Berkstresser Keeps Truck Stop Moving Ahead
By Kit Huffman
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:15 PM CST

The travel plaza owner wouldn't shake hands.

Not that he was being unfriendly. He just wanted to wash up first.

His slightly grimy palms were proof that after 25 years spent transforming Lee Hi Truck Stop into the multi-operation Lee Hi Travel Plaza, Bobby Berkstresser is still a hands-on kind of man.

This means everything from rushing a tow truck or wrecker to an accident on Interstate 81 to just taking his daily walking tour around his rambling, 105-acre property on North Lee Highway, checking sales at the fuel desk and receipts at Berky's restaurant.

"My job is just to pay attention to what's going on," the busy entrepreneur said, finally settling down in his office behind an unnaturally neat desk.

The tidy desk, like the dirty hands, seemed another clue to the man, for whom work seems less a matter of shuffling papers and compiling schedules than interacting with his 115 full- and part-time employees in seven different company divisions located around the property, or actually pitching in himself.

"We have a motto here," he said, his smile barely reaching his eyes. "Everybody gets to work."

Though still active - even hyperactive, if his rapid walk and focused speech are any indication - the 56-year-old Berkstresser doesn't maintain the kind of work schedule he used to. These days, he usually arrives at Lee Hi around 8 a.m., driving the four miles from his home on Timber Ridge - "If I had a hang glider, I could float down to work," he said - and goes home at 6.

Anxious to give credit where it's due, he noted that after years of putting in long hours, the difference came after "acquiring a really excellent workforce with seniority among a lot of employees."

"My managers make most of the decisions for their departments now. My day ends at 6, but my people's day never ends. They're on the phone seven days a week. They're the cream of the crop."

Behind him in his office, giving the dark-haired Berkstresser an unlikely aura of Santa Claus, ranged long shelves covered with toy trucks, a collection that includes wreckers, tow trucks, tractor-trailers, moving vans, fire engine, cattle trucks, logging trucks, cranes, armored bank trucks and Army trucks.

Family photos also had their place, though to see some family members in person he has only to walk past the fuel island to the convenience store, run by son Kevin Berkstresser, 33, or just stay put and wait for his young daughter, Jordan, 10, to pop in and say hellow after school.

Also close by, his wife, Sue Berkstresser, schedules the employees and oversees cashiers and cleaning crew - no small task, according to her appreciative husband."She keeps the place clean and maintained. When you have a couple thousand people going through the place, nothing lasts long. There's constant maintenance."

Meanwhile, a second son, Corey Berkstresser, is currently a student at Radford University, planning to finish his degree in business administration next summer.

"He could do anything," said his father in a matter-of-fact tone. "I never had any choice. But I never needed a lot of sleep, which was an advantage," he added.

Building A Business

If the image of Berkstresser hang-gliding to work seemed improbable, it doesn't seem completely impossible for someone who created a mini-empire out of a simple business. For him, perhaps, new, and even novel, ideas are something to be carried out, not just kicked around.

He was born and raised in Vesuvius, one of six children of Raymond and Helen Berkstresser. The name is "Dutch-German," he explained, and his father came to Virginia from Western Pennsylvania to work for the Civilian Conservation Corps. From 1930 to 1936, his father was based in a camp near South River - "It's washed away now" - and helped build Forest Service roads and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A middle child, Bobby Berkstresser first worked as a tool-and-die maker for Westinghouse in Verona. "I quit in December 1975, and started a little auto parts and supply shop in Vesuvius, repairing cars and working in the towing and road-service business," he recalled. But the road to Vesuvius is "narrow," and, with so much of his business truck-oriented, he started looking for a location near the interstate.

Just then, his friend Dale Groah told him that Leonard Pennington might rent out his shop at Lee Hi Truck Stop. So Berkstresser leased the shop from Pennington for six months with an option to buy and then bought the business on Oct. 3, 1981. The old business in Vesuvius, however, is still going strong and has the same phone number - which Berkstresser rattled off automatically.

