Truck parking push gains powerful ally in federal agency
For decades, trucking stakeholders have been urging the federal government to do something about the nationwide truck parking crisis. Now, an independent federal agency that usually stays out of the funding conversation is telling Congress to pony up.
In May, the National Transportation Safety Board reviewed the findings of an investigation into a deadly Greyhound bus crash involving three tractor-trailers parked along an exit ramp to a rest area. Although bus driver fatigue was likely the primary cause, a truck parking shortage contributed to the crash.
NTSB’s report on the high-profile crash puts another spotlight on the decades-long national truck parking crisis for everyone to see, including lawmakers. In addition to partially blaming a lack of truck parking, NTSB members called for more legislative action, something they never do.
The role of the independent agency is to investigate transportation incidents, ranging from plane crashes to train derailments to vehicle crashes. Once an investigation ends, the board recommends changes to government regulations and/or private industry policies.
The NTSB’s recommendations in the Greyhound crash include expanding truck parking, which stakeholders have been urging state and federal lawmakers and agencies to do for decades. The board also pressed both Greyhound and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to do something about mitigating bus driver fatigue, especially with overnight drivers.
Typically, the NTSB stays out of legislative matters. This time, it did not, and that speaks volumes about how dire the issue of truck parking has become.
What happened?
At the center of the report is a fatal crash involving a Greyhound bus and three parked tractor-trailers.
The incident happened around 1:48 a.m. in July 2023 near Highland, Ill. A Greyhound bus was traveling at highway speeds on Interstate 70 when it began veering out of the right lane as it approached the Silver Lake rest area. The bus drove onto the rest area exit ramp, colliding with three parked tractor-trailers.
Three people were killed, with 11 bus passengers and the driver injured. The three truck drivers were uninjured.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association pointed out that the national truck parking shortage affects everybody, not just truckers.
“We’ve been saying for years that the truck parking crisis doesn’t ONLY impact truckers,” OOIDA Director of Government Affairs Collin Long said. “Unfortunately, the NTSB has confirmed the effects can be felt by anyone using our highways, often in disastrous ways.”
A ‘funding issue’?
NTSB members agreed that funding is one of the most significant issues with truck parking.
Kenneth Bragg, chief of NTSB’s Multidisciplinary Investigations Branch, said NTSB believes there is limited funding for truck parking at the state and federal levels. NTSB member Thomas Chapman noted that despite the longstanding issue, no action has been taken.
“It appears that essentially the same obstacles we were facing two decades ago are the same obstacles we’re facing today,” Chapman said. “It’s a funding issue. I’m guessing in some respects, it might be more than funding. It could be available space, but this is a problem that has been around for a long time, and it’s only getting worse.”
Rep. Mike Bost’s, R-Ill., Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act was mentioned several times. Introduced for a fourth time this year, the bill would dedicate $755 million to projects that expand truck parking capacity. NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy gave credit to Bost for addressing the issue and said she hoped the bill would get some movement.
“The NTSB doesn’t usually weigh in on the need for congressional funding for specific programs, so I do think this is a big deal, and I do think it is much needed,” Homendy said.
Bryce Mongeon, OOIDA’s director of legislative affairs, told Land Line Now that although pointing to the truck parking shortage as a contributing factor is a big deal, perhaps a bigger deal is the NTSB calling for legislative action. He called the move unprecedented.
“It was very encouraging to see the NTSB specifically highlight the need for Congress to approve more funding to expand truck parking capacity and really recognize that funding truck parking will be a major part of solving this crisis,” Mongeon said.
Bost quickly jumped on NTSB’s findings, pointing to the need to get his Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act across the finish line to fund parking expansion.
“I grew up in a family trucking business and have been shouting from the rooftops for years about America’s dangerous shortage of truck parking spaces,” Bost said in a statement. “When exhausted truckers are forced to choose between pushing that extra mile to find safe parking or pull over on the shoulder of busy interstates and offramps, you’ve got a recipe for disaster. That’s exactly what we witnessed here in Southern Illinois. I am hopeful the NTSB’s final report on the Highland crash will help provide additional momentum in Congress to pass my legislation to expand safe, accessible parking options for big trucks nationwide.”
Cost of maintenance
Outside of new, dedicated funding for parking expansion, state transportation departments are having issues with existing funding.
Truck parking projects must compete with other transportation projects for grant money. Strapped for cash, most states are prioritizing other projects, especially those more appealing to the general public, such as road and bridge repairs and transit projects.
Even when a grant is awarded for more public truck parking, the money can only be used to create the spaces. States are on the hook to fund the maintenance and operation of rest areas. According to a recent study by the American Transportation Research Institute, the annual budget for maintaining a single rest area exceeds $200,000, with an average of nearly $9 million in total rest area maintenance costs per state.
