How Love's grew from one Watonga gas station to 670 travel stops
Tom and Judy Love opened their first self-service gas station in Watonga, Oklahoma in 1964. Sixty-plus years later, Love's is the second-largest US travel-center operator, with 670 locations spread across 42 states and more than 40,000 employees. The company remains family-owned and headquartered in Oklahoma City, which is unusual at this scale: most travel-center competitors have consolidated under public-company or institutional ownership. Pilot Flying J is now wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and TA Petro is owned by BP. Love's is the holdout for family ownership in the top three.
Travel-center economics and the diesel-first model
Travel-center pricing is dominated by diesel volume from long-haul trucking rather than gasoline volume from personal vehicles. A Love's travel stop typically includes high-flow diesel lanes for tractor-trailers, separate gasoline pumps for four-wheelers, full-service restrooms and showers, laundry facilities, parking dedicated to overnight tractor-trailers, and a convenience store of significantly larger square footage than a typical urban c-store. The personal-vehicle gasoline pricing on offer tends to track closer to local retail than to warehouse-club discount levels, with the loyalty program offering moderate cents-off-per-gallon savings rather than warehouse-club-style structural discounts.
Love's Connect and the dual-track loyalty model
Love's runs two loyalty tracks corresponding to its two customer segments. Pro Driver Rewards serves commercial trucking accounts with volume-based pricing, fleet card integration, and dedicated account management. Love's Connect is the personal-vehicle loyalty program, offering cents-off-per-gallon fuel rewards and in-store food and merchandise discounts managed through the Love's mobile app. The app also handles trip planning, fuel-price lookup along an interstate route, on-site amenity reservations, and locations of nearest Subway, Arby's, or Hardee's quick-service restaurants typically attached to Love's travel stops.
Love's vs Pilot Flying J, TA Petro, and the travel-center field
The three major US travel-center chains have different ownership and competitive positioning. Pilot Flying J is the largest by location count (675 travel centers plus 82 fuel-only retail locations in the US), fully owned by Berkshire Hathaway since January 2024. Love's is second-largest at 670 locations, family- owned, with strongest concentration in the Central US and Southwest. TA Petro (TravelCenters of America) is the smallest of the three, owned by BP since 2023, with the longest history (founded 1972) but the smallest current footprint. For multi-state interstate trips, the practical question is which chain happens to be at the exit you need rather than a head-to-head choice in the same parking lot.
Love's vs warehouse clubs and convenience-store brands
For drivers filling up close to home, Costco, Sam's Club, and the multi-brand Walmart Plus network typically beat Love's on per-gallon price. Love's advantage activates on multi-state interstate trips, RV travel, and long-haul driving where the travel-center location footprint and amenities are more useful than the warehouse-club price advantage. Among convenience-store chains, Buc-ee's competes with travel centers on the destination-led store experience but at a much smaller location count. Use the Gas Price Check ZIP search to see Love's prices alongside every other brand in your area.