A recent study identified a shortage of parking for truckers as a "national safety concern."
The Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey found that truckers are often forced to stay on the road longer than they should because they cannot find space to park their vehicles and get the rest they typically need to drive safely. Over 75 percent of the truck drivers who responded to the survey, in addition to 66 percent of logistics personnel, indicated that they had trouble finding parking when they needed to stop and rest. As a result, many truckers are forced to stay on the road longer than they'd like to, which in turn, could present safety issues for themselves and others on the road.
"We know truck parking has been a longstanding problem in our nation and we need new approaches to fix it," Victor Mendez, the U.S. deputy transportation secretary, stated in a press release. "Now more than ever, this country needs better planning, investment, and innovation from those who have a stake in safe truck parking and transportation."
All 48 states surveyed experiencing parking shortages
In most states, the survey found, there are truck parking shortages day and night from Monday through Sunday. This places truckers at danger, since they are forced to rest in unsecure locations that may prove dangerous, as well as drivers who share the road with them, since the inability to find a place to rest may leave truckers overly tired while operating their vehicles. The former circumstance resulted in the death of truck driver Jason Rivenburg, for whom the survey was named. In 2009, he was forced to park at an abandoned South Carolina gas station, where he was robbed and murdered.
Unofficial or illegal parking spaces have become so common that officials in 11 states were able to pinpoint 11 or more of these locations when asked, the survey found. Almost half of the time these makeshift parking spaces were freeway ramps, while 27 percent were freeway shoulders and 20 percent were parking lots. Truck drivers parking on road shoulders was often named by law enforcement and safety regulators as a significant issue. Some of the worst regions, according to truck drivers who responded to the survey, are the mid-Atlantic, New England and the Midwest.
Lack of legal parking raises numerous issues
Parking shortages also raise logistical and business concerns. A lack of locations for truck drivers to stop can ultimately affect on-time delivery and waste away their available work hours as they search for legal places to rest, the Journal of Commerce (JOC) noted. As a result, drivers may violate hours of service rules while looking for a place to park or simply end up parking somewhere illegal, such as a road shoulder. The delays that come as a result of drivers' searches for parking can ultimately negatively affect tractor-trailer capacity. This may result in the carrier switching capacity to other customers, raising rates or adding surcharges.
With the final results of the survey, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the National Coalition on Truck Parking will meet this fall to discuss plans to improve the parking situation for truck drivers nationwide. The transportation agency and newly formed organization will work to develop both short- and long-term solutions to the shortage of parking spaces for truck drivers in the U.S.
Gregory Nadeau noted that truck drivers are important to businesses in all industries across the country. He added "the economy would come to a halt" without them. Finding parking spaces for truck drivers is an issue of importance for the truckers themselves, the people they share the road with and the businesses that rely on them.