The NTSB recommends establishing grant programs to increase truck parking and allowing federal funding to be used for maintenance costs. That could give states more incentive to apply for a parking project grant, even if it provides only temporary funding for annual maintenance.
“NTSB has called for the establishment of a grant program for states, local governments and other eligible entities to increase parking for CMVs, which in my eyes is an endorsement of the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act,” Long said. “We hope the U.S. Senate is listening, because it’s abundantly clear something needs to be done to prevent more crashes like this.”
Furthermore, the NTSB calls for considering the termination of the federal ban on commercializing rest areas. States have their hands tied when it comes to generating any meaningful revenue at rest areas. Lifting the commercialization ban would allow rest areas to become self-sustaining rather than siphoning limited taxpayer dollars.
Expanding funding opportunities for initial and short-term costs could go a long way. But combining that with the opportunity to fund long-term costs through commercialization could be a major boon for public truck parking.
Truck parking crisis at rest areas
The NTSB’s investigation drew attention to the lack of truck parking at public rest areas, creating a dangerous environment for all motorists.
There are only 21 truck parking spaces at the Silver Lake rest area. The number of spaces has not increased since it was built in the 1970s, despite a more than 300% increase in the number of trucks on the road since then. A 2018 parking study found 100-150% utilization of that space – i.e. not enough spaces to meet demand. In the past 10 years, there have been two other crashes near the rest area involving trucks parked on the shoulder.
“We found that combination vehicles routinely parked in the Silver Lake Rest Area exit ramp shoulder because of limited truck parking, which increases the risk of a collision from an errant vehicle,” said Dan Walsh, an engineer at the NTSB’s Office of Highway Safety.
The next rest area is 76 miles away. Truck drivers approaching the end of their hours of service are faced with parking on the ramps when the lot is full or violating regulations in pursuit of parking.
NTSB officials noted that personal conveyance could theoretically be used to move to the nearest legal truck parking space. Still, because that rule is interpreted and enforced inconsistently, most truckers decide to stay put rather than gamble.
Walsh also mentioned Jason’s Law truck parking surveys released in 2015 and 2020, which showed that public truck parking was not meeting demand. The aforementioned ATRI rest area study put the accepted ratio of public-to-private parking at 1-to-4. Of the 47 states surveyed, 37 did not meet that expectation – including Illinois, with a 1-to-6.7 ratio.
Throwing Greyhound under the bus
The investigation revealed concerns about the bus driver’s work schedule and lack of sleep, as well as Greyhound’s pattern of doing nothing about the driver’s history of company violations.
Before the crash, the bus driver had been awake for more than 17 hours, including 13 hours on duty. Crash scene investigators found no signs of braking, suggesting the driver was fatigued. Passengers said the driver had swerved out of the lane multiple times during the trip, driving over rumble strips on the shoulder.
A highly irregular work schedule likely compromised his sleep. For example, on June 21, 2023, the bus driver started his shift at 3 a.m. He then began at 4:30 p.m. the following day and at 10:30 a.m. on June 23. Additionally, the driver did not utilize layover time to rest in the hours before departing for the trip, despite Greyhound providing him with a hotel room and terminal break room.
“You could have the best hours-of-service regulations out there, but if you’re not using your rest time to actually rest, that’s the problem as well,” Homendy said. “We’ve seen that, whether it’s in highway crashes or rail accidents, pipeline explosions – we’ve seen it everywhere.”
The 59-year-old’s health could have increased his risk of fatigue as well. The NTSB’s report states that he suffered from obstructive sleep apnea and diabetes at the time of the crash.
Problems began very soon after the driver started working at Greyhound, which hired him in April 2018. One month into the job, he was involved in a fatigue-related crash when he rear-ended a moving combination vehicle.
Investigators found the driver racked up 13 written reprimands between February 2019 and October 2021. He received at least 16 reprimands for speeding, including going 77 mph in a 55 mph zone. However, his official employee record shows only three infractions.
Greyhound uses driver-monitoring systems, including driver-facing cameras, to keep track of driver performance and issues. In the 12 months leading up to the crash, the bus driver had accumulated 71 driver-monitoring system events. He was on a top 20 list of drivers generating the most violations of this kind.
Despite the numerous reprimands and driver-monitoring system violations, no disciplinary action was taken against the bus driver. Investigators found that the company had mismanaged employee files, including missing files related to policy violations.
Greyhound made significant fatigue management changes in 2000 based on NTSB safety recommendations. However, the company reverted to old bad habits, with NTSB member Michael Graham calling it a “catastrophic backsliding.” LL