Previously in this two-part feature: How drivers are crowdsourcing a solution to the truck parking crisis
"All of a sudden, under this infrastructure bill they got another parking bill. Y’all see any construction besides the highway? Has anybody seen any construction beside the highway?"
The question above was asked by Markcus Davis, a South Carolina-based independent owner-operator, at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's most recent listening session on broker regulations, at the Mid-America Trucking Show.
Not a single hand in the audience went up.
By some estimates, as noted in the previous part of this series, the search for a place to park costs operators on average about an hour each day and around $5,500 annually. And despite billions in funding from the 2021 infrastructure law meant to improve supply chains and roadway safety, every day many hardworking drivers simply won't find a place to park they'd call safe. Tech companies and apps offer technological solutions to the logistical nightmare of it all -- cameras/sensors monitoring parking spots, feeding data through applications and road signs advertising open spaces to operators. But does "two spots available 30 minutes away" sound helpful?
The truth is, there simply isn't enough truck parking in America. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association estimates there's just one parking spot for every 11 trucks on the road, and existing parking options are under attack. In 2021, the city of Minneapolis effectively banned truck parking, as did Macon in Georgia just this year. When one operator moved to Indian Trails, Florida, in part because he could afford the space to park his rig at home, the local government pulled the rug out under him and others, passing laws that would fine them $1,000 a day for it.
In Henry County, Georgia, armed officers told a driver he couldn't park his truck in his own driveway.
