Seth: Hey everybody, how's it going? Welcome to the REtipster podcast. I'm Seth Williams. Today I'm talking with Keith Cristal, the founder of StoreMyTruck.com. Keith has spent years building a type of real estate business that most investors have probably driven past without ever realizing how much demand exists for it, and that is secure parking for semi-trucks.

Seth: What started as an experiment with an unused piece of land grew into a multi-location operation spanning several states. Along the way, Keith figured out how to find viable properties, work through difficult zoning issues, build facilities that truck drivers would actually pay to use, and operate a large portfolio of locations with services designed specifically for independent truckers. We're going to talk about what has worked well for him, what has not worked well, what makes these properties valuable, and what Keith understands today that he wishes he had known back at the beginning. So Keith, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Keith: Great to be here. How are you doing today?

Seth: I'm doing good. So why don't we start from the very beginning? How did you get into this business? How did this all start?

Keith: Well, it's a unique story. I've been an entrepreneur my entire life. I was actually in the car business in Atlanta. I was very innovative. I once owned the first electric car business and franchise in Atlanta, and that was before Tesla. It was called Georgia Wheego. That's W-H-E-E-G-O, Georgia Wheego. Wheego was an electric car and component made in China, brought here and assembled here. Georgia Wheego was located in Marietta. We even made a commercial once. If anybody wants to have a good laugh, I was probably 20 pounds heavier and had a little bit more hair way back in the day. Look up Georgia Wheego on YouTube and have a nice laugh.

Keith: But anyway, this electric car would drive about 65 miles an hour and go about 60 miles on a charge, for local short runs. It was a four-seater car, but it looked like a small two-seater. It came in about six colors. Great car, but it was mostly there for a used car business. We sold a couple hundred cars a month. It was a great business. We had 15 dealerships in Atlanta.

Keith: This particular dealership had a couple of acres that we used for getting cars ready for dealers in Atlanta. It was a wholesale business. We moved that to another one of our locations, and we had an empty lot. We're in a sales meeting one day, and my bright sales manager says to me, "Hey, what are we going to do with that lot?" And I said, "What are we going to do with it? I don't know. Anybody got any ideas?" One of the bright new salespeople says, "Why don't we do RV and boat storage, or some sort of outside storage, and see what happens? It's in a great area. It's on the main road here on Roswell Road."

Keith: The next thing I know, we're going to city council. We're applying for zoning. We are checking to see how difficult that is. And sooner or later, we got through zoning. I had zoning for RV and boat storage and outside storage. We opened up and the phone started ringing. It was ringing for RVs and boats, but it was ringing for tractor-trailer parking more than anything. About every second call was tractor-trailer parking. So immediately, I started looking for a new location in that area, Marietta. Found one in Marietta. Opened it up. Filled that lot in about 90 days. And I've been off to the races ever since. That was back in 2009.

Seth: Wow, that's awesome.

Keith: Seventeen years of this business. Some people call me the OG of truck parking. Some people call me the truck parking king.

Seth: Kind of sounds like you are, given that history. I take it you made the intentional decision to say, nope, no more RVs and boats, just semi-trucks. Or was it half and half for a while? How did you decide, okay, this is an actual business now, we're going to start opening more of these locations? Tell me about the evolution of that.

Keith: So when we opened that one in Marietta, it started off with a real bang. The phone started ringing like crazy. We advertised online. We created our unique dot coms. The name Store My Truck seemed like a perfect name. We got ready, and the phone just started going off like crazy. And within three or four weeks, we were full. I mean, we graveled it. We put it down. We gated it. We fenced it. And we got it approved by city council, because we were just there. That was the first one.

Keith: The second couple were close by there, and that was a good area. I wanted to continue in that area, and I just started branching out and filled the Atlanta market throughout all the suburbs. Got extremely busy. Then I reached out to my first location close to another big metropolis, which was Charlotte, and opened one up in Charlotte. It was successful. And when the boom was going on, between the busiest times, 2015 and 2016, we just continued to open them and open them and open them, and got up to a number of 85 to 100 locations.

Seth: Were these first locations, this first one you ever opened and the next year after that, were they set up for truckers to store their trucks by the month or by the night? What did the model look like back then?

Keith: We had two choices. It was mostly monthly parking because that was our mainstay. We soon found out that what goes on is truckers are looking for a safe and secure place to park their vehicle while they're in town for the weekend, or when they come in for a week, and a place to park their personal car while they're gone, so they'd have a ride home. We keyed into that, and eventually we had daily parking. I think our original daily parking was $8 a day. I think today's average rate is around $30 to $35 a day. But way back when, pretty much it started off with a gate. People manually got out of their truck, unlocked the coded lock that was attached to the chain, and that's how it started. It soon developed into different levels of security at different locations, based on needs.

Seth: Yeah. It seems like there's a huge demand and a huge lack of supply of this kind of parking, both daily and monthly, just about everywhere. And I'm curious, from what you know, because you know probably more than just about anybody, is that still true? In Atlanta specifically, or the markets where you're in, is there still a huge demand for these things when you open them up? Do they fill right up, or have things changed over the years?

Keith: Competition just got a little bit stricter. There are some national companies that do Airbnb-style parking around the country. One of them I created once and was involved in it, but currently Store My Truck is mostly in the Atlanta market. In some of the harder markets in Atlanta, for example, downtown Atlanta is probably the most difficult place to find truck parking. We are five minutes from the Fulton County Stadium and seven minutes from the Capitol in downtown Atlanta. We have two locations there equaling about 69 acres of completely secure truck parking.

Keith: So we've evolved into mostly just holding these large sites and operating these larger sites. But we've operated as small as one acre. Our goal right now is to concentrate our efforts into larger sites, or larger metropolises that need to be well taken care of. But your answer is there's still a shortage of truck parking around the country. People are still parking on exit ramps, causing terrible automobile accidents. There is still a limited amount of parking at truck stops. Truck stops are now charging to park, whereas traditionally truck stops made it so you could park at no charge. More and more truck stops are charging for truck parking. As a matter of fact, we're getting ready to go into some truck stops and operate truck parking in Anderson, South Carolina. So there'll be a Store My Truck location in Anderson. We're also in Gaffney and Cowpens. What a crazy name for a city, Cowpens. That's along 85 North, as you first go into South Carolina.

