ATA Asks States for Truck Parking

The truck parking problem, how there are over ten trucks for every standard truck parking spot in the United States, is a gargantuan problem that will take numerous angles in order to solve. Besides the federal government and private enterprise, one such angle is state governments. The American Trucking Associations (ATA), with its members comprising 50 different state trucking associations, is hoping to put some heat on the governors of the union to provide more parking.

Details

In a nation where the Department of Transportation reports a majority of truckers either having to park illegally (breaking regulations) or drive beyond their hours-of-service time to find a spot (again, breaking regulations), the ATA has sent a strongly-worded letter to all fifty governors in the union.

“Truck drivers are the backbone of our society and our economy. Without them, the daily conveniences we take for granted—from fresh water to fuel to the literal roofs over our heads—would not exist,” the letter said.

“We urge you to examine the availability of truck parking within your state and take such actions as are necessary to ensure that truck drivers have a safe place to sleep when they are out on the road delivering more than 70% of America’s freight. We hope you will use the aforementioned resources, as well as other non-Federal resources, to prioritize and address this serious safety problem.”

Most importantly, the letter provided a means by which to accomplish more truck parking space, pointing to an announcement by the Treasury that state governments with unspent Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds are allowed to use some of the money on infrastructure reinvestment.

Conclusion

Indeed, some states have already taken some action in improving their infrastructure in regards to truck parking, such as Indiana revamping a welcome center to increase the number of parking spaces from 40 to 225.

With approximately 3 million tractor-trailer combinations working in the United States, the nation will need approximately 27,000 more spots in order to decrease the ratio of trucks to parking spaces to below double digits. Having this resolved is not only an important issue for safety, but will also allow drivers to spend less time having to look for a spot, and with the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating the average truck driver wage to be $31 per hour, that is a lot of lost commerce, and by extension state tax revenue, lost.

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