As Congress gears up to expedite fiscal 2002 transportation budgets delayed by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the truckstop industry is fighting a provision that would create a pilot program of commercial rest areas in California.

According to published reports, U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., worked with the state’s Department of Transportation to put together a proposed pilot project that would create a cooperative agreement with some retailers to maintain 10 California rest areas in exchange for commercial operations.
Cooperation between governments and private industry has been proposed at many levels as a potential solution to a shortage of truck parking in some parts of the country. In September 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that the Federal Highway Administration evaluate the benefits, related to truck parking, of eliminating the prohibition against private development of rest area facilities on interstates. While most state departments of transportation are interested in the idea, NATSO, the organization representing travel plazas and truckstops, strongly opposes the idea, and the Lewis proposal is no exception.
In a press release, NATSO said the Lewis proposal “gravely threatens California's $7 billion highway service industry.”
The idea came from a state assemblyman as a way to solve the problems California has had keeping its rest areas in good shape.
"This proposal will devastate business owners who have invested in California communities over the last 45 years to serve the needs of the highway traveler," said NATSO President W. Dewey Clower. "Allowing state-picked retailers to operate in California rest areas would not increase sales of hamburgers or gasoline; it would simply transfer the point of sale away from the competitive interchange environment to the one business entity willing to pay CalTrans the most money to operate on the side of the road.”
He pointed out that a 1997 study by the University of Maryland showed that interchange businesses would lose between 60-70 percent of sales if commercialization were to occur. Instead of choosing to stop at an interchange business, most motorists would stop at the ultra-convenient commercialized rest area on the shoulder of the road.
"At a time when Congress is seeking ways to stimulate business growth and development to help our economy, it is unconscionable that CalTrans and Representative Lewis would secretly advocate the destruction of the highway service industry that employs over 100,000 Californians," Clower said. "This is nothing more than a greedy attempt by CalTrans officials to solve their budget problems by conducting a hostile takeover of the highway service industry."