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Truck Stops & Travel Centers · Asset Class

Truck Stop & Travel Center Feasibility & Market Studies

Independent, lender-grade analysis for travel centers and truck stops across SBA 7(a)/504, USDA Business & Industry, conventional bank, CMBS, corporate, C-PACE, and bridge capital. This page is our standing read on why diesel volume follows freight and Class 8 truck traffic rather than car counts, how going-concern ramp-up forecasts fail review, and the difference between the market study, the feasibility study, and the going-concern appraisal a lender requires.

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123M
Gallons of transportation diesel burned per day, U.S., 20251
313K
Truck-parking spaces nationally, against 3.58M drivers4
$13.6B
Berkshire Hathaway's total cost to own Pilot's 900-plus sites9
38.9%
Foodservice share of convenience-channel in-store gross profit7
The Travel-Center Thesis

A travel center is a business, not a building.

A truck stop or travel center is the inverse of multi-tenant retail: it is valued as a going concern — real estate plus FF&E and equipment plus business and goodwill, on cash flow — like a gas station or car wash, not on a rent roll. It braids six profit centers with very different economics: high-volume, thin-margin diesel; convenience merchandise; foodservice, usually multiple branded QSRs plus a full-service restaurant; professional-driver amenities and truck parking; truck service and maintenance; and, in a handful of states, gaming. The demand base is freight tonnage and Class 8 truck traffic, not passenger-car counts. We prepare the market study, the feasibility study, and the going-concern appraisal input a travel-center file needs, aligned to the standard that will judge it.

The market is defined by two divides. The first is chains versus independents: Berkshire Hathaway's roughly $13.6 billion buyout of Pilot, more than 900 sites, and BP's roughly $1.3 billion acquisition of TravelCenters of America, about 280 sites, concentrated the two largest full-service networks under deep-pocketed owners in 2023 and 2024, while Love's funds roughly $700 million of growth in 2026.91011 A new chain a few interstate exits away can devastate an independent's diesel volume, the dominant competitive risk in independent underwriting. The second divide is secular growth versus cyclical pain: freight tonnage is projected to grow about 50 percent between 2020 and 2050, yet the 2023 to 2024 freight recession cut ATA truck tonnage 3.2 percent year-over-year in December 2024 and pushed truckload operating margins to negative 2.3 percent.23 Diesel throughput moves with that cycle, so 2021 and 2022 volumes are peaks, not baselines.

Above it all sits a documented, monetizable shortage — roughly 313,000 truck-parking spaces against 3.58 million drivers, about one space for every eleven trucks — and a fuel line whose profit sits inside the building.45 What follows is organized as a working desk: a national and freight-corridor supply and demand monitor, the going-concern ramp-up forensics that sink travel-center studies, the capital-source routing that decides which deliverable a project needs, and the study-type distinctions competitors state loosely. Every figure is dated and attributed in the sources below.

The Freight-Corridor Monitor

Where the demand is, corridor by corridor.

Travel-center demand is driven by interstate freight flows and Class 8 truck traffic, not metro population, so this monitor is organized by freight corridor rather than by city. The reads are directional: FHWA's Freight Analysis Framework and per-corridor truck AADTT are not published in a single clean ranked form, so corridor intensity draws on ATRI bottleneck rankings and FAF and BTS conclusions.

The national picture frames every corridor. U.S. transportation-sector diesel consumption ran about 2.94 million barrels per day, roughly 123 million gallons per day, in 2025, some 75 percent of total U.S. distillate, and diesel demand tracks freight, which moves about 67 percent of U.S. tonnage by weight and 73 percent by value.114 That freight base is cyclical. The ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index fell 3.2 percent year-over-year in December 2024, trucks hauled 11.27 billion tons in 2024 against 11.41 billion in 2023, and industry revenue slipped to $906 billion from just over $1 trillion, before the index posted its first year-over-year gains since 2022 in early 2026.2 Price compounds the volume swing: lower diesel cuts top-line fuel revenue even when gallons hold, and on-highway diesel fell to a $3.52 monthly average in November 2024 from a $4.69 seasonal peak in September 2023.1 The national line is one thing; the corridor geography below is another.

Opportunity read: Demand-rich / constrained Strong / more developable Mixed / overlay. Corridor intensity is directional; parking and gaming overlays are state-specific as noted.
Corridor Freight & truck traffic Parking shortage Chain saturation & overlay Opportunity read
I-95 (NE–SE) Highest in the East; Fort Lee, NJ (I-95 at SR 4) the #1 U.S. bottleneck seven years running through 2025ATRI, Feb 2025 Worst-cited region; new shortages along the entire corridorFHWA, 2019 High in the Southeast; land-constrained Northeast Demand-rich / constrained
I-10 (CA–TX–FL) Very high; Houston (I-45 at I-69; I-10 at I-45) among the worst bottlenecksATRI, Feb 2025 Significant pressure in TexasFHWA, 2019 Strong in Texas; Louisiana segment carries a video-poker gaming overlayLa. R.S. 27 Demand-rich / constrained
I-35 (Laredo–TX–Midwest–Canada) Premier international-trade truck corridor; high and growingTTI / FAF3 Texas pressureFHWA, 2019 High in Texas metros Strong / more developable
I-40 (CA–TN) Major long-haul route; Nashville (I-24/I-40) a top bottleneckATRI, 2025–26 Moderate-to-high Moderate-to-high Strong / more developable
I-80 (CA–NJ) Classic transcontinental diesel corridor (Iowa 80 sits on I-80) Chronic pressure across Wyoming and the Great PlainsFHWA, 2019 Lower rural density favors independents; thin traffic between hubs Selective / hub-dependent
I-70 / I-75 / I-65 (OH, IN, IL, GA) Midwest freight crossroads; Chicago (I-294) the #1 bottleneck in 2026; Atlanta (I-75/I-285) a top bottleneckATRI, Feb 2026 Better supply ratios in IN/OH; Chicago and Georgia are top-cited shortage nodesFHWA, 2019 Moderate-to-high Mixed / node-specific
I-5 (CA–WA) High West Coast freight and port drayage Pacific-corridor shortages, including I-5FHWA, 2019 California overlays the strictest zero-emission-truck rules and densest early megawatt chargingEV overlay Regulatory overlay

Corridor reads are directional, compiled from FHWA Jason's Law (2019), ATRI Top Truck Bottlenecks (February 2025 and February 2026), the FHWA Freight Analysis Framework, TTI disaggregation of FAF3, and Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 27 (2025); see sources 4, 14–17. Per-corridor truck AADTT is not published in a single ranked form, so intensity is directional, not precise, and metro population is deliberately excluded because it does not drive travel-center demand.

Diesel is the volume, but the profit is inside the building

Diesel is the dominant revenue line by dollars and the thinnest by margin. ATRI's 2025 Operational Costs report put fuel at $0.48 of a $2.26-per-mile total cost of operating a truck in 2024, the single largest controllable cost for carriers, which is exactly why fleets negotiate discounts and truck-stop fuel spreads stay thin.3 The gross profit lives inside. For the broader convenience channel, NACS reported that foodservice was 28.5 percent of in-store sales but 38.9 percent of in-store gross profit in 2025, while fuel was 65.0 percent of total sales dollars but only 38.8 percent of gross profit.7 The travel-center version of this dynamic is even more pronounced because the format adds full-service restaurants, multiple branded QSRs, and truck service. These are channel-wide c-store figures, not travel-center-specific, and are labeled as such, but the direction is unmistakable: non-fuel and foodservice gross profit, not fuel spread, is the resilience metric. Truck stops also pump on a different order of magnitude than a gas station — NATSO's historical survey put average single-site diesel volume at 812,513 gallons in August 2008, and high-volume interstate sites run well above that today.8

Freight is the demand cycle, so underwrite the trough, not the peak

Diesel throughput at a truck stop rises and falls with freight. The 2023 to 2024 freight recession — ATA tonnage down 3.2 percent year-over-year in December 2024, truckload operating margins at negative 2.3 percent in 2024 — demonstrates that peak-freight volumes are not a baseline, and 2021 to 2022 gallons should be treated as cyclical highs.23 The demand base is also overwhelmingly small-business and concentrated by relationship: 91.5 percent of carriers operate ten or fewer trucks, and fleet-card and fleet-fueling programs (Comdata, EFS, and chain cards) steer volume to participating locations, which is why an independent without those agreements struggles to build gallons regardless of the traffic count outside.2

