February 5, 2025 • 54 mins
In this episode of the RV Life Podcast, I (Patti Hunt) share money-saving solutions for RVers with Gina Leeper and Tara Rape of Open Roads. They discuss fuel cards, toll transponders, and a new VIP access program, designed to save time and money. There are some big updates to the program that you don't want to miss.
** Save an average of $0.46 per gallon at over 3,300 locations nationwide with Open Roads Fuel Card
**Toll Transponder:** A single device for tolls across 48 states, saving time and reducing fines. Innovative Toll Solution
**VIP Access Program:** Exclusive discounts on tires, RV parks, and more.
**Real Customer Savings:** Testimonials reveal average savings of $500-$1,500 annually.
Previous episode 2/14/24 Diesel Fuel Savings and The Toll Pass That Covers 48 States Listen on Apple , Spotify, YouTube or any podcast platform
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* Thousand Trails Membership Specialist Journey Membership
Call/Text Warren & Sharon Lewis 804-366-0798
* KoolRV
* Harvest Hosts: Code: HUNT20 % Off
* Open Roads Fuel Card save on Diesel Fuel
* Open Roads Innovative Tolling Solutions All 48 states
* Open Road Resorts Mention RV LIFE Podcast
* CLEAR2O Save 10% w/ Code: RVLIFEPODCAST
* National Vehicle Buy or Sell Your RV
* Rivet Supply Co * AirSkirts $200 off kit order Discount Code RVPOD
* Motorhome Tires: $50 discount ...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You may not know this , but there is a way to save
money and time while traveling.
I'm Patti Hunt and you'relistening to the RV Life Podcast
.
Saving money on fuel and moneyon time on those tolls has been
(00:22):
my most downloaded RV LifePodcast episode by far.
It is two and a half times moredownloaded than any other
episode, so I know that this iswhat my listeners are looking
for.
So today we're going to talk tomy expert guests on these
(00:43):
products and we're going to talkabout some really important
updates that this company hasmade.
But that's not all.
You're going to hear fromactual customers who have used
these products and hear whatthey have to say.
The RV Life podcast was createdto educate, entertain and
explore the RV lifestyle, withthe mission to inspire you to
(01:06):
live life to the fullest.
What you need to know isbrought to you by Open Road
Resorts, and they have amazinglocations in Idaho, nebraska,
new Mexico and two locations inTexas.
Now it's February and it iscold in most of the US, but
there's hope that it is going towarm up, so if you are thinking
(01:30):
about spring and summer, goingto Yellowstone RV Red Rock Park
in Idaho is a great choice.
It's 22 miles from the westentrance to Yellowstone.
It's two hours to Jacksonville,wyoming and Boisman, montana,
and it is one of the mosthighest rated parks in the area.
(01:51):
You could go online toopenroadresortscom or call them
and, if you call, let them know.
You heard about them from theRV Life podcast.
What you need to know RVersdrive an average of 4,500 miles
a year, but this number variesgreatly because you have those
(02:14):
RVers that are part-time or sometime.
I know full-timers could travelas much as 10,000 miles in a
year.
And toll roads in the US thereare over 5,000 miles of toll
roads.
There are toll roads in 35states and territories, so toll
roads take up a lot of thecountry.
(02:36):
I live right in Pennsylvania,outside of Philadelphia, and the
PA Turnpike is the mostexpensive Turnpike toll road in
the world.
Yes, you heard that right.
I have fact-checked it.
It is the most expensive in theworld.
This, what you need to know, isbrought to you by Open Road
(02:59):
Resorts and you can check themout at openroadresortscom.
But let's get to my guest soyou could hear about how to save
money on fuel and save time andmoney on that toll pass.
Gina Lippert is the ExecutiveDirector of Open Roads.
She is directly responsible forall marketing experts,
(03:22):
financial accounting, customerexperience and banking
relationships.
She also works with thebusiness development director to
continue growing the currentfuel merchant network and
introducing more of the RVcommunity to the open roads fuel
discounts.
Tara Rape is also here with usand she is the member
(03:46):
development manager and has beenworking with Open Roads for
over 10 years.
She is amazing and is so veryhelpful to customers.
She and I talk a lot, so she isincredible.
Welcome, ladies, to the RV Lifepodcast.
Thank you, patty.
(04:06):
Thank you, you are welcome.
Thank you both for taking thetime to be on the podcast with
me.
Gina, this is your second timeand for my listeners I'm going
to put that episode in the shownotes, but today we have
information and lots of updates,so anybody that's heard the
(04:26):
episode before wants to stickaround for this episode.
So, gina, you live in Alabama.
Tell my listeners a little bitabout you personally.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So yes, I live in Birmingham, alabama, currently.
We are from Texarkana, texas,where I worked with TSD
Logistics as a controller herebefore starting the Open Roads
Fuel Card.
We raised our family here.
I've been married to my husband, jason.
We raised our four kids here inTexarkana.
We love the Arkansas Texas area.
I guess three years ago myhusband was relocated with work
(05:01):
to Birmingham, so now thecompany's gave me the
opportunity to work remotely forthem.
Travel back quite a bit backand forth, but just love the
Open Roads and TSD family.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Great Tara, how about you Tell us a little bit about
you personally?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Well, I have been with TSD for about 10 years.
I was in the accountingdepartment with Gina and then
moved on over to Open Roads whenwe started that program, born
and raised here in Texarkana.
I did move away for a couple ofyears and went remote as well
and moved off to Georgia for myhusband's work.
But we came back.
So me, him and I got one littlekiddo.
(05:39):
But just, we just stayed here.
That's awesome, thank you forsharing.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Okay, I want to stay here.
That's awesome.
Thank you for sharing.
Okay, I want to jump in.
Let's talk first about the OpenRoads fuel card.
So tell my listeners, who'venever heard about it, about that
fuel card.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So we worked for, as we had said before, a logistics
company here in Texarkana.
We had a fleet card for ourtrucks here and we were going to
grow that with our broker groupand a guy called my name he's a
company at my RV and I'm like Iguess, is it the fuel nozzle
bits?
And so he got a good laugh outof that.
(06:19):
He's like, yes, I guess thefirst month we had about 500
customers come on, just a wordof mouth locally, and I guess
about two months in I had 5,000customers.
The RV community has loved theproduct and we've since changed
that.
We created our own company foropen roads, our own set of
(06:41):
discounts for open roads,exclusively for RVers, and we've
grown that for the last fiveyears.
It's an amazing journey.
The RV community is amazing towork with.
We've made the best friends andbest relationships through this
journey and we're just verythankful for the opportunity
we're now setting up about143,000 customers.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Wow, that's incredible and I know you guys
aren't RVers and as an RVer, Iknow the RV community has
definitely embraced both of youas, just you know, part of the
RV community.
And, yes, I agree it's a greatcommunity.
But continue on.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So we have we're sitting here now at about three
about 3 300 different locations.
We just added 500 additionalones on last week.
They'll be coming on in thenext.
Uh, I guess the next two weekswe'll have that many cultures.
The next month, have them onactive.
We have 28 merchants across thenation and uh, always growing
(07:45):
that network.
I also would just like to sayon our website we have
opportunities to suggest vendorsor merchants to us.
If you go into a store and youlove it and you're like, you
know Open Roads needs to be here.
Has a diesel pump, has a trucklane to pull through.
We need Open Roads here.
Please, we encourage you to goout there, fill out that form
(08:06):
and then we will reach out tothat merchant and try to get
them added for you.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Okay, so let me just clarify.
You said these are all truckstops, so I just want people to
know I have been using openroads for as long as I've had
the RV, so it's going on fouryears actually, which is amazing
that it's been that long.
So we got the Upper Merge FuelCard.
We had a diesel pusher and atthe time it was TSD.
The card says TSD and we'realways incredibly happy with it
(08:39):
and being able to pull into thattruck stop is huge.
That's a big deal.
So they are truck stops.
And then there are companies.
We see along the way that Iagree that that's great.
You being able to, as a RVer,being able to say, hey, this is
a great truck stop, can you addit, that's a great thing.
(09:02):
So people need to really go onand add that.
So take people through theprocess how do get this card?
How do I sign up?
What's it going to take?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
okay.
So and I'll just add to thatpatty we were surprised that we
were afraid that would be anegative for us having to go
through that truck lane.
We did not realize that was ahuge positive that the rv
community was like that's somuch easier for us just to pull
in and pull out so easily, andso that's that's been a real
positive for the, for theprogram.
I will just go with one, two,two on things before I get into
(09:33):
the application process.
Anyone that knows open roadshas two fears.
Anyone you talk to if theyshare open roads.
There's two fears out there.
One of those fears is socialsecurity number.
We, starting January 1st, asocial security number is not
required for our card.
We have partnered with a group,with Plaid, to do verification
(09:57):
through Plaid automated on ourwebsite, and so social is not
required to have an OpenRoadscard and so social is not
required to have an Open Roadscard.
The second thing that somepeople have a hard time with is
the ACH giving us all your bankinformation.
So we have found a solution forthat and we've started a credit
card option for customers goingforward.
That will be launched mid toend of February.
(10:20):
We'll share lots of that on oursocial when we have that
launched and ready.
But we have tried to eliminatethe two biggest hurdles for Open
Roads program.
So, going back to the process,so when you can get our website
and there's an application linkon our website, you'll go out
there, apply and they'll ask youto apply verification, to
(10:43):
verify it to you and when that'sapproved we transition to our
office here.
We will then pull that, mailthat card out to you and get it
activated.
When you receive that cardyou'll have a control number.
The new process is you will setyour control number as part of
(11:04):
the application.
It'll walk you through thatprocess and the application.
When you receive that card, thenyou just go to the fuel pump.
You'll swap your card in thetruck lane.
Swap your card, you'll pumpyour fuel and in less than five
to 10 minutes it should show upon your app of the savings you
received.
(11:24):
So you you ask the question howdo I know how much I saved at
that pump?
It's showing the pump price.
So we have an app for openroads that you will download and
it will show you all the pricesacross the nation as you are
traveling.
Then you can choose whichmerchant you want to go to, or
if that price is worth thesavings.
(11:45):
The application process is zero.
You pay nothing.
Our things from the day one ismaybe we can save you money.
You can use our card.
We take 10% of your savings.
So if you save money, we keep10%.
There's no fees unless we savemoney.
That's kind of what has beenour logo since we began.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Okay and I just want to clarify a couple of things.
First of all, not using asocial security number.
I know you've never had aproblem in the years that you've
been doing this.
You've not had problems with it, but it's great that is.
As you said, people were havingissues with having to give the
Social Security number.
So that's no more as of a monthago.
(12:27):
So people are listening to this.
The beginning of February, asof a month ago, you've done away
with that.
The same thing with bankinggiving the bank information.
Again, you've never had a majorproblem.
I was with the people from thecompany and they've never had a
major problem.
I was with the people from thecompany and they've never had a
problem, but it was a stoppingpoint or a hurdle for some
(12:50):
people and you guys have workedto change that.
And for what you said, february, the end of February you should
people should be able to use acredit card.
I want to clarify.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I want to make sure that's clear.
We do not have to change to acredit card.
It's an option.
It's just you can do your ACHor a credit card, the credit
card.
Unfortunately, as everyoneknows, we're very transparent
with our margins.
