Truck drivers need adequate truck parking in order to stay safe and comfortable while on long-haul trips across the country. However, it’s a well-known fact that truck parking is currently in limited supply. A recent NATSO (National Association of Truck Stