Flying J charging to dump!!!

[mythplaced]

IThey sent me a different letter

Dear Michael,

To continue providing waste dump station services, Flying J is instituting a $10 fee to customers using this service. This has become necessary to cover the increasing costs of offering this amenity. These additional fees include:

Maintenance - escalating expenses associated with normal usage and the misuse and abuse of waste dump stations
Municipalities - rising costs from local sewer treatment service providers
Regulatory - increasing expenditures linked to stringent corporate responsibilities

Flying J RV/Rewards Card Member Benefits

As a Flying J RV or Rewards member, a $5.00 dump station coupon will be added to your card based on fuel purchases. You must present your card to the cashier at the point of purchase to receive the discount.

Exclusive Flying J Loyalty Online Offer

Sign up for Loyalty Online and you will receive 1 FREE waste dump (a $10 value) on your next visit.*

If you are already a Flying J Loyalty Online member, a complimentary coupon for 1 FREE waste dump (a $10 value) has been added to your loyalty card to use on your next visit to Flying J.

Flying J appreciates your business and looks forward to continuing to offer the best services and facilities in the industry.

Share with your network.

[ChiefJohn]

John,
Sign-in to your account on the Flying J site and you'll have the option to print a coupon.

[Lorna]

We spent Thursday night at the Flying J on I20 in Pecos, TX. We ate supper (buffet), spent the night, ate breakfast (buffet), topped off the RV and one of the Jeeps ($100 total in gas and swiped my FJ Real Value card) and then I asked if I would have to pay to dump my tanks.... answer... no. Worked for us.

[Jestme13]

This is the first I've heard of this dumping fee at the Hook. We traveled from PA to WI 2 weeks ago, as usual we stopped fueled at stayed the night while on the road at the J. When arriving at Milwaukee we stopped at the J fueled, dumped , filled the water tank and prepped for a week of dry camping at a dog show. "NO" mention of a dumping fee. I use the J a lot to dump on the way home so we get home with an empty and clean tank. I would say I buy fuel about 90% of the time at the J, I like the conveniences they provide. $5 or $10 ain't much to pay for the continued convenience for us. I see the cup 1/2 full at the Hook. And besides, I like their coffee...........

[Seajay]

Lets all stop and think for a minute. $5.00 to dump the pottie. WOW $5.00 Now stop and think how much a cup of coffee costs or how bout a pack of smokes, or a gallon of gas or one donut or one stick of beef jerky........ $5.00 has the buying power of about fifty cents in real money. This is the way I try to think of things now with inflation and the devaluing or our dollar. Lets face if folks, THE OLD DOLLAR JUST AINT WHAT IT USE TO BE. I can remember when you could ''buy something'' for a dollar....... I bet most of you remember when a ''dollar'' had value also. Like you guys, it pains me to have to ''pay for something that use to be free'' but such is progress and remember this ... The best way to ''protest'' is DONT USE THE FACILITY. Like many of you guys we sometimes overnite at the J and we usually top the tank, dump the pottie when necessary and I wait till it is pretty full. Our black water tank holds 50 gallons and the gray holds 35 gallons. At 80% full on both tanks that is about 70 gallons. Thats about seven cents per gallon to dump your waste and about 50 gallons to fill the fresh water tank again, for us, that is several days of accumulation. $5.00 is the price of a pack of ciggies now and we can ''take a dump'' for a ''pack of ciggies'' and the ''ciggies'' wont last ''several days''. (all this makes cents to me, I think) We ''eat the buffet twice'' and we usually ''park with the semis to overnite.'' We never extend the slides or put anything on the ground. I like the R.V. gas lanes even if the fuel is a penny or two higher. After all, what can you buy with a penny? Like most of you guys, I remember .29 cents a gallon gas, .10 cokes, .20 cent burgers and 3 Trojans for a quarter but things just aint that way anymore.
I relinquish the podium.....This horse has been beaten to death.......
Seajay the sailor man......
God bless our troops and bring them home soon and safe
God bless our vets ..... All gave some .... Some gave all.....

[TravelingJ]

We have only used the dump station at a Flying J once in our 4 years of RV'ing. We probably wouldn't have done this if I would have had to pay, but I wouldn't have been upset at the charge either (I would just wait till the next park we go to) I generally try to just empty my tanks before I hit the road, and all is well.

