By the 1960s, their limited hours and small parking lots could not handle demand. Roadside restaurants grew into full-service truck plazas, complete with motels, stores, laundromats, and 24-hour restaurants. But whether eating took place in a small stand-alone café or a 200-seat restaurant in a 14-acre plaza, three constants held true. Waitresses had to be friendly and food had to be inexpensive and plentiful. The third? Coffee had to be strong. In truck driver slang, a restaurant was a “coffee pot” and coffee was “diesel fuel.”
Truckstop eateries have made up a significant part of the country’s restaurant industry.
In 1977 Restaurant Hospitality magazine listed the Ohio 70-37 truckstop in Hebron OH as one of the biggest grossing independent restaurants in the U.S, despite its low check average of just $1.14 and the fact that all its revenue derived from food sales. (Needless to say, cocktails and 80,000 lb trucks are a bad combination.) According to Ron Ziegler, former Nixon press secretary and then-president of the National Association of Truckstop Operators, in 1986 truckstops were surpassed only by fast food chains as “the largest feeders of the United States.”
Source:  www.restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/2014/02/23/truckstops/
1964 – Love’s is founded in Watonga, OK.
1968 – Flying J is founded in Ogden, UT.

In 1972, the first chain truck stop opened its doors. Truckstops of America, now TravelCenters of America, opened the first of six locations.   TravelCenters of America was established by Phil Saunders in 1972 as Truckstops of America.  The company was among the first truck stop chains in the nation, and was purchased by Ryder later that year. Standard Oil of Ohio acquired the chain in 1984.
In 1975, Petro was founded. In May 2007, TA acquired the operating businesses of the El Paso-based Petro Stopping Centers, and leased 40 Petro locations from HPT
Today, Travelcenters of America (also Petro and Minut Marts) is the number one publicly traded travel center chain in America.

Truck stops began evolving into travel plazas in the 1980s as operators pursued four-wheelers and RVs, along with truckers. Corporate ownership did their best to scrub the sites of the seamy images truck stops once had and began adding extra features such as gift shops, movie theaters and more. Though the corporatization of the travel plazas has resulted in a certain sanitized sameness, there are still some truck stops out there that have become destinations purely for their size or kitschy appeal.

2007 – TravelCenters of America acquires Petro.
2010 – Pilot acquires Flying J.