Pilot Co. Completes 80-Plus Remodels Under New Horizons Initiative
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Pilot Co. recently added two new travel centers in California and Texas and completed more than 80 store remodels as part of its $1 billion New Horizons initiative.
By the end of the year, the company aims to open more than a dozen new travel centers, add more than 20 dealer locations to its network and make over an additional 30 stores across 28 states.
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"We're strategically building out and renovating our network with forward-thinking designs and offerings to bring a consistently best-in-class experience to the road for all drivers," said Allison Cornish, senior vice president of store modernization and development at Pilot. "Every upgrade or new addition is made with our guests and team members in mind."
The planned network expansion, including the two newest Pilot travel centers in Odessa, Texas, and Rialto, Calif., are intended to bring much-needed facilities to commercial drivers in these regions, including adding a total of 600-plus new commercial truck parking spaces to the industry, according to Pilot.
Located at 6051 S Highway 385, the Odessa center features, among other things:
- Sixteen gasoline fueling positions and six diesel lanes with biofuel, DEF and high-speed pumps for quicker refueling
- Fresh-made pizza, homestyle meals and grab-and-go food offerings
- Thirty-nine truck parking spots
- Four showers
- Public laundry
- Both full-service and self-checkouts for faster shopping
The center in Rialto is located at 2325 Sierra Lakes Parkway and offers many similar amenities, with the addition of an Arby's with a drive-through, Cinnabon, a lounge for professional drivers and CAT scale.
To celebrate the opening of those locations, Pilot provided $30,000 in donations to local schools and hosted a grand opening event at the Rialto location, which featured special guests from the Ontario Reign hockey team, local radio stations, cornhole tournaments, raffle drawings, swag, and gas gift-card giveaways.
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"It's a moment of pride for our team members to celebrate their new store or completed remodel with family, friends, communities and guests," said Cornish. "We're excited to welcome everyone from professional drivers to road trippers into our stores and to delight them with our friendly service, clean and modern facilities, and vast array of high-quality items to fuel their journeys."
Additionally, as part of a summer campaign, Pilot guests may receive 10 cents off every gallon of gas at participating Pilot, Flying J and One9 locations until Sept. 5 by texting "SAVE10" to 26494. Professional drivers will also have access to a new Fuel and Free Snacks Challenge in the myRewards Plus app until July 30. After joining the challenge, drivers can earn two free snacks or drinks every week by fueling a minimum of 25 commercial diesel gallons.
The Pilot and Flying J travel center network — a majority owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway — includes more than 750 locations in 44 states and six Canadian provinces with more than 790 restaurants, 77,000 truck parking spaces, 5,500 deluxe showers, 6,300 diesel lanes and truck maintenance and tire service with Southern Tire Mart at Pilot Flying J.