Love's in California: Gauging impact of Advanced Clean Fleets rule demise
When Love's Travel Stops announced a new location in Bakersfield, California in August, it was not only a new travel stop in its network. It added 111 parking spots and was described as one of the biggest outlets in the Love's network.
But it also raised a question: why build a travel stop that dispenses diesel fuel as a major part of its business in a state that had a pair of regulations in place, the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule and the Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) rule, that were designed to mostly eliminate diesel use in more than 20 years?
That question is now moot, at least for now, with the recent decision by the California Air Resources Board to withdraw its request for a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency that would have cleared the decks for the ACF to proceed. The ACT is still in place, but its effectiveness has been brought into question given that the ACT's mandate for truck suppliers to sell zero emission vehicles into California may run up against the fact that there is, for now, no mandate to buy them.
In what is becoming an annual discussion with the media about the company's plans for the coming year, Love's President Shane Wharton said the company is still reviewing the demise of the ACF and its impact on its customers.
But he also indicated that the ACF was not a factor in deciding to build a big new travel center in Bakersfield.
'The way we look at it is we're in the highway hospitality business,' Wharton said. 'We're in the business of taking care of customers on the road. So we know what the customers are using (for fuel) today, and we know what they will be transitioning to, whether it's an electric vehicle or hydrogen. So it's a combination of being ready for that. And whatever our customer needs, we have always said, that's our business.'
Wharton said Love's will 'continue to build in the right places to be' and will be ready to transition on the fuel side when that need occurs.
Love's actually has a hydrogen subsidiary: Trillium. Trillium has hydrogen fueling facilities at four Love's facilities in California and one near Urbana, Illinois. Trillium is not operating any public fueling stations; all the customers are private. Its experience with hydrogen through Trillium is part of what Wharton said is 'just having to be prepared to provide the products and services our customers need.'
Wharton's presentation is an opportunity for it to lay out the company's new construction plans as well. Love's is planning on opening 20 new stores in 2025 and will begin updating 50 existing outlets under what it calls its Strategic Remodel Initiative. The SRI involves extensive remodeling, not just on the margins.
The pace of new construction and remodeling means Love's is on track to have what amounts to new or redesigned facilities at more than half its 655 outlets by 2035.
Love's truck parking is free. Wharton said the company plans to add about 1,000 new parking spaces this year, in line with what the company projects most years.
Wharton, asked about how much of that parking capacity is utilized each day, said Love's does not have a direct technology tracker of its parking spot to know how many are occupied at any given time, but that the company has 'explored and talked about some technology solutions that would track that and report it out.'
But he said on an average evening, all of those spots that are now approaching 50,000 through the network are being utilized.
'Days of the week can matter but not dramatically, because the truck traffic is so heavy,' Wharton said.
When Wharton was asked about acquisition activity, he gave a standard response of 'we're always looking at opportunities to build our travel stop network.' But when he got specific, he turned to factoring as a likely area of growth.
Love's did make one factoring acquisition in 2024: REV Capital. Wharton made clear they are looking to build that factoring group at Love's.
'Our freight factoring business is something that we've been aggressively growing,' Wharton said. 'We did an acquisition in 2024 to add to that book of business and we think there could be some opportunities in 2025 in that space.'
Among other developments at Love's discussed by Wharton:
The company is a sponsor of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, located in the same city where Love's is headquartered. A Love's patch is visible on all the jerseys of the Thunder players. 'It's turned into a pretty decent recruiting tool in terms of people noticing it and the size and scale of the presence that we have here in Oklahoma City,' Wharton said. But the Love's sponsorship also helps give the company exposure when the Thunder games are broadcast elsewhere, which they are increasing this year; at this writing, the Thunder have the best record in the NBA.
It won't help fuel any class 8 trucks, but Wharton and a company news release said Love's received a grant of $83 million to build chargers in 13 states. Fast charger construction is expected to start this year in eight states.
Love's hired 250 veterans last year, and will try to increase that by 10% this year. 'We've also launched a hire program for military spouses, so we have our talent acquisition team that's out attending recruiting events across the country to help us attract and get the right talent on the team,' Wharton said.
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