They're very slim.
With the credit card, we dopush that 3% processing fee that
the credit card company chargesus to the end user fee that the
credit card company charges usto the end user.
(13:24):
So if you choose a credit cardoption, you will have to pay
that 3% processing fee.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That will go there and go to your settlement Again
that on your settlement, pattywill be itemized out as a line
item credit card processing fee.
Okay, so to be very clear, whathas been done Now I will say
that for me, when we did thefirst interview, it was you and
I and Clayton Pickett and he'sthe money guy and very detailed
(13:54):
and you know he spoke a littlebit above my head.
So for people who really wantto understand, you were talking
about margins and things likethat.
He did talk about some of thatin the last episode and again
I'll put that in the show notes,the bottom line, as people are
listening to this right now, theend of the day for me
personally, I just wanted toknow I was saving money, period.
(14:15):
Am I saving money?
And we are going to listen topeople who gave their
testimonial when we were at theFlorida RV show as to whether or
not they saved money and howmuch.
So we are going to get to that.
The card I know, going throughthe process, there is a link in
the show notes to sign up forthe card.
(14:36):
It was an easy process.
I received my card.
It was easy setup.
You'll also hear some peopletalk about and for me as well,
being able to pump gas at thepump and not walk into the store
.
Give my card, walk out, pumpthe gas, walk back in for a
receipt and get my card back.
(14:58):
That process, that streamlinedprocess of just being able to
put the card in at the pump, ishuge and it's used for RVers.
We don't want to tie up thelane for the trucks, we want
simple, we want to get in andout, and so that's great, and
we're going to hear some peoplespeak on that in the
testimonials.
Okay, so fuel card, we'vecovered that.
(15:21):
We've covered the major changes.
Let's talk now about innovativetoll solutions, and that is the
toll transponder.
So, tara, I think you're thehead of that.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yes.
So we have been partnered withInnovative for probably two
years now to bring a tollingsolution to all our customers,
to where no more having to havefive or six different tool tags
stuck to your windshield.
You get one transponder thatcovers the entire nation north,
south, east and west, every road, every bridge, privately owned
(15:56):
or anything that's going to becovered.
And this transponder is just aslick transponder that suction
cups to your windshield so youcan use it in your RV, and you
can also use it in your towvehicle if you're traveling
around town and aren't travelingin the RV at that time.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Ok, so I'm going to add to that because I received
the toll transponder.
Talk to the person from thecompany when you sign up, it's
twenty four dollars for the year.
And when I started the episode,and when I said it again, you
save time and money.
Talk to the person from thecompany when you sign up, it's
$24 for the year.
And when I started the episode,and when I said it again, you
save time and money, and I wantto be clear on that and then you
(16:35):
could chime in the time is thatyou have the one transponder.
You don't have to worry aboutwhich one's in the window.
But the money save and themoney saving part of it for me
using my EasyPass.
Easypass covers a part of theEast Coast.
Well, the year before I got thetransponder, I went through two
tolls.
I got a notification in my mailat my mailing service.
(16:59):
By the time I got it and dealtwith it, it was past the 25 days
.
They literally give you 25 days.
So it was past the 25 days andthey charge fines.
So I paid $240, something infines and I could not go back
and fight it.
It was already to collections.
(17:20):
There was no fighting it.
So when I say time and money,it truly is a time and money
saver.
So, and you said all 48 states,right, all 48 states.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yes, and I'll even go a little further with what you
were just saying, Patty is wehave a concierge service, so we
are going to fight any dispute.
We're going to fight anythingon your behalf to make sure you
are charged 100% correctly andin a timely manner.
So because this is going totake out the pay-by-plate where
you have to have that mail sentto you and you're trying to
(17:50):
track it down and you get pastthat date and you're hit with
all these fines.
So within about two days or so,you're going to see these
transactions on an app so youcan keep up with it as well to
make sure everything's runningsmoothly and that you're getting
charged the correct rate and ifthere is something wrong, I
know I could go through my app,I could email, I could call and
say there's a problem here,exactly.
(18:12):
We have somebody that's coveringthis and working.
This is what they do.
They are dedicated to fightingany disputes.
They are dedicated to make sureyour transponder is working
24-7.
So we are here to make sureit's all happy, so you can just
keep on trucking down that road,right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Now I did have a listener because Innovative as
well as Open Roads are sponsorson the podcast, so I talk about
you guys every week because Itruly believe in the services
that are provided.
A listener asked a question ifthe toll transponder saves on
the tolls, and I want to beclear it actually doesn't.
(18:50):
It's whatever toll amount, soif you go through and you don't
have a toll, you probably paymore if you don't have a
transponder.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So you get charged.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
you don't get charged that discounted right Like say,
you're on an easy pass road,you may get a special rate for
having an easy pass transponder.
Then there's a middle rate forhaving a transponder and then
there's a pay by plate or pay bycash.
So you're going to get thatmiddle rate.
So it is cheaper than the payby cash or the pay by plate.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Right, and again, just for the ease of it, knowing
that I'm not going to deal with200.
And RVers that I talk tonotoriously say, yes, I've got a
fine here that I ended uphaving to pay.
So just that peace of mind andthat savings really makes a big
difference.
Okay, I think that covers thetoll transponder.
(19:45):
We're going to put informationin the show notes and you guys
are gonna let me know wherepeople can reach out if they
have more questions.
There are links to the OpenRoads Fuel Card and the toll
pass in the show notes, but Ialso wanna talk about the new
VIP access card.
One of you both of you want toexplain what that is, because
(20:07):
that just launched.
I didn't even ask you.
Are we allowed to talk about it?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
We are allowed to talk about it.
It is very early on, so we hopeto have that launched.
It will be in your app soyou'll be able to access those
discounts through your app.
The technology piece we'retrying to get rolled out in the
next hopefully the next month tomonth and a half.
We hope to have rolled out inthe February.
We had hoped before Februarybut the technology piece just
(20:34):
took a little holding something,just a tad bit, but we should
have it by for the next coupleof weeks.
What we did is we have had thebest partnerships around open
roads and so we just decidedwith our partners we're going to
put this together and shareinformation about our partners
everywhere we go, and so we puttogether a little discount
(20:56):
program with those partners,which is growing Right now.
We have a partner with RV Life,so we have an RV Life
partnership on there, rv LifePro.
We have a transponder on VIPAccess, as well as Lov's All
Lov's RV parks have a 10%discount for staying in their
(21:17):
parks, their overnight stays.
We have Goodyear discountsbuilt in for tires, for what
every vehicle you need tires forand, as I talked about before,
patty, we are a logisticscompany that costs carbon white,
which that is, a black thatgoes into tires.
(21:37):
So we have deep relationshipswith Bridgestone, michelin,
cooper.
So all of those discounts fortires will be growing over the
next couple of quarters.
Hopefully by third quarterwe'll have all those brought on.
But that tire piece can be verysavings to all of our customers
and so we're ready to partnerwith them on that.
(21:59):
On our website we have all theinformation about VIP access.
I know that we're working withHarvest Host to bring a discount
in for Harvest Host and alsowith FMCA and that should also
come out in the next few weeks.
It's just ever growing.
It's growing and we're going toget a lot of fun this year.
So what we did is we said, ok,we're not quite there yet, right
(22:20):
, not quite there yet, right.
So we're grandfatheringeverybody in at this point at
$99, because we we definitelyhave enough discounts to cover
you more than $99 for the yearin savings, but we are not to
the end, we haven't got allbuilt out.
So anyone else's grandfather inat $99.
That application is out thereon our website that that price
(22:41):
will stay for you at $99 as wego up with the other growth of
the VIP.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
That's incredible, and I was there when you guys
announced it and looking at thecompanies that you could save
with and knowing that you guysare going to add to that, that's
incredible.
So I'm going to encourage mylisteners to go on the website
and check out the VIP access.
That sounds great.
Let's talk a little bit.
(23:10):
You guys are also big on acharity that's called Charity
Water and I have heard peoplefrom the company speak about
this and it was just verytouching.
So can you explain to thelisteners about this charity who
want to take that one?
They're looking at each otherI'll start it for us.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So we, we partnered with charity water very early on
, with open roads.
We at one point was fourgallons to one, so every four
gallons of fuel went through, wedonate a gallon of clean water.
You know, we've been veryblessed with open roads through
the years and so, and thecharity we, we are very, it gets
(23:50):
our heartstrings, I will justsay.
And so something we take forgranted every day water bottles,
I mean with raising poor kids,while we're all just sets around
my house and I'm just likedrink half of it, here's one,
here's one, we take it so forgranted.
And to have kids, and you knowyoung kids and families that
cannot have clean water, is wecan't even get our hands around
(24:11):
that because our heads, becausewe're just we take it so for
granted.
So we've upped that charity oftwo to one, so every two gallons
of fuel it goes through, agallon of water goes out.
Um, charity water is a greatpartnership.
We've got to actually see thewells as they're being built in
these different countries.
We're at four continents now.
(24:32):
We've touched seven countriesand so we're just trying to
continue growing that footprint.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
And people could actually go on the Open Roads
website and see all of the great, amazing things that this
charity is doing for peoplearound the world.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Right, and what we hope to do the next week.
We're building out a lot oftechnology in 2025.
That's a huge piece for us tohelp our creators with more
information.
There's lots of things we'rebuilding in that with more
information just lots of thingsfor building in that.
But one thing we're doing forour members is when you feel
with us on your settlement, itwill tell you you just donated
(25:10):
five gallons of water to one ofthe countries we work in and one
of the continents, and so andkind of talk with that charity.
So we want our members toreally feel the change, the
difference they're making, andso that's going to be coming out
this next year so you canreally get more information
built around that will be sharedwith everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
And I've seen where it shows on.
You know my statement and it'svery touching and, like you said
, it's so important.
I mean, water is just soimportant and we do.
We certainly take it forgranted.
So that's amazing and amazingcharity.
And you guys just keep doingmore and making it better.
You went from one gallon ofwater to two.
Just that's incredible.
Okay, so let's, I want to leadinto.
(25:55):
I want my listeners to know thatyou ladies work for the company
.
You're probably a little biased.
Everything you say is authenticand real and you know, I know,
you are incredible people.
You speak from the heart.
But my listeners do not have tolisten to you guys, to how
great these products are.
They can now listen in.
(26:16):
We were all at the Florida RVSuper Show in Tampa just a
couple weeks ago and I had theopportunity to speak to a number
of people.
I think there were 12 differentpeople I interviewed about the
Open Roads fuel card and some ofthem talked about the toll
transponder.
Any of the people that werethere that didn't have the toll
(26:39):
transponder, that heard about it, knew they needed to get it.
But I want my listeners tolisten in on what actual
customers have to say, for thoseof you spending time in the
cold weather, I highly recommendthe hassle-free RV skirting
that inflates by air skirts.
Rv skirting goes around theperimeter of your RV to prevent
(27:01):
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It prevents your pipes fromfreezing and causing damage and
it saves you money on heatingcosts.
It uses trapped air as anatural insulator.
These products are made ofheavy-duty, military-grade
PVC-coated canvas and what'sreally great is how it sets up
(27:23):
in minutes.
It packs up pretty compact soyou can store it in your RV.
Our Airskirts is giving you mylistener $200 off.
