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 Truck stop
On the German motorways there are more and more truck-stops as alternatives to the service-areas. The truck-stops near to the respective motorway exits are not permitted to advertise their service directly at the exits.
Instead, they are signposted, giving the exit number, several hundred meters before the slipway.
The trucks-stops are helping to solve a problem that has been tormenting the truck-drivers for a long time now. They are obliged to stick to the maximum allowed driving times but don't know where they'll be when the time
has expired or where to park their trucks. This is why, trucks can quite often be seen without any lighting, parked dangerously near to the slipways of the resting places and sometimes, even in the slipways of the service
areas.
The truck-stops often have parking slots which are free to be used. Apart from this, their fuel prices are lower because the leasing is considerably more reasonable. Indeed, for those who are not necessarily McDonald
fans, finding an alternative is sometimes difficult. Here however, they don't have to pay for using the toilet facilities. On the other hand, the service areas obviously offer a more ecological total concept.
Those who don't mind taking a slightly longer detour (often less than a kilometre!) from the motorway, can even have his/her truck thoroughly cleaned. Something quite surprising can be seen in picture 6. A casino has
opened up directly next to the truck-wash, on the forecourt of the truck-stop. Apparently there are enough truckers, who feel entertained by these places. Perhaps the leisure time offer can be extended to encompass other
forms of entertainment as well.
| The motorway service areas have only been around since 1936 |
The first truck-stop appeared on the outskirts of Berlin, almost in fact, at the same time as the first motorway, it however, had no connecting road to the motorway. It's business was the storage and reloading of goods for
long-distance transport. It was an idea, which, particularly in view of today's increasing online-trading, is becoming more and more relevant, to minimise the clogging of the urban roads.
The heavyweight long-distance trucks themselves should be replaced by lighter vehicles more suitable for town- and city deliveries. Moreover, with the possibility to fill up or have repairs and servicing done as well as the
chance to spend the night, the drivers have the opportunity to recuperate. All in all, the long-distance haulage was a thorn in the side of the government until well after the middle of the last century. The railways were very
much preferred.
The result was, that long-distance traffic, thus also the importance of truck-stops, only blossomed around the end of the 1930s, whereby, the progressing construction of motorways was also helpful. This concept appears
to have been successful, as can be seen by the amount of truck-stops which have appeared on the eastern German motorways since the unification in 1989. 03/14
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