IdleAire Reopens 10 Locations

This story appears in the Aug. 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

The IdleAire nationwide truck-stop electrification network is back in business on a smaller scale with 10 operating locations, its new chief executive officer said.

Mike Fielden, who joined the revived company in March, told Transport Topics in an Aug. 19 interview that IdleAire aims to have a total of 25 locations running this fall.

IdleAire, Knoxville, Tenn., will use a simplified pricing and service offering, compared with the two previous companies with the same name, both of which failed, Fielden said.

“We are really trying to simplify things for our customers,” he said, using a fixed price of $1.99 an hour and a reward program for frequent users. “At that price it is a very good value.”

IdleAire shut down in January after two bankruptcy filings, while trying to keep open a network with 134 locations, some within five miles of each other. The original company, created in 2000, piled up nearly $300 million in debt from public and private sources.

Users of IdleAire’s current service receive heating, air conditioning, electricity and 66 channels of television through a duct connection fitted to a cab window.

As IdleAire returns to the market, Shorepower Technologies, another truck-stop electrification vendor with a different technology, has its own expansion plans.

Jeff Kim, president of Shorepower, Portland, Ore., told TT the company plans to serve between 50 and 60 truck stops within two years.

Shorepower provides electricity to tractor cabs through plug-ins from a free-standing power source. Its additional options include cable television.

Currently, Shorepower has 10 operating facilities, including three for proprietary customers. All but one of the Shorepower facilities are in the Pacific Northwest.

“We are looking at a long-term approach that is cost-effective with a strong business model,” Kim said. “The biggest challenge is building out a network. With seven sites, it is like having seven cell [phone] towers. As we build a national network, it will become more attractive to truck drivers and fleets.”

About half of Shorepower’s financing is coming from the U.S. Department of Energy, which is providing $22 million. The rest is coming from truck stops where the facilities will be located and from expected driver fees, Kim said.

IdleAire’s Fielden said his company also will be seeking public funds to aid its development.

“If we are going to use public money, it will in a place where there will be a payback,” he said. “We want to focus on where the trucks congregate.”

IdleAire’s expansion is focused on key truck routes such as interstates 40, 70 and 80, and in major cities such as Chicago.

Fielden described the first batch of reopened locations as “a decent footprint because most of them are within a day’s drive of each other.”

Fielden came to IdleAire from Pacer Global Logistics, a freight-management service based in Dub-lin, Ohio, where he was president. IdleAire’s current owner is privately held Convoy Solutions LLC, an investment firm with headquarters in New York.

IdleAire’s initial locations are in Arkansas, California and Texas.

“We wanted to look for strategic locations where there is trucking volume and it is hot,” said Fielden, figuring that the heat would lead truckers to use more air conditioning provided through IdleAire’s duct system.

Unlike IdleAire’s former locations, which were primarily at Travel-Centers of America, the IdleAire facilities that have reopened are focused on Pilot, Flying J and Love’s truck stops, plus a handful at franchise-owned TravelCenters or Petro facilities, Fielden said.

IdleAire is shutting down equipment that’s closer to the travel center and restaurants in hopes of making the remaining available spaces quieter.

The company also is adding ozone devices to clean the air inside the tube so there are no-smoking units.

Fielden said that move was a response to complaints about the previous system’s air quality.

IdleAire previously had dozens of pricing options based on time and frequency of visits and offered a wider array of services, including movies.

Kim said Shorepower and IdleAire are working together to create electrification services at two locations, which he didn’t disclose.