IdleAire's recent opening of the first Advanced Travel Center Electrification (ATE) in a Pilot Travel Center was judged a success by both companies.
IdleAire opened up its first Pilot Travel Center project (an installation of 62 equipped spaces in Madera CA) to drivers July 22 at 4:38 pm PDT. By 6 pm, all available spaces were full and drivers were staging their trucks in a line waiting for an IdleAire space to become available. Fifty-two percent of the first customers had used the IdleAire system elsewhere.
David Everhart, chief operating officer at IdleAire,said that with Pilot's approval IdleAire was able to change the traffic flow, making the parking easier for drivers to use, and changing parking habits before the site opened.
Two more IdleAire installations at Pilot sites — in Newnan GA and Gary IN — are scheduled to open in September. To date, drivers have used the IdleAire system nearly 1.9 million hours, saving nearly 2 million gallons of diesel.