US Xpress fuel network

I asked my recruiter today about this and for whatever odd reason, I'm not sure if he was just having trouble understanding the question, or if he was dancing around it. But I asked him what the USX fuel network consists of. He told me "mostly pilots" (Blech!!). So I asked him, "well you guys have all the major truck stops in your network though right, the TA's, Petro's, Flying J's, Pilot's, and Love's, right?". He gave me a strange response, and I'm not sure if he misunderstood me or exactly what the heck, but he said "well not the small ones". I said "which small ones? Of course you guys don't have the little mom and pop truck stops in your network, but you've got all the major chains, right?", to which he says "yeah we've got them all". So I just let it go at that point, because even though I think we were, I wasn't sure if we were on the same page or not.

So basically, I'm just wondering if any US Xpress drivers can tell me if there's any major truck stop chains that actually are NOT currently in the USX fuel network?

I'm just a tad bit stuck in my ways, in that I absolutely refuse to stay at a Pilot or a Love's, unless there's no way in hell that I have any other options available to me. Of course the fuel network is only where they'll be sending me to fuel, but I remember towards the beginning of this year when I was driving England, and they cut T/A and Petro out of their network (two of my favorite truck stops, by the way!), that wasn't the last straw with England, but it did count as just yet another strike against them. Since I prefer to eat and sleep at...well anywhere besides Pilot and Love's. Well if there's a chain I'm not being sent to fuel at anymore, than obviously, I'm not earning loyalty points to help pay for my showers and/or to spend in store on various other things. So even though fuel stops are only exactly that - fuel stops, that's how I've seen not having certain stops available, can get to be problematic, or at the very least inconvenient.

 

Well thanks, but it's not a deal-breaker. Rest assured, I would definitely never go so far as to buy my own truck, just for the sole purpose of being able to fuel where I want to fuel. Of course, as a company driver, it's the company's money being spent on the fuel. Like I said, not being able to fuel at certain truck stops to accumulate loyalty points, is just an inconvenience...I wouldn't go so far as to call it a battle topic for me to pick and choose on, as to whether or not to go to work for a company. It's just some information I'm curious to find out about. Most of the major companies have accounts in place with the big national truck stop chains...TA/Petro, Pilot/Flying J, Love's, and AM Best. I was just trying to find out if that's the case with US Xpress as well.
So thank you, but if I may get back to my original question now.
Could any US Xpress drivers tell me if there's any major truck stop chains that are actually NOT in the US Xpress fuel network? That's all I'm asking. Thanks.

 

Thank you. Yeah I understand companies want to save money, that's pretty cut and dry and simple math/economics. No need for a long explanation about that...saving money = good. Got it. I was just trying to find out is if they ever bother fueling at TA and Petro at all.
I've got no problem whatsoever with fueling wherever in the world they tell me to fuel, after all they're paying for it, so I'm not in a position to complain.
However, here's a little personal background information, about myself. At the end of my day, I like to try to find a truck stop with at least a driver's lounge, that I can kick back, watch some sports, or get a laugh...heck, even put up with the daily USA marathons of Law & Order/NCIS, if that's the only thing on. I prefer to be able to eat in a sit down restaurant, such as an Iron Skillet or a Country Pride, or what-have-you, when I'm not in a big crunch for $. I don't mind doing fast food, making myself a meal in my truck, or even pulling a couple hot dogs off the grill in the store, if my options are limited. So thus, that being the type of truck stop I usually look for to shut down, we all know you're about as likely to find a driver's lounge in a typical Pilot or Love's, as you are to pick up a swimsuit model hitchhiking on the side of the road. Thus, most nights, I'll find myself shutting down at a TA, Petro, Flying J, or even some AM Bests, when I can find one of those available.
As a company driver who relies on the points I earn on all my loyalty cards, at the very least to earn me a free shower every day, the fewer places they give me to fuel...that means the more money that has to come out of my own #### pocket, just for a shower, when I find myself shutting down at a truck stop (chain) that I haven't fueled at in the last week. Among other things that I might happen to use my loyalty points towards. So yeah they might be doing themselves a huge favor by saving themselves as much money as they possibly can on fuel, but when it comes at my own #### expense, occasionally having to shell out $10-$12 of my own hard earned money, just so I can get cleaned up and ready to start my day...they're not exactly doing me any big favors at that point, now are they?
And I know, nobody has to say it. Nobody's forcing me to shut down at a truck stop chain that I'm not even fueling at, right? If I choose to shut down at a TA/Petro where I have no shower credits, then that's my own #### fault, right? Well maybe sometimes yes. But I have plenty of days, as I'm sure we all do, where I don't get much of a choice of where to shut down. At the end of my shift, there may only be one truck stop available to shut down at, whether I hand picked it out or not. Yeah sure, maybe there might have been that Flying J, about 150 miles back, and seeing as how I'd just fueled at a Pilot yesterday, I'll have a shower credit there. But that can tend to be difficult to explain to a dispatcher, why I stopped driving with still 2.5 hours available on my 11...just so I could see to it that I'd be able to get a hot shower at the start of my next day.
But anyway, no need for me to ramble on all day about this. I was just trying to find out if they use all the major truck stop chains or if they're limited to just a few. From everything else, I know about what I'm getting myself into, seems like I've got a pretty nice job waiting for me, and it seems like a pretty decent company I'll be working for, at least sure as hell compared to where I've been. So I'll see how my first few months with them go, and if all is still well a little bit down the road, maybe I might start considering a lease. Then I'll be able to fuel wherever the hell I want to fuel...among a few other freedoms I would then have available to me .

