Roadside rest areas vs Truck Stops vs Public Amenities.

Working with trucks I find a list of “Truck Stops” very handy, however ICONs rely on standardisation, “Truck Stop – Plaza” is defined as one of the 103 Business & Services coming up as a fuel bowser in my Garmin.
I approached Garmin about the confusion of Fuel stops showing up at every Truck Stop along the highways, only to be told that they sourced that information from outside suppliers. I will compile a Garmin set then see if I can map them across.
Can I get a copy of the Here “POI” definitions, I have tried to compile my own subset to get my head around which ones to use from the onscreen ones, but there are so many and ICONS are duplicated.
I have meticulously made dozens of changes in Mapcreator now and see them coming through on my Garmin as Rest Areas, showing up as a Public Toilet ICON that can be just as confusing when most do not have facilities.
I have started to change them to
I am puzzled as to what I should change them to and overwhelmed by how many I have come across on highways.

Truck stop in Australian terms is a place that a truck can stop safely o the side a main road to check tyres or load.
There are thousands of these across Australia defined in main roads data bases, they also have Truck Rest Areas defined and ICONS of the two are readily available. Most Truck Stops in Here are shown as a Truck stop – Plaza and as such are incorrectly defined as this is a business location for trucks and is generally a service station.
Likewise there are also thousands of Rest areas for general motorists and not all have public conveniences (ICON attached).
There is a constant running battle about resting vs camping , caravans vs trucks and it would be nice if places that allow overnight resting could be differentiated from stopping,/resting/campgrounds especially where facilities are available.

Motorist-rest-areas-QLD Heavy-vehicle-stopping-places-qld Heavy-vehicle-rest-areas-Qld

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your feedback on this. I’m checking with the team to get some further clarification. The difficulty is that the categories are defined on a global level, not local, so wording can cause some confusion as they have different meanings to different countires, but I’ll see what we can do to ease the confusion around these.

regards
Shona

A business that provides a parking area for trucks is not confusing calling it a truck stop is not actually wrong and would often provide fuel.
It is only that truck stop has been applied to so many roadside stopping areas that the confusion comes up as these do not have fuel rarely even large enough to qualify as a rest stop.

I extracted the attached list of Here ICON descriptions for Stopping, Rest, Fuel & Parking to help understand how they could/should be labeled without the introduction of new ICONS. A global change from Truck Stop – Plaza to Truck Parking may be the simplest. Rest areas are a little more complex.

HERE-STOPPING-REST-PARKING-ICON-OPTIONS

Hi Kevin, The map team have had a reivew of the rest stop descriptions, and do agree that the icons could be changes to avoid confusion. We’ll request this and let you know when the changes are made.

The HERE definition for a Rest Area is:

A public facility, located next to a large thoroughfare such as a highway, expressway, freeway, or
provincial road where drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary
roads. This also applies to Scenic Overlooks where a driver must exit to park and enjoy the
scenery. Rest Area roads are Valid Unnamed, even if the Rest Area has a name (e.g., Lincoln Oasis).
Rest areas can be further classed into the following categories:

– “Parking and Restroom only Rest Area”
o Parking and Rest Room Only to rest areas that only have rest room facilities
– “Parking Only Rest Area”
o Parking Only to rest areas that do not have facilities (such as restaurants, petrol station, rest rooms, etc.)
– “Highway Service Rest Area”
o Motorway Service Area to motorway service areas signposted on the highway. These are located close to the highway, but are only accessible after exiting the highway.
– “Scenic Overlook Rest Area”
o Scenic Overlook to rest areas where a driver must exit in order to park and enjoy the scenery.

The current specification also includes this note:
Note that Petrol stations that have a convenience store, rest room, and provide parking are not Rest Areas and should not be coded as such.

The current HERE definition of a Truck Stop/Plaza is:

A business facility used by long distance truck drivers that includes fuel pumps for heavy trucks and
may include restaurants, service facilities, sleeping and shower facilities, etc.

A petrol station that only sells Diesel only should be classified as a Truck Stop/Plaza.

And lastly, the current HERE definition for Truck Parking is:

An area for parking heavy trucks/lorries. These areas may service other facilities (e.g., restaurants,
rest areas, warehouse stores), but offer parking for heavy trucks. The POI should reflect the name of
the associated facility.

I hope this helps with differentiating each of the features but do let me know if you have additional questions.

Thankyou for your reply, the interpretation of “rest area” is subject to much confusion on the road and I extracted the relevant definitions from the Here website.

The main issue is that so many “Roadside Truckstop” or “Stopping Bay” have been wrongly listed as “Truckstop – Plaza”. From what I see very few in fact supply fuel and it would seem an Australia wide change would correct the majority as those listed with fuel are double listed as a service station.