At Lee Hi, beginning with the shop and restaurant, the new owner "started bringing the business along."

"I added a truck dealership and sales of cars and services, then wrecker sales, truck sales. About 15 years ago I added crane and rigging, seven to eight years ago excavating, five years ago the campground. One thing led to another."

Other Lee Hi companies include a travel store, a trucking company and equipment rental. He also plans to build a miniature golf course at the campground this winter.

While pleased with all his additions, he spoke especially highly of Lee Hi Crane & Rigging - "I'll put my personnel there up against any" - and Lee Hi Trucking - "We move anything and do a lot of over-dimension moving by special permit."

He was also proud of his construction business personnel where, he said, "there's zero turnover."

"They're hardworking people who attract other hardworking people. They get better, the equipment is better, and we continue to grow."
Many employees start out while still in school, first doing simple tasks like mowing and emptying trash, then staying on to become drivers or certified crane operators, he said. "There's the potential for workers here to do so many things. They train here on the job. There are lots of opportunities for people who want to work hard."Another source of pride was the restaurant, named after his father's nickname. Berky's caters not just to truckers but to tourists , students and "the local crowd."

"The secret of Berky's is good portions and good food, like the food you'd eat at home," said the owner. "Our approach is, you'd like to be eating at home, so the least we can do is provide home cooking."

In its quest for improvement, Berky's has changed its weekend menu over the years, shifting from a Saturday night steak and seafood special - "which was okay, but just okay" - to Saturday night prime rib. After dining, many customers fill out comment cards, said Berkstresser - "and we listen to them."

A 'Designated Stop'

As part of Berkstresser's mission of "providing all things to all travelers," the travel plaza offers an interstate scales, Cedar Hill Christian Chapel, Tangles Hair Express, laundry and shower facilities and a game room and TV lounge. All these facilities encourage truckers to make Lee Hi a "designated stop" in their highly structured schedules, Berkstresser explained.

"A trucker will time dining for his break time. No one warehouses anymore, so whatever [industries] are producing goes right on the truck. Trucks have designated times to arrive, so the lives of truckers are very structured time-wise. They will preplan their routes. The drivers can drive between 500 and 700 miles, or for 10 hours, and then they need a break. Here, they can get 125 gallons of fuel, shower, eat and use the barber or beauty shop and the laundromat."

The travel plaza is also a "relay point" for a number of trucking companies. For example, a truck might leave Charlotte, N.C., about a four-hour drive away, and rendezvous at Lee Hi with another truck coming from a different direction. The two drivers then swap loads, take a break and head back home where they started from. "Of course, all this means you have to have nice parking," Berkstresser noted.

Another reason truckers gravitate to Lee Hi is because so many of his travel-plaza employees are long-term, said Berkstresser. "The truckers see the same people, the same cashiers. They're familiar faces. The ultimate compliment is when a trucker driver comes to Lee Hi with his family on vacation. He wants to introduce them to the truck stop. He's proud of it. I have friends from literally all over the U.S., good and personal friends."

Perhaps it's not surprising that the former two-term Rockbridge County supervisor should have his own ideas about the future of Interstate 81, a road he called "at best bearable."

While an intermodal railroad for trucks could be an important part of the long-term fix, he said, the interstate, "with 60,000 trucks coming through the area," needs additional lanes. And local trucking, with timed delivery, could probably not make use of rail.

Berkstresser believes that the first step in improving the overcrowded interstate should be to "correct engineering problems up and down the 81," a process that has already begun in the Rockbridge area.

"There's been a spike in truck accidents in the last couple years, although for a period of time it looked like it was going the other way," he reflected. "Let's take available funds and correct the traffic problems and engineering deficiencies first. One [recent] year, there were 10 accidents at Natural Bridge. This year there've been none there. That's an excellent example of spending a small amount of money and having a big effect."