Feedback on truck parking?

average joe · Jul 7, 2015

powerhousescott said: ↑

I agree, one should be able to do what one wants with their property. Another thing I forgot to add that is reducing parking at the truckstops is the new CNG/LPG fueling stations, which by the way are subsidized by the government. So now we are indeed paying for the inability to park as well as the ability to park. Pretty cool stuff Huh?

I have had to call a truckstop that was trying to drive one of our drivers out after he had just took on $400.00 worth of fuel, because he did not reserve one of those fancy prepaid parking areas, which by the way they did not have marked. Imagine my surprise when my driver called me at 01:30 in the morning with the situation. Imagine my surprise when the manager of the truckstop was more concerned about the possible loss of $10 vs. the loss of our fueling business. I quite simply asked him to purchase back the $400.00 in fuel and we would be on our merry way. Guess that shut him up, and they found out that our driver was not parked in a preferred parking area in the first place. Needless to say we don't buy fuel from that chain anymore unless we have to.

The preferred parking is kinda like that trucker that comes into the FCFS shipper/receiver and jumps in line. That is grounds for a buttwhipping, but nowadays nobody does anything. I remember back when I was a kid that there were truckstops that actually parked trucks for the drivers, filled the tanks, washed the windows, gave out free steak dinners with a fill up. I used to tell my dad, man you guys are the kings of the road.

You tell me what changed?

Here it is:

The drivers changed, they leave their trash all over the truckstop, don't patronize the truckstop, park on the fuel islands, park along the curbs, block the driveways, I could go on and on.

The truckstops changed, the food is now crappy quality, the showers are not as clean, the parking areas are more congested, they charge 3 times as much for their products as you can get it at the store for, they now have preferred parking (at least in the old days they had valet parking at some truckstops), full service is a thing of the past. Come on in driver, we will give you that greasy food that you ordered two hours ago cold, we will make sure to screw it up while we are at it, we will charge the same price as a steak house and do all this with a roll of our eyes, OH MY GOD IT'S A TRUCKER ATTITUDE!!!

No their not making any profit, when you pay $2 for that soda that you can buy at the store for .75, No wonder the drivers are eating ramen noodles, they are too broke from all that greasy overpriced underquality food, and from having to pay $10 per day or more to park at the precious truckstop.

Our trucks just choose to stay away from those type of places.
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Well a couple of things, the store you buy your .75 soda at doesn't pay the insurance rate a ts does , drivers demand more from a ts than they did years ago ( rember the gang bang showers?) No more mom and pops, it's all corporate franchise crap, ( that what drivers asked for) . I remember full service,I also rember $10.00 an once pot, forget it those days are gone. If your drivers are eating ramen noodles because that's all they can afford you're not paying them enough.

Oldman49 · Jul 7, 2015

powerhousescott said: ↑

Parking is an ongoing problem, with the Hours of service being very inflexible, and electronic logs not helping matters. Most drivers are parked at the truckstops by 15:00 in the afternoon, if you are not parked by 17:00 in most places good luck finding a spot. When the sleeper birth split (the old rules) was allowed, there were more available parking areas. There were more trucks on the roads at night, thereby reducing the congestion that is seen today.

Rest Areas are closing down reducing parking.
Scale Houses are putting blockades up reducing parking.
Shippers either do not have adequate space, or want the trucks off of their property as soon as they are done unloading.
Their are not any advances in technology that have helped reduce the parking issues, as of yet.
Truck Stops are now charging money to park because they see an additional income stream for their property.
More and more drivers are parking where ever they can find a spot.
More and more states are putting up no parking signs on the on ramps, further reduction in parking.
I have seen trucks parked on the shoulders of the Interstate due to lack of parking.

In the end, nobody really cares as long as their products get where they want them and when they want them.

The Federal Government is spending money on studying this issue as we speak. Do you think they will find a solution? We told them that if they were just to implement the old sleeper birth split, this would solve a lot of the problem. We truckers don't think they want to solve the problem, they would rather spend our tax dollars on study's that result in little to no results.

