The decade between 2009 and 2019 was a period of growth for the trucking industry. As the Great Recession of 2008 turned around, freight tonnage embarked on an extended period of cargo growth, from about 9.35 billion tons of freight in 2009 to 11.84 billion tons 10 years later, an increase of 26.6%, according to industry reports.

On the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic sparking another recession and creating supply chain challenges, truck cargo totals have been volatile, up one month and down another. Still, tonnage is expected to grow to nearly 14 billion tons over the next decade.

Convenience retailers have responded by investing in travel centers across the United States. But without visibility into how commercial vehicles move, stop and refuel, operators risk leaving gallons—and revenue—on the table. These driver insights and fuel site metrics are critical to travel center and truck stop ROI.

“If we have a good understanding of how much traffic is passing by a location, we can explore breaking down that total vehicle traffic in front of your location and get an understanding of what type or class of vehicles are passing by. After that, we can explore capture rate and get an understanding of how many people visit your site, where they were coming from and which way they entered the site,” said Lead Product Marketing Manager at Altitude by Geotab, Eric Schmidt, during the NACS webinar “Fueling Smarter Growth: Applying Commercial Vehicle Movement Insights to Fuel Retail & Truck Stop ROI.”

These metrics are how Altitude by Geotab measures site performance to understand how aggregated, up-to-date commercial vehicle movement insights reveal true fueling behavior and site usage.

A recording of the full webinar is available here.

Read more about truck stops and why convenience retailers are investing in separate diesel fueling islands in the September 2025 issue of NACS Magazine article “What’s Driving Travel Center Growth.”