Keith: We're heavy in Atlanta, and we're about to open a very unique location in Panama City. So if you're going on vacation and you're a trucker, it's a phenomenal place to be able to go stop. Maybe you haul something down there, you rent a car, and you go right to the beach.

Seth: Yeah. You mentioned a few minutes ago this idea of a harder market. So what makes a market hard? Do you mean just in terms of getting the zoning ability to do it? Or do you mean it's more competition? What's a hard market in your mind?

Keith: Back in the day, zoning was much easier, when truck parking was not even a thing. I'm just going to say it like it is. Back in the early teens, 2013, 2014, 2015, there was no such thing as truck parking as a category. There was no such thing as industrial outdoor storage. There just wasn't. As we got going, truck parking became a category, like restaurants. And once this category began and we started advertising and going to conventions talking about truck parking for storemytruck.com, it became a national brand. StoreMyTruck.com will probably always be running truck parking. Maybe just the bigger ones, or maybe just the ones in the metropolis areas, where we were in very rural areas at times.

Keith: Our goal, to be honest with you, is to be where the trucker needs us. New logistics places. There's a brand new logistics outlet getting ready to open in Atlanta in a city called Palmetto. We are opening 15 acres in Palmetto, right next door to this new logistics center. As I spoke earlier about the ones in downtown Atlanta, it's amazing, the huge metropolis of Atlanta with 75 and 85 and I-20 and Conley, Georgia, which is just on the south side of Atlanta. It's pretty amazing to be able to find truck parking in downtown Atlanta, truly downtown.

Seth: Sure. When you open up these things from scratch, brand new location, what is the typical timeline for them to fill up? And maybe the slowest you've ever seen it fill up. How long does that take?

Keith: Because there are more and more truck parking facilities available now, it does take a little longer now. But the fastest I've ever filled one up is in a week.

Seth: Okay.

Keith: The slowest, though, a year. Steady moving in. It also depends on the size and what type of additional amenities you might have in that particular location. For example, our downtown location has a lot of amenities. You can get your truck PM'd or serviced at that location. You can rent an office or lease an office and run your dispatch out of it. You can take a full, long, lengthy shower like you would at the Hilton Hotel, with the most beautiful showers you've ever seen. You can take a night's sleep in one of our bunk rooms, get a haircut in our new barbershop. You can run your separate businesses there out of those offices. There's plenty of parking there for your truck and tractor. There's plenty of parking for your personal car. Even secure, fenced-in, individual car parking is there.

Keith: Very unique area. That area, as anybody knows in South Atlanta, is a high crime area. But as soon as you go through our gate, you feel like you're in Disney World. So let me give you an idea of what's different about that location than everywhere else, for every truck parking facility. Ninety percent of all truck parking in Atlanta and around is a code-in and code-out facility. That means they sign up on our app. It comes back on a text or an email, their exact code to get in the gate, and it gives them that code to get out. A unique code. That's the way most businesses operate around the country.

Keith: However, with the amount of larcenies in high metropolitan areas, that means tractors being stolen with trailers attached, loads being stolen with expensive loads in them. It's going on all over the country, and these loads that are getting stolen are being sold on Facebook and all kinds of places, because nobody knows where the product is coming from. The government needs to get involved more with these loads and tracking. However, we have come up with a phenomenal solution to that problem, and we've innovated this, and it makes the trucker and these large-scale companies understand what we're doing.

Keith: A trucker comes into our location at 2100 Jonesboro Road, storemytruck.com, and it also has a side name of atlantahighsecuritytruckparking.com. Long word, www.atlantahighsecuritytruckparking.com. Now, what makes it high security? Well, we have what everybody else has, first off. Cameras. We videotape you coming in, front and back of your truck, all of the markings on your truck, a picture of the driver. And as soon as you make it to the gate, a live person comes out and asks you for your ID. As a driver, you give them your ID if you want admittance. And if you look at my site at Sawtell, the cameras are rolling. We know who you are and you go in.

Keith: But before you go in, empty or full, your trailer gets locked with high security locks. That means, besides the seal on your load, you have locks put on your truck. Not just one, not just two, but every open hasp on the back of your truck has a screw lock that's like nothing else you've ever seen. It can't be cut. You can have whatever type of cutting tool you want. It's not going to cut. So we make it so you cannot come in. We put a new seal on it, and immediately you go and you park. Most of our empty trailers and full trailers are parked back to back. So in order to have a larceny there, you're going to have to have a vehicle to move it, number one. And you're going to have to figure out a way to get our locks off and our kingpin locks off. There are a lot better places for the criminal element to go steal from than us. Ours is much more difficult.

Keith: We have high security officers walking around, and that goes on 24 hours a day. Also, at 10 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 8 o'clock, as soon as sundown comes, we have robot dogs patrolling the property, looking all underneath these trucks and trailers, and they go on all night long with blue lights flashing all throughout the lot. Blue lights flashing on these robots. These robot dogs are supplied by a company called Undaunted, for those that want to know. It is a true knee-high robot that wanders underneath these trailers and is able to call the police at any moment. Now, we've had these open for some time. We don't have any issues. And so for those truckers that are carrying high-dollar loads, look up www.AtlantaHighSecurityTruckParking.com, or Store My Truck, and find the locations in downtown Atlanta. One is at Sawtell Avenue, and one is at Brumley Court.

Seth: Does that freak people out when they see a robot dog walking past their truck? Are they happy with it? Like, good, I'm secure.

Keith: So when you walk in, it talks about it. There's a sign there that says that we have robot dogs. We don't really advertise the level of security that we're at. We have caught a couple of people that have wandered onto our property that had some sort of plan to do something. Wandering around. And we don't put up with it very much. The police station is right next door. We have police coming in through our lots. And so we just don't have any problems in that regard. And some of these large companies that have had these experiences in small code-in and code-out lots are moving to our area, to our properties, mostly because we are a unique product, securing these trailers. It is nearly impossible to take something off of our lot. You'd have to have a helicopter and take it through the air.

Seth: I didn't realize people were getting their entire loads stolen. How does that even happen? Aren't you in the truck with the load attached to your truck?

Keith: So it happens because there are people in this industry, truckers, that talk about what is in their loads to other elements. It happens because there always seems to be someone affiliated with that load when they get caught. And it always points to someone who talked about what was in that truck and what number that trailer is. And unfortunately, it does go on. We're very happy to present this unique type of security in this industry, because I can tell you, it goes on every day on every other lot but ours.

