Reserved Parking

You know, I actually hate reserved parking too. I find it rather diva-ish. When I started it, was survival of the fittest when you get to the truck stop. It just so happened that they, as well as many other mom and pops, adopted reserved parking around the time of the elog mandate. TA and Petro had begun doing well prior. I asked a lady at Pilot why all the locations went in that direction and she said drivers requested it. Some people just HAVE to do a break at a truck stop, much less one of those truck stops. Now I will be fair, there are rare times when it has been beneficial and it was close to a delivery, and I had no other options, but if I had the choice to get rid of it, overall I'd say yes, let it go.

 

Lol Im calling ######## unless you're one of those make a spot guys.

I can tell you right now I've had several runs where I end up parking in the early am and there isn't a single spot around, other than the reserved.

I DO trip plan, I know exactly where I want to park infact I can reserve two or three different spots at a time depending on what my weekly run looks like.

 

I’ve only been driving 23 years and I will pay for a spot any time it will make my life easier. I wish I had it all figured out like you do. If you have any pointers on where I can park for free and get a shower at 6pm in Phoenix I will welcome all suggestions.

 

OK don’t get me wrong, there’s been times when I’ve thought about it. But I do plan in this order when I get a trip. Number one is of course getting the load there on time. And the second highest criteria is where I’m gonna park. Lol and yes I can be quite creative. I use truckers path and also google earth. I find someplace. Some people would rather not bother with that much effort and just pay the 20 bucks for parking and I get it.
I just won’t do it. If I have to do driving that requires me to stop late, I’ve found many busy truck stops, lots of the old time drivers like to start driving about 3 AM in the morning. So if you can time it to arrive even at the busiest truckstop about 3 AM you almost always can find an open spot if not several. Worst case scenario you might have to sit at the end of the row and wait for someone to leave. If it’s a busy truck stop? Someone is almost always leaving.

stealth parking in shopping centers etc, usually works as well. Not always, but usually.

99% of the time I just look up when the truck stops are usually full by and try and time things to get in there and situated before their usual fill up time.

 

See, that’s the problem when you make general statements about how you do it. I’ve usually spent most of the day getting drops off in Tucson and Phoenix and my reload isn’t until the next day most of the time. By late afternoon I’m ready to park and I want a shower. I will make my reservation a day or two before and my life is easy and I don’t have to worry about parking. I won’t park at a shopping center and go to bed dirty or be forced to go to the bathroom in my truck. Different strokes for different folks.

 

All good and dandy except I don’t believe any truck driver who claims they never go to the bathroom in their truck. At least number one. The reason being as I’ve recently found out having to wake up 5 to 7 times per night to urinate is that it’s not a health problem it’s a sitting problem. See you when you sit upright all day and our stationary every bit of fluid that you drink collects in the lower half of your body. When you’re out moving around like a normal person urinate within an hour after ingesting fluids. When you’re a truck driver, guess what? That doesn’t happen. What happens is the fluids retain in the lower half of your body. You go to bed at night in your sleeper. And the water finally gets a chance to redistribute. Causing you to wake up multiple times per night to pee. I actually just asked my doctor about this because when I’m home I urinate once a night. When I’m out on the road I’m waking up every two hours to pee all night long. I’m like where the hell is all this fluid coming from.
Every truck driver uses a pee bottle, or? He gets a lot of late night walking in. Back-and-forth to the truckstop bathroom.

 

I believe they call that grand theft.

 

Yeah, I wish these people paying for my parking spot would be nice and go on down the road, what’s the old saying, “You’re not there til you’re there.”

We were first, we won!!!
You came in second, and you run and tell mommy on us.


It works both ways, depending on which side of the fence you’re on.

 

I was talking about you talking about eliminating paid parking, cuz you don't like to pay.
It's all good however you run yourself, I'm not paying as well, I plan my trips)

 

And there lies the rub . . .

Creative parking isn't always legal parking. What happens when you are asked to leave 7 hours into your break? Or you get booted and charged $350 to remove it?

Having my company pay $15 is a lot easier than finding a "hidey hole" and incurs much less risk to boot. The lots where guys can sneak into around Oak Creek, WI are starting to crack down on stealth parkers.

I am not a fan of paid parking, but it has its uses. I would never dream of using paid parking in IA or MO, but in West Virginia? Yeah, I'm going to reserve a spot ahead of time so I can knock out another 75 odd miles. Even if I were paying out of pocket, it still represents a net gain for me.