Use code RVPOD, that is,r-v-p-o-d for $200 off.
Just go to airskirtscom to findout about all of their products
(27:47):
.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Hello.
I am James and I'm Kelly andwe're the Road Ravers.
We have been full-time RVingwith our family since 2020, and
open roads is one of ourfavorite ways to save money
while we're on the road.
Speaker 6 (28:06):
We actually spent $4,000, or should have spent
$4,930 on fuel last year.
But thanks to Open Roads, wesaved.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
In the nine months that we used it we saved $809.34
, which makes it's easily almosta 20% savings with what we
should have spent.
We're super thankful.
Speaker 8 (28:28):
Made a big difference on what we were able to do.
Hi, I'm Belinda.
And I'm Dwayne.
And we are all about the banks.
Speaker 10 (28:36):
Last year, 2024, we saved $1,027.95 without Open
Rose diesel fuel card.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
We traveled about 10,000 miles during that time
and we found that it was such agreat value.
It's such a great value.
It's such a great tool to have.
Yes.
And we're really glad that weare part of the Open Roads
program and it's workedwonderful for us.
Speaker 10 (29:05):
Yes, to be able to go to the truck stop and get in
and get out with our 43-footfifth wheel has been awesome and
we've been using this for fiveyears.
Yes, so we suggest, of course,if you have a diesel, and of any
type, get the Open Roads fuelcar.
Speaker 11 (29:24):
Hi, we're Randy and Callie Bueheimer with RV
Destinations Magazine andPodcast, and we're here to talk
to you about Open Roads.
We're really excited about OpenRoads.
We actually have a partnershipwith them, but the thing that
we've been Open Roads membersfor three years, we've been with
them for probably three or fouryears, before we even partnered
with them.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
So partnering with them was honestly a no-brainer,
because this is something thatwe've used for a long time.
And then so we're here at theRV.
My brain is going where are we?
Oh, it's been a long day, y'all.
Speaker 11 (29:56):
The Florida Super Show.
Can you cut on this?
No, we're still running.
You get it all.
That's right.
This is the end of the day.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Yeah, we are in Tampa , aren't we?
Speaker 11 (30:06):
We're at the Open Roads RV Life.
They're having a dinner here.
It is Wednesday night at theTampa RV Show.
Yeah, I think so.
She is completely sober, Ipromise you.
But yeah, patty with RV LifePodcast came up to us and said
guess how much that you savedwith your Open roads card last
year.
Speaker 8 (30:22):
And so Randy's like whipping out his calculator,
like I'm going to figure thisout.
Speaker 11 (30:26):
And I I guessed 800 to a thousand dollars and she
said no, you've saved $1,500.
I was blown away Now unlikeprobably a lot of our viewers,
we track our fuel because we getto deduct a lot of cause.
We're, we're moving in.
You know, on behalf of themagazine, we spent $10,000 in
fuel last year and saved $1,500.
That's 15%, folks, that's a lotof money.
(30:47):
But you know, here's the kickeris, you know, when we signed up
for the Open Roads card, it wasnever about the savings.
For me, I mean, that's a niceadded value.
Yeah for sure.
Hey, 15% is 15%.
But for me it was the abilityto pay at the pump.
It was always a pain for me topull in, stop all the trucks
behind me to fill up mymotorhome.
I had to go all the way in getmy car pre-authorized come back
(31:10):
out and guess how much fuel youneed?
Right, you have to give them anestimate.
Stop it at 250 or whatever,come back out, fill the tank, go
back in, get my receipt, comeback out and then leave.
With open roads, we just put itin at the pump, pull it out,
fill up and we're on the road,and so that, to me, is worth it
alone.
That's right.
Speaker 14 (31:28):
The car.
How big is your fuel tank onthat?
Speaker 11 (31:31):
We've got 100 gallons.
Well, the new one's 150 gallons.
Oh yeah, that's right.
So the RV we had last year was100 gallons, but our new RV is
150 gallons, so we're expectingeven more savings.
Yeah, so we absolutely loveOpenRoads.
We just got their toll passtheir response.
We're excited about that too,so we're going to be using that
all over the country.
So if you don't have one, werecommend you get it.
Speaker 8 (31:53):
Just get one.
It's a no-brainer folks.
Yeah for the fuel card.
Speaker 11 (31:56):
it's free.
It's free, it's free to save15%.
Speaker 8 (32:00):
And then the toll pass.
Patty told us 24 bucks.
24 bucks gonna cover all ofyour tolls all across the united
states.
Gotta do it, and you know thebest part they don't even sell
your name.
Speaker 16 (32:09):
It's truly free so sign up today.
Speaker 12 (32:12):
Hey everyone, I'm martha and I'm chris and we're
venturesome couple we're alsobig fans of open roads yes, save
that money.
Speaker 16 (32:22):
So we're really excited.
Last year we had a big change.
So we travel all the time showto show events and everything.
We go to the Keys, we go allthe way to Indiana and
everything.
So we had a dually, a one-tondually, for five months and in
those five months we saved$639.30.
Speaker 12 (32:42):
Yeah, absolutely awesome.
Let alone the convenience ofhaving the ability to go through
the truck stops Saved us.
We got rid of our dually andgot gas, and we hate it.
Don't do that.
Speaker 16 (32:53):
No.
So what we love about OpenRoads is that you can find any
fuel stop all along the way.
There's maps, I'll pull it upand I'm like, hey, there's one
not too far from here, let'sstop there and it's a great
place because you go to thetruck stops and the pumps are so
much faster than us waiting inthe gasoline line with our new
truck and it's such a pain.
So we've actually we haven'tannounced it yet, but we're
(33:15):
going to go back to a diesel.
Speaker 12 (33:17):
Yes, the convenience alone makes it well worth the
additional expenses when we'retraveling full time.
Speaker 16 (33:22):
Yeah, but we're going to have to wait a little
bit because we want to order oneand find the right one for us.
All right guys.
We are Mike and Joni, withthose who Glamp Together.
Speaker 17 (33:31):
And we're here with Patty and Open Roads and we love
Open Roads.
You think it's for the savings,right, but I love it more for
the fact that I can pull my53-foot rig into a truck stop
and I don't have to worry.
But the savings is still theicing on the the cake, right.
833.74 cents this year forweekenders, yeah, with about 14
(33:55):
000 miles of travel.
So we love open roads.
Speaker 15 (33:58):
Go out, sign up to open roads I'm kara the
wandering rv babe, and this ismy driver, ryan howdy.
Uh, so we just found out whatwe love open roads.
By the way, we've used it forthe.
I'm Kara the Wandering RV Babe,and this is my driver, ryan
Howdy.
So we just found out we loveopen roads.
By the way, we've used it forthe last three years.
We drove around a little less.
This year we had somecomplications.
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 6 (34:16):
I had back surgery eight weeks ago, so I was
injured like nine months ago andso we've been kind of
stationary.
But if I were to have guessed,I would have only guessed like
maybe 200, $300.
Speaker 15 (34:28):
That probably would have been where I thought cause
we didn't travel as much thisyear, but we saved 500 and
something over 500 bucks thisyear just using open roads, and
I will have to say I love openroads, I love the app, I love
being able to like find placesalong our route, and we try to
monopolize the dual purpose ineverything that we do, cause,
(34:50):
you know, it's RV life.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
Everything needs two purposes.
Speaker 15 (34:53):
Yeah, fuel, stop bathroom break, you're golden.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
But what I will say as the driver um, my biggest
gripe about trying to get intosmaller gas stations that are
sometimes cheaper than loves orTA or any of the others a
hundred percent is about tryingto get into smaller gas stations
that are sometimes cheaper thanLoves or TA or any of the
others 100%.
It's just hard to get in with abig old, huge 40-foot rig and
so being able to just stop atthe Loves and get the same price
as the Circle K down the roadis amazing.
Speaker 15 (35:13):
It's great, or sometimes even cheaper than that
Sometimes yeah.
But we know we're always goingto get in, which is awesome.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Hi, we're Jesse and Corey from Finding Our Someday.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
So with Open Roads Card, we've only had it for six
months and we did onecross-country trip.
The rest was spent in Alaska,where there isn't any available
gas stations, and in Iceland,which is definitely another
place, but we saved $503 in justone cross-country trip, which
is pretty incredible.
Speaker 8 (35:43):
Absolutely amazing.
That's some serious eithertravel time or fixes for your RV
.
So it is so worth it to be ableto save that money on diesel.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
Hey, this is Rob from RV and Plug.
Hey, when we shot season two ofRV and Plug, we really leaned
into our open roads relationship.
We saved $281.60 this season,and not to mention that's just
our business account.
Me personally, I saved muchmore.
(36:12):
So I would highly encourage youto take advantage of Open Roads
and save as much as you can.
Speaker 18 (36:20):
Hello, this is Blake from RV Life Gen, also part of
the Rally Show team for RV Lifeand a brand ambassador for Open
Roads.
As an RVer and a diesel fueluser, I can't think of a better
program than Open Roads forsaving money on diesel fuel and,
to be honest with you, I'm notreally sure how much I saved
this year.
If I was to guess, I'd sayprobably around $500 this past
(36:44):
year in savings.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Okay, the number is actually $670.82.
Unbelievable, and that's whateverybody today has said.
Nobody has guessed anywherenear their number.
Speaker 18 (36:58):
You might be the closest.
It's unbelievable the savingsthat I get from the very first
day that first fill up.
I'm leaving a love station.
I saved $1.35 a gallon.
I'm driving away looking in allmy mirrors expecting to see
somebody chasing me down thatsomething went wrong, there was
a mistake, I didn't pay enough,I owed money, but no sure enough
(37:19):
.
It was good savings and thesavings have continued since
then.
I love the program.
Speaker 14 (37:25):
Hey, I'm Kurt.
Speaker 16 (37:25):
I'm Melody.
Speaker 14 (37:26):
And we are.
Speaker 16 (37:27):
RV Plus Three.
Speaker 14 (37:28):
Well, there are three apps that are part of my
RV life, and they have beensince day one.
The number one app is going tobe RV Life Trip Wizard.
Been using it for trip planningfor three years.
It gets me where I'm going togo, when I need to get there,
and safely doing it.
The other one is going to betire minder Love it, keep it.
It keeps me safe on the roadand letting me know what my
(37:49):
tires are going on.
Number three and it's notnecessarily in chronological
order, but open roads fuelsavings.
When we decided to get on theroad, we knew we were going to
have to have some type of fuelsavings or else we wouldn't be
able to afford doing thisjourney.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yep, so we just found out that, figuring everything
out, this year we saved a totalof a thousand dollars in savings
on our open roads which isabsolutely amazing.
Speaker 14 (38:13):
Yeah, and it just keeps getting better and better
every year and every fuel stopwe do.
It's open roads, if we can.
Speaker 15 (38:19):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
We are.
Speaker 9 (38:22):
Sue and Mark Chandler .
Our channel is Our Journey inMiles and Y-Y-L-E-S.
Miles is our Class A motorhome.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
We're full-timers, so we're pretty much on the move
most of the time, so you guys doa lot of travel, right, well?
Speaker 19 (38:37):
you know, since we're full-time and since she's
a new grandmother and since,just like everybody else, we
have a hometown, we travel inbetween our hometown and where
we snowbird, and then in betweenrepair facilities and then,
finally, in between all thosethings I mentioned, we try to
have fun okay, good.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
So now we're at the open roads.
