According to figures published by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the number of large truck registrations in the United States rose by 27.6 percent between 2008 and 2016. The estimated vehicle miles traveled for those trucks increased 26.6 percent.
There are more trucks on the road today than ever, but truck parking capacity has been unable to keep pace, exacerbating an already bad situation.
The issue of safe truck parking was underscored on March 4, 2009, when 35-year-old trucker Jason Rivenburg arrived at a receiver facility ahead of schedule. Unable to enter the receiver’s facility early, he pulled over at an abandoned gas station just 12 miles from his destination near Columbia, S.C. Two days later, his body was found in the cab of his truck with two gunshot wounds to the head.
The incident sparked a national conversation around the scarcity of truck parking in the United States. In 2012, Jason’s Law was enacted with the signing of the MAP-21 transportation authorization bill. That language created new avenues for federal funding of public and private truck-parking initiatives. It also required a study of the availability of parking facilities within each state.
Truck parking has been near the top of the list of driver concerns in the American Transportation Research Institute’s Critical Issues Facing the Trucking Industry annual report that ranks issues affecting both commercial drivers and motor carriers. But ATRI’s 2018 report published last October indicates the truck parking problem isn’t just an issue for drivers anymore. For the first time in recent memory, truck parking was listed as a top concern for motor carrier respondents (No. 9 in 2018).
“I have long made the point that if the driver shortage is the No. 1 concern for carriers and driver retention is the No. 2 concern for carriers, then they best understand, appreciate and be working towards looking to identify solutions to the driver side of the [survey] where truck parking is the No. 2 concern,” said Rebecca Brewster, ATRI president and COO.
Making matters worse
