ATA, OOIDA Pressure DOT For Expanded Truck Parking

Two major trucking organizations are pushing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to prioritize truck parking.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) penned a joint letter to Buttigieg on Feb. 18 that outlined the nationwide shortage of safe truck parking in stark terms.

“Ultimately, the pervasive truck parking shortage can be explained with simple math: there are about 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States and approximately 313,000 truck parking spaces nationally; for every 11 drivers, there is one truck parking space,” stated the letter from the ATA’s Chris Spear and OOIDA’s Todd Spencer.

According to DOT’s own 2019 analysis in the Jason’s Law Truck Parking Survey — named after trucker Jason Rivenburg, who was killed in his sleep at an abandoned gas station — an estimated “98 percent of drivers regularly experience problems finding safe parking.”

The letter contends that expanded truck parking would address chronic issues in the industry, such as drivers’ difficulty finding restrooms and food. They also cited legislation focused on expanded truck parking — the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act (H.R. 2187) — which would dedicate $755 million over five years to increase truck parking.

“The time spent looking for available truck parking costs the average driver about $5,500 in direct lost compensation — or a 12 percent cut in annual pay,” reads the letter, citing a Transportation Research Record study from 2018.

Lastly, the letter notes that a lack of parking forces an estimated 70 percent of drivers to violate Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules governing hours of service in search of open parking, which can lead to both driver fatigue and drivers parking in unsafe or illegal locations.

“If the USDOT prioritizes the expansion of truck parking capacity and makes significant progress toward that effort, drivers will be safer and healthier, fleets will be more productive, the trucking workforce will be more resilient, and trucks will reduce their fuel needs and emit fewer emissions into the environment,” concludes the letter.