 

Yeah, every professional driver on these boards is very familiar with the hours of duty laws, so probably no need to recite (-;. No problem with that which you're talking about. I've found myself doing that plenty of times, when I just don't feel like forking over the cash for a shower. Then I sometimes do drive to the next stop that I have a shower available at. I am a creature of habit though, and generally speaking, if I can eat my breakfast and take a shower before I start my day, that's just how I prefer to go...because simply put, that's just the way I am. May sound funny to you, but I'm not a morning person, and I'm the type of guy who feels groggy without/until I've had my shower...helps wake me up and invigorate my senses I guess you could say.
The only problem with using my 14 hour clock for my shower time...it's not a personal problem with me. But a problem that I've ran into in the past with Werner in particular, is that the majority of the loads they'd dispatch me on - would literally only give me enough time between the pickup and delivery appointments to be able to drive 11 hours, shut down for 10, get up and drive another 11, shut down another 10, and so on...and maybe if I was really lucky, I just might have enough time on each shift to take a piss and stop for a quick lunch. They would frequently give me these loads that don't allow room for error, no spare time for the proverbial "$h1t" to happen. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I think my past employer's records on these boards speaks for themselves (Werner and England). I would like I said...have enough time to drive 11, shut down 10, every day between the pickup and delivery...thus by not using up my whole 14 (on my good days), I'd be able to bump up my restart time by at least an hour or two or more each day. So thus, even though like I said, I have been known to occasionally drive to the next truck stop to get my free shower, particularly when I'm broke...through my recent experience, I don't know, I guess you could say I've almost been mentally conditioned to try to minimize my downtime, once I start up that 14.

 

You do bring up a good point and I've got no argument, as I suppose you're right for the most part. But like I've said before, for the time being, I'm just a company driver. I suppose maybe when and if I do decide to lease a truck down the road, then once that fuel starts coming out of my own pocket, I suppose there's a really good chance that I might start to see this whole subject a little bit differently. But kind of hard to say what the future might hold, since right now, I will be driving a company truck, and I think accordingly...company pays for fuel, vehicle expenses, etc, in exchange for my weekly compensation, and me putting up with whatever daily dose of pointless bull$h1t my fm feels like throwing my way. At least that's how it's always been with my previous companies, but I haven't yet started with US Xpress, and I'm just hoping that just maybe this will finally be the one company that doesn't assign me a jack@$$ for a dispatcher. *Fingers crossed* Ha ha!
However, I just thought I'd point out that most of the major chains only require a purchase of 50 gallons to earn a free shower, and if you buy 150 gallons, although that's 3 times the amount you need to earn a shower, you still only get 1 shower credit. That's why when I was driving with Werner...although it was different circumstances and different company fueling policies than what US Xpress has in place. Werner would let me decide when, where, and how much to fuel on my own, so long as I stuck to the fuel network. So when I was driving with them, I always made sure to never "fuel too much" at one particular stop. I would almost always try to fuel just 50 gallons at a time. There was no uniformity to when I would fuel, as that is of course a very vast subject with many different angles to it. But I always made sure if I was on a heavy load, to keep it under what I needed to keep it under, to make sure my drives were good. The only times I made it a point to fuel, was when I'd be stopping at a particular truck stop that I knew I didn't have a shower credit for, and I knew I had the room for 50 gallons, without putting myself over weight.