Truck parking is a chronic, quantified, monetizable shortage

The shortage is structural, not cyclical. FHWA's 2019 Jason's Law survey found roughly 313,000 marked spaces nationally, 40,000 public and 273,000 private, with 98 percent of about 11,696 surveyed drivers reporting difficulty finding safe parking and 79 percent of 524 surveyed operators saying they do not plan to add capacity.4 OOIDA frames the gap as roughly one space for every eleven trucks, ATRI ranks parking the number-two industry issue and estimates drivers lose about 56 minutes per day, some $6,813 in annual wages, to parking searches.5 The federal response matters for underwriting: the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, signed February 3, 2026, created the first dedicated $200 million line-item for public truck parking through FHWA's INFRA program, restricted to free, publicly accessible parking.6 Reservable, revenue-controlled parking is a defensible incremental line only where land, striping, and truck routing support it, and only where private paid parking can coexist with expanding free public capacity.

Chains dominate, and independents carry the competitive risk

Consolidation is the structural story. Berkshire completed 100 percent ownership of Pilot in January 2024 at a total cost near $13.6 billion; BP closed its roughly $1.3 billion acquisition of TravelCenters of America in May 2023; and Love's, family-owned with 669 locations in 42 states, is investing about $700 million in 2026 to add stores, remodels, and 1,500 truck-parking spaces toward more than 52,000 total.91011 Casey's operates roughly 2,900 mostly rural c-stores after its $1.145 billion Fikes and CEFCO acquisition, overlapping the fuel and foodservice economics without being a full-service interstate truck stop.12 Buc-ee's, a car-and-RV mega format with 62 locations that does not admit 18-wheelers and provides no truck parking, is benchmarked separately from professional-driver facilities.13 Where a chain sells and leases back a site, the resulting single-tenant net-lease asset is valued as real estate on tenant credit, near the 6.80 percent overall net-lease cap rate the Boulder Group reported for the first quarter of 2026, a different question from the going-concern value that governs an operating site.20

Common Review Failures

How travel-center feasibility and ramp-up forecasts fail review.

Diesel volume, the freight cycle, and the going-concern collateral are the variables an SBA, USDA, or conventional credit committee scrutinizes most, and the places travel-center studies most often break. Each failure below is tied to a real mechanism or number.

  1. Assuming mature diesel volume on day one

    Diesel volume at a new or repositioned site ramps over multiple years as it builds professional-driver and fleet loyalty, and the fleet-card and fleet-fueling agreements that concentrate volume take time to secure. A study that underwrites a stabilized gallon figure from month one ignores the ramp and the working capital it demands.

  2. Tying diesel volume to car counts, not truck traffic

    Diesel demand is a function of Class 8 truck counts and corridor freight tonnage, not the passenger AADT that drives a retail gas station. Trucks move roughly 67 percent of U.S. freight by weight, and a long-haul truck at 6 to 7.5 mpg consumes far more per fill than any motorist, so a forecast leaning on total vehicle counts rather than truck-specific counts and freight flows is mis-specified.1423

  3. Underwriting to peak-freight diesel volumes

    The 2023 to 2024 freight recession, with ATA tonnage down 3.2 percent year-over-year in December 2024 and truckload operating margins negative in 2024, shows diesel throughput is cyclical. Projections anchored to 2021 and 2022 peak volumes overstate stabilized cash flow and should be re-forecast to a mid-cycle base.23

  4. Thin fuel margin, under-weighted inside and foodservice profit

    Because diesel is a thin-margin commodity while inside merchandise and foodservice carry the gross profit, NACS puts foodservice near 39 percent of in-store gross profit on about 28 percent of in-store sales, a plan that projects profitability primarily from fuel spread is fragile. The non-fuel gross-profit contribution is the resilience metric, and it should carry the majority of site gross profit.7

  5. Foodservice and multi-brand QSR execution

    Running multiple branded QSRs plus a full-service restaurant is operationally complex, with franchise fees, royalties, brand standards, staffing, and food-cost management. Overstated foodservice margins or understated labor and franchise costs are common, and where SBA financing is used the QSR brands must sit on the SBA Franchise Directory.18

  6. Truck-parking capacity and monetization over-assumptions

    Assuming premium reservable-parking revenue without the land, striping, truck routing, or local approvals to support the capacity, or assuming drivers will pay in a market conditioned to free parking and now facing expanding federally funded free public capacity, overstates this line.6

  7. Interstate access, ramp geometry, and truck routing

    Highway visibility, on- and off-ramp geometry adequate for loaded 18-wheelers, truck-routing designation, and exit viability are make-or-break. A site that cars can reach but loaded trucks cannot maneuver into fails regardless of headline traffic counts, and this is a threshold screen, not a sensitivity.