All you have to do is google: Truck parking study and you will see that this is a major problem.

So you will have to do like the rest of us, get creative and hope you don't get woke up in the middle of your sleep to move your truck to another area. Been there done that, there is no winning the argument when Johnny Law says move he means move. We choose not to argue with the guy with the gun, even if we believe we are right.
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Twice I did something that I wasn't to proud of..

Was at a consig, backed under an MT. Out of hrs, no parking. I called guard shack told them there was an issue with brakes on trlr and I couldn't move. Informed them that service was on the way but it might be several hours. NO PROBLEM...got my hrs back, informed guard I was able to solve the issue..byeee

Another time I stopped in abandoned grocery store parking lot,,with signs saying no parking. I cracked open the hood about 2 feet, put triangles along side of the rig,,no one bothered me, even though cops patrolled the building itself.

just_the · Jul 7, 2015

Oldman49 said: ↑

Twice I did something that I wasn't to proud of..

.
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Lol, that's just good ol' fashioned working the angles; I had to do it at a Walmart in Rhode Island that had no truck parking signs everywhere; like 6 minutes left on my 14 due to late appt and uber slow live unload, let the night shift know I had a maintenance issue and would be out of there asap - no problem, after my 10 I rolled out, never heard a word about it.

123.Red Beard · Jul 11, 2015

Some rest areas don't allow overnight parking, some ... Restrict to eight hour maximum stay, some only allow 30 minutes!

Kinda hard to get a ten hour break ...

Quite a few rest areas will have extra wide shoulders on the ramps ... But "no parking signs"!

I agree ... Lots of lazy slobs out there messing up the lots!

Then there are truck stops like QT ... I was at Hutchins, TX last night, "No overnight parking" ... But 25 parking spaces ... They didn't enforce the signs ...

bradkingOTR · May 25, 2016

Hi everyone,

Curious...I want to start parking at shipper/recievers. Why have they turned you away? Seems like the best solution to the parking pbroblem>

Sipesh · May 25, 2016

bradkingOTR said: ↑

Hi everyone,

Curious...I want to start parking at shipper/recievers. Why have they turned you away? Seems like the best solution to the parking pbroblem>
Click to expand...

When you have certain groups of truck drivers literally squatting outside their cabs and pooping between trailers, I can't really blame the shippers for not letting anyone stay. Other places just really don't have the room.

skinnytrucker79 · May 26, 2016

I think a big issue is just too many trucks on the road. Any time of day or night it's dang near gridlock with trucks and 4 wheelers, megas pushing lease options , zero money down trucks and so on. I'm not blaming the O/Os. The Megas do their part just fine to clog everything up but stop handing over the keys to anyone that wants to "be their own boss" wasn't their something in place many years ago when their could be only so many trucks or trucking companies ? Now it seams almost every other truck that doesn't have a Mega name has a piece of cardboard , mailbox stickers or even spray painted"company name" on the side of their trucks .
Now let's add in shippers/receivers that make a driver sit all day (C&S wholesale. Jacksonville FL) perfect example . They will do either or to a bunch of trucks then call them in all at once for their bills then it's a rat race to who can get back to the truck the fastest and start pounding gears all the way off the property just to be all clogged up again at the next TRAVEL plazas down the road .
Go by any travel plazas on a weekend and they are just as full as any day of the week . Most drivers are now regional so they should be home almost every weekend. I don't see many drivers anymore wanting to stay out for more then a week at a time anymore but the places are still packed full any day of the week including weekends .
The drivers that drive from 7am to Noon. How many times have you pulled into a travel plaza at a time when it really should be almost empty from drivers working but your lucky to find a handful of empty spots .
I can think of 2 customers that are a major cause of this issue . One I named C&S in Jacksonville FL and Millard /Linux in McDonough GA. i think every driver that came in every time I go to those places are blowing up how they have a appointment at X time but have been sitting for X amount of hours and haven't even been touched

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