A 30-acre truck yard in West Dundee, Illinois, expected to open in October, will set a world record with more than 1,000 spaces for tractor-trailers and other heavy-duty vehicles—surpassing the more than 900 spaces at the Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott.
Owned by Austin, Texas-based Outpost, a network of truck terminals and fleet yard facilities, “the yard expands Outpost’s network into Illinois and increases total truck parking capacity within the state by nearly 9%,” according to a 2020 Illinois Department of Transportation truck parking study, Outpost said.
Traditionally, truckstops are defined as having diners, convenience stores, lounges and other amenities for truckers and motorists. The 220-acre Iowa 80, for example, which includes restaurants, stores, repair shops and more, says on its website that it’s the biggest truckstop in the world. It has more than 5,000 customers daily, and the main building is more than 130,000 square feet.
The West Dundee location, off of Interstate 90, will become more of a truckstop in the spring when Outpost adds a convenience store, truck wash, fueling station, maintenance shop and office space, Pat Hardin, Outpost’s vice president of revenue and operations, told the Chicago Sun-Times. West Dundee, a far northwest Chicago suburb in Kane County, has a population of about 7,900. It’s about 40 miles from downtown Chicago.
“Chicago is really the crown jewel of transportation in this country,” Hardin told the newspaper, adding that West Dundee “has access to the city without hitting the city traffic.”
Hardin said Outpost hopes drivers use the facility as a “home base” and companies use it for staging, the report said.
“As our network continues to expand, motor carriers increasingly look to Outpost as a strategic partner for positioning their fleets, improving asset visibility and optimizing their real estate investments,” Trent Cameron, Outpost CEO, said. “This can only be accomplished through our combination of purpose-built technology and the operational expertise of managing yards at scale. Our four new properties strengthen our ability to help these fleets operate more efficiently in critical freight corridors across the U.S.”
Outpost also is adding three other locations to its nationwide network:
- A 14-acre yard in Coral Springs, Florida, is Outpost’s first in that state, adding 370 new truck parking spaces
- A 4.5-acre yard in Fontana, California, with nearly 100 parking spaces
- An 11-acre yard in Laredo, Texas, that has 320 parking spaces
Outpost is a network of truck terminals and fleet yard facilities with more than 20 locations and 11,000 spaces. It helps asset carriers, private fleets and owner-operators use truck parking as a flexible part of their transportation infrastructure without the need for major capital investments.
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