Keith: I will say this. It is a little more expensive than everybody else. Not much. Small amount, 10% more, that pays for this security. I can tell you that these larger companies love us. They come in and they view us sometimes. They show it to their insurance companies. This is what's going on where our equipment is. They're putting locks on it. They're taking them off when they're leaving. They're checking people in and out. They're getting their driver's license. It's extremely unique to have that product.

Seth: So at this point, all your locations, are they all this daily or nightly model? Or do you offer the monthly parking anywhere?

Keith: So we're also unique in that regard. We offer every kind of timetable you can imagine. Nowadays, with the time limits on drivers, they have to drive a certain amount of time, but they also have to rest. The federal government has stepped in in the last couple of years and basically said, okay, drivers, you can't drive 36 hours straight. You can't drive 50 hours straight. You have to rest. So they have an electronic logging device that is in most trucks and most fleets to track their time and tell them when they have to park. So if you're driving through Atlanta and your ELD, your electronic logging device, goes off and tells you you've got an hour to park, we're a great source, even at the last minute.

Keith: So they come in, they park, and they can park hourly. They're just shooting home, doing errands. They've got plenty of driving time left. They can park for as low as an hour. They can park daily. They can park for a weekend. They can park weekly. In other words, they can just stay for a week. Some drivers go for two months, three months at a time and come in for a week. They can park monthly, or they can park yearly at one location. Or, in our case, they can park with a membership program and park at any of our sites on a membership.

Seth: So I am wondering, how do these truckers find out about you? I realize you have a big brand now. You're a known thing, you have multiple locations, people have memberships, all this stuff. But say if you open up a brand new location, if you were starting over today, if you didn't have a brand and you open up your first one, do people find you just by Googling truck parking near me? Or is it some other way? How do you advertise and make people aware that you're there?

Keith: Well, my suggestion, if you don't remember our name, storemytruck.com, is you just choose an area. For example, truck parking in Atlanta. If you type in truck parking in Atlanta, you're going to come to a website that says truckparkinginatlanta.com. And that's going to lead you to Store My Truck. Or the new one in Panama City. Truck parking in Panama City. We're going to be the first non-sponsored ad that comes up. It'll say Store My Truck. Click on it. It'll tell you how to get there. It'll tell you how to sign up.

Keith: You type in a telephone number on your phone, and a live voice is going to come on. That's another thing very different about us. You call us at 3 o'clock in the morning, just after you unloaded your packages on Christmas Day, and you've just finished doing your Christmas tree, your kids are in bed, you're figuring out where you're going. You're going to get a live voice from storemytruck.com that's going to answer the phone. "Store My Truck, can I help you?" And you're going to find out where our locations are and what we can do to help you. Pricing, locations, how to get in the gate, how you get your codes, or, in our high security locations, how you work your loads to be safe.

Seth: So it sounds like having a Google business listing, that's key, right? Because then people will start searching for that in your area?

Keith: Yes. And listen, we're opening new locations every single month. Panama City truck parking will be open in about two weeks. That is going to be one of our newest locations. More freight is going through there currently, and we found that location in need. We're opening about three of them in the first month, in a couple of weeks. We're opening some in Anderson, South Carolina, another hub area that needs some more parking. And we're consistently looking for new locations.

Keith: So if you have a piece of property that is vacant and you need a place to get some income, or you've got some idle property next door to your warehouse or anything, and you don't want to run it yourself because it is time intensive, very, very difficult, you call storemytruck.com and ask for Keith Cristal. They'll connect me within a minute, and I'll help you in a number of ways to open that truck parking facility. And I do it all kinds of ways. I do it on a small basis, just a small revenue share where you run it and I just send you a few customers here and there. That's one choice. Or we get all the way in it. We do leases. We do purchases. The one we're doing in Palmetto is one we purchased, to have it open in the next few months.

Seth: What percentage of all your locations have you bought outright? And what percentage of them are ones where you're just leasing them and repurposing them for this?

Keith: It would take an accountant to figure that out. It's a mixture. It's a mixed bag.

Seth: Now, when you're opening up one of these new locations, especially if there isn't another truck parking facility anywhere nearby, how do you figure out what the pricing should be per night or per month? One of the difficulties I've found in this business, when you compare it to something like self-storage, is that it's very easy for me to go out and order a feasibility study where they look at all the competition and what the pricing is and the occupancy, and you get a pretty good idea of what your thing is going to make. But with truck parking, if there are no comparables, how do you know what to charge so that it's actually going to fill up quickly?

Keith: Well, not to tell people every detail about how to operate a truck parking facility, because we want to operate it for you if you ever need one, but we do have an equation that works, and we do check the competition out. We don't want to be the cheapest. We're going to be the more expensive one.

Keith: But there are lots of facilities out there. And if you're a trucker and you're looking for a place and you rent a spot, the first thing I suggest you do, and this is what you do at our sites, is when you enter that location, make sure you can see the fences are up and running. There's not garbage and junk, pallets and tires and trash around your facility. That's going to tell you something that you probably never imagined. That tells you that the owners here care about this facility enough to monitor it and check it every single day.

Keith: That is what Store My Truck does. Our places are clean and neat. We have a complete landscape department that keeps it clean, neat, orderly, and organized. Our fences are not cut. They're clean. We can see them. The guy that has the truck parking facility where you cannot see the fences because of the overgrowth, there are bottles of urine on the ground, the truckers have dropped and discarded, or just trash everywhere. Turn around, cancel your appointment and call storemytruck.com, because our locations are neat and clean, orderly and organized.

Keith: I look at them and I do inspections every day. The problem that most owner-operators have is they open them up and they don't look at them. I'm in my facilities every day. As a matter of fact, when I get through with this podcast, I am going to look at six locations today to make sure they're clean and neat. It takes me five minutes to see. I call the people that are in management, and I set those up to succeed, to be clean, neat, orderly, and organized. I listen in to office phone calls. I want to know that our trucker is well taken care of, that our trucker is number one.

Seth: Sure. When you're opening up a new one of these facilities or spotting new locations, I know you mentioned earlier you've had them as small as one acre and one of them is 69 acres. Today, when you're looking at this, what do you think is the minimum acreage where it makes sense? Like if it's less than X amount of acres, don't even bother, it's not worth it. What is that number in your mind?