People could probably hear somebackground noise.
We're at at the Open Roadsevent, gathered together with a
bunch of awesome people.
So I want to ask do you haveany idea how much you saved?
I know you're very analytical,so you want the number, but how
much do you think you saved in2024 on diesel fuel?
Speaker 19 (39:21):
Okay, so I'm going to give you my answer and then
you're going to dazzle me,hopefully.
I only know on the price pergallon because I'm of the club
that I already bought the RV.
I already love traveling withmy wife and we're going to go
wherever we need to go.
So whatever it costs I'm goingto pay it.
So I've tracked for five yearson an Excel spreadsheet on what
(39:44):
the pun price was and what wefinally paid when we looked at
our printout that you getliterally within, sometimes
within 15, 20 minutes, you know,right from TSD Open Roads and
I'm averaging, after five years,46 cents off the pump price.
So imagine that when you'repumping it and you don't have
(40:05):
this card, you're paying 46 morecents than the Chan man is.
Now when we were talking to someof the real movers and the
shakers in the company here,they said state, us wide, the
averages and everything you save51 cents off per gallon.
Now that includes the placeswhere you save 51 cents off per
gallon.
Now that includes the placeswhere you save less than that
(40:27):
and it includes the places yousave more than that Real-life
usage going east coast to westcoast, up down sideways,
everything over five years.
46 cents to me is pretty closeto 51.
But you don't have to Last year.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I literally have no idea.
You have literally no idea,literally no idea.
Okay, so this is we need a drumroll here, there, oh, we got
one $1,020.78.
Speaker 19 (40:56):
Oh my God, Now, I didn't want you to see that she
wants a high five.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
She's going to want to buy something and so she
should.
Yeah, she should, she should,absolutely.
So those people saving moneythat could go out and buy
something.
But over $1,000 for a cardright that doesn't cost any
money to get.
It costs nothing to sign up.
Speaker 19 (41:18):
No, when you think about it, depending upon what
you're driving, that couldliterally be a complete set of
tires for your fifth wheel, orclose to it, you know or a
shopping spree yeah right, Ilike the way patty thinks yeah
or I was thinking maybe a newiphone, which I need.
But well whatever it's it'ssaving.
(41:41):
Yes, yes, that's good to hearwell, thank you guys, so much.
Hey thanks for having us onPatty.
Speaker 20 (41:48):
This is Dina and Gertie Explore the World, jeff
Grant and Monica Grant.
We are traveling full-time inour travel trailer.
We had open roads for sixmonths last year.
I mean, that's not a lot, to behonest, when you travel once
every three weeks.
That's not a lot.
Be honest, when you travel onceevery three weeks, that's not a
lot, is it, jeff?
Speaker 13 (42:06):
no, no, but we saved how much I think uh, close to
250 in the first six months thatwe had open roads.
We absolutely loved it, and youknow we didn't know about it
beforehand, but after we foundout about it, you know it's a
no-brainer for us.
We drive a diesel truck and youknow, anytime that we have an
opportunity to save a few buckson the road, that's great.
Um, you know, is a no-brainerfor us.
We drive a diesel truck and youknow, any time that we have an
opportunity to save a few buckson the road, that's great.
(42:27):
Um, you know, especially as afamily of four, we're trying to
save it where we can becausewe'd like to be able to go out
and do the, the fun things thatwe do when we're on the road.
That's the whole reason why wewent full-time anyways, and so
to be able to travel and be ableto spend that extra money on
things like go into theamusement park or go into the to
(42:49):
swim with manatees or whateverit may be.
You know those are the thingsthat we'd rather do.
So if we can save a few dollarshere and there, that's awesome,
and so open roads has beentremendously helpful for us.
Speaker 20 (43:02):
I also want to point out the open roads is one of
those systems that is aplug-and-play, so you put your
information in.
They take care of everything.
You call them.
If you have a problem, youfollow up with them.
If you have any issues, you'renot going through a third party
and they answer everythingdirectly.
So every time you think thatyou have some ridiculous hoop
and hoopla to jump through,you're completely mistaken.
(43:25):
You have the family that you goto and the family answers your
question.
So Open Roads has been a gamechanger.
We love them.
They make our life easier.
They're not only a part of ourfamily, they're an extension of
us.
So I highly recommend you checkthem out.
Speaker 13 (43:39):
Absolutely, and it's you know, the big thing that I
like to tell people is it's notjust exclusive to RV family or
RV travelers or people whotravel.
If you have a diesel truck,you're crazy to not try this,
because you can save money anyday, and if you're filling your
tank just like everybody else todrive back and forth to work,
(44:00):
it's a no-brainer, I mean,unless you have exponential
amounts of money and you don'treally care.
But that's not the life that Ilive, unfortunately.
So you know, for me it wasawesome to find something that
was specific to diesel and itfit what we needed and again,
like Monty said, I highlyrecommend it to anybody who's
driving a diesel truck.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Okay, I'm going to ask you guys another question Do
you use OpenRoad's innovativetoll solutions?
We do.
Speaker 20 (44:27):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
How's that been?
Speaker 20 (44:29):
We have actually really enjoyed it because it is
a one-stop shop.
There are so many tolls in thiscountry from state to state
that you have to navigate andyou have to figure out what the
prices are and how to pay thosetolls.
Ask somebody that, again, hasonly used it for a short period
of time because we didn't knowabout it the first part of the
year and we were having to paythose bills when they came to
(44:51):
our snail mail residentialaddress, which we don't live at.
We don't live there.
So we had to chase those downLike what's the fee going to be?
Are we going to get a late fee?
Speaker 18 (45:03):
How are we going to?
Speaker 20 (45:04):
figure that out?
What's the fee going to be?
Are we going to get a late fee?
How are we going to figure thatout?
What can we figure outmassachusetts made we love you,
you're beautiful states, butdoggone it.
Your guys's tolls are, likecrazy, really big.
So, um, this one stop toll passsituation has been amazing.
It's a game changer.
Like you put in your window, itdoesn't matter if you're a toll
(45:24):
be a tow behind vehicle oryou're a C class or you're an a
class, it doesn't matter.
You just put in your vehicle.
It's already registered.
You go through the toll, itpays it.
The amazing people at openroads.
If there's an issue, theyfollow that up for you.
Do you have to sit on on thehold with that and deal with
that?
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
No you don't.
Speaker 20 (45:44):
Like Tara and the rest of the team are like, let
me take care of that for youAgain, extension of your family.
So why?
Why are you people doing thison a state by state basis?
Speaker 13 (45:56):
You're being, you're being ridiculous, like let's
make this happen it works almosteverywhere that there's maybe
like two tolls in the whole USthat it doesn't work on, and we
have been victim to that.
We don't live at a physicaladdress, so we've had bills
mailed there, we've missed them,we've had late fees, we've had
fines.
All kinds of stuff happenedwith there, and then not to
(46:17):
mention like having to pull overto pay a 50 cent toll and then
get back on the wear and tear onyour vehicle.
For us it was like pop thatthing in the window and not have
to worry about it anymore.
You charge everything throughyour app and it kind of handles
itself.
It's awesome.
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
Okay, so that was 12 different customers that have
been using OpenRoads anywherefrom six months to a year.
Some of them have been with theprogram for three, four, five
years.
I went around and asked each ofthose people.
Tara and I kind of set this up.
I went around and asked each ofthe people that I interviewed
(47:02):
what they thought their savingswere going to be and they, you
know, tried to figure it out intheir head.
I had a couple of peopleactually go through math in
their head, trying to calculatewhat they might have spent on
gas and what they would havesaved.
And then I said to them so Imade them guess, and then I said
to them this is what youactually saved because, tara,
(47:24):
before this event, you sent mewhat their actual savings were
from all of 2024, into thatJanuary when I did the interview
.
The biggest, this person thatsaved the most money out of
these 12, he was trying tocalculate in his head.
He keeps a running tab of gascosts, fuel costs, and he said I
(47:47):
think it's somewhere between$800 and $1,000.
I'm thinking closer to $800 iswhat he said.
I don't believe he said it oncamera and I told him he saved
$1,502.63.
He was blown away, like most ofthe people there.
Nobody got close to the numberthey actually saved.
(48:08):
They all were way under.
So the program works.
Bottom line, the program works.
I know I've saved lots and lotsof money.
The program absolutely works.
Toll transponder the ease of itjust again amazing.
For $24 a year it's just tosave that hassle to have one
(48:30):
toll transponder in my RV or inmy car or in a rental car Just
an incredible way to travelacross the country on those
5,000 miles in 35 states thathave toll roads.
So I want to thank you, ladies,so much.
(48:51):
Let's tell my listeners wherethey can reach out.
So I know you have Facebook,instagram.
Where can people reach out?
Speaker 3 (48:59):
So we have a fantastic Open Roads Facebook
group and I encourage all ourmembers to go on there.
Join that group.
You can talk with other members, you can ask questions.
I'm always on it 24 7 and it'sjust a good place to gather,
share information and the nameof that is just open roads.
If you type it in your facebooksearch bar it'll pop up.
(49:20):
We also have a business pagethat's also called open road, so
you follow and like ourbusiness page and you can stay
up to date and then also jointhat group so you can stay in
touch with all of us here andall the other customers.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
That's awesome, and I am amazed when people jump in
and ask a question, they have anissue, they're standing at the
pump, and how many times youactually, Tara, jump in and
answer them.
So I don't know how you do it.
It's like you are always on oryou have a bot.
No, I don't think so, but Idon't know how you do it and
(49:54):
certainly you know people thatmay have a problem or concern.
There's amazing customersupport, which is so important
when it comes to businessestoday when you can contact
customer support, get a realhuman being.
You, ladies, were incredible.
Thank you so much for sharingthese incredible services that I
(50:14):
think every RVer should have.
My personal opinion every RVershould have.
I just want to thank you guysso much for being on the podcast
.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yeah, thank you, patty, so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
The ultimate VIP event for RV buyers is Music
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It takes place in Lebanon,tennessee, and it is from May
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(50:47):
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(51:09):
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It's now time for the FeatureCampground of the Week and it is
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This week's Featured Campgroundis Thousand Trails, henning
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(51:35):
Gina is from.
This is a Thousand TrailsCampground, but you do not need
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This RV resort has 146 sitesand it is in the beautiful North
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It is an RV campground on theshore of Lewis Smith Lake and I
(51:57):
looked at many of the pictureson the campgroundsrvlifecom site
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The campground does have fullhookups.
(52:18):
It has pull-in sites, dog parksand cabin rentals.
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It is so easy to book thiscampground.
Just go to campgroundsrvlifecomand then search 7,000 Trails,
(52:42):
hidden Cove and you could see,like I said, all the amazing
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You could see tips, a full listof amenities, you could see
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(53:03):
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(53:26):
If you are not yet a member ofRV Life, you could still check
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(53:49):
said, all the campground reviews, there's a maintenance app and
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Check that out in the shownotes.
I want to thank my guests sovery much for being on the RV
Life podcast and I want to thankyou, my listeners, for staying
(54:10):
tuned and remember life is ajourney.
Live each day to the fullest,without regrets.
I'm Pettie Hunt and you've beenlistening to the RV Life
podcast.
