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Not much room left for truckers to park in Genesee County

By Howard B. Owens

First, they ran out of room at the Flying J, then the Pembroke High School lot filled up, so deputies starting sending trucks to look for parking in Batavia.

The lots have filled up at Walmart, Home Depot and Target. Batavia Downs remains pretty open. Kmart has refused to allow truck parking.

No word on whether City Centre has been considered.

UPDATE 9:22 p.m.: While it's been reported several times by deputies that Kmart is out of bounds for truckers, a picture has been posted on Facebook showing, reportedly, truckers lined up in parking spaces at Kmart.

Howard B. Owens

I'm sure corporate Kmart, where these decisions are made, is used to operating in communities where there are online news sites that report just about every jot and tittle of what is going on. They had no idea their decision would be news.

Jan 7, 2014, 9:37pm Permalink
Bea McManis

not only news in our community, but in the community of truckers (where word spreads like wild fire). The deliveries to K-Mart might be mighty slow for a while.

Jan 7, 2014, 10:33pm Permalink
Cheryl Saville

Gee, two rigs could park at K-Mart .. in the spaces that would have been used by my family's 4 vehicles. We won't shop at places that can't accommodate stranded travelers in a snow emergency.

Jan 7, 2014, 11:33pm Permalink
Jon Whiteside

Could be a policy based on the weight rating for the paving in the main parking lot. I have several friends that are truckers, but if the blacktop isn't rated for the weight, the weather doesn't change the fact that the blacktop can be easily damaged. Just playing devil's advocate. Any other reason should be exempted based on the weather conditions.

Jan 8, 2014, 12:05am Permalink
Kyle Couchman

jwhit1 That may be the case however everyone else has taken the same risks in letting trucks park there so it doesn't seem to make sense. But hey that's Kmart's call to make. As others have pointed out this was an emergency and Kmart decided on this public stance so it's their hit to take in the publicity dept. So if their deliveries become more scarce and people go elsewhere to shop then they reap the rewards of their "kindness"

Jan 8, 2014, 7:13am Permalink
Frank Bartholomew

With the competition in the trucking industry, and the fact that many drivers get paid by the mile, I don't think kmart is to worried about slow or late deliveries, it will hurt the trucker more than kmart.

Jan 8, 2014, 5:10pm Permalink

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