Keith: You know, every municipality, in every area, the price per acre has a lot to do with that answer. This is not a business for someone just to look at a piece of property, buy it, and open it. I get calls every day from interested parties. I'm happy to take those calls. You can call me directly on my phone, and you can leave that at the end of this podcast. I get these calls all the time. They want me to look at a piece of property. I take a minute. I look at the property online. I look at the per capita. I look at the location. I look at the truck traffic. And I determine whether or not that is a feasible location. Before I open anything or become affiliated with any property, I visit that area. I go visit the truckers. I don't just open them. Anybody can open them. It's not like a McDonald's you're opening up on every corner. You really have to make sure that the feasibility or the location is good enough to fill up.

Keith: I had a guy call me six months ago. He said, "Hey, I got this great location that I've owned in my family for some time. I have to buy it from the trust. I'm going to buy it." He tells me about it, and I look at it. And the first thing I notice is the low truck traffic count. And I look at where it is and how busy that exit is. And I tell him not to open it. I said, if you open this, it's going to be slow going. It's going to take you a long time. It's not like the movie. If you build it, they're not going to come. It's got to be in an area that makes sense.

Keith: So he opens it. And then about a month ago, he calls me up and says, "You know what, Keith, I wish I'd have listened to you."

Seth: So you didn't even come to visit it and you already knew?

Keith: I said, well, I've been doing this since 2009 when I opened my first one. And had I liked the location, I would have visited it. I would have made some sort of deal with you, whether it was a lease or a purchase or some sort of revenue share split or something. I wasn't even interested in it. He said, "I wish I would have listened to you, because we've been open now six months and we don't even have one trucker yet. We get a few calls once in a while." Just because you have a piece of property doesn't mean you're going to be successful. It's got to be the right area. The advertising's got to make sense, and I can help you figure out what you need to do to get your advertising in the right position. And it takes a certain procedure nowadays, on Google, AI and chat, to be able to get that done.

Seth: So if somebody has a property and they're hearing you talk and they think, huh, maybe my property could be a good fit for this, is there something they can do to self-evaluate? For example, how close should it be to a highway? And what should the daily truck traffic count be, would you say?

Keith: I'll tell you just like it is. Just call me. I'm going to look at it on a satellite. That's going to be the first step. And I'm going to tell you within probably 10 minutes if I'm interested in it, if I like it. There are a lot of factors that you just named. Where it is, where the competition is, how thick the residential area is, whether it's out in the middle of nowhere. If it's next to a truck stop, yes or no. You would think that being next to a truck stop would be a positive thing. Not really.

Seth: On the truck stop thing, I assume you're talking about things like TA Travel or Love's or that kind of thing. So what makes what you do different from that? Why would somebody go to you instead of just pulling up right there for the night?

Keith: For a night, in a lot of cases, truck stops are no charge. They're starting to charge more and more. And there are more big companies moving into them. I'm getting ready to move into a couple of them myself. Because traditionally, truck parking at a truck stop has been a gift. That means you go into a truck stop, you get your fuel, you park your truck afterwards, you leave it there, you take a shower, you go back out to your truck, sleep for the night, pick up your supplies there. That's traditionally what's happened.

Keith: And many of these truckers have abused that privilege and left their truck there for a week at a time, two weeks at a time, a month at a time. And eventually the truck stops have gotten tired of having non-revenue space. And so now they are starting to charge, through services and companies like storemytruck.com. And truck stops, if you're having a problem with your parking, call storemytruck.com. We're interested in assisting you in getting your revenue where it needs to be for truck parking.

Keith: We can do a number of things. We can put a kiosk in your location where people can order their one truck spot for the night. We can set it up so they can make a phone call or go to a dot com and set it up. So we can turn these truck stops that have traditionally wasted that space into revenue, adding to your program. It's a cheap, inexpensive night. $8, $10, $15, $20. The average around the country is $30 to $35. We're much less. However, instead of just having that trucker come in and use your place at no charge and go home, maybe it's close to their house (and there are truckers that have bought houses near a truck stop in order to be able to park in your facility), when you decide you've had enough of that nonsense, you call us and we're happy to help you set up your truck parking.

Seth: Sure. But from the standpoint of a trucker, why would they go to you instead of going to a place like TA Travel?

Keith: A quiet, safe place to park, and a place to park your personal car so you don't have to Uber home. A number of things. If you're coming to our secure location, we offer what no one else can offer, which is mainly our high security locations. Coming there is nothing like a truck stop. And look, larcenies, a lot of them are happening at these truck stops. You have, and I'm sure everybody's heard of this term, lot lizards walking around at some of these truck stops. These national companies, a lot of them don't want them there because of the high crime at these truck stops. There are loads being hijacked. They are not secure at all. There's no fencing at all.

Keith: I personally think they come to us because they're looking for a much better alternative for themselves, a safer environment, if it's team drivers, meaning more than one, husband and wife. A lot of them are using our locations close to their homes. Truck stops are a lot of times in heavy metropolises, not near a lot of residential. So there are a lot of different reasons why people use us instead.

Keith: We are a family-owned business. That means my daughter, my son, all work in the business. My wife. This is a family-owned business. It's been that way since day one. This is not some big REIT or some large company. We have a lot of employees that have been with us more than 15 years. Our area manager in Atlanta, his name is Tony, has been with us for 15 years. William, who runs our crews for cleanup and putting in fences, has been with us 15 years. Most of our people have grown up with us as we've grown our businesses. It's not like some large company that's just getting by, or AI. We are truly on our game. We are truly on top of it. If you call our main number and you ask for me, they're going to connect me. If you ask for billing, you're going to get my wife. If you ask for something in operations, you're going to get my son. There is somebody there on the job supervising all these crews 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And that's why our locations are bigger, better, and more secure than every other site.

Seth: Sure. So I have kind of a random question for you. I've got a self-storage facility where half of it is for RV and boat parking. And it's a gravel parking lot. And one of the most annoying things to me, surprisingly, was indicating where the parking spots are. Because you can paint on gravel, but the paint just washes away after a year or two. We eventually ended up putting barricade tape down, which still isn't perfect, but it's better than paint. I'm just wondering, for something like truck parking, where I imagine a lot of these lots are gravel, do you even bother to mark, here's a parking spot? Or is it just a free-for-all where it's like, yeah, just go wherever there's an open space? How do you keep that organized?