You may not know this , but there is a way to save
money and time while traveling.
I'm Patti Hunt and you'relistening to the RV Life Podcast
.
Saving money on fuel and moneyon time on those tolls has been
(00:22):
my most downloaded RV LifePodcast episode by far.
It is two and a half times moredownloaded than any other
episode, so I know that this iswhat my listeners are looking
for.
So today we're going to talk tomy expert guests on these
(00:43):
products and we're going to talkabout some really important
updates that this company hasmade.
But that's not all.
You're going to hear fromactual customers who have used
these products and hear whatthey have to say.
The RV Life podcast was createdto educate, entertain and
explore the RV lifestyle, withthe mission to inspire you to
(01:06):
live life to the fullest.
What you need to know isbrought to you by Open Road
Resorts, and they have amazinglocations in Idaho, nebraska,
new Mexico and two locations inTexas.
Now it's February and it iscold in most of the US, but
there's hope that it is going towarm up, so if you are thinking
(01:30):
about spring and summer, goingto Yellowstone RV Red Rock Park
in Idaho is a great choice.
It's 22 miles from the westentrance to Yellowstone.
It's two hours to Jacksonville,wyoming and Boisman, montana,
and it is one of the mosthighest rated parks in the area.
(01:51):
You could go online toopenroadresortscom or call them
and, if you call, let them know.
You heard about them from theRV Life podcast.
What you need to know RVersdrive an average of 4,500 miles
a year, but this number variesgreatly because you have those
(02:14):
RVers that are part-time or sometime.
I know full-timers could travelas much as 10,000 miles in a
year.
And toll roads in the US thereare over 5,000 miles of toll
roads.
There are toll roads in 35states and territories, so toll
roads take up a lot of thecountry.
(02:36):
I live right in Pennsylvania,outside of Philadelphia, and the
PA Turnpike is the mostexpensive Turnpike toll road in
the world.
Yes, you heard that right.
I have fact-checked it.
It is the most expensive in theworld.
This, what you need to know, isbrought to you by Open Road
(02:59):
Resorts and you can check themout at openroadresortscom.
But let's get to my guest soyou could hear about how to save
money on fuel and save time andmoney on that toll pass.
Gina Lippert is the ExecutiveDirector of Open Roads.
She is directly responsible forall marketing experts,
(03:22):
financial accounting, customerexperience and banking
relationships.
She also works with thebusiness development director to
continue growing the currentfuel merchant network and
introducing more of the RVcommunity to the open roads fuel
discounts.
Tara Rape is also here with usand she is the member
(03:46):
development manager and has beenworking with Open Roads for
over 10 years.
She is amazing and is so veryhelpful to customers.
She and I talk a lot, so she isincredible.
Welcome, ladies, to the RV Lifepodcast.
Thank you, patty.
(04:06):
Thank you, you are welcome.
Thank you both for taking thetime to be on the podcast with
me.
Gina, this is your second timeand for my listeners I'm going
to put that episode in the shownotes, but today we have
information and lots of updates,so anybody that's heard the
(04:26):
episode before wants to stickaround for this episode.
So, gina, you live in Alabama.
Tell my listeners a little bitabout you personally.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So yes, I live in Birmingham, alabama, currently.
We are from Texarkana, texas,where I worked with TSD
Logistics as a controller herebefore starting the Open Roads
Fuel Card.
We raised our family here.
I've been married to my husband, jason.
We raised our four kids here inTexarkana.
We love the Arkansas Texas area.
I guess three years ago myhusband was relocated with work
(05:01):
to Birmingham, so now thecompany's gave me the
opportunity to work remotely forthem.
Travel back quite a bit backand forth, but just love the
Open Roads and TSD family.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Great Tara, how about you Tell us a little bit about
you personally?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Well, I have been with TSD for about 10 years.
I was in the accountingdepartment with Gina and then
moved on over to Open Roads whenwe started that program, born
and raised here in Texarkana.
I did move away for a couple ofyears and went remote as well
and moved off to Georgia for myhusband's work.
But we came back.
So me, him and I got one littlekiddo.
(05:39):
But just, we just stayed here.
That's awesome, thank you forsharing.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Okay, I want to stay here.
That's awesome.
Thank you for sharing.
Okay, I want to jump in.
Let's talk first about the OpenRoads fuel card.
So tell my listeners, who'venever heard about it, about that
fuel card.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So we worked for, as we had said before, a logistics
company here in Texarkana.
We had a fleet card for ourtrucks here and we were going to
grow that with our broker groupand a guy called my name he's a
company at my RV and I'm like Iguess, is it the fuel nozzle
bits?
And so he got a good laugh outof that.
(06:19):
He's like, yes, I guess thefirst month we had about 500
customers come on, just a wordof mouth locally, and I guess
about two months in I had 5,000customers.
The RV community has loved theproduct and we've since changed
that.
We created our own company foropen roads, our own set of
(06:41):
discounts for open roads,exclusively for RVers, and we've
grown that for the last fiveyears.
It's an amazing journey.
The RV community is amazing towork with.
We've made the best friends andbest relationships through this
journey and we're just verythankful for the opportunity
we're now setting up about143,000 customers.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Wow, that's incredible and I know you guys
aren't RVers and as an RVer, Iknow the RV community has
definitely embraced both of youas, just you know, part of the
RV community.
And, yes, I agree it's a greatcommunity.
But continue on.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So we have we're sitting here now at about three
about 3 300 different locations.
We just added 500 additionalones on last week.
They'll be coming on in thenext.
Uh, I guess the next two weekswe'll have that many cultures.
The next month, have them onactive.
We have 28 merchants across thenation and uh, always growing
(07:45):
that network.
I also would just like to sayon our website we have
opportunities to suggest vendorsor merchants to us.
If you go into a store and youlove it and you're like, you
know Open Roads needs to be here.
Has a diesel pump, has a trucklane to pull through.
We need Open Roads here.
Please, we encourage you to goout there, fill out that form
(08:06):
and then we will reach out tothat merchant and try to get
them added for you.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Okay, so let me just clarify.
You said these are all truckstops, so I just want people to
know I have been using openroads for as long as I've had
the RV, so it's going on fouryears actually, which is amazing
that it's been that long.
So we got the Upper Merge FuelCard.
We had a diesel pusher and atthe time it was TSD.
The card says TSD and we'realways incredibly happy with it
(08:39):
and being able to pull into thattruck stop is huge.
That's a big deal.
So they are truck stops.
And then there are companies.
We see along the way that Iagree that that's great.
You being able to, as a RVer,being able to say, hey, this is
a great truck stop, can you addit, that's a great thing.
(09:02):
So people need to really go onand add that.
So take people through theprocess how do get this card?
How do I sign up?
What's it going to take?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
okay.
So and I'll just add to thatpatty we were surprised that we
were afraid that would be anegative for us having to go
through that truck lane.
We did not realize that was ahuge positive that the rv
community was like that's somuch easier for us just to pull
in and pull out so easily, andso that's that's been a real
positive for the, for theprogram.
I will just go with one, two,two on things before I get into
(09:33):
the application process.
Anyone that knows open roadshas two fears.
Anyone you talk to if theyshare open roads.
There's two fears out there.
One of those fears is socialsecurity number.
We, starting January 1st, asocial security number is not
required for our card.
We have partnered with a group,with Plaid, to do verification
(09:57):
through Plaid automated on ourwebsite, and so social is not
required to have an OpenRoadscard and so social is not
required to have an Open Roadscard.
The second thing that somepeople have a hard time with is
the ACH giving us all your bankinformation.
So we have found a solution forthat and we've started a credit
card option for customers goingforward.
That will be launched mid toend of February.
(10:20):
We'll share lots of that on oursocial when we have that
launched and ready.
But we have tried to eliminatethe two biggest hurdles for Open
Roads program.
So, going back to the process,so when you can get our website
and there's an application linkon our website, you'll go out
there, apply and they'll ask youto apply verification, to
(10:43):
verify it to you and when that'sapproved we transition to our
office here.
We will then pull that, mailthat card out to you and get it
activated.
When you receive that cardyou'll have a control number.
The new process is you will setyour control number as part of
(11:04):
the application.
It'll walk you through thatprocess and the application.
When you receive that card, thenyou just go to the fuel pump.
You'll swap your card in thetruck lane.
Swap your card, you'll pumpyour fuel and in less than five
to 10 minutes it should show upon your app of the savings you
received.
(11:24):
So you you ask the question howdo I know how much I saved at
that pump?
It's showing the pump price.
So we have an app for openroads that you will download and
it will show you all the pricesacross the nation as you are
traveling.
Then you can choose whichmerchant you want to go to, or
if that price is worth thesavings.
(11:45):
The application process is zero.
You pay nothing.
Our things from the day one ismaybe we can save you money.
You can use our card.
We take 10% of your savings.
So if you save money, we keep10%.
There's no fees unless we savemoney.
That's kind of what has beenour logo since we began.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Okay and I just want to clarify a couple of things.
First of all, not using asocial security number.
I know you've never had aproblem in the years that you've
been doing this.
You've not had problems with it, but it's great that is.
As you said, people were havingissues with having to give the
Social Security number.
So that's no more as of a monthago.
(12:27):
So people are listening to this.
The beginning of February, asof a month ago, you've done away
with that.
The same thing with bankinggiving the bank information.
Again, you've never had a majorproblem.
I was with the people from thecompany and they've never had a
major problem.
I was with the people from thecompany and they've never had a
problem, but it was a stoppingpoint or a hurdle for some
(12:50):
people and you guys have workedto change that.
And for what you said, february, the end of February you should
people should be able to use acredit card.
I want to clarify.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I want to make sure that's clear.
We do not have to change to acredit card.
It's an option.
It's just you can do your ACHor a credit card, the credit
card.
Unfortunately, as everyoneknows, we're very transparent
with our margins.
They're very slim.
With the credit card, we dopush that 3% processing fee that
the credit card company chargesus to the end user fee that the
credit card company charges usto the end user.
(13:24):
So if you choose a credit cardoption, you will have to pay
that 3% processing fee.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That will go there and go to your settlement Again
that on your settlement, pattywill be itemized out as a line
item credit card processing fee.
Okay, so to be very clear, whathas been done Now I will say
that for me, when we did thefirst interview, it was you and
I and Clayton Pickett and he'sthe money guy and very detailed
(13:54):
and you know he spoke a littlebit above my head.
So for people who really wantto understand, you were talking
about margins and things likethat.
He did talk about some of thatin the last episode and again
I'll put that in the show notes,the bottom line, as people are
listening to this right now, theend of the day for me
personally, I just wanted toknow I was saving money, period.
(14:15):
Am I saving money?
And we are going to listen topeople who gave their
testimonial when we were at theFlorida RV show as to whether or
not they saved money and howmuch.
So we are going to get to that.
The card I know, going throughthe process, there is a link in
the show notes to sign up forthe card.
(14:36):
It was an easy process.
I received my card.
It was easy setup.
You'll also hear some peopletalk about and for me as well,
being able to pump gas at thepump and not walk into the store
.
Give my card, walk out, pumpthe gas, walk back in for a
receipt and get my card back.
(14:58):
That process, that streamlinedprocess of just being able to
put the card in at the pump, ishuge and it's used for RVers.