That said, Flying J is the only chain I've been to, that has a dedicated set of pumps that I always know I can get in and out of with our trailer, and not have to worry about tight turns. Loves and TA might offer better inside facilities, but I prefer ease of entrance and exit.

[94-Newmar]

I added a riser to my home septic tank and bought another 40' of Sewer hose so I can dump at home. I usually avoid FJ or Pilot due to their Diesel being .05-.10 cents higher than anywhere else unless you pay cash.. I don't carry a lot of cash when I travel. May not seem like much initially, but that means as much as 20 bucks on most of our trips.

[Dmiles]

On our way back home from the Rally, we made a planned stop at the Flying J near Ashland, KY for gas and to dump, since there were of course no dumping facilities at the Rally.

When I took my Flying J card in and gave it to the guy expecting it to allow me to dump for $5 instead of $10, he told me according to credits on the card, he owed me 60 cents! So I got to dump for free, and made 60 cents in the bargain. I did not argue with the man, took my .60, dumped and was on my way.

[Me n Slowpoke]

May see a lot of changes as you go along.. Pilot either bought Flying J or merged with them.. hubby drives truck so he is seeing more of the changes. Some of the restaurants are being changed out to Denny's. But as long as you fuel there and use your frequent fueler card , you will still receive points or discounts off of your fuel for the time being, depending on whether you have the RV card or the frequent fueler card..
Hope this helps !

[NLOVNIT]

FWIW, we stopped at a Love's on the way back from the Affinity rally & their rv dump was still free.

Lori-

[RonK]

Ended up at a "FlyingJ", changed to Loves, as a result of a bad storm while en-route to Oshkosh Wi. Tried using the FlyingJ card and "no-go"
So, did Loves purchase some of the old Flying Js........

[mrblanche]

Pilot acquired Flying J, but was required to divest itself of something like 30 locations for competition reasons to get permission to complete the transaction.

The good news: Flying J will now take ComData, the most common fuel card in the trucking industry. Their proprietary card requirement has been a thorn in the side of the industry for many years.

The better news: All of the nasty, understaffed Flying J restaurants will be Denny's. Maybe not much improvement in food (we have always called Denny's the truck stop restaurant without truck parking), but almost certainly an improvement in service.

http://www.truckersnews.com/pilot-fl...rap-up-merger/

[Kayjulia]

Originally Posted by mrblanche

The better news: All of the nasty, understaffed Flying J restaurants will be Denny's. Maybe not much improvement in food (we have always called Denny's the truck stop restaurant without truck parking), but almost certainly an improvement in service.

Pilot, Flying J wrap up merger | Truckers News | Trucking News, Health & Lifestyle

I differ in your opinion that Denny's is a better option than the flying J restaurants. I always got good service at the Flying J restaurants and liked their buffet. On the other hand Denny's is .... well Denny's. I have had terrible service at some Denny's and they don't usually do the buffet. Even Denny's is under staffed because that is the only cost a restaurant manager can control so they cut staff or hire part time workers that are spending most of their time looking for another job that pays better and has benefits. I don't know of any low end restaurants that pay well or have benefits for service staff therefore a large turnover of help.

I think there will be further "adjustments" to come because of this deal with Flying J and Pilot. We'll adjust after a while and forget about the old Flying Js.

[mrblanche]

There was a time before Flying J expanded so rapidly that it had some rather pleasant restaurants with some items on the menu unavailable at other truck stops. Then they started expanding and cost cutting, and their restaurants became substandard. I have been in some of them when there was only one worker there. She had to wait tables, cook, clean, everything. The buffet was there for only one reason--to cut labor costs. We have walked out of a number of them after waiting for half an hour (most of our allowed break on an expedited load) without getting our food.

I've eaten at the Denny's at the Flying J north of Austin, TX, and it was superior to any Country Market or other Flying J restaurants.

I'll admit it: I was not surprised to see Flying J finally fail. They had some of the most odd-ball ideas and truck-ignorant management in the industry.

Now we'll see if the new folks are wise enough to keep up their reputation with the RV crowd.

(And just in passing, the single worst truck stop restaurant of a major chain we ever ate at was the TA in Santa Rosa, NM.)