The Truck Parking Zone – July 2024

Private companies are being criticized for exploiting the truck parking crisis, but the real culprit – and solution – is who created this situation in the first place: the federal government.

Over the past few years, the private sector has taken a sudden interest in truck parking. Outpost has received $12.5 million in Series A funding to expand its network of truck parking facilities, allowing it to double its footprint. Meanwhile, a holding company called Contrade has plans to create 45,000 truck parking spaces with 100 facilities across the nation. In May, Truck Parking Club reached 400 locations.

The good news: Private investment is creating tens of thousands of truck parking spaces, significantly addressing the parking shortage.

The bad news: Every single one of those spots is paid parking.

This is how free-market capitalism works. When a low-supply commodity is in high demand, entrepreneurs swoop in. But we’re not talking about widgets here. We’re talking about the nation’s infrastructure, in which the government – not the private sector – is responsible for investing.

Government responsible for truck parking

The increasing prevalence of paid truck parking is the result of government inaction despite plenty of opportunities to address the issue.

A shortage of truck parking has been a problem for a while now, and the government’s role in addressing that issue is well established. In 2012, Jason’s Law was enacted, directing the government to evaluate the capability of each state to provide adequate parking.

Results of the first nationwide truck parking survey were revealed in 2015, showing what everybody in the trucking industry already knew. An updated survey was released in 2020, revealing not much had changed. The Federal Highway Administration is currently working on the third edition of the survey. Chances are the results of this survey will not indicate any major improvements, despite the federal government having had at least three chances to do something.

In March 2020, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., introduced the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, which would have allocated hundreds of millions of dollars in existing federal funding to create more parking spots for truckers. It gained 14 bipartisan co-sponsors but died in committee.

A year later, Bost reintroduced the truck parking bill. The second bite at the apple garnered 39 co-sponsors, with 25 Republicans and 14 Democrats. That bill got through the committees but never made it to the floor.

Undeterred, Bost is trying it again. Currently, HR2367 has 49 co-sponsors, almost a 50/50 split of Republicans and Democrats. The bill passed the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure with a 60-4 vote in May … of last year.

Despite increasing, broad, bipartisan support; no increase in spending; and both industry stakeholders and safety groups alike urging the bill’s passing, Congress has been unable to do anything about truck parking. Meanwhile, the parking shortage continues.

The Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act seeks $755 million in existing funding. That could create thousands of parking spaces – which in addition to increasing highway safety by giving tired truckers a safe, legal place to rest also would improve supply chain efficiency.

Costs of government inaction

While the federal government is asleep at the wheel, truckers are literally paying for it in more ways than one.

To start, truckers spend up to an hour or more looking for a parking spot at the end of the day. That is an hour that is not being spent logging miles on the road hauling freight. This is costing each trucker up to $5,000 a year in lost productivity. And on a larger scale, a lack of truck parking is wasting millions of hours in freight movement within the supply chain. Those associated costs trickle down to the consumer.

As government investment in truck parking remains woefully insufficient, private sector investment is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, these are not traditional truck stops offering free parking in exchange for fuel, food and other amenities.

Due to the dire need for truck parking, the new business model is offering a spot on a lot and nothing more for a fee. Most spots run about $15 per day, but some fetch as much as $50 a day at a lot where truckers have to arrive before 6 p.m., cannot leave until 6 a.m. and receive no amenities.

Who is paying for the parking? It’s not the shippers. Rather, truckers are eating up these costs with very little chance of reimbursement. On the lower end, parking can cost more than $100 a week. That doesn’t account for the Uber ride from an industrial parking lot just to get some food.

Lawmakers may see this surge in private sector investment as a reason to let the government off the hook when it comes to addressing the national truck parking crisis. But for multiple reasons, it actually dictates the opposite.

First, not all new paid parking spaces are new. The only thing that is new is the “paid” part. Property owners who once allowed truckers to park for free are now seeing dollar signs in between the painted lines that create a spot. This not only does nothing to solve the problem but also creates a financial burden.

Second, we are dealing with highway safety, national infrastructure and interstate commerce, all of which fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Taxpayers are paying Congress to solve this issue, not to punt it to the private sector.

Tell your lawmakers to get moving on the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act by going to FightingForTruckers.com. LL

L