  8. Chain saturation and announced competition

    A new Love's, Pilot, or TA within a few exits can devastate an independent's diesel and inside volume. Studies that ignore announced or permitted chain projects nearby are incomplete, because the majors bring loyalty programs, fleet-card acceptance, and national fuel purchasing an independent cannot match.911

  9. Environmental and UST exposure

    Large-diameter, high-throughput diesel underground storage tank systems create a materially larger environmental footprint than a retail gas station. A Phase I, and where warranted a Phase II, Environmental Site Assessment is essential; contamination, older tanks, and remediation exposure can dwarf equity. The study author does not perform the ESA, which is a separate environmental professional's scope.

  10. Going-concern soft collateral, DSCR sizing, and operator experience

    Deals are frequently sized by debt-service coverage, not cost or appraised value, and a going concern where FF&E and intangibles dominate value carries soft collateral that appraisal literature calls the “kiss of death” on a high-LTV loan. A first-time operator on a complex multi-department going concern, or a plan without a working-capital reserve sized to fuel-inventory swings, is a heightened credit risk.21

Capital-Source Routing

Which channel funds the project, and what it requires.

Travel centers route through distinct capital sources, and each requires a different deliverable and coverage standard. The study is built to the union of requirements across the channels in play, and the first questions are always whether the site is an owner-occupied independent or a chain, and whether gaming revenue is present.

The travel-center lender matrix
Deliverable and coverage convention by capital source. Coverage figures are market conventions for special-purpose going concerns, not universal minimums.
Capital sourceDeliverableCoverage / eligibility convention
SBA 7(a) / 504 (owner-occupied)Going-concern feasibility + special-purpose appraisal51% existing / 60% new occupancy; higher equity; gaming under 1/3 of gross revenue18
USDA B&I (rural, pop. ≤50,000)Going-concern feasibility; job-creation narrativeUp to $25M ($40M co-op); 80% / 70% / 60% guarantee; terms to 30 yrs19
Conventional bank / CMBS / corporateGoing-concern appraisal, sale-leaseback, or corporate creditDSCR ~1.20x–1.25x+, special-purpose equity; STNL priced on tenant credit20
C-PACEEnergy-improvement assessment (EV charging, canopy solar, efficiency, resiliency)Long-term senior assessment lien; supplements senior debt
Bridge / hard-moneyAcquisition, development, or repositioning planFloating, short term, to a permanent takeout

Sources: SBA SOP 50 10 8 (effective June 1, 2025); USDA Rural Development Business & Industry / OneRD term sheets and OCC (June 2025); The Boulder Group net-lease research. C-PACE availability and terms are program- and state-specific. See sources 18–21.

One eligibility trap is worth stating plainly, because it can be dispositive: gaming revenue. Under SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025, a business that obtains more than one-third of its annual gross revenue, including rental income, from legal gambling is ineligible under 13 CFR 120.110(g).18 For a Louisiana or Illinois truck stop with material video-poker or casino revenue, the gaming share must be measured and monitored: a site where gaming is incidental may remain eligible, while one above the one-third threshold is not, and Louisiana law itself scales up to 50 video-draw-poker devices to a facility's fuel and diesel volume.17 The other structural point is the collateral. An owner-occupied independent is a special-purpose going concern requiring a going-concern appraisal, elevated environmental scope, and higher equity; a net-leased chain travel center is the opposite instrument, valued as real estate on tenant credit, with the intangibles belonging to the operating tenant rather than the fee owner.