We don't want to tie up thelane for the trucks, we want
simple, we want to get in andout, and so that's great, and
we're going to hear some peoplespeak on that in the
testimonials.
Okay, so fuel card, we'vecovered that.
(15:21):
We've covered the major changes.
Let's talk now about innovativetoll solutions, and that is the
toll transponder.
So, tara, I think you're thehead of that.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yes.
So we have been partnered withInnovative for probably two
years now to bring a tollingsolution to all our customers,
to where no more having to havefive or six different tool tags
stuck to your windshield.
You get one transponder thatcovers the entire nation north,
south, east and west, every road, every bridge, privately owned
(15:56):
or anything that's going to becovered.
And this transponder is just aslick transponder that suction
cups to your windshield so youcan use it in your RV, and you
can also use it in your towvehicle if you're traveling
around town and aren't travelingin the RV at that time.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Ok, so I'm going to add to that because I received
the toll transponder.
Talk to the person from thecompany when you sign up, it's
twenty four dollars for the year.
And when I started the episode,and when I said it again, you
save time and money.
Talk to the person from thecompany when you sign up, it's
$24 for the year.
And when I started the episode,and when I said it again, you
save time and money, and I wantto be clear on that and then you
(16:35):
could chime in the time is thatyou have the one transponder.
You don't have to worry aboutwhich one's in the window.
But the money save and themoney saving part of it for me
using my EasyPass.
Easypass covers a part of theEast Coast.
Well, the year before I got thetransponder, I went through two
tolls.
I got a notification in my mailat my mailing service.
(16:59):
By the time I got it and dealtwith it, it was past the 25 days
.
They literally give you 25 days.
So it was past the 25 days andthey charge fines.
So I paid $240, something infines and I could not go back
and fight it.
It was already to collections.
(17:20):
There was no fighting it.
So when I say time and money,it truly is a time and money
saver.
So, and you said all 48 states,right, all 48 states.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yes, and I'll even go a little further with what you
were just saying, Patty is wehave a concierge service, so we
are going to fight any dispute.
We're going to fight anythingon your behalf to make sure you
are charged 100% correctly andin a timely manner.
So because this is going totake out the pay-by-plate where
you have to have that mail sentto you and you're trying to
(17:50):
track it down and you get pastthat date and you're hit with
all these fines.
So within about two days or so,you're going to see these
transactions on an app so youcan keep up with it as well to
make sure everything's runningsmoothly and that you're getting
charged the correct rate and ifthere is something wrong, I
know I could go through my app,I could email, I could call and
say there's a problem here,exactly.
(18:12):
We have somebody that's coveringthis and working.
This is what they do.
They are dedicated to fightingany disputes.
They are dedicated to make sureyour transponder is working
24-7.
So we are here to make sureit's all happy, so you can just
keep on trucking down that road,right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Now I did have a listener because Innovative as
well as Open Roads are sponsorson the podcast, so I talk about
you guys every week because Itruly believe in the services
that are provided.
A listener asked a question ifthe toll transponder saves on
the tolls, and I want to beclear it actually doesn't.
(18:50):
It's whatever toll amount, soif you go through and you don't
have a toll, you probably paymore if you don't have a
transponder.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So you get charged.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
you don't get charged that discounted right Like say,
you're on an easy pass road,you may get a special rate for
having an easy pass transponder.
Then there's a middle rate forhaving a transponder and then
there's a pay by plate or pay bycash.
So you're going to get thatmiddle rate.
So it is cheaper than the payby cash or the pay by plate.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Right, and again, just for the ease of it, knowing
that I'm not going to deal with200.
And RVers that I talk tonotoriously say, yes, I've got a
fine here that I ended uphaving to pay.
So just that peace of mind andthat savings really makes a big
difference.
Okay, I think that covers thetoll transponder.
(19:45):
We're going to put informationin the show notes and you guys
are gonna let me know wherepeople can reach out if they
have more questions.
There are links to the OpenRoads Fuel Card and the toll
pass in the show notes, but Ialso wanna talk about the new
VIP access card.
One of you both of you want toexplain what that is, because
(20:07):
that just launched.
I didn't even ask you.
Are we allowed to talk about it?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
We are allowed to talk about it.
It is very early on, so we hopeto have that launched.
It will be in your app soyou'll be able to access those
discounts through your app.
The technology piece we'retrying to get rolled out in the
next hopefully the next month tomonth and a half.
We hope to have rolled out inthe February.
We had hoped before Februarybut the technology piece just
(20:34):
took a little holding something,just a tad bit, but we should
have it by for the next coupleof weeks.
What we did is we have had thebest partnerships around open
roads and so we just decidedwith our partners we're going to
put this together and shareinformation about our partners
everywhere we go, and so we puttogether a little discount
(20:56):
program with those partners,which is growing Right now.
We have a partner with RV Life,so we have an RV Life
partnership on there, rv LifePro.
We have a transponder on VIPAccess, as well as Lov's All
Lov's RV parks have a 10%discount for staying in their
(21:17):
parks, their overnight stays.
We have Goodyear discountsbuilt in for tires, for what
every vehicle you need tires forand, as I talked about before,
patty, we are a logisticscompany that costs carbon white,
which that is, a black thatgoes into tires.
(21:37):
So we have deep relationshipswith Bridgestone, michelin,
cooper.
So all of those discounts fortires will be growing over the
next couple of quarters.
Hopefully by third quarterwe'll have all those brought on.
But that tire piece can be verysavings to all of our customers
and so we're ready to partnerwith them on that.
(21:59):
On our website we have all theinformation about VIP access.
I know that we're working withHarvest Host to bring a discount
in for Harvest Host and alsowith FMCA and that should also
come out in the next few weeks.
It's just ever growing.
It's growing and we're going toget a lot of fun this year.
So what we did is we said, ok,we're not quite there yet, right
(22:20):
, not quite there yet, right.
So we're grandfatheringeverybody in at this point at
$99, because we we definitelyhave enough discounts to cover
you more than $99 for the yearin savings, but we are not to
the end, we haven't got allbuilt out.
So anyone else's grandfather inat $99.
That application is out thereon our website that that price
(22:41):
will stay for you at $99 as wego up with the other growth of
the VIP.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
That's incredible, and I was there when you guys
announced it and looking at thecompanies that you could save
with and knowing that you guysare going to add to that, that's
incredible.
So I'm going to encourage mylisteners to go on the website
and check out the VIP access.
That sounds great.
Let's talk a little bit.
(23:10):
You guys are also big on acharity that's called Charity
Water and I have heard peoplefrom the company speak about
this and it was just verytouching.
So can you explain to thelisteners about this charity who
want to take that one?
They're looking at each otherI'll start it for us.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So we, we partnered with charity water very early on
, with open roads.
We at one point was fourgallons to one, so every four
gallons of fuel went through, wedonate a gallon of clean water.
You know, we've been veryblessed with open roads through
the years and so, and thecharity we, we are very, it gets
(23:50):
our heartstrings, I will justsay.
And so something we take forgranted every day water bottles,
I mean with raising poor kids,while we're all just sets around
my house and I'm just likedrink half of it, here's one,
here's one, we take it so forgranted.
And to have kids, and you knowyoung kids and families that
cannot have clean water, is wecan't even get our hands around
(24:11):
that because our heads, becausewe're just we take it so for
granted.
So we've upped that charity oftwo to one, so every two gallons
of fuel it goes through, agallon of water goes out.
Um, charity water is a greatpartnership.
We've got to actually see thewells as they're being built in
these different countries.
We're at four continents now.
(24:32):
We've touched seven countriesand so we're just trying to
continue growing that footprint.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
And people could actually go on the Open Roads
website and see all of the great, amazing things that this
charity is doing for peoplearound the world.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Right, and what we hope to do the next week.
We're building out a lot oftechnology in 2025.
That's a huge piece for us tohelp our creators with more
information.
There's lots of things we'rebuilding in that with more
information just lots of thingsfor building in that.
But one thing we're doing forour members is when you feel
with us on your settlement, itwill tell you you just donated
(25:10):
five gallons of water to one ofthe countries we work in and one
of the continents, and so andkind of talk with that charity.
So we want our members toreally feel the change, the
difference they're making, andso that's going to be coming out
this next year so you canreally get more information
built around that will be sharedwith everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
And I've seen where it shows on.
You know my statement and it'svery touching and, like you said
, it's so important.
I mean, water is just soimportant and we do.
We certainly take it forgranted.
So that's amazing and amazingcharity.
And you guys just keep doingmore and making it better.
You went from one gallon ofwater to two.
Just that's incredible.
Okay, so let's, I want to leadinto.
(25:55):
I want my listeners to know thatyou ladies work for the company
.
You're probably a little biased.
Everything you say is authenticand real and you know, I know,
you are incredible people.
You speak from the heart.
But my listeners do not have tolisten to you guys, to how
great these products are.
They can now listen in.
(26:16):
We were all at the Florida RVSuper Show in Tampa just a
couple weeks ago and I had theopportunity to speak to a number
of people.
I think there were 12 differentpeople I interviewed about the
Open Roads fuel card and some ofthem talked about the toll
transponder.
Any of the people that werethere that didn't have the toll
(26:39):
transponder, that heard about it, knew they needed to get it.
But I want my listeners tolisten in on what actual
customers have to say, for thoseof you spending time in the
cold weather, I highly recommendthe hassle-free RV skirting
that inflates by air skirts.
Rv skirting goes around theperimeter of your RV to prevent
(27:01):
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It prevents your pipes fromfreezing and causing damage and
it saves you money on heatingcosts.
It uses trapped air as anatural insulator.
These products are made ofheavy-duty, military-grade
PVC-coated canvas and what'sreally great is how it sets up
(27:23):
in minutes.
It packs up pretty compact soyou can store it in your RV.
Our Airskirts is giving you mylistener $200 off.
Use code RVPOD, that is,r-v-p-o-d for $200 off.
Just go to airskirtscom to findout about all of their products
(27:47):
.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Hello.
I am James and I'm Kelly andwe're the Road Ravers.
We have been full-time RVingwith our family since 2020, and
open roads is one of ourfavorite ways to save money
while we're on the road.
Speaker 6 (28:06):
We actually spent $4,000, or should have spent
$4,930 on fuel last year.
But thanks to Open Roads, wesaved.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
In the nine months that we used it we saved $809.34
, which makes it's easily almosta 20% savings with what we
should have spent.
We're super thankful.
Speaker 8 (28:28):
Made a big difference on what we were able to do.
Hi, I'm Belinda.
And I'm Dwayne.
And we are all about the banks.
Speaker 10 (28:36):
Last year, 2024, we saved $1,027.95 without Open
Rose diesel fuel card.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
We traveled about 10,000 miles during that time
and we found that it was such agreat value.
It's such a great value.
It's such a great tool to have.
Yes.
And we're really glad that weare part of the Open Roads
program and it's workedwonderful for us.
Speaker 10 (29:05):
Yes, to be able to go to the truck stop and get in
and get out with our 43-footfifth wheel has been awesome and
we've been using this for fiveyears.
Yes, so we suggest, of course,if you have a diesel, and of any
type, get the Open Roads fuelcar.
Speaker 11 (29:24):
Hi, we're Randy and Callie Bueheimer with RV
Destinations Magazine andPodcast, and we're here to talk
to you about Open Roads.
