Second Jason’s Law parking survey to include drayage and short-haul drivers

Round two of Jason’s Law truck parking survey is coming up. This time around, drayage and short-haul drivers will be included in the survey, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

On July 18, AASHTO held its joint policy committee in Spokane, Wash. Caitlin Hughes, director of the Federal Highway Administration’s office of freight management and logistics, was one of the presenters. During her presentation, Hughes said that the second version of Jason’s Law survey will include ports in order to identify port-related parking needs, according to an AASHTO report.

Originally slated to begin in July, Hughes expects the survey to begin in August. FHWA spokeswoman Nancy Singer confirmed to Land Line that no date has been fixed as the administration is waiting for the survey to be cleared. Singer said FHWA hopes to launch the survey this summer.

In the first Jason’s Law survey released in August 2015, drivers were represented by driver members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the American Trucking Associations. FHWA received more than 8,000 responses from drivers, more than 7,000 of which came from OOIDA drivers. In addition to the more than 800 ATA drivers, nearly 250 ATA management and logistics personnel were surveyed in the driver stakeholder group.

According to AASHTO’s report, Dan Murray, vice president of the American Transportation Research Institute, also spoke during the meeting. During his presentation, Murray said that truck parking is in a “crisis stage.”

An ATRI truck parking study released in December 2016 revealed that truckers lose 56 minutes a day on average looking for truck parking. Truckers also lose an average of $4,600 a year due to the lack of parking availability. According to the study, drivers using an ELD were almost twice as likely to spend more than 30 minutes searching for a spot. Conversely, those without an ELD were slightly more likely to find a spot within 15 minutes.