Citing safety concerns, one of this country's leading travel center operators has decided temporarily not respond to roadside breakdowns.
Travel Centers of America, which operates TA, Petro and TA Express, said it is looking at how to improve the safety of technicians making repairs alongside busy highways.
A statement issued by the company said, "We have paused Emergency Roadside Assistance (ERA) work on the highways until further notice. Roadside ERA will not resume until we have a better understanding of what improvements may be needed to support the safety of our employees. Our ERA teams are still responding to non-highway calls."
A social media post making the rounds of trucking related accounts added, "During this time we will continue to provide services in parking lots, rest areas, and other non-highway or highway locations where it is safe for our team members to do so."
Travel Centers of America provides a variety of truck service repairs and maintenance at 245 Truck Service locations. According to its website, TA Petro maintains its own 24-hour Emergency Roadside Assistance network of 600 roadside assistance trucks and more than 3,000 service technicians. It also relies on qualified third-party providers to respond to roadside repair requests.
Travel Centers of America is owned by BP Products of America, part of the London-based energy company formerly known as British Petroleum. bp finalized the purchase of TA Petro in 2023 for $1.3 billion.
