“For those of you who don’t know, RaceTrac has a travel center program, and we also incorporate our extended diesel sites in that program. What that means is these are what we’d imagine as a larger-format RaceTrac store with attached truck lanes that we cater to the over-the-road professional driver,” said Nick LaFalce, RaceTrac’s marketing manager.
During a recent episode of the Truck Stops Here Podcast, LaFalce sat down with Darren Schulte, NATSO’s vice president of membership, and me to share more about how RaceTrac is expanding its reach, how the company communicates its brand and more.
“It’s been really exciting to see the growth of this program,” said LaFalce. “A lot of our travel center and extended diesel sites look rather unsuspecting until you get on lot and you see a lot of the amenities we offer. I think… we have the area of an opportunity to promote this great program for professional drivers and really expand our reach there.”
Spreading the Message
LaFalce said RaceTrac and RaceWay are focused on connecting with professional drivers without alienating regular consumers. “I think the biggest challenge that we experience is just overcoming that 90-year history of communicating ourselves as a convenience store,” he explained.
One way to do that is to share information about amenities and trying to make them as visible as possible. The company is also partnering with different fuel savings programs to help communicate with drivers.
“Recently in April, we just relaunched our RaceTrac rewards app and with that we added the functionality to select your driver profile,” LaFalce explained, adding that professional drivers now have more visibility into a location’s amenities.
The company also has plans to incorporate special offers for professional drivers. “In addition, we’ve worked on a fleet services landing page. That’s a page that we dedicate to the over-the-road professional driver and more that talking about payment acceptance where we have our high-flow diesel sites,” LaFalce said.
Historically, RaceTrac hasn’t featured Raceway on its website. “This is one of our first areas of opportunity to combine the two brands and show professional drivers that they can stop both at Racetrack and Raceway, which I think is really cool,” LaFalce said.
Truck driver appreciation events have also created opportunities to focus on professional drivers. “It’s been a special focus for us since we’ve launched this travel center program. Historically, we talk about it as truck driver appreciation week for RaceTrac,” LaFalce said. “We like to expand that and call it truck driver appreciation month.”
Last year the company offered $4 meal deals to let drivers know that RaceTrac is a place for them.
Providing Truck Parking
Truck parking is important for professional drivers, LaFalce said about 20 of the company’s locations offer truck parking. “We have to balance what our real estate team can find and source, and then also whether we can standardize that experience across the board,” he explained. “In an effort to do that, we’ve worked with several partners.”
Currently RaceTrac and RaceWay have a pilot with ParkX at eight of its sites. Drivers can reserve a space via QR code so and pay up to 30 days.
Focusing on Food
Food is a key offering that can draw in local traffic, on-the-go passenger travelers and long-haul over-the-road driver. “I think one of the biggest trends we see is the hot food offering and the demand for it,” LaFalce said, adding that food performs well in c-stores and travel centers alike.
“I would say I think one of the things you do really well is food and that food is fast and good and that’s a message that speaks to everybody. You guys honestly do food really fast,” added Schulte.
During NATSO Connect,
retail tour attendees visited a RaceWay location in outside of Orlando, Florida, that features a pizza bar as soon as customers walk in and a hot food case right next to it. “It’s really a top performing category and something we see as a popular trend,” LaFalce said.
Plans for Expansion
RaceTrac has expanded into South Carolina and Indiana, and LaFalce said he expects expansion in the Midwest to continue.
“I think it’s a great area of opportunity for us, especially as we work in what we call a decentralized market,” he said. “When we enter new markets, RaceTrac has a new area of opportunity where historically we haven’t been known. So, it’s an area of opportunity for us to position ourselves as a new high flow diesel site.”
Listen to the full podcast here.
Amy Toner is the Executive Director of the NATSO Foundation. In this capacity, Toner spearheads the Foundation’s education, research and outreach activities. Toner serves as Editor of Stop Watch magazine, spearheads education and speaker selection for NATSO live events and hosts NATSO’s Podcast, The Truck Stops Here. She sets the knowledge strategy, education.