We're really excited about OpenRoads.
We actually have a partnershipwith them, but the thing that
we've been Open Roads membersfor three years, we've been with
them for probably three or fouryears, before we even partnered
with them.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
So partnering with them was honestly a no-brainer,
because this is something thatwe've used for a long time.
And then so we're here at theRV.
My brain is going where are we?
Oh, it's been a long day, y'all.
Speaker 11 (29:56):
The Florida Super Show.
Can you cut on this?
No, we're still running.
You get it all.
That's right.
This is the end of the day.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Yeah, we are in Tampa , aren't we?
Speaker 11 (30:06):
We're at the Open Roads RV Life.
They're having a dinner here.
It is Wednesday night at theTampa RV Show.
Yeah, I think so.
She is completely sober, Ipromise you.
But yeah, patty with RV LifePodcast came up to us and said
guess how much that you savedwith your Open roads card last
year.
Speaker 8 (30:22):
And so Randy's like whipping out his calculator,
like I'm going to figure thisout.
Speaker 11 (30:26):
And I I guessed 800 to a thousand dollars and she
said no, you've saved $1,500.
I was blown away Now unlikeprobably a lot of our viewers,
we track our fuel because we getto deduct a lot of cause.
We're, we're moving in.
You know, on behalf of themagazine, we spent $10,000 in
fuel last year and saved $1,500.
That's 15%, folks, that's a lotof money.
(30:47):
But you know, here's the kickeris, you know, when we signed up
for the Open Roads card, it wasnever about the savings.
For me, I mean, that's a niceadded value.
Yeah for sure.
Hey, 15% is 15%.
But for me it was the abilityto pay at the pump.
It was always a pain for me topull in, stop all the trucks
behind me to fill up mymotorhome.
I had to go all the way in getmy car pre-authorized come back
(31:10):
out and guess how much fuel youneed?
Right, you have to give them anestimate.
Stop it at 250 or whatever,come back out, fill the tank, go
back in, get my receipt, comeback out and then leave.
With open roads, we just put itin at the pump, pull it out,
fill up and we're on the road,and so that, to me, is worth it
alone.
That's right.
Speaker 14 (31:28):
The car.
How big is your fuel tank onthat?
Speaker 11 (31:31):
We've got 100 gallons.
Well, the new one's 150 gallons.
Oh yeah, that's right.
So the RV we had last year was100 gallons, but our new RV is
150 gallons, so we're expectingeven more savings.
Yeah, so we absolutely loveOpenRoads.
We just got their toll passtheir response.
We're excited about that too,so we're going to be using that
all over the country.
So if you don't have one, werecommend you get it.
Speaker 8 (31:53):
Just get one.
It's a no-brainer folks.
Yeah for the fuel card.
Speaker 11 (31:56):
it's free.
It's free, it's free to save15%.
Speaker 8 (32:00):
And then the toll pass.
Patty told us 24 bucks.
24 bucks gonna cover all ofyour tolls all across the united
states.
Gotta do it, and you know thebest part they don't even sell
your name.
Speaker 16 (32:09):
It's truly free so sign up today.
Speaker 12 (32:12):
Hey everyone, I'm martha and I'm chris and we're
venturesome couple we're alsobig fans of open roads yes, save
that money.
Speaker 16 (32:22):
So we're really excited.
Last year we had a big change.
So we travel all the time showto show events and everything.
We go to the Keys, we go allthe way to Indiana and
everything.
So we had a dually, a one-tondually, for five months and in
those five months we saved$639.30.
Speaker 12 (32:42):
Yeah, absolutely awesome.
Let alone the convenience ofhaving the ability to go through
the truck stops Saved us.
We got rid of our dually andgot gas, and we hate it.
Don't do that.
Speaker 16 (32:53):
No.
So what we love about OpenRoads is that you can find any
fuel stop all along the way.
There's maps, I'll pull it upand I'm like, hey, there's one
not too far from here, let'sstop there and it's a great
place because you go to thetruck stops and the pumps are so
much faster than us waiting inthe gasoline line with our new
truck and it's such a pain.
So we've actually we haven'tannounced it yet, but we're
(33:15):
going to go back to a diesel.
Speaker 12 (33:17):
Yes, the convenience alone makes it well worth the
additional expenses when we'retraveling full time.
Speaker 16 (33:22):
Yeah, but we're going to have to wait a little
bit because we want to order oneand find the right one for us.
All right guys.
We are Mike and Joni, withthose who Glamp Together.
Speaker 17 (33:31):
And we're here with Patty and Open Roads and we love
Open Roads.
You think it's for the savings,right, but I love it more for
the fact that I can pull my53-foot rig into a truck stop
and I don't have to worry.
But the savings is still theicing on the the cake, right.
833.74 cents this year forweekenders, yeah, with about 14
(33:55):
000 miles of travel.
So we love open roads.
Speaker 15 (33:58):
Go out, sign up to open roads I'm kara the
wandering rv babe, and this ismy driver, ryan howdy.
Uh, so we just found out whatwe love open roads.
By the way, we've used it forthe.
I'm Kara the Wandering RV Babe,and this is my driver, ryan
Howdy.
So we just found out we loveopen roads.
By the way, we've used it forthe last three years.
We drove around a little less.
This year we had somecomplications.
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 6 (34:16):
I had back surgery eight weeks ago, so I was
injured like nine months ago andso we've been kind of
stationary.
But if I were to have guessed,I would have only guessed like
maybe 200, $300.
Speaker 15 (34:28):
That probably would have been where I thought cause
we didn't travel as much thisyear, but we saved 500 and
something over 500 bucks thisyear just using open roads, and
I will have to say I love openroads, I love the app, I love
being able to like find placesalong our route, and we try to
monopolize the dual purpose ineverything that we do, cause,
(34:50):
you know, it's RV life.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
Everything needs two purposes.
Speaker 15 (34:53):
Yeah, fuel, stop bathroom break, you're golden.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
But what I will say as the driver um, my biggest
gripe about trying to get intosmaller gas stations that are
sometimes cheaper than loves orTA or any of the others a
hundred percent is about tryingto get into smaller gas stations
that are sometimes cheaper thanLoves or TA or any of the
others 100%.
It's just hard to get in with abig old, huge 40-foot rig and
so being able to just stop atthe Loves and get the same price
as the Circle K down the roadis amazing.
Speaker 15 (35:13):
It's great, or sometimes even cheaper than that
Sometimes yeah.
But we know we're always goingto get in, which is awesome.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Hi, we're Jesse and Corey from Finding Our Someday.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
So with Open Roads Card, we've only had it for six
months and we did onecross-country trip.
The rest was spent in Alaska,where there isn't any available
gas stations, and in Iceland,which is definitely another
place, but we saved $503 in justone cross-country trip, which
is pretty incredible.
Speaker 8 (35:43):
Absolutely amazing.
That's some serious eithertravel time or fixes for your RV
.
So it is so worth it to be ableto save that money on diesel.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
Hey, this is Rob from RV and Plug.
Hey, when we shot season two ofRV and Plug, we really leaned
into our open roads relationship.
We saved $281.60 this season,and not to mention that's just
our business account.
Me personally, I saved muchmore.
(36:12):
So I would highly encourage youto take advantage of Open Roads
and save as much as you can.
Speaker 18 (36:20):
Hello, this is Blake from RV Life Gen, also part of
the Rally Show team for RV Lifeand a brand ambassador for Open
Roads.
As an RVer and a diesel fueluser, I can't think of a better
program than Open Roads forsaving money on diesel fuel and,
to be honest with you, I'm notreally sure how much I saved
this year.
If I was to guess, I'd sayprobably around $500 this past
(36:44):
year in savings.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Okay, the number is actually $670.82.
Unbelievable, and that's whateverybody today has said.
Nobody has guessed anywherenear their number.
Speaker 18 (36:58):
You might be the closest.
It's unbelievable the savingsthat I get from the very first
day that first fill up.
I'm leaving a love station.
I saved $1.35 a gallon.
I'm driving away looking in allmy mirrors expecting to see
somebody chasing me down thatsomething went wrong, there was
a mistake, I didn't pay enough,I owed money, but no sure enough
(37:19):
.
It was good savings and thesavings have continued since
then.
I love the program.
Speaker 14 (37:25):
Hey, I'm Kurt.
Speaker 16 (37:25):
I'm Melody.
Speaker 14 (37:26):
And we are.
Speaker 16 (37:27):
RV Plus Three.
Speaker 14 (37:28):
Well, there are three apps that are part of my
RV life, and they have beensince day one.
The number one app is going tobe RV Life Trip Wizard.
Been using it for trip planningfor three years.
It gets me where I'm going togo, when I need to get there,
and safely doing it.
The other one is going to betire minder Love it, keep it.
It keeps me safe on the roadand letting me know what my
(37:49):
tires are going on.
Number three and it's notnecessarily in chronological
order, but open roads fuelsavings.
When we decided to get on theroad, we knew we were going to
have to have some type of fuelsavings or else we wouldn't be
able to afford doing thisjourney.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yep, so we just found out that, figuring everything
out, this year we saved a totalof a thousand dollars in savings
on our open roads which isabsolutely amazing.
Speaker 14 (38:13):
Yeah, and it just keeps getting better and better
every year and every fuel stopwe do.
It's open roads, if we can.
Speaker 15 (38:19):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
We are.
Speaker 9 (38:22):
Sue and Mark Chandler .
Our channel is Our Journey inMiles and Y-Y-L-E-S.
Miles is our Class A motorhome.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
We're full-timers, so we're pretty much on the move
most of the time, so you guys doa lot of travel, right, well?
Speaker 19 (38:37):
you know, since we're full-time and since she's
a new grandmother and since,just like everybody else, we
have a hometown, we travel inbetween our hometown and where
we snowbird, and then in betweenrepair facilities and then,
finally, in between all thosethings I mentioned, we try to
have fun okay, good.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
So now we're at the open roads.
People could probably hear somebackground noise.
We're at at the Open Roadsevent, gathered together with a
bunch of awesome people.
So I want to ask do you haveany idea how much you saved?
I know you're very analytical,so you want the number, but how
much do you think you saved in2024 on diesel fuel?
Speaker 19 (39:21):
Okay, so I'm going to give you my answer and then
you're going to dazzle me,hopefully.
I only know on the price pergallon because I'm of the club
that I already bought the RV.
I already love traveling withmy wife and we're going to go
wherever we need to go.
So whatever it costs I'm goingto pay it.
So I've tracked for five yearson an Excel spreadsheet on what
(39:44):
the pun price was and what wefinally paid when we looked at
our printout that you getliterally within, sometimes
within 15, 20 minutes, you know,right from TSD Open Roads and
I'm averaging, after five years,46 cents off the pump price.
So imagine that when you'repumping it and you don't have
(40:05):
this card, you're paying 46 morecents than the Chan man is.
Now when we were talking to someof the real movers and the
shakers in the company here,they said state, us wide, the
averages and everything you save51 cents off per gallon.
Now that includes the placeswhere you save 51 cents off per
gallon.
Now that includes the placeswhere you save less than that
(40:27):
and it includes the places yousave more than that Real-life
usage going east coast to westcoast, up down sideways,
everything over five years.
46 cents to me is pretty closeto 51.
