President Biden announced his “Trucking Action Plan” in December as part of the administration’s $2 trillion infrastructure bill. The aim was to address supply chain bottlenecks and the truck driver shortage that has been plaguing the U.S. in recent months. But truckers, according to several recent reports, are worried about something else – parking.
The plan doesn’t mention any fix for a significant lack of available truck parking.
Illinois truck driver Merry Leach told federal highway officials in December that supply-chain woes can’t be solved “until drivers are able to utilize their whole 11-hour drive time driving, not driving around in circles, fighting for the next parking spot,” Business Insider reported.
A highway bill provision that would’ve provided nearly $1 billion in truck parking grants was removed. And parking was listed among the industry’s top five issues in a critical issues report from the American Transportation Research Institute this year.
“This is the 10th year that the lack of available truck parking has made the top 10 list of industry concerns, and among commercial drivers it has consistently ranked in their top three,” the report says.
Some drivers have spoken in news reports or online about parking illegally, in dangerous areas or spending hours circling places to find parking. The shortage is worst in the Northeast, Business Insider reported.
“Since most truck stops fill up between 4 pm and 6 pm, finding parking is a HUGE pain,” one Reddit user wrote. “Basically, there are way more trucks on the road now than there were 20 years ago and truck parking hasn’t changed to accommodate the new rigs.”
