A new survey of over 5,400 truck drivers found that parking causes stress in more drivers than any other aspect of trucking – it’s even worse than ELDs. Though that may be because 80% of drivers say that ELDs have made finding parking even more stressful than it used to be.
Conducted by TruckerPath, the survey was turned into a report. It claims that on the list of things that cause stress at work for truckers, parking gets first place at 85%. Then its ELD/HOS issues (63%), shippers (38%), other truckers (33%), brokers (16%), and dispatchers (11%).
Frustration with parking can be because of not being able to find a space, but also because of the safety aspect. 96% of drivers reported having to park in unauthorized areas because they weren’t able to find sufficient legal parking. This can result in tickets or fines, but more critically it can be a safety issue. 84% of drivers said that they feel unsafe when parked in unauthorized areas.
The report addresses economic and safety implications of the parking shortage. It even goes in to potential solutions to the problem. The report claims that more drivers could benefit from planning potential stopping points as part of their pre-trip, but even for those who do, parking can be tough to find.
To read more about potential solutions and to see other survey results, check out the report here.
Source: truckinginfo, truckerpath
James Moore says
More needs to be done by DOT across nation to insure enough safe havens are in place. This is a huge opportunity for truck stops TA, Flying J, Loves and Kwik Trip. Drivers need to start looking for a safe haven 1 to 2 hours before their time expires. Manage the time you need to start again. Relay to dispatch early why a delivery could be delayed. This problem should never exist, help truckers by providing safe havens should be everyone’s goal. Truckers must also respect the safe havens provided and properly dispose garbage.
Michelle says
Planning 2 hours ahead only works if nothing impedes you route (construction or accident, etc.). I had just enough time to get to my planned spot, gps showed clear sailing, but as soon as I hit my interchange with 40 minutes left, they were putting out the barrels to cut 4 lanes to one. Nowhere to stop en route to my planned stop…violation. Another thing which makes it harder to find parking is truck stops charging for parking spaces. How many times has there been overflow in aisles and entrances, and a row of empty spaces?
Tom says
I hear you about the pay to park bulls#%t. They think they are creating another profit center, but they don’t stop to think that there are thousands like me out here that won’t buy fuel or any of there overpriced crap in the store from them because they charge for parking. Ontario CA is a perfect example. I won’t even scale there.
Jim says
If you spend $20 in the store you get free parking I go to shop and get oil or wiper blades ie something the company will reimburse for. sometimes I will get a dvd movie or pay for a shower along with a snack of some sort if I am going to be there for 10 hrs or more. it isn’t hard to get 20 or 25 dollars with recites you can even ask another driver for his if he doesn’t need them
Jeff says
I agree with you Jim. If your there for your 10 hour break, most will spend the 20 dollar just on food. I’ve even had waitresses give me receipts left by other drivers who had ate and left before their two hours expired.
James D, Smith jr. says
They don’t care because they’re the only truck stop in that area for another hundred miles or more so they’ll keep charging for parking.
Every morning you can see the cops giving tickets to driver and forcing them to move that park on the streets next to it.
shane price says
This article is why I started driving teams.
reserved spots exist for the reason this article was written for, so drivers know they have a guaranteed spot. Truck stop parking is an amenity, it generates zero revenue but costs thousands a year in property taxes and maintenance. Truck stops dont owe anyone a parking spot.
States are going to have to create mega parking areas every 50-100 miles. Its time the federal government put that excise tax on new trucks to work
Jim says
E-X-A-C-T-L-Y-!!!!!!
Freight with teams should pay BIG TIME….enough where the team works every other week and still pays each driver 50k a year.
Switch teams every other week for the truck – THOROUGH professional truck cleaning between teams….- truck runs 24/7/350
win, win,win
Robert Severn says
Do you really believe that truck parking spots doesn’t increase revenue? Yes, there are several drivers that park and may not spend money in the truck stop. However, most do spend money there. Having a spot to park allows for the driver to do more business there. ELD’s created revenue in so many ways that most people overlook. It takes more drivers and trucks to do the same amount of work. That creates more taxes, services to maintain more trucks and many other revenue generators. They hide behind safety and blame everything on drivers wanting to cheat logs. Keep on believing that crap and spending more of your money. They got you right where they wanted. Maybe you need to be told what to do but many people don’t. Always amazes me how many drivers support being regulated so much. Not sure I’ll ever understand why so many do it.
