April 5 — Keep on truckin'

Sumner defines what a truck stop can be and starts to research the actual need in the industrial area north of the city

Andrew Hosford / of The Herald

Paul Knight is a trucker who often has difficulty finding a place to get a warm meal, shower and place to sleep for the night.

On his long hauls from Auburn to Los Angeles, a journey of more than 1,100 miles of freeway driving, he said there are only a few sporadic truck stops along the entire I-5 corridor.

“There is a critical need for truck parking throughout the country,” said Knight, a long-haul driver for Gordon Trucking in Auburn.

Knight lives near the 24th Street interchange in Sumner where dozens of trucks park overnight along the Highway 167 exit.

For years, he has watched the industrial area north of Sumner grow and the number of semi-trucks in the area is reaching critical mass.

“They really do need a truck stop in that area badly,” he said.

That sentiment is not lost on the Sumner City Council, which recently added a new ordinance to city code that describes the details of what a truck stop within the city’s boundaries would offer.

According to the proposed definition, a truck stop “means a facility for the relief and refreshment of truck drivers wherein diesel fuel and/or gasoline is available.”

The facility may also include a repair shop, retail businesses and areas for drivers to park overnight.

“Property owners out there realize there is a lot of truck traffic,” said Ryan Windish, a Sumner city planner.

The issue has come up at multiple city meetings over the past few months, he added.

“The intent is to keep that 24th Street area open for tax generators,” Windish said.

Financially, the tax revenue from a truck stop does not match the impact of other businesses, like retail, that could potentially be built in the same area.

At a recent study session, city staff recommended to the council that truck stops continue to be prohibited within the Sumner boundaries.

Windish has been researching the possibility of a truck stop and found that the average annual sales is $7.8 million.

“They are not real lucrative on a per-acre basis,” he said.

Making it more difficult on the drivers are the latest regulations on their hours.

Allowed to drive 11 hours and work a total of 14, truckers are required to shut it down for 10 hours each night. Those 10 hours can be spent in a variety of ways just as long as the truck is not moving.

Currently, the Flying J Travel Plaza on State Route 509 in Tacoma is the only truck stop in the area with the next closest facility located in distant North Bend.

The stop charges $20 a night for truck drivers to stay overnight and fulfill their 10 hours off.

“They need a truck stop in the Tacoma area,” Knight said. “If we park in the street in Sumner, we get a $76 parking ticket.”

He said there are as many as 3,000 trucks driving along the I-5 corridor at any given time looking for a place to park.

Companies like Safeway and Costco have moved into the Auburn and Sumner areas and are sending out hundreds of trucks each week, he added.

“We have no choice but to line up along the highway,” Knight said.