Keith: We do it differently in different locations. So our paved lots, like our high security locations, they're numbered and spaces are there. And we update our own painting at least once a year. As a matter of fact, we're in the middle of doing that at our locations in downtown Atlanta currently. Bright yellow paint. You've got a place to park and you find your parking there.

Keith: Some properties have reserved parking, meaning that you have the same spot every single time. We do not have reserved parking. And the reason why we don't is we want to make sure you have enough room to come in. So we count our spaces. We also move them around and we have people there. So we're pretty tight all the way around. But after this program is over, if you'll have a personal conversation with me, I'll tell you a way that we're doing it in Florida. I just don't want to let it out yet.

Seth: So have you ever had a location underperform? I don't want to say fail, but just like it didn't live up to expectations. You either chose to shut it down or you sold it off. It just wasn't cutting it. And if so, what happened? What went wrong, do you think?

Keith: I've opened 100 locations. And over the years, I would say we've had two out of 100 locations that just didn't produce. One of them we sold to an end user. Another one we just closed, because we were able to. It's not easy to choose. Sometimes you think everything is great.

Keith: You heard me talk about truck stops earlier. The location that we closed was right next door to a truck stop. And early on, truck stops were not charging, not even a penny to park. They just started doing that in the last few years. We opened right next door because they were full all the time. And I think the trucker had a problem thinking that, why should I pay for parking here if I can park next door for free? I mean, if they were full, they wouldn't park for $15 next door. They'd park on the street. So they just get that in their head. You know, I'm not paying for parking.

Keith: But we are out there to protect your stuff, the trucker's items, the trucker's personal possessions, the trucker's $150,000 rig, and all of their load. We're there to help you. And there are old school truckers that will not park with us. And that one was not doing well, so we finally closed it. Nowadays, it is difficult to open one not far from a truck stop. Right next door might be a reach. We would probably pass on that. You've got to pick the right location. There are a lot of things that go into picking them.

Seth: So it sounds like the answer to that one was the competition next door had this unfair advantage where they're offering it for free. So why would they pay for yours? I'm wondering though, if you were setting up yours so that it's monthly and monthly only, like that's all it is, do you think the presence of a truck stop like that would actually be a good sign? Because it's saying, hey look, there's truckers here and they can't get monthly parking. So if you offer it up, you're in good shape. Or is that the wrong way to think about it?

Keith: I think if you're next to a truck stop, monthly or daily, they just can't get it in their head that they can park for free right next door.

Seth: Okay. Interesting. Even though the monthly is a totally different type of product?

Keith: Totally. They didn't understand it, and still don't understand it, at that one next door. We did very little monthly, daily, or evening. I'd say we struggled with it for about a year. We finally closed it. That's not the case at our other locations. Most of our locations are not next to truck stops.

Seth: How far away do you think is a safe margin? If it's a mile away, are you okay? Or just down the block, is it okay? How far would it need to be to not be a problem?

Keith: Just not near it. Same exit, I've had them before and done well, but this one was right next door.

Seth: So you're talking about how you work with property owners to repurpose their property for this truck parking. How much money are you willing to invest in improving somebody else's property? For example, if there's not a fence or a gate, do you pay to put that there, or does the property owner pay to put that there?

Keith: Well, that is a great question. I just want to tell you, it's all about the deal. We do it all different ways. The great thing about doing business with me is we are in the fencing business. We are in the grading business. We do gravel. We take trees down with permits. So if you have a property in any stage, we prefer it to be approved, meaning there are no trees on it, but we can take it from bolts to nuts, from trees to a lot. And it's just a timetable. And it has to do with permits. But we can do it all. Like I said, I prefer that they're cleared at least.

Keith: The deal can be anything. We're doing one right now that had an allowance because it was a lot more detailed, where the property owner wanted to continue to be the property owner. We're going to be the tenant. We're putting a unique location in a unique area. We're able to get everything done. We're opening up north of Atlanta in an area that's never had truck parking, in Cumming, Georgia. That's C-U-M-M-I-N-G, near Lake Lanier, Gainesville area. Never had truck parking there ever before. And we're going to open that in the next week.

Keith: And I said earlier, some are code-in and code-out. The reason why we choose some to be code-in and code-out is it's a low crime area. Low crime, that means I can leave a dollar bill on the pavement tonight, a $100 bill, and it'll be there tomorrow. That's low crime. Of course, in the downtown area, if I leave a $100 bill outside the gate and I put a $100 bill there, tomorrow there'll be a 100-foot hole where they're looking for the next $100 bill.

Keith: My point is that every area takes different levels of security. Some are code-in and code-out. Some are cameraed. Some are cameraed and coded. Some of my lots don't even need a gate. They just need an area to park and a fenced-in area. We have a couple of them that are wide open gates because they are those kinds of areas, or mostly used by one company that doesn't want a gate. But it just all depends on your clients and so forth. Everything as far as payment in all our locations, we make it so simple. You can pay in any method, cash, check, charge. Anything but an IOU, we'll take.

Seth: When we're talking about the proximity of the location to a highway, how close does it need to be? Like within a mile of a highway?

Keith: I have some that are nowhere near a highway.

Seth: Okay. What makes that okay, to not be near a highway?

Keith: Well, because that particular one is in a heavy residential area, in an area that has a lot of truckers. That area is okay. And so they pull in. They pull their car out of their own space that they reserve with their car. They put their truck in that spot. They get in their Honda Accord and they drive home to their house three to five miles away in a residential area. So I would say it's kind of half and half. Some of them work. Where it doesn't work is out in the middle of nowhere with no clients, no customers, no residential, on an exit that has nothing on it in a rural area. That one that I spoke about earlier, I had that property for years. It was on an exit. There was nothing there. That struggled, and he finally realized that what I said meant something. He shouldn't have opened there. If you call me, I'll make sure you don't make a mistake.

Seth: You said something key there. You said in an area that has a lot of truckers. How do you know where there are a lot of truckers that live? Is there some stat somewhere that says, hey, this person's profession is a trucker? How would you know?