But you don't have to Last year.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I literally have no idea.
You have literally no idea,literally no idea.
Okay, so this is we need a drumroll here, there, oh, we got
one $1,020.78.
Speaker 19 (40:56):
Oh my God, Now, I didn't want you to see that she
wants a high five.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
She's going to want to buy something and so she
should.
Yeah, she should, she should,absolutely.
So those people saving moneythat could go out and buy
something.
But over $1,000 for a cardright that doesn't cost any
money to get.
It costs nothing to sign up.
Speaker 19 (41:18):
No, when you think about it, depending upon what
you're driving, that couldliterally be a complete set of
tires for your fifth wheel, orclose to it, you know or a
shopping spree yeah right, Ilike the way patty thinks yeah
or I was thinking maybe a newiphone, which I need.
But well whatever it's it'ssaving.
(41:41):
Yes, yes, that's good to hearwell, thank you guys, so much.
Hey thanks for having us onPatty.
Speaker 20 (41:48):
This is Dina and Gertie Explore the World, jeff
Grant and Monica Grant.
We are traveling full-time inour travel trailer.
We had open roads for sixmonths last year.
I mean, that's not a lot, to behonest, when you travel once
every three weeks.
That's not a lot.
Be honest, when you travel onceevery three weeks, that's not a
lot, is it, jeff?
Speaker 13 (42:06):
no, no, but we saved how much I think uh, close to
250 in the first six months thatwe had open roads.
We absolutely loved it, and youknow we didn't know about it
beforehand, but after we foundout about it, you know it's a
no-brainer for us.
We drive a diesel truck and youknow, anytime that we have an
opportunity to save a few buckson the road, that's great.
Um, you know, is a no-brainerfor us.
We drive a diesel truck and youknow, any time that we have an
opportunity to save a few buckson the road, that's great.
(42:27):
Um, you know, especially as afamily of four, we're trying to
save it where we can becausewe'd like to be able to go out
and do the, the fun things thatwe do when we're on the road.
That's the whole reason why wewent full-time anyways, and so
to be able to travel and be ableto spend that extra money on
things like go into theamusement park or go into the to
(42:49):
swim with manatees or whateverit may be.
You know those are the thingsthat we'd rather do.
So if we can save a few dollarshere and there, that's awesome,
and so open roads has beentremendously helpful for us.
Speaker 20 (43:02):
I also want to point out the open roads is one of
those systems that is aplug-and-play, so you put your
information in.
They take care of everything.
You call them.
If you have a problem, youfollow up with them.
If you have any issues, you'renot going through a third party
and they answer everythingdirectly.
So every time you think thatyou have some ridiculous hoop
and hoopla to jump through,you're completely mistaken.
(43:25):
You have the family that you goto and the family answers your
question.
So Open Roads has been a gamechanger.
We love them.
They make our life easier.
They're not only a part of ourfamily, they're an extension of
us.
So I highly recommend you checkthem out.
Speaker 13 (43:39):
Absolutely, and it's you know, the big thing that I
like to tell people is it's notjust exclusive to RV family or
RV travelers or people whotravel.
If you have a diesel truck,you're crazy to not try this,
because you can save money anyday, and if you're filling your
tank just like everybody else todrive back and forth to work,
(44:00):
it's a no-brainer, I mean,unless you have exponential
amounts of money and you don'treally care.
But that's not the life that Ilive, unfortunately.
So you know, for me it wasawesome to find something that
was specific to diesel and itfit what we needed and again,
like Monty said, I highlyrecommend it to anybody who's
driving a diesel truck.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Okay, I'm going to ask you guys another question Do
you use OpenRoad's innovativetoll solutions?
We do.
Speaker 20 (44:27):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
How's that been?
Speaker 20 (44:29):
We have actually really enjoyed it because it is
a one-stop shop.
There are so many tolls in thiscountry from state to state
that you have to navigate andyou have to figure out what the
prices are and how to pay thosetolls.
Ask somebody that, again, hasonly used it for a short period
of time because we didn't knowabout it the first part of the
year and we were having to paythose bills when they came to
(44:51):
our snail mail residentialaddress, which we don't live at.
We don't live there.
So we had to chase those downLike what's the fee going to be?
Are we going to get a late fee?
Speaker 18 (45:03):
How are we going to?
Speaker 20 (45:04):
figure that out?
What's the fee going to be?
Are we going to get a late fee?
How are we going to figure thatout?
What can we figure outmassachusetts made we love you,
you're beautiful states, butdoggone it.
Your guys's tolls are, likecrazy, really big.
So, um, this one stop toll passsituation has been amazing.
It's a game changer.
Like you put in your window, itdoesn't matter if you're a toll
(45:24):
be a tow behind vehicle oryou're a C class or you're an a
class, it doesn't matter.
You just put in your vehicle.
It's already registered.
You go through the toll, itpays it.
The amazing people at openroads.
If there's an issue, theyfollow that up for you.
Do you have to sit on on thehold with that and deal with
that?
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
No you don't.
Speaker 20 (45:44):
Like Tara and the rest of the team are like, let
me take care of that for youAgain, extension of your family.
So why?
Why are you people doing thison a state by state basis?
Speaker 13 (45:56):
You're being, you're being ridiculous, like let's
make this happen it works almosteverywhere that there's maybe
like two tolls in the whole USthat it doesn't work on, and we
have been victim to that.
We don't live at a physicaladdress, so we've had bills
mailed there, we've missed them,we've had late fees, we've had
fines.
All kinds of stuff happenedwith there, and then not to
(46:17):
mention like having to pull overto pay a 50 cent toll and then
get back on the wear and tear onyour vehicle.
For us it was like pop thatthing in the window and not have
to worry about it anymore.
You charge everything throughyour app and it kind of handles
itself.
It's awesome.
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
Okay, so that was 12 different customers that have
been using OpenRoads anywherefrom six months to a year.
Some of them have been with theprogram for three, four, five
years.
I went around and asked each ofthose people.
Tara and I kind of set this up.
I went around and asked each ofthe people that I interviewed
(47:02):
what they thought their savingswere going to be and they, you
know, tried to figure it out intheir head.
I had a couple of peopleactually go through math in
their head, trying to calculatewhat they might have spent on
gas and what they would havesaved.
And then I said to them so Imade them guess, and then I said
to them this is what youactually saved because, tara,
(47:24):
before this event, you sent mewhat their actual savings were
from all of 2024, into thatJanuary when I did the interview
.
The biggest, this person thatsaved the most money out of
these 12, he was trying tocalculate in his head.
He keeps a running tab of gascosts, fuel costs, and he said I
(47:47):
think it's somewhere between$800 and $1,000.
I'm thinking closer to $800 iswhat he said.
I don't believe he said it oncamera and I told him he saved
$1,502.63.
He was blown away, like most ofthe people there.
Nobody got close to the numberthey actually saved.
(48:08):
They all were way under.
So the program works.
Bottom line, the program works.
I know I've saved lots and lotsof money.
The program absolutely works.
Toll transponder the ease of itjust again amazing.
For $24 a year it's just tosave that hassle to have one
(48:30):
toll transponder in my RV or inmy car or in a rental car Just
an incredible way to travelacross the country on those
5,000 miles in 35 states thathave toll roads.
So I want to thank you, ladies,so much.
(48:51):
Let's tell my listeners wherethey can reach out.
So I know you have Facebook,instagram.
Where can people reach out?
Speaker 3 (48:59):
So we have a fantastic Open Roads Facebook
group and I encourage all ourmembers to go on there.
Join that group.
You can talk with other members, you can ask questions.
I'm always on it 24 7 and it'sjust a good place to gather,
share information and the nameof that is just open roads.
If you type it in your facebooksearch bar it'll pop up.
(49:20):
We also have a business pagethat's also called open road, so
you follow and like ourbusiness page and you can stay
up to date and then also jointhat group so you can stay in
touch with all of us here andall the other customers.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
That's awesome, and I am amazed when people jump in
and ask a question, they have anissue, they're standing at the
pump, and how many times youactually, Tara, jump in and
answer them.
So I don't know how you do it.
It's like you are always on oryou have a bot.
No, I don't think so, but Idon't know how you do it and
(49:54):
certainly you know people thatmay have a problem or concern.
There's amazing customersupport, which is so important
when it comes to businessestoday when you can contact
customer support, get a realhuman being.
You, ladies, were incredible.
Thank you so much for sharingthese incredible services that I
(50:14):
think every RVer should have.
My personal opinion every RVershould have.
I just want to thank you guysso much for being on the podcast
.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yeah, thank you, patty, so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
The ultimate VIP event for RV buyers is Music
City Motorhome Expo.
It takes place in Lebanon,tennessee, and it is from May
31st to June 4th, and you can bethe first to see the 2026 model
year coaches from all majormanufacturers, with limited
(50:47):
attendance.
You can test drive all you want.
You could chat with themanufacturers, product
developers and engineers.
They're also providing seminars, three meals a day and amazing
entertainment.
Last year I attended this eventand it was incredible, and I
cannot wait to be back this year.
(51:09):
I highly recommend this event.
Just go tomusiccitymotorhomeexpocom to
find out all about it.
It's now time for the FeatureCampground of the Week and it is
brought to you by RV Life.
This week's Featured Campgroundis Thousand Trails, henning
Cove in Arley, alabama, and Ipicked this because that's where
(51:35):
Gina is from.
This is a Thousand TrailsCampground, but you do not need
to be a member to stay at thiscampground.
This RV resort has 146 sitesand it is in the beautiful North
Alabama.
It is an RV campground on theshore of Lewis Smith Lake and I
(51:57):
looked at many of the pictureson the campgroundsrvlifecom site
and this place looks beautiful,just amazing.
It has so many great picturesand you could check all of those
out by going tocampgroundsrvlifecom.
The campground does have fullhookups.
(52:18):
It has pull-in sites, dog parksand cabin rentals.
It has a solid 8.8 rating onthe RV Life Campgrounds website
with 125 reviews.
It is so easy to book thiscampground.
Just go to campgroundsrvlifecomand then search 7,000 Trails,
(52:42):
hidden Cove and you could see,like I said, all the amazing
pictures that I've looked at.
You could see tips, a full listof amenities, you could see
everything there is to knowabout this property and what is
really nice is, once you arethere, there's a great big red
book now button so you couldbook your stay at this location
(53:03):
very easily.
Rv Life Campgrounds is part ofthe RV Life Pro suite of
products and is the mostcomprehensive source of RV parks
, campgrounds, resorts, as wellas city, state national parks,
corpse of engineer propertiesand so much more.
Just go to campgroundsrvlifecomNow.
(53:26):
If you are not yet a member ofRV Life, you could still check
out the campgrounds, but ifyou're not a member and want to
be, there is a link in the shownotes for 25% off the RV Life
Pro suite of products, whichincludes your trip planning,
which is Trip Wizard, your RVsafe GPS campgrounds, like I
(53:49):
said, all the campground reviews, there's a maintenance app and
there is a master's class andthat is all included.
Check that out in the shownotes.
I want to thank my guests sovery much for being on the RV
Life podcast and I want to thankyou, my listeners, for staying
(54:10):
tuned and remember life is ajourney.
Live each day to the fullest,without regrets.
I'm Pettie Hunt and you've beenlistening to the RV Life
podcast.
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