New study shows ramp parking is a symptom of America’s truck parking crisis

A recently published study on truck parking is hoping to guide future infrastructure improvements.

On Tuesday, Jan. 27, Altitude by Geotab – an Ontario, Canada-based company providing “advanced planning solutions for public and commercial sector projects” – released findings from a study analyzing where and why truckers use highway ramps for long-duration parking.

While it may come as no surprise to truckers, the study identified four main reasons commercial vehicles park on ramps. These include roadway degradation, evolving regulations, parking shortage and freight theft.

According to the report, more than 2.2 million parking events – including over 300,000 long-duration stops – occur annually on U.S. highway ramps, something the company says highlights “a growing infrastructure gap that leaves truck drivers without safe, authorized places to rest.”

“This analysis demonstrates that ramp parking is not merely a localized infrastructure problem but a systematic capacity problem affecting the entire logistics industry with implications for highway safety, infrastructure maintenance costs, freight theft vulnerability, and supply chain efficiency,” the company’s report read.

The study also identified where trucks most often park on highway ramps, with five areas of the U.S. – Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, Newark, N.J.; and Washington D.C. – showing the highest number of trucks parked on ramps.

Nate Veeh, an executive at Geotab, said the company hopes the data will inform future infrastructure and truck parking improvements.

“This data allows public and private sectors to move beyond anecdotes and implement targeted, capacity-building solutions to ensure drivers have the safe, authorized rest areas they require,” Veeh said in a statement. “The 2.2 million annual parking events on highway ramps are not random occurrences; they are a clear, data-driven signal of where our infrastructure investment is critically needed.”

The company’s report concludes that the lack of truck parking poses a safety risk for truckers and creates inefficiency as drivers search for parking. In addition, the company said it is detrimental to infrastructure, noting that “highway shoulders are not engineered to support the static weight of a 33,000-plus pound Class-7 and 8 vehicle for 10 hours.”

“Drivers need to have safe, authorized parking options to rest following a long-haul trip,” the company’s report read. “Our analysis, which quantifies 2.2 million annual ramp parking events, clearly demonstrates that the shortage of safe truck parking is a systematic capacity problem.”

The wheels are in motion to address truck parking in at least one of the identified hotspots.

In November 2022, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced a 10-year, $600 million Rest Area & Welcome Center Improvement Plan to expand truck parking capacity along Interstates 65, 70, and 74.

In total, seven truck parking conversion projects are included in the plan. One of those projects, a conversion to the northbound Kankakee rest area along I-65 that included the construction of a new welcome center on the southbound side, was completed in Oct. 2023. The project added 113 truck parking spaces, as well as restrooms and vending buildings.

This past September, the state opened a newly renovated truck parking facility located off I-65 in Boone County near mile marker 148. The rest area includes 150 truck parking spaces and restroom facilities – doubling the previous capacity.

When the improvement plan began, officials said around 1,400 parking spaces were being allocated for commercial vehicles statewide. The state DOT estimates these projects will increase the number of truck parking spaces by an additional 1,200. LL