Trucker Path analysis shows reality of truck parking shortage

The shortage of available truck parking spots at public and private facilities along the National Highway System is expected to worsen as commercial vehicle traffic grows and thousands more drivers convert to electronic logging devices (ELDs) ahead of the Dec. 2017 enforcement deadline.

By accurately tracking compliance with hours-of-service rules, ELDs have made it critical for drivers to plan ahead and locate available truck parking at facilities for required 30-minute breaks and 10-hour off duty periods, among other daily activities.

More than 30 percent of all Class 8 drivers in the United States now have transparent access to truck parking availability by using the Trucker Path Pro mobile app to optimize their daily trip planning.

According to analysis by Trucker Path, creators of the trip-planning app, 12 percent of truck parking locations along the NHS are empty during peak hours on weekdays from 11 pm to 4 am, and 24 percent have empty spots, for a total of 36 percent availability.

Trucker Path Pro has more than 400,000 active users that provide in excess of 136,000 weekly updates on parking locations.

The company combines real-time updates from the crowdsourcing app with three years of historical data to predict availability at locations by day of week and time. The information has been verified as more than 90 percent accurate, it said in a press release.

“The data makes it incredibly clear that access to information is key to addressing the truck parking shortage,” says Ivan Tsybaev, founder of Trucker Path. “Our crowdsourcing technology obtains updates from multiple users at each location to verify parking status and deliver highly accurate, real-time trip planning tools to professional drivers.”

Trucker Path Pro also gives drivers ratings on truck stop locations along with turn-by-turn GPS navigation, fuel prices, and weigh station status (open or closed), among other tools.

The top-rated truck stop locations, based on 26,405 driver reviews received during the first quarter of 2016, are listed below. Each location had at least 10 reviews in this period and all had a perfect rating of 5 stars:

• Kent Kwik, Alamagordo, N.M. (US 54 and 82)
• Hixton Travel Plaza, Hixton, Wis. (I-94)
• Fred’s Fuel & Food, Gilman, Ill. (I-57 and US 24)
• Petro, Brazil, Ind. (I-70)
• Pilot, Lincoln, Ala. (I-20)
• Warren Travel Plaza, Warren, Ind. (I-69)
• Pilot, Austintown, Ohio (I-80 and I-680)
• Loves, Cumberland, Md. (I-68, US-40 and US-220)
• Busy Bee, Live Oak, Fla. (I-10 and US-129)

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Trucker Path Pro is available to company drivers and owner operators as a free download on iOS and Android devices. Trucker Path also offers a free optimized freight marketplace supported by a large community of freight companies and motor carriers. Freight companies and motor carriers can download Truckloads on their mobile devices and also access a web version at www.truckerpath.com.