Truck parking plan advances with OOIDA help

Municipalities nationwide are rejecting truck parking developments. Yet one developer has shown that education and advocacy can change minds.

Chris Storm, president of Sable Realty Advisors in Amarillo, Texas, has worked in self-storage since the 1980s. A few years ago, he spotted an opportunity in truck parking and got to work on his first parking facility. He quickly realized that many people didn’t see the urgent need for more parking, so he sought help from truck drivers.

The site of Storm’s venture in truck parking sits at Wintergreen Road and Interstate 45 in Hutchins, Texas. Just south of Dallas and Interstate 20, the future home of SafeStop is located along a busy freight corridor that needs safe parking for truck drivers.

An important word here is “safe.” There are several truck stops less than 10 miles from the future truck parking facility. However, none of them are safe.

Several years ago, a “Do Not Stop” list went viral, highlighting truck stops across 20 states. This list warned truck drivers with valuable loads to avoid these places due to rising crime rates.

A third of the listed truck stops in Texas are near Storm’s proposed site. He aimed to create a safe, driver-friendly option, but the Hutchins Planning and Zoning Commission wasn’t convinced.

“I had done so much research on this,” Storm said. “I just assumed everybody understood that there is a crisis of truck parking nationwide, but certainly in these concentrated areas like this, and that everybody would immediately see the benefits of what we were trying to do. That’s not the case, necessarily.”

Informing the misinformed

Storm turned to trucking stakeholders for some help, and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association delivered.

A few years back, Storm met OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. He asked Pugh for help to push the truck parking facility forward. That’s when OOIDA Board Member Kenneth Becker got involved.

Hutchins Planning and Zoning commissioners initially rejected Storm’s zoning request out of concern about an increase in truck traffic. They were worried that another truck parking facility would attract more drivers.

Becker spoke with city officials, sharing the driver’s perspective. He explained the hard truth: Trucks are already in Hutchins. Storm’s SafeStop would just move them off the streets into a secure lot.

Many city officials didn’t grasp the seriousness of the truck parking crisis. Becker shared some sobering statistics well-known to industry insiders but new to most decision-makers.

“You’re approving this warehousing, you’re approving these yards, you’re approving these other things,” Becker said. “Truck parking needs to be part of that. You approve a million-square-foot warehouse, and there’s not one place to park a truck except when you’re backed into the dock. Well, you know, that creates a need.”

That appeared to flip the script. Wary city officials changed their tune from skeptical to enthusiastic about the new truck parking facility. Zoning changes were granted, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held earlier this year. Storm expects to open SafeStop around the first of November.

“The more we continued to talk with them, the more they came to understand that this is really a beneficial thing for their community,” Storm said.

SafeStop

Becker’s valuable input helped create much-needed truck parking spaces at a facility that takes pride in safety and a driver-friendly environment.

SafeStop’s website describes the truck parking facility as a “well-lit, gated and fenced parking area with 24/7 surveillance.” It offers 140 truck parking spaces, clean restrooms, free showers, healthy vending options and a lounge area with free Wi-Fi and laundry facilities. Storm is talking with food truck operators to swing by for more options.

“I got the impression that oftentimes, drivers are not treated as first-class citizens,” Storm said. “They’re many times not allowed to use restrooms at a customer’s stop and just generally not treated as I think they should be. So what we’re trying to do is create an environment where they are treated well, respectfully, and the things that they need and many things that they like would be on-site.”

Safety is a top priority for Storm. He worked with transportation security expert JJ Coughlin, owner of Corporate Security Solutions – Texas, and chairman of the Southwest Transportation Security Council. Storm also consulted with Women In Trucking to make sure he addresses the needs of female truck drivers.

Some of the security features include interactive cameras that will trigger an alarm if they detect anyone approaching the fence from the outside. SafeStop will also have secure gate access.

Storm has several locations in mind for future expansion. But for now, he is focusing on making this first one successful before taking that leap. LL