Keith: So you pick a residential area that's close to a heavy trucking area. Like, for example, in Atlanta, there's an area at Moreland Avenue in Conley, but there are some heavy residential areas in Ellenwood or in Moreland or South Atlanta where we have that high security. Now, the crime is a little heavier there, but there are a lot of residents there. And so you can be far away from an exit, 5, 10, 15 miles away in a residential area, and it will work. It will absolutely work as long as it's near a logistics center. So there are a lot of things, a lot of factors there. Again, if you give me a call at storemytruck.com and ask for Keith Cristal, I'm going to tell you whether or not the location you picked is good or bad. And if you want to work something out as far as setting up a location on your property, I'm happy to assist you one way or the other.

Seth: When you say an area with a lot of truckers, how do you know? What are you looking at to know that?

Keith: You can go online and find out all the industrial areas of any area.

Seth: And you find that just by Google Earth or something, looking for the building type?

Keith: You can go to zoning. If you really want to get technical, you go to the municipality zoning and you take a look at industrial zoning, and you find the warehouses and where the truck lines are.

Seth: And you're looking for places like that where there's also a residential neighborhood nearby?

Keith: Right, yes.

Seth: Okay, gotcha. This has all been really helpful. One of my big questions is, what makes a good location for this? What makes a terrible location for this? You've answered a lot of that in terms of, you don't want a place out in the middle of nowhere by an exit where there's nothing going on. It sounds like you could make a lot of locations work, but maybe the holdup is making sure it's zoned correctly and you're actually allowed to use it for that. Is that one of the big challenges in this business, zoning?

Keith: Let's talk about that. Back in the day, the zoning was not an issue. It was industrial property, light industrial, heavy industrial. You just opened it up. Nowadays, it's much more difficult. The zoning is very difficult. And there are many, many, many, many municipalities that do not want truck parking in their backyard. Some locations have even created methods in order to attempt to get them. And some of them have said no, no more parking in our city. And there are moratoriums. And so there are a lot of places you can't open them.

Keith: And I want to tell you, this is not easy. This is not for the young of heart. This is not for somebody that's never done any kind of business. This is difficult. Finding the municipality that allows it, going through city council, dealing with all their permits, all their rules, regulations, applications, zoning, code enforcement. I've got to tell you, it is extremely difficult to open up truck parking. And some people do it illegally.

Keith: So if you have a piece of property, the first thing you want to know is whether or not you can do it. They're not going to allow you to put it in commercial zoning. They're not going to allow you to do it in residential zoning. You have to do a little research and get involved in it. A lot of times you can go online and find out the zoning, or go call planning and zoning of your area and find out what it's zoned.

Seth: Do you ever bother with trying to change the zoning?

Keith: I do. Sometimes you have to go from light industrial to heavy industrial. A residential area will never change their zoning from residential to industrial, unless the area has just dramatically changed. So we're constantly trying to get light to heavy industrial. There are some commercial sites. And then sometimes you go in and the municipality doesn't want you there anymore. They make it hard for you. So if you're thinking that this is easy, I've got a piece of property, I'm just going to open it and do it, don't. You're asking for a lot of legality problems, maybe even some financial obligations that you'll have that you weren't expecting.

Seth: Is there anything you can do to make this easier to stomach for the municipality, like putting up a giant visibility-blocking fence so people can't see the trucks?

Keith: That's a great question. So most municipalities require you to put up a fence with screening, and want it to be so that it is screened and you can't be seen. You just have to follow the rules. And if you follow the rules, they're going to tell you what they want. We put up one in Texas, for example. They made us put up walls, solid walls. Very expensive, putting that unit together there. So there are going to be rules involved. There are different buffers that you've got to have, natural buffers or added buffers or additional trees you've got to put in. There are just rules you've got to follow. Anybody that's thinking about this, either call me, and I've said it over and over, let me at least point you in the right direction, or find a location that is zoned correctly and follow the rules of planning and zoning.

Keith: You've got to have a real stomach for running these businesses. It is not easy. We have truckers that are driving around in California that don't want to pay for their spot in Atlanta. And you have to have a way to make it easy. You get paid because you're holding that spot for him, reserving that spot for him, reserving that space. You have to have it available when they come in. So you have to make sure that you make it easy for your truckers to pay you, and a way where you're able to collect, because that's another place that people struggle in this business, getting paid.

Seth: Keith has mentioned several times to call him if you've got questions or property, that kind of thing. So if you want to call him, I'll include his phone number in the show notes for this episode, retipster.com forward slash 287. This is episode 287.

Seth: I am curious. This is more of a design question. I've heard different measurements for this, how big a parking spot is supposed to be. I've heard 20 feet wide by 80 feet long. I've heard 15 by 75. How big are yours, and how many spots do you assume you can fit per acre? When you're looking at a four-acre property, for example, when you're doing the math, you go, okay, so that's X number of spots there. How do you work through that?

Keith: Again, that's things that I can weed through. It's going to be the shape of the property first. Shapes of the property, for example, if it's rectangular or square. Mostly rectangular is what I prefer. It allows you the most amount of usage. Round properties leave you the least amount of usage. Triangular properties leave you the least amount of usage.

Seth: I was looking at a property near me that was triangular, and I know exactly what you're talking about. I was just beating my head against the wall. It was so annoying how you couldn't make the best use of the space.

Keith: Yeah, so on a triangular property or round property, you may not be putting in tractor-trailers unless it's just a giant piece of property. But if you're looking at a three or four-acre site, which is a small site, and you're doing a round or a triangular property, you might think about a different usage than tractor-trailer parking, because by the time you point them at that angle, you may have an issue as far as space. Rectangular properties always leave you the corners, because of the size of the tractor-trailers, or you can have maybe tractors.

Keith: But to answer your question, I figure it just like this. Twenty-four tractor-trailers will fit in an acre. Thirty-five trailers will fit in an acre. Forty-seven tractors will fit in an acre. You can get some sort of combination of that. And my suggestion is you can figure it out on a lower level. I always do it based on the worst equation, which is how many tractor-trailer spaces, because that's the most expensive but the least amount, can you revenue out of one acre? That's how I start.

Seth: Have you ever had a facility that only parks trailers and not tractor-trailers? Because you can really cram them in there like sardines, right?