Willie Joe says
My understanding about being detained at receivers period is because receivers take the load off the truck then they sort on pallets for delivery to other locations while the trucker is delayed this should be stopped truckers should not have to be delayed for anything we make this country run
James Crawford says
If you start looking for a place to park 1 to 2 hours a night before your shift ends, you would never make money and that’s what they’re trying to do. Every night 1 to 2 hours you find a place to park that first 15 minutes, you just gave up 2 hours of driving and sometimes that don’t work depending on what time of day it is
Koss says
Hey get your fat butts on the truck ! 40 cents a mile … eld …. dot…. broker’s…. IRS …. and the rest need to eat . Stop complaining!! Get back to work !)))
Rick Zajac says
My last couple of runs were out in the northwest US and Canada and I was surprised to find truck stops weren’t nearly as plentiful as you’d think. When I’d trip plan for the day I knew exactly where I wanted to stop and included stops closer than my night’s destination in case I got delayed and stops further in case I made better time than my estimate. Still, many an evening I got to the Flying J with minutes to spare on the clock.
E.W. says
All I do is just plan ahead by using the truckers plan app. I give myself a 30 to a 90 minute cushion and by doing this I’m always parking at any truck stop that reads loves, pilot, or flying J.
Andrew H says
This is one of the main reasons I went LTL after 6 years OTR. Now I’m driving overnight line haul, home every day, weekends off, no stress in finding a place to park. Like, my blood pressure went back to normal. Kinda sad the biggest stress to me about driving truck, was parking.
shane price says
thats nice, but home daily line haul isnt available in every market. for me its a huge paycut and increase in taxes and vehicle and commuting expense.
MrYowler says
Not everyone can get home nightly. Carriers have freight that they want to run OTR, and thst freight has to be run by someone.
The practical reality is that no matter how much pressure or responsibility or blame is placed in drivers, drivers cannot solve the parking problem. Filthy pig drivers could perhaps be reported to their carriers, and carriers could take disciplinary actiin against them, if there were enough people who wanted to be drivers, that carriers could afford to let some go over this. But people don’t want to be drivers, in part because of the rock and hard place that drivers are put between, because there simply isn’t enough parking.
Start citing carriers, for pressuring drivers to run out all of their hours, and not providing parking facilities where they are needed, for their own fleets. Carriers have the resources to solve the parking problem, and the influence to put pressure on the shippers and consignees, to get us to that parking in a timely manner. What’s missing, is that carriers have no incentive or responsibility, and therefore no will, to solve the problem.
So start fining the carriers, for trucks parking where they aren’t wanted – and don’t let them pass the cost on to the drivers. If carriers had to find parking for their own fleets or pay the fines, they would solve this problem in a matter of weeks – maybe days.
Jim says
I always plan 2 possible places to end the day at the start of the day, 1st is the one I know I can make on a good day and the 2nd is in case something delays me.Half way through the day I will reevaluate but most of the time one of the 1st two will work still.If I know I am going to an area that is known for crowded truck stops or under estimate the distance I was able to travel that day I will add other options. In long haul you should have a general Idea where you would end up at the end of the day each day at the start of the trip.Due to the unpredictably of the business your plans should be fluid but always have a plan . BTW I pull a lot of Over sized permitted loads so I have daylight and some weekend restrictions too.I have been a driver for over 30 years
John White says
The government should partner with the private sector truck stops and pay for additional land to be used for free parking for trucks, Loves is building everywhere. Soon all truck stops will have pay only parking. As far as the truck stops having to pay taxes on the land used for free parking, don’t worry about the truck stops they make millions in profit from fuel and food purchases from us.
Carl says
Problem is there is no one at all required to provide truck parking. Drivers are to hope they can find a spot once they get to where they are going. They have even been driver to kill each other fighting over a spot. Government can’t and never will build enough spot to meet the demand. There is only one solution. I know Government claims to not have any authority over Shippers and Receiver. But for the sake of public safety and the continued commerce they should get that authority and require all the business wanting to ship and receive at all hours of the night to provide parking. Most already have the spots to park and just don’t allow it’s use. Those that don’t, there is usually land around for sale that could be use. In Industrial areas they could get together and buy one large lot. Parking should be within two miles. Some place where that is not possible would be looked at on a case by case bases. This idea would save the tax payer dollars and help the economy grow by getting the business to spend some of the money they are hoarding. I think this is the only plan that would work. All the rest is just talk.
