Pilot Travel Centers has launched a chain of truck maintenance shops to be built at more than half of the company’s 260 travel center locations.

The maintenance facilities, to be called Pilot Truck Care Centers, each will contain four repair bays that will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each facility will employ 15 to 25 people. Pilot Truck Care Centers will offer maintenance, lubrication, oil changes and tires. They also will provide automated washes.
"Pilot is trying to offer more services to trucking companies and the professional drivers," said Jimmy Haslam, president and CEO of Pilot Travel Centers. "We want to be even more of a one-stop shop for them."
Currently, Pilot Travel Centers offer fuel, a variety of fast-food options, convenience store products, truck accessories and apparel, showers, phones and other amenities for professional truck drivers and other travelers.
Bill Mulligan, Pilot’s director of development, said the decision to add Pilot Truck Care Centers was a result, in part, of new regulations that require truck drivers to spend more time off the road.
"The new driver work hours mean it will be important to drivers to get their fuel and have their maintenance work done during their down time," Mulligan said. "We want it to be convenient for them to stay at Pilot and have as many of their needs met in one place as possible."
Mulligan said Pilot will open about one Pilot Truck Care Center per month, with plans eventually to have 100 to 150 maintenance shops.
The first new Pilot Truck Care Center will open this month in West Memphis, Ark. It is a 14,000-square-foot facility located at exit 280 on Interstates 40 and 55.
New Pilot Truck Care Centers will open in Valdosta, Ga., in May; Dalton, Ga., in June; Brunswick, Ga., in July; Indianapolis, Ind., in August; Gary, Ind., in September; and Beaver Dam, Ohio, in October.
The Pilot Truck Care Centers will feature Kenworth parts; Shell and Mobile Delvac oil; and Goodyear, Michelin and Bridgestone tires.
Pilot Travel Centers LLC, headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., operates 260 travel centers in 37 states. The company employs 14,000 people.