  • Owner-occupied independent within the $5M 7(a) capSBA 7(a) or 504 with a going-concern appraisal allocating real estate, FF&E, and goodwill, subject to the owner-occupancy test.
  • Larger rural project (community under 50,000, up to $25M)USDA Business & Industry under the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative, combinable with SBA on the same project.19
  • Chain acquisition or creditworthy sale-leasebackConventional bank, CMBS, or corporate finance; the STNL asset is valued as real estate on tenant credit and lease term.
  • EV charging, canopy solar, or an energy retrofitC-PACE assessment alongside senior debt, sized to the useful life of the energy and resiliency improvements.
  • Acquisition, development, or repositioning pre-stabilizationBridge or hard-money capital to a permanent SBA, USDA, or conventional takeout once cash flow stabilizes.
  • Material gaming revenue (over one-third of gross)SBA ineligible; pivot to conventional or USDA financing where the project otherwise qualifies.18
Study Types

Market study, feasibility study, appraisal: three questions.

These three documents answer different questions and are not substitutes. For a travel center the appraisal is almost always a going-concern valuation, which is where sponsors and even some lenders conflate the terms; underwriters and credit committees do not.

What each document answers, and the standard that governs it.
DocumentQuestion answeredGoverning standard
Market studyIs there unmet demand? Corridor freight and truck traffic, the competitive set, and truck-parking supply and demand in the trade area.Trade-area / corridor demand analysis
Feasibility studyDoes this project work financially? Segmented revenue (diesel, gasoline, inside, foodservice, parking, service, gaming), operating expenses, cash flow, and the capital structure.Lender underwriting + going-concern income approach
AppraisalWhat is it worth? A going-concern / business-enterprise value allocating real estate, FF&E, and business goodwill, via income capitalization or an EBITDA multiple.USPAP; Certified General appraiser

The distinction that governs a travel-center file is that the site is valued as a going concern, not as real estate alone. The going-concern value can far exceed the underlying real-estate value, and when it does the lender must understand how much collateral is “soft” — the FF&E and intangibles that evaporate if the business goes dark. Appraisal literature explicitly warns that a high soft-collateral share on a high-LTV going-concern loan is a severe risk, and for complex going concerns the Certified General appraiser may work alongside a business-valuation specialist.21 A single-tenant net-leased chain travel center is the opposite case, valued as real estate on tenant credit and lease, with the operating intangibles belonging to the tenant, not the fee owner.20

One scope boundary is worth stating. A lender will require a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, and given the large diesel UST footprint a Phase II is common, but the feasibility or market-study author does not perform the Phase I or II ESA; that is a separate environmental professional's engagement. The market and feasibility work segments revenue and gross profit on stated bases, gallons versus dollars and cents-per-gallon gross versus net, underwrites the multi-year diesel ramp, and stresses the freight cycle; it does not opine on environmental condition.

Travel-center sub-segments, each with a distinct study scope

Travel-Center Questions

Truck stop feasibility and market-study questions.

What is the difference between a truck stop market study and a feasibility study?

A market study assesses demand, competition, corridor freight and truck traffic, and truck-parking supply and demand in the trade area, and answers whether there is unmet demand. A feasibility study builds on it to project revenue by segment (diesel, gasoline, inside merchandise, foodservice, parking, truck service, and gaming), operating expenses, and cash flow, then concludes whether the project can support its capital structure under conservative assumptions, including a multi-year diesel ramp and a freight-recession stress. It answers whether the deal pencils for this lender. For a stabilized acquisition a lender may accept a going-concern appraisal; for a new build, repositioning, or independent operator, it will require the feasibility study.

Is a truck stop valued as real estate or as a business?

As a going-concern business, not as a lease. Like gas stations and car washes, a travel center is valued as real estate plus FF&E and equipment plus business and goodwill, on cash flow, typically via income capitalization or an EBITDA multiple cross-checked with the cost approach on the tangible components. If the business goes dark, the intangible value evaporates and even the real estate and equipment collateral is impaired, which is why appraisal literature calls a high soft-collateral share on a high-LTV going-concern loan the “kiss of death.” A single-tenant net-leased chain travel center is the opposite instrument, valued as real estate on tenant credit and lease term.

Can a truck stop or travel center be financed with an SBA loan?

Yes. Owner-occupied independent and single-site travel centers are eligible as special-purpose going concerns under SBA 7(a) and 504, subject to the owner-occupancy tests (generally 51 percent for existing buildings and 60 percent for new construction). Because the collateral is special-purpose, SBA typically requires a going-concern appraisal allocating value among real estate, FF&E, and business goodwill, elevated environmental scope for the large diesel underground storage tank system, and higher equity injection than general-purpose real estate. The major chains use conventional and corporate finance instead.

How does gaming revenue affect SBA eligibility for a truck stop?

It can be dispositive. Under SBA SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025, a business that obtains more than one-third of its annual gross revenue, including rental income, from legal gambling is ineligible under 13 CFR 120.110(g). For a Louisiana or Illinois truck stop with material video-poker or casino revenue, the gaming share of gross revenue must be measured and monitored: a site where gaming is incidental may remain eligible, while one where gaming exceeds the one-third threshold is not, and the deal must pivot to conventional or USDA financing where eligible.

What drives diesel volume at a travel center, car counts or truck traffic?

Truck traffic and freight, not passenger-car counts. Diesel demand is a function of Class 8 truck volume and freight tonnage along the corridor, and it is cyclical: the ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index fell 3.2 percent year-over-year in December 2024 during the 2023 to 2024 freight recession, and diesel throughput moves with that cycle. A feasibility study that ties diesel volume to total vehicle counts, or that anchors to 2021 to 2022 peak-freight volumes, is mis-specified. Volume also ramps over multiple years as a site builds professional-driver loyalty and fleet-card and fleet-fueling agreements.

How severe is the truck-parking shortage, and can parking be monetized?

It is chronic and quantified. FHWA's 2019 Jason's Law survey counted roughly 313,000 marked spaces nationally, 40,000 public and 273,000 private, against about 3.58 million drivers, roughly one space for every eleven trucks, with 98 percent of surveyed drivers reporting difficulty finding safe parking. ATRI ranks parking the number-two industry issue and estimates drivers lose about 56 minutes per day to parking searches. Reservable, revenue-controlled parking is a defensible incremental line only where land, striping, and truck routing support it, and only in a market where private paid parking can coexist with the first-ever dedicated $200 million of federal free public parking funded in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026.

Will electric trucks strand a diesel-reliant travel center?

The heavy-truck electrification horizon is far longer than the passenger-EV horizon because of payload, range, and charging-time constraints. Tesla's Semi demonstrated a 1.2 megawatt charging rate in December 2025, but fewer than 100 megawatt-scale public stations exist nationally and only about 1,700 electric trucks were sold in the United States in 2024. Chains are hedging through NEVI-funded and OEM-partnered charging, biofuels, renewable natural gas, and hydrogen. For a 20-to-30-year loan the prudent read is that diesel demand persists near-to-medium term but carries genuine long-horizon stranded-asset risk that should be addressed through amortization, reserves, and reversion assumptions rather than dismissed.

By Market

Truck stop feasibility studies by state.

Freight corridors, truck-parking scarcity, chain saturation, and gaming rules are local. Explore the state markets where interstate access, corridor truck traffic, and the regulatory overlay determine whether a travel center pencils.

Underwriting a travel center? Start with the going concern.

A methodology briefing walks through the analytical framework, the deliverable your capital source requires, and the current diesel, freight-corridor, parking, and going-concern data for your site and corridor.

Request a methodology briefing
Sources

Data sources and dates.

Every figure on this page traces to a named authority. Bases are labeled because they are routinely confused in this asset class: diesel gallons versus gasoline gallons, fuel revenue versus inside revenue, truck traffic versus passenger traffic, and going-concern value versus real-estate-only value. Definitional unit counts, corridor intensity reads, and forward-looking items are flagged as noted.

  1. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 2025 estimate, with EIA data via the Dallas Fed (December 2024): U.S. transportation-sector diesel (distillate) consumption about 2.94 million barrels per day, roughly 123 million gallons per day, in 2025, about 75% of total U.S. distillate; on-highway diesel monthly average $3.52/gallon (November 2024), down from a $4.69/gallon seasonal peak (September 2023).
  2. American Trucking Associations (ATA), American Trucking Trends 2025 and monthly For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index releases (January 2025; March 2024; 2026): index −3.2% year-over-year in December 2024 to 111.3; 11.27 billion tons hauled in 2024 (11.41 billion in 2023); industry revenue $906 billion (from $1.004 trillion); trucking 72.7% of domestic freight tonnage; 8.4 million industry jobs and 3.58 million professional drivers; 91.5% of carriers operate 10 or fewer trucks; twelfth straight year-over-year decline noted March 2024; first year-over-year gains since 2022 in early 2026.
  3. American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), “An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2025 Update” (released July 2, 2025): fuel $0.48 of a $2.26-per-mile total cost of operating a truck in 2024; average marginal cost $2.260/mile (−0.4%); non-fuel marginal cost a record $1.779/mile (+3.6%); operating margins below 2% outside LTL, truckload −2.3%.
  4. FHWA, Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey (2019 data, released December 2020): about 313,000 marked spaces nationally (40,000 public, 273,000 private, up 6% and 11% respectively since 2014); 98% of about 11,696 surveyed drivers reported difficulty (75% at least weekly); 79% of 524 surveyed operators do not plan to add capacity; average about 143 spaces per stop; worst-cited shortage states Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania; most spaces relative to highway mileage in Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma (Transport Topics/FHWA, 2020).
  5. OOIDA (President Todd Spencer, February 2026): “only one parking space for every 11 trucks on the road.” ATRI, “Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry” (2023, 4,000+ stakeholders): truck parking ranked #2 industry-wide; drivers lose about 56 minutes per day to parking searches, roughly $6,813 in annual lost wages.
  6. Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (signed February 3, 2026): first dedicated $200 million line-item for public truck parking through FHWA's INFRA program, restricted to free, publicly accessible parking near the Interstate/NHS; ATA President and CEO Chris Spear comment.
  7. NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores), State of the Industry (April 2026 for 2025; April 2025 for 2024): foodservice 28.5% of in-store sales but 38.9% of in-store gross profit (2025); fuel 65.0% of total sales dollars but 38.8% of gross profit (2025); 2024 foodservice 28.7% of in-store sales and roughly 40% of in-store gross margin. Convenience-channel figures, not travel-center-specific.
  8. NATSO (trade association for travel plazas and truck stops): represents “more than 2,000” (some 2024–2025 materials cite 2,200+) locations across 200–260+ corporate entities; working definition of a truck stop (at least one shower, 15 parking spaces, and diesel for sale); historical survey average single-site diesel volume 812,513 gallons (August 2008; dated, order-of-magnitude only).
  9. CSP Daily News and Berkshire Hathaway 10-K (February 2024): Pilot (Pilot Flying J) more than 900 travel-center and fuel locations serving about 1.2 million customers per day; Berkshire Hathaway reached 100% ownership in January 2024 (final 20% for $2.6 billion; total cost about $13.6 billion). Pilot's about $46.9 billion 2024 revenue and 13 billion gallons sold in 2022 are secondary compilations, flagged.
  10. BP and SEC filings (2023): BP acquired TravelCenters of America (about 280 sites in 44 states) for about $1.3 billion ($86.00/share, an 84% premium), closing May 2023; BP cited EV charging, biofuels, RNG, and hydrogen as strategic rationale.
  11. Love's Travel Stops “2026 Preview” media call (President Shane Wharton, February 5, 2026) via CSP: 669 locations in 42 states; $700 million “Road Ahead Plan” (20 new stores, 35 remodels, 1,500 added truck-parking spaces to more than 52,000 by year-end); 433 locations with truck servicing (420 full-service) via Speedco; $83 million in NEVI charging grants across 13 states (2024–2025).
  12. Casey's General Stores, FY2025 10-K and SEC filings via CSP (2024–2025): about 2,900 stores in 20 states after the $1.145 billion Fikes Wholesale/CEFCO acquisition (198 stores, closed November 1, 2024); FY2025 (ended April 30, 2025) revenue $15.94 billion; full-year fuel margin 38.7 cents/gallon (41.6 cpg in Q2 FY2026, December 2025).
