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Focus: Transportation Management

Feature Article from Our Transportation Management Subject Area - See All
 

From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

- August 31, 2015-

 

Supply Chain News: US DOT Study Finds Lack of Parking Spots for Drivers is an Issue, Even as Spaces Often Go Unused

 

Problem is Clearly Going to Get Worse before it Gets Better


SCDigest Editorial Staff

 

The US Dept. of Transportation recently released a study of the issue of a perceived lack of truck parking spots for drivers to take needed and in many cases mandated rest, largely supporting the claim that the lack of parking spaces is a serious safety issue, though noting in many cases the challenge is simply matching available spaces with driver demand.

The study was required by Congress in 2012's MAP-21 highway funding bill under a provision called Jason's Law, named for Jason Rivenburg, a truck driver murdered in 2009 by a robber after he parked at a deserted gas station while taking a break in the course of delivering a load of milk. (See Forget the Driver Shortage - Parking Spots for Truckers Increasingly Hard to Find.)

SCDigest Says:

startTruck-stop operators reported challenges with expanding their parking, including overall ROI and zoning and environmental laws that often make expansion difficult.
 
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The perceived lack of parking spaces often leads truckers to park at unofficial locations such as retail parking lots or the sides of highway off ramps, creating safety issues for drivers and car drivers. The time and stress sometimes encountered in trying to find a parking spot in the busiest areas is a factor in some drivers leaving the profession, when there is already a major shortage of drivers in the industry due to other factors, such as pay and overall lifestyle issues.

The DOT study involved a review of available data and survey of truck drivers, managers at trucking firms, and state DOT officials, and did find that the lack of adequate parking is "a national safety concern," and that "there is often a mismatch between driver demand and the availability of an adequate parking space at that point and time."

More than 75% of the truck drivers surveyed in the study and nearly 66% of logistics personnel reported they regularly had trouble finding safe parking when it was time to rest. 90% said they often struggle to find safe and available parking at night.

Not surprisingly, the busiest highways for truck traffic and major metro areas are where the parking shortage is thought to be most acute. The top five corridors cited by drivers and staff as having shortages are I-95, I-40, I-80, I-10 and I-81.

In general, except in many rural states, the issue is seen nationwide, but some regions of course are worse than others. The chart below shows the regions cited as having the biggest parking problems by drivers for carriers in American Trucking Associations (ATA), managers at those carriers, and members of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). As can be seen, the Mid-Atlantic area (New York and Pennsylvania) came in with the worst scores, with between 40 and 50 percent of drivers citing parking issues there.

 

US Regions Seen Having Serious Parking Shortage

 

Interestingly, both ATA and OOIDA drivers cite problems at a higher level than do ATA carrier managers, and the independent OOIDA drivers consistently rated parking problems a few percentage points higher than ATA drivers.

The report also cited another dilemma: what police should do if they find a trucker parked and likely sleeping in an illegal spot, such as the side of an off ramp. Police know the reason is often that the trucker got tired or ran out of his 11 hours of drive time but couldn't find a parking place.

"A driver sleeping in a truck parked on the side of a highway may be more of a danger if he or she is awakened and ordered to vacate the premises," the study noted.

(Transportation Management Article Continued Below)

 
CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON

 
 

But of course, quantifying the problem doesn't solve it. There really is no coordinated national effort to address the issue. The MAP-21 legislation said that highway funding could be used to create more parking spaces, but of course any such effort has to compete with dozens of other priorities and isn't happening.

The vast majority of truck parking - some 88% of the 309,000 spaces documented in the study - is at private truck stops, not in public rest areas. And truck-stop operators reported challenges with expanding their parking, including overall ROI and zoning and environmental laws that often make expansion difficult. Many communities don't want more trucks stopping nearby for the night.

The report also says states must work together to address the issue based on actual driving patterns by truckers.

Congestion in many urban areas is also a factor that needs to be considered, the report notes, as it means truckers take longer to get through many of these areas, and hours of service rules are of course time not distance based, meaning in the end congestion creates the need for more parking.

Often parking spaces are empty - but just not where truckers need them at the moment they must stop and rest. A problem, the report finds, is that there is often no real planning about where a driver will park until he or she needs to stop and finds there is no space available at the nearest truck stop. Systems to keep on-line track of where space is available could also help match demand with supply.

So in the end, the DOT has confirmed the issue is real, but primarily calls for additional studies in search for answers. Which means the parking issue is certainly going to get worse before it gets better - the ATA predicts truck traffic will grow 29% over the next 11 year, and it seems highly unlikely parking spots will grow at the same rate.


How big a problem is the parling issue in your mind? Any thoughts on how it could be addressed? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button (for email) or section (for web form) below.

 


   
 

Recent Feedback

 A huge solution to this problem without government involvement would be shippers and receivers making an allowable space for truck parking when drivers have arrived for early morning appointments or have been run out of hours because the facility has not unloaded/loaded the truck in an efficient time span. Your use if the word "perceived" is troublesome. Just as there is an abundance of passenger vehicle parking in a downtown area on Sunday mornings, there is also available truck parking in the daytime at truck stops. This is because trucks are working. Suggesting truckers get to park when they like is akin to saying downtown commuters should park on Sunday morning in downtown parking garages so they can have more parking choices. It just shows how many sectors of the supply chain are undereducated on this topic. Though they affect it greatly.


Desiree Wood
President
REAL Women in Trucking, Inc.
Sep, 01 2015
 
   
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