Jeff says
Cities that allow large distribution centers or manufacturers of goods should be required to also provide a safe area for truckers to park. Proof of pickup or delivery could be a requirement for parking at these locations.
Too many cities welcome these businesses but prohibit truck parking anywhere near their cities.
The discriminatory “No parking of vehicles 8 feet or taller” needs to be prohibited. Either parking is allowed or not allowed.
But in fairness, if you find a legal curbside place to park, or a friendly business, unless you get permission to do so, DONT DROP YOUR TRAILER THERE please!! Don’t run over their poles, don’t drop your crap out on their lots. Get your lazy butts out of the truck and throw YOUR garbage and YOUR piss bottle in the trash receptacle YOURSELF!! And please stop pissing on your tires or in the parking lot. Much of the parking problems are caused by the few moron drivers who ruin it for everybody else.
George says
Eld’ s killed trucking! American truck drivers getting their arses kicked because they have no backbone to stand up for themselves!
Glenn Finnell says
Typical governmental laws made without considering the consequences of the law
Samuel Gallezzo says
STOP PAYING DRIVERS BY THE MILE. THEN ALL THE OBJECTIONS TO ELDS GO AWAY. PAY A DRIVER FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE FOR EVERY HOUR HES AWAY FROM HOME. WHETHER HE OR SHE IS SLEEPING, EATING OR TAKING A DUMP. EVERY SECOND IS PAID.
Robert Severn says
Paying by the hour would alleviate a lot of objections. However, it would create other issues and definitely WOULDN’T stop many objections. ELDS aren’t free. Most may not know that or they just fail to mention it. ELDS were created for many reasons but generating revenue was probably the main one. I like your idea of paying for a lot of those things. Getting paid by the hour has many pros and cons in the Trucking industry. I’m not completely disagreeing with what your saying. However, it doesn’t fix as many problems are you’re probably thinking it does.
Felix Paladino says
Real simple make it to where it is illegal for the states to give you a ticket for parking when you are out of hours the cities can’t put up enough no parking signs for trucks to get them out of the Cities why is any trucker even going to that City real simple the cities and states need to put up truck parking so we have a place to go there’s a lot of solutions but nobody wants to spend the money they’re happy to take money from the truck drivers by giving parking tickets but they won’t spend it to help a trucker
Felix Paladino says
Wow I just read the second story about parking in Midland Texas and somewhere in Kansas they are talking about making a $500 fine for parking instead of creating parking for trucks and helping them they just want to take their money there’s a solution for you if I truck parts you illegal find them hope you see the irony in that maybe we could all get together and just shut down until they find a solution instead of finding us
TheRealTrucker says
So they force you to park with eld’s Because of safety, and say you can’t park because of safety. Which is it? Most cities won’t let semi’s park anywhere. Because of safety. Not so many options with a 75ft long truck. Plan or not, unless your familiar with the entire United States, that’s gonna be hard to do. Easiest way so far is to run at night. Most drivers like driving days like this is a normal job. Or refuse to drive at night because they can’t see too well or safety reasons. More benefits for me because I love driving at night and the truck stops are empty during the day.
Chad says
HOS HOS HOS….THEY SUCK!!! Everyone is on the same schedule now , daylight trucking hrs. Those of us that like traveling through the night can’t anymore because the 14 hr clock and ELD prevents morning delivery aptts. And being able to reload that same day. It was some much easier and safer 20 years ago. Are you listening FMCSA???
Roadkillflapjack says
Uh!!!!! DUH!! but I won’t waste your time explaining common sense! So for you little college morons and saftey fantasy world idiots I’ll just say if you want to understand things quite looking at your ridiculous predetermined “human” input algorithm info from a non driver dumbass then you might build a better deal world scenario system! Oh well nobody’s that smart nowadays ; ) morons! Did i say moron? YUP!! Let me say it again “MORONS”!!!
Jeremy says
The problem with truck parking is it’s not a rich person’s problem… 3;)