Keith: I mean, they park all different ways. If you have a user that is parking their own stuff and they're using it for empties, they don't need any aisle space. They're just coming to get the next one. When we do have something like that, that's very rare. That's a logistical nightmare for them. But we do have some people that just stack them in there and store them, or they're going through a change, or they're selling their inventory off. All their trailers are getting updated, and they just want a place to put them while they're doing that, or they're auctioning them off. In that case, you put the most amount in there. That actually is an advantage for us. There are situations like that, but rare.

Keith: I would say that the majority of our properties have a combination of power units or tractors, trailers by themselves, and combos. And then their personal cars get parked too. Well, it's a combination of a lot of different things. And my suggestion is that you're versatile, having space for tractors in maybe one area. Maybe your trailers are going to a different area. Maybe your empties are going to a different area. It's all about your security and how you operate.

Seth: If you've got a facility that's mainly just tractor-trailers, how big of an aisle do you need between the rows? I know it probably varies depending on whether they're parking diagonally or at a 90 degree angle, but is there a rule of thumb for that?

Keith: Yeah, it'd be based on the shape and the angles of the shape. I usually walk the properties. I don't go by some engineer that comes in and says, here's where your truck spaces go. I've had engineers on facilities tell me they did this drawing, and I say, well, it's wrong. You really have to understand the business and how many feet it takes to get out in the aisle. It's going to be based on those angles. If you're on a triangular property, because the angles are different, you don't need but 52 feet to get out in the aisle. But it's going to be very based on the angles you're at.

Seth: So the answer to the question of whether you should set up the parking spots at 90 degree angles straight across from each other or diagonal, that just kind of depends on the property and the shape of it.

Keith: The property and how you want to revenue it. I'd say that there are ways to get more trucks in there that are more inconvenient for the trucker, but you have to understand the trucker needs to have an easy way of parking. And that's what we do. We understand what the trucker needs as far as where he needs to park on that property. Are personal vehicles going to fit on that space, where the tractors need to be by themselves, where the loaded trailers need to be by themselves or together. I'm just telling you, there are a lot of factors there. I'd like to be able to answer all your questions, but unless I walk that property, I can't tell you where the aisles are going to be or how it's going to be laid out.

Seth: So if you open up a new facility and things are going well, it's all full, people are paying, it's all going good, what kind of risks are there? What kinds of unforeseen things could show up and harm that location?

Keith: That's another great question you've asked. You know, anything can happen. So let me give you some examples. Starting with the municipality, they may decide they don't want any more parking. They may decide they want a sidewalk. They can change your rules anytime they want to. Unfortunately, these municipalities are one of the problems in opening these. They don't see the big picture. They don't see that the trucker lives in their area, spends money in their area. They just don't want to see trucks. They see it very short-sighted. So they can change the way you operate. They can change the zoning.

Keith: We had one location that told us we didn't need a business license because it's grandfathered. And then city council one day changed that. We went to apply for a business license, and they said no. So rules change. We ended up getting it all worked out. But I'm telling you, this is not for the weak at heart.

Keith: Other things happen, like competition opens up next to you, or the road changes. Now it's a one-way street. Everything that I mentioned has happened to me. They closed the bridge on the street, so now the trucker couldn't get there. So there are lots of things that can happen. The good thing is if you have more than one location, you can move those truckers to another location and satisfy their needs.

Keith: The prices per acre have a lot to do with whether or not you can open and buy a facility. Because if you're putting 24 trucks in, or 25 trucks in an acre, and the going rate for an acre is $7,000, $6,000, $5,000 for an acre, you can't open. There's no money in that business. So you have to find areas where the equations work.

Seth: How much are you affected by gas prices, insurance prices, wage prices, all this stuff?

Keith: We're affected. Gas prices are up. The national companies are running, but a lot of independents are not.

Seth: I don't know how much of a reality this will be in the next five to 10 years, but this idea of autonomous semi-trucks that drive themselves, like the Waymo type thing. If that becomes a big thing, and it seems like at some point in the future it probably will, does that impact this kind of business at all? If there are no more humans involved that need to park anywhere?

Keith: One of the reasons why we're in the middle of installing electric chargers at our locations is these electric vehicles that self-drive can get a new charge. We do that. We're involved in that. The locations that have those are those downtown locations. Currently they'll be at all our sites at some point. We are working on that.

Keith: Even though they're self-driving, they still need certain things. Parking is one of them, meaning that they have to park to be maintained. We allow some maintenance on our properties. They have to park when they're not being used. So if there's not a load or there's not any business for that type of product or service, they have to have a place to park. So whether or not they're autonomous or not, and I would say in the next 15, 20 years, there'll be a lot of autonomous vehicles, but I personally think there'll always be somebody in some of these trucks driving. So there's always going to be a need for truck parking all over the United States.

Seth: Do these sites ever create environmental contamination? I'm thinking specifically about a gravel parking lot, semi-trucks park in there, maybe they're leaking oil. I don't know if they ever dump fuel or anything like that. But does that ever happen? How do you make sure that doesn't happen?

Keith: Oh, it does happen. We have been fortunate where we haven't had that problem. But I have heard of some sites that have had those things happen. The difference between us, and the reason why it doesn't happen mostly at ours, is because, number one, we're on our sites every day. The guy that runs one that doesn't come on his lots and doesn't check his lots runs through an AI program. That means you can't get somebody on the phone. It's all AI run. Move your truck to a Store My Truck facility.

Keith: We're in them every day. We make sure we don't have any leaks. We make sure that our truckers are not using it for a sales lot. The trucks are not being heavily maintained. No one's putting motors in on our properties. No one's leaking oil on our properties. We don't allow it. We're there every day. We're verifying that each truck is currently tagged and running. Currently a vehicle that has a current plate, a current MC number, a current DOT number. We are making sure they're insured. These are not people just leaving their junk to cause us problems down the road. We don't allow it.

Keith: Do we lose a little bit of revenue because we're that strict? Probably so. But we don't want that customer. We want a customer that wants to use our facilities for what they're intended for. We're not interested in being a sales lot. We're not interested in being a repair facility, except in our bays at some of our locations. Like 2100 Jonesboro Road, we do have a repair company in bays that rents from us and does a great job maintaining trucks on that lot.

Seth: Have you ever bought an existing truck location like this? Like it's currently being used for basically what you're doing, you're just sort of taking it over. And if so, what would make a good acquisition opportunity for that kind of thing?

