S.]

4. You're welcome

I might be making light of truckers and the trucking lifestyle a little here, but I've found myself strangely drawn back to that lifestyle lately. I guess that's why I'm writing about it and I want you guys to know what it's really like, too.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Please continue to share info like this.

I like this kind of info.

[MiddleFingerMom]

7. Totally agree.

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I poke fun, but the information is interesting. I used to be
tempted to take a shower at truck stops when I was traveling
quite a bit, but always pictured the horror-story end of the
facility spectrum.
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Used to sneak into motel pools and saunas a lot.
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S-h-h-h-h.
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[WritingIsMyReligion]

8. Just wanted to say that all your writings on trucking are really interesting.

The trucking industry is not one that I am at ALL familiar with, but it's good to read these little cultural/practical tidbits--I love cultural insights.

:)

:thumbsup:

[Tobin S.]

9. Thank you. How have you been?

I haven't seen you in a while. Have you just been lurking?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

10. I've been doing well.

Trying to stay away from the political internet as it's just too time-sucking. Didn't go on DU for months until the whole MA fiasco dragged me back in. :) Almost exclusively lurking now again, though. Life is good, however, in the college realm, so I'm just trying to focus on that. :)

[jmowreader]

11. The Pilot chain changed the minimum fuel purchase last year

It's now 25 gallons for a free shower...for some strange reason I never had the opportunity to find out if they were kidding. (I used about 100 gallons a day.)

Every truck stop chain has Driver Loyalty Cards. This is the key to the free showers. When you pull up to the fuel island, you have to swipe your fuel card first (Comdata is the most popular brand) then your loyalty card. For every gallon of fuel you purchase, you get one "point" on your card. A point equates to one cent--which means if you're running any distance at all you're going to add about a buck a day to the card. What you can do with the points depends on the truck stop you fuel at. Pilot allows you to use the card to purchase just about anything in the store--which normally means coffee, soft drinks, hot dogs, and food at the fast-food joint in the truck stop unless that particular truck stop has a McDonald's because they don't accept the cards. Love's is the same way, although I never ran up enough points on my Love's card to redeem. TA and Petro only accept the cards in the store where the fuel desk is; their restaurants won't take the loyalty card. (Which sucks if you were planning to use the points for food.) I'm not sure what Flying J does.

Now, I thought THIS really sucks: I had to run a load of Honda Accord bumper covers from Honda's big DC outside Knoxville, TN, to a regional DC in Connecticut. I got the load on Thanksgiving Day and pulled it to Roanoke, VA, where I had to stop for a new set of steer tires. After I got the tires, I got back under the load and pulled it to the TA in Willington, CT, where I fueled the truck and did a 34-hour restart. If you fuel at this truck stop Monday-Friday and stay longer than 10 hours, they will charge you $20. Now do the numbers: you roll in and they give you a time slip. You fuel--that's at minimum 15 minutes on Line 4. You park the truck for 10 hours. You do a 15-minute pretrip inspection. Total spent: 10.5 hours--thirty minutes longer than they give you. If I would have known about that, I would have done one of two things: gone to the Pilot in Milford for my 34 hour restart, or just kept my ass in Virginia until Sunday afternoon.

The wildest place I ever showered was at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Baldwinsville, NY. A-B is one of the most driver-focused shippers in the world--they don't want you leaving their premises and running out of hours 30 minutes later, so they have tractor parking and driver's lounges. At this plant, they've got showers, microwave ovens, a TV, just everything you'd want. The only thing they didn't have was free beer for the drivers, and who can blame them for that.