Sometimes the best laid plans go awry, and that appears to have been the case for an entrepreneur who recently opened the first electrified truck stop in the state of Tennessee.
The man was able to obtain $424,000 in federal stimulus funds from the Tennessee Department of Transportation to install the electrification for the truck stop. The site was up and running along Interstate 40 until a few months ago. Now the owner has filed for bankruptcy and the site has been boarded up. No word was immediately released as to the type of relief that was sought or the problems that led to the filing.
Some are questioning why a better job was not done vetting the project by state and local authorities. Specifically, observers point to the fact that the owner had filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and had even been convicted of theft before that. He is also said to currently be facing charges for writing bad checks. It does appear that the federal funding was used for the purpose intended, but the individual seems to have had insufficient funds in the current economic climate to sustain the venture.
Idle trucks burn one gallon of fuel every hour. A significant amount of money can be saved if truck drivers use electrical power systems at truck stops, especially if the drivers are sleeping in their cabs.
It’s unclear how the case will turn out for the entrepreneur, but the hope is that Tennessee truckers will be able to take advantage of the benefits of the electrified truck stop again in the future.
Source: Fox News, “Tennessee Electrified Truck Terminal Files for Bankruptcy After $400,000 Stimulus Injection,” Jonathan Serrie, Oct. 19, 2011