Keith: Well, we do all kinds of things. We take over properties that have been used. We're repurposing. We've taken them over that have been a truck facility, and the guy is just done. He doesn't want to operate them anymore. We've taken over facilities that were RV and boat locations, and we turn them into truck parking.

Keith: We're in the RV and boat business too, in some other locations. One strictly does RV and boat parking near one of the lakes north of Atlanta, at Lake Allatoona. We have one called Acworth RV Boat Storage that allows any size vehicle to come in and park for one price, $100. A very unique way of doing business. It's a code-in and code-out location. There's a fishing guide there that takes boaters out to boat. It's a great facility that we've operated for a few years. So outdoor storage, you know, we love it. We're all into it. That's a very clean, neat facility. The city of Acworth loves us there. We're not looking to do it by the foot or the space. If you've got a 40-foot RV or you've got a 16-foot runabout, same price.

Seth: Now, I don't know if you ever even have a need for this, but I know when I was opening my first self-storage facility, I ordered a feasibility study, which was helpful for me to make sure I wasn't doing something dumb, but also my bank wanted to see it to make sure I had done my homework and to take a look at it themselves. When I look at this kind of business, are there feasibility studies for this kind of thing? Or does that not really exist? It seems like you're in a spot where you wouldn't even really need it, because you know the business better than anybody. But if a dummy like me got into it and they wanted that kind of third-party opinion, does that kind of service exist in this industry yet?

Keith: So there are engineering companies around that do feasibility studies. I see them sometimes. A lot of times they're wrong. They're not in the business. As I've said over and over in this conversation, the best way to make sure you're not going to make a mistake is to pick up the telephone and let me look at that location first online. If I like it, I'll come see it. We'll try to make some sort of deal. If I can't help you make that deal, or you want to do it on your own, I'm still happy to answer your questions.

Seth: Sure. Gotcha. One last question, and this has been an awesome conversation. Appreciate your time, Keith. I know one thing that you do to differentiate your locations is you have a lot of extras and things that just make it nicer. Things like showers and maybe a repair shop, tire shop, office space, mailboxes, car lockers, dumpsters, all this kind of stuff. If you could only pick one of those extras to make the place nicer, what do you think is the most important, highest impact luxury to give a truck driver that makes a difference?

Keith: I'm going to tell you that the most important thing you do at your truck parking facility is to be secure. That'd be the first thing I would tell you. Second thing is to care about what you're doing and care about that trucker. And then everything else, starting from showers, office space, they're all important. They do help.

Keith: Well, we do suggest it. I'm in other businesses besides truck parking. Truck parking is my main business. But the reason why offices work, and we have them in a lot of our locations, is because what better way to have a business on the facility with all your trucks, and to be able to do all your dispatching, interview all your drivers, take care of all your needs logistics-wise, loads, maintenance on the truck, right there, and to have it right there in the facility. So in my personal opinion, having that office there on site is probably the most important thing. Showers are important, not the most important thing. Having a place to get them worked on where it's safe. It's not out on the gravel. We have all that at our location at 2100 Jonesboro Road, Atlanta High Security Truck Parking. A lot of people park there because of all the amenities that are there.

Seth: Sure. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. There was an author named Elbert Hubbard many years ago. He said, do your work with your whole heart and you will succeed, because there's so little competition in that. And it kind of reminds me of you, because it seems like you're really putting a lot into this. You care about your trucker. You want him to have the good experience. You walk these things yourself. You're not some disassociated person who's sitting back and just collecting cash. You're actively involved and you love this business. And I think it shows. A lot of people aren't willing to go there. They want something passive and easy, and you kind of enjoy getting your hands dirty and making it work. So, hats off to you.

Keith: I'm not passive. I walk these lots every day. As I told you, I've got six to do today. As soon as I finish this podcast, I am going straight out to 2100 Jonesboro Road, and then I'll be traveling around all day. I'll be done probably end of the day, and sometimes I'll work throughout the night. Our security department at that location is phenomenal. And we own Atlanta High Security Truck Parking. They are all in-house workers. This is not a separate security company. These people work for storemytruck.com, and they are all about it. You'll get the feeling when you pull up to the gate. Every person coming out to your truck to talk to you cares about what they're doing. So it's not just a rude person coming out. We're looking for people that are personable all the time to work at our companies. And we actually hire a lot of truckers to work in security or check-in. We also hire a lot of truckers that have helped us to grow our business.

Seth: Yeah, love it. Well, Keith, thanks again for talking with me. I really appreciate it. If people want to learn more about your business or get a hold of you, I know I said put your phone number in the show notes. That's retipster.com forward slash 287. You can also check out storemytruck.com. Is there anything else people should know about?

Keith: For a main number that you can call, 678-631-7275. That's 678-631-P-A-R-K, PARK. If you would like to call and speak to me directly, you can call that customer service line. You'll get a voice, Mauricio or Kevin or Miss Ping. One of them will answer your call. If you tell them you want to speak to me directly, they're going to connect you right then to my direct phone number. Or you can call me direct anytime. If you want to put my own phone number up there, I'm happy to take those calls. I take them all the time. If you don't get me immediately, call me till you get me, or leave a message. I will get to you during the day. I probably get somewhere around 300 calls a day for various things.

Keith: As I said earlier, this is not the only thing that I do. I'm in different, what I call diagonal businesses. For example, we do our own grading on these properties. We do our own fencing. We do our own remodeling. We do security check-in. We do office buildings in Atlanta. We have about 20 office buildings and do salon space, barbershops. As a matter of fact, at 2100 Jonesboro Road, we have a new Fade Atlanta barbershop. If you're a trucker and you're looking for a place to kind of come in and get spruced up, there's a barbershop right there on site.

Keith: We do a little bit of everything. We own Atlanta Roll-Off Services, which is a roll-off company that does trash. Truckers create a lot of trash. When they come in, they've got garbage in their truck. And that's one of the reasons why ours don't look like everybody else's. There are dumpsters all over the properties. There are porta-potties and bathrooms. We just do it right.

Seth: Okay, appreciate you sharing your years of wisdom. Thanks again. Best of luck to you. And to the listeners out there, again, show notes, retipster.com forward slash 287. And we will talk to you next time.

Keith: Thank you very much. Look forward to the next time on your show.