Say goodbye to the mom-and-pop truck stop.

Just like grain elevators did a decade ago, truck stops are starting to disappear from Canada's landscape. But truck stops - highway stations where big-rig drivers rest and refuel their bodies and vehicles - won't disappear completely, say industry insiders - they'll just look different.

So will the firms that operate them.

"The days of the independent mom-and-pop truck stop are rapidly coming to an end," says Roger McKnight, a petroleum industry analyst who tracks the trucking industry with Oshawa, Ont.-based En-Pro International Inc. He adds that truck stops will likely get bigger - but there will be fewer of them, placed strategically along highways.

Roger McKnight sees sector adopting a 'McDonald's' approach.

Paul Teolis, president of Edmonton-based Road King Travel Centres, also believes large companies will play a bigger role in the future.

"I think the truck-stop business is at a crossroads right now," says Teolis.

When Road King opened its first truck stop in Calgary in 1988 and another one in Edmonton in 1998, its founders had big expansion dreams. They looked down the highway to future outlets in British Columbia and other provinces.

Now, Road King, a former public firm, consists of two private numbered companies with some (but not all) mutual shareholders, representing the respective locations in Calgary and Edmonton and a consulting firm that oversees them. The firm is leasing its land and looking to invest in other sectors, such as hotels.

"It just got too expensive to build these things - and not enough of a return - so we just pulled in our horns," says Teolis. "We know we have to change our face of business. We're changing things as we go along."

Mayne Root, executive director of the Calgary-based Alberta Motor Transport Association, agrees there is a trend toward bigger truck stops.

The trucking industry has discussed putting commercial facilities at smaller highway rest stops, "but there doesn't seem to be a lot of appetite for it in Alberta," and he believes the mood is similar across the country.

Along with the usual staples of fuel and food, the truck stop of the future will likely contain truck-wash and repair outlets, and showers for drivers. It will also offer good lighting and large lanes that allow rigs to roll straight in and straight out, reducing the risk of tight turns that can cause collisions with cars.

"It'll basically become a shopping centre for the trucker," says McKnight.

In many cases, it already has.

Flying J, an Ogden, Utah-based oil and gas producer, has brought the one-stop-shopping model to truck stops across Canada, along with low-cost diesel that spells extremely low margins for other operators.

In 2006, Flying J began a partnership with Shell Canada. The Canadian oil and gas producer supplies the diesel and the U.S. chain provides the brand and the retail template.

The companies pledged to invest $200 million, build 15 new "travel plazas" across Canada and upgrade existing Shell facilities.

Since then, says McKnight, the Flying J truck stop has become "the Holiday Inn of truck stops" because identical stations on both sides of the border appeal to Canadian drivers who haul goods to the U.S. and at home.

Canadian truck-stop operators can't compete, adds McKnight, because Flying J is using diesel fuel as a "loss leader" to draw truckers into truck stops and make money from restaurants, repair shops and other services.

"The Canadian oil companies got caught with their pants down when Shell formed that alliance with Flying J," says McKnight.

"It puts everybody else in an unfair position," agrees Road King's Teolis. "Don't get me wrong, because our site in Calgary is a Flying J."

Road King had a 10-year contract with Shell Canada to sell its fuel, but when Flying J joint-ventured with Shell, the Canadian producer exercised an option to get out of its deal with the truck-stop operator - which had eight years remaining on the contract.

The Edmonton Road King inked a new contract with Imperial Oil, which operates Esso stations, but the Calgary Road King was too close to an existing Esso and had to go with Flying J instead.

McKnight says Canadian truck-stop operators need to better align themselves with retail chains. He predicts truck-stop operators and producers such as Esso and Petro-Canada will have to adopt a "McDonald's" approach, based on high volumes and low profit margins.

If you don't know the business, you won't be in business, he adds.

Graham White, a spokesman for Calgary-based Husky Energy, says his firm knows its business, too - and that's why it continues to operate truck stops. Profit margins are low but still worthwhile, he adds.

"Going forward, we're still committed to a business model of travel centres," says White, referring to stations designed to accommodate long-distance truck and car drivers.

Husky operates 30 truck stops, mostly in Ontario and B.C., along with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as part of its network of 500 fuel stations. Each truck stop pumps an average of 13,000 litres of fuel per day.

The company plans to upgrade and expand its truck stop outlets slowly. Meanwhile, Husky is keeping an eye on how Flying J's foray into Canada affects the market here.

Analyst McKnight predicts Husky will eventually have to change its truck-stop operations. "They were the last to get into the card-lock system," he notes.

Card-locks work like debit cards, enabling drivers to swipe their cards at pumps to access fuel. The cards are controlled by oil and gas companies, enabling producers to limit the amount of diesel that a trucker can pump each time - at prices that are kept private.

McKnight, who created the card-lock system while with Texaco in the early 1980s and says his firm is the only one that has access to card-lock data across the country, believes Husky will eventually get out of the downstream - or retail - side of the truck-stop business.

Flying J filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in December, but McKnight and industry insiders expect the company to continue to expand its Canadian truck-stop network.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)