Photos by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Truck driver Thomas Greene uses IdleAire's services to shop on eBay while at the Troutville truck stop. Movies, satellite television, Internet access, phone service and electricity are available with touch-screen climate control for $2.45 an hour. Greene says the cost is less than idling his tractor-trailer all-night long.

With IdleAire's services, truck drivers can take a break without leaving their engines on or wearing down their batteries.

TROUTVILLE -- Thomas Greene is the kind of truck driver Michael Crabtree likes.

On a recent afternoon, Greene stopped at this well-traveled crossroads and turned off his big-rig truck for an overnight break at TravelCenters of America, a truck stop on Interstate 81.

The afternoon seemed too warm and humid to stay in a truck without air conditioning, much less sleep throughout the night.

So Greene turned to a service offered by Crabtree's company to receive chilled air, television and Web browsing in his cab and sleeper berth through a hose attached to his passenger-side window.

Crabtree is chief executive officer of IdleAire Technologies, a provider of services to resting long-haul truck drivers who want to be comfortable without leaving their engines on or wearing down their batteries.

Movies, satellite television, Internet access, phone service and electricity are available along with touch-screen climate control for $2.45 an hour.

That's $2 less than a gallon of fuel, the amount many big-rig trucks consume in an hour when idling. Drivers say that when using IdleAire they save money, while limiting the exhaust released into communities near truck stops such as Troutville, which is on the Appalachian Trail.

"I'm a Gold Card member," said Greene, a resident of Bluefield, W.Va., who was en route to Hillsville to pick up mining equipment bound for Pittsburgh. "I like it."

But the cost of keeping truckers cool and entertained is running millions more than drivers' fees bring in. After the deployment of thousands of devices and development of a recognizable brand, the company filed for bankruptcy in May with debts exceeding assets by nearly $221 million.

Officials expect local site to remain open

To meet the company's original objectives for success, Crabtree needs hundreds of thousands of drivers like Greene to purchase time on IdleAire's big yellow hoses.

Problem is, many drivers dislike IdleAire or have alternatives. They are driving right past IdleAire-equipped parking places at truck stops in most states and are instead choosing regular parking stalls.

The more than 8,000 IdleAire devices, which are open for use 24 hours a day, were in use 22.4 percent of the time last year, up from 19.5 percent the year before.

The Knoxville, Tenn., company is open and spokesman John Doty said June 27 he expects the Troutville site to stay in operation.

Troutville is "one of our top sites," Doty said in an e-mail.

Steve Painter, who manages the truck stop store and related services, said the 51 parking spaces equipped with IdleAire are occupied 95 percent to 100 percent of nights.

"They rank it top three in the country of all the IdleAire spots," Painter said. "The drivers really love it."

There is a reason for local residents to love it, too.

Since the system was installed at Troutville in April 2007, drivers have saved 174,5000 gallons of diesel fuel and prevented 4 million pounds of emissions by shutting down their engines, Doty said.

On another recent afternoon, the IdleAire parking area at TravelCenters of America in Troutville was about half full, with attendants marking available IdleAire slots with orange cones to keep out non-users. The regular parking places were full or virtually full, and scores of drivers circled looking for one of their own.

Drivers who elect not to use IdleAire have a variety of reasons. Some find that because their trucks burn less than a gallon an hour at idle, IdleAire offers no savings to them.

Some are free to idle at their company's expense; their trucks run virtually all the time -- while driving or on break.

Others shut down their engines to protect the environment or score points toward fuel-saving bonuses that show up in their paychecks, or both. A truck battery can run a movie player or provide limited cooling or heating. If the battery runs low, running the engine recharges it.

Greg Powers of Elizabethtown, Pa., said he had shut down his engine and planned to open his windows. He said he didn't mind the heat.

Driver Ray Snapp of Kentucky said he doesn't need IdleAire because his truck's auxiliary power unit -- a generator installed for off-duty use -- is more than capable of running the climate-control gear in the truck and any lights or electronics he wants.

Plus, he dislikes IdleAire for requiring drivers to pull straight in to the stalls.

"That 'nose in' [policy] is a pain in the butt," Snapp said. "They set it up wrong."

Truck drivers habitually back into their parking places, because then they don't have to risk an accident and back their roughly 65-foot-long machines into an active truck-stop driveway when it is time to leave. To help address the nontraditional configuration of its sites, IdleAire provides green-vested attendants to help departing customers back safely out, it says.

IdleAire lost more than $93 million last year

IdleAire executives started out with a grand plan.

The company won permission to install 74,000 hookups at more than 600 locations, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

For the service to be accepted by drivers, it would have to be widely available, executives believed. They wanted a network so dense drivers would be able to find an available IdleAire parking space wherever they needed one. Government agencies provided grants to help start the company.

But after launching in 2002 and expanding rapidly in 2006 and the early part of 2007, executives stopped adding sites because of money problems.

Today, IdleAire consists of 8,423 hookups available at 130 truck stops in 34 states, including three sites in Virginia. The company says it has documented usage during a recent three-month period by about 200,000 of the 1.3 million heavy-duty trucks with sleeper cabs on the road.

Revenue is too low and expenses are too high. The heavily indebted company lost $93.4 million on revenue of $37.2 million during 2007.

Auditors told the company at the end of last year there they doubted the company could stay in business. The company, which has patented its devices, has been seeking an infusion of cash.

Although its finances are in rough shape, IdleAire's objective of trimming needless air pollution from trucks is a timely one.

Drivers historically have kept their engines running through breaks to have a comfortable temperature and electricity for lights, laptops, movie players, television and other gadgets. Driver must rest for at least 10 hours after driving 11 hours in any 14-hour duty window, according to federal regulations.

But idling is losing appeal as record-setting fuel costs squeeze industry profits and vehicle exhaust poses a growing environmental concern.

The Department of Environmental Quality "supports the whole idea of what they are trying to do to cut down on diesel emissions," DEQ spokesman William Hayden said of IdleAire.

"It's something we expect to see more of in the future," whether the provider is IdleAire or one of its still-fledgling competitors.

Stricter enforcement of state law could help

In fact, the DEQ appears to have the authority to charge drivers of diesel-powered vehicles who idle for more than 10 minutes with a violation of state law, but isn't doing so in Southwest Virginia.

"We've got bigger fish to fry right now," said Frank Adams, air compliance manager for the Roanoke-based regional DEQ office. He said, however, that the law could be enforced in the future to help the region continue to meet air-quality standards.

The National Conference of State Legislatures said nine states have passed anti-idling laws for environmental and other reasons. IdleAire puts the total number of bans, including those passed by cities, at more than 20.

Carl Bumgarner, president and chief executive officer of Fleetmaster Express in Roanoke, said his drivers have not been sanctioned for violating any bans.

But he's concerned about the cost of fuel.

"Fuel's our No. 1 cost. [It] exceeded labor this year," he said, adding that the firm paid $3.17 a gallon in January and $4.45 in May.

Bumgarner's firm is not an IdleAire subscriber, however.

"It's a good theory and concept, I guess. The only problem is sometimes it's hard to get into a truck stop and get a place because it's so popular," he said.

So Fleetmaster is installing auxiliary power units (like Snapp has) on all Fleetmaster trucks to produce electricity for cooling and heating equipment and other electrical devices during breaks.

Fifty-six of 250 trucks have the devices and 100 more devices are on order, Bumgarner said. They produce exhaust but nothing like how much an idling main engine does.

IdleAire notes that while APUs have the advantage that they can be flipped on anywhere a parking place is found, they cost money to install, add weight and don't supply driver communication and entertainment services that IdleAire does.

IdleAire nonetheless considers APUs and similar devices competition. The company also recognizes a challenge from motel rooms, but says most drivers don't want to pay the cost or leave their rigs unattended.

To prop up its sagging finances, IdleAire raised prices about 30 percent on June 1.

"Doesn't bother me at all," Greene said.

He noted that even though he was on the road, he saw the Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers during the NBA finals on a Tuesday night last month. He was reclining comfortably in the cab while parked at a truck stop in Jackson, Miss.