Greg Winfree, JD, agency director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, reveals more about the studies already conducted into the acute shortage of truck parking in the USA, and explains why more must be done to address the problem
The Covid-19 crisis taught us many lessons, one of them being how vital moving goods by truck is to our daily lives. Second only to healthcare professionals, truckers became the heroes of the hour, owing to their vital role in linking manufacturers to store shelves via the global supply chain.
In its US Freight Transportation Forecast 2024 to 2035, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) stated that, in 2024, the trucking industry accounted for 72.7% of freight tonnage moved and 76.9% of freight revenue generated in the US. A year earlier, the ATA noted that “over the next decade, trucks will be tasked with moving 2.4 billion more tons of freight than they do today. That means more trucks and more drivers to meet consumer demand.”
To promote safety for US truck drivers and motorists, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates truckers’ hours behind the wheel. For longer hauls, that means parking their rigs to rest. Increasingly, demand for parking has exceeded supply, forcing drivers to park along offramps, city streets, and highway shoulders to meet FMCSA requirements. In its 2023 letter to all 50 state governors, the ATA noted that 98% of drivers “regularly experience difficulty finding safe parking,” up from 75% just four years earlier.
Greg Winfree
“On average, truckers spend nearly an hour a day… looking for parking”
Currently, the US faces a shortage of 60,000-80,000 drivers. Women cite the lack of safe parking as a major disincentive for helping close that gap. As for the impact on earnings, research by the ATA Institute discovered that, on average, truckers spend nearly an hour a day – the equivalent of a US$5,600 annual pay cut – looking for parking. And a global economy that relies on shared methods for moving goods means other countries are experiencing the same challenges. Drivers in England have even come to blows over trucks blocking access to goods and services by co-opting parking meant for motorists.
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) has spent more than a decade studying this issue. For example, we’ve designed a number of visualization tools like the Texas Truck Parking Visualization website created for the Texas Department of Transportation to help transportation planners understand truck parking demand trends.
However, H.R. 1659 – the Truck Safety Improvement Act aimed at addressing the parking problem – has languished in the US House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Highways and Transit for more than a year. Meanwhile, the public’s demand for overnight deliveries continues to grow. It’s time for our elected leaders to park their politics and deliver some solutions, for public safety and the long-term health of our economy.