  13. Buc-ee's (xMap/company reporting, December 2025): 62 locations across 12 states (40 in Texas); largest site Luling, TX at 75,539 sq ft; a car-and-RV format that does not admit 18-wheelers and provides no truck parking (benchmarked separately). BoiseDev (July 2025): proposed Buc-ee's, Meridian, Idaho about $50 million+ on about 30 acres, 74,000+ sq ft, 120 fuel positions; Idaho DOT deemed the specific project not feasible on traffic grounds (January 2026); capex retained only as a mega-site capital-scale reference.
  14. FHWA Freight Analysis Framework (FAF, cited 2022): trucks carry about 67% of U.S. freight by weight and 73% by value. BTS Commodity Flow Survey / FAF (directional, derived from older CFS cycles): Texas and California the largest truck-freight states; Texas, California, Ohio, and Illinois the leading freight origins and destinations.
  15. ATRI, Top Truck Bottlenecks (February 2025 and February 2026): Chicago (I-294 at I-290/I-88) #1 in the 2026 report; Fort Lee, NJ (I-95 at SR 4) #1 for seven consecutive years through the 2025 report; Atlanta (I-285 at I-85 and I-75), Houston (I-45 at I-69/US 59; I-10 at I-45), Nashville (I-24/I-40), Los Angeles (SR 60 at SR 57), Cincinnati (I-71 at I-75).
  16. Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) disaggregation of FHWA FAF3: I-35 identified as the premier international-trade truck corridor (Laredo north through Texas to the Midwest and Canada).
  17. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 27 (2025): a qualified truck-stop facility may operate video draw poker devices scaled to fuel sales (up to 50 devices at facilities meeting a threshold such as 100,000 gallons of fuel monthly, 40,000 of it diesel; fewer devices at lower thresholds), and must provide on-site 18-wheeler repair and diesel-and-gasoline facilities. Truck-stop video poker produced $402 million in net revenue in Louisiana in fiscal 2015–2016 (NOLA.com).
  18. U.S. Small Business Administration, SOP 50 10 8 (effective June 1, 2025, superseding SOP 50 10 7.1): businesses deriving more than one-third of annual gross revenue (including rental income) from legal gambling are ineligible (13 CFR 120.110(g)); owner-occupancy tests (51% existing / 60% new construction); reinstated SBA Franchise Directory and “credit elsewhere” test; special-purpose going-concern appraisal and elevated environmental scope.
  19. USDA Rural Development, Business & Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program under the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative (USDA; OCC, June 2025): loans up to $25 million per borrower (up to $40 million in limited value-added cooperative cases) in communities of 50,000 or fewer; guarantee 80% ($5M or less) / 70% ($5–10M) / 60% (over $10M); terms up to 30 years for real estate; no owner-occupancy or credit-elsewhere test; combinable with SBA.
  20. The Boulder Group, Net Lease Research Report (Q3 2024–Q1 2026): single-tenant net-lease cap rates 6.50% (retail), 7.75% (office), 7.15% (industrial) in Q3 2024; overall single-tenant net-lease 6.80% in Q1 2026; premium convenience/gas tenants tighter (Wawa about 4.90%–5.20%, Q1 2026). STNL values are real-estate-under-lease and are not a substitute for the going-concern capitalization or EBITDA multiple.
  21. Elliott & Company Appraisers; Appraisal Institute literature and David C. Hyde, “Valuing Real Property Going Concerns”: going-concern value allocated among real estate, FF&E, and business/goodwill; a high soft-collateral share on a high-LTV going-concern loan described as the “kiss of death”; Certified General appraiser, with a business-valuation specialist for complex going concerns and a change of ownership.
  22. Tesla and Electrek (December 2025): Tesla Semi demonstrated a 1.2 MW (“Megacharger”) charging rate, with full-volume production targeted for 2026; first customer-facing Megacharger opened in California (March 2026). Forward-looking.
  23. IEA (cited 2025) and Monta (cited 2025): fewer than 100 megawatt-scale public charging stations nationally, mostly in California; about 1,700 electric trucks sold in the U.S. in 2024; a single megawatt charging installation can cost up to $950,000. NACFE Fleet Fuel Study (cited 2025): Class 8 trucks average about 6–7.5 mpg in real-world conditions.
  24. Pilot and NACS (2025): Pilot's EV network surpassed 130 locations in 25+ states, targeting up to 2,000 fast-charging stalls at up to 500 sites by 2026 with GM and EVgo. Forward-looking.
  25. MMCG database / industry synthesis (2025): full-service travel centers estimated at about 5,000+ nationwide with annual sales exceeding $200 billion. Secondary estimate, flagged; not comparable with NATSO membership counts or driver-app-tracked 40,000+ any-diesel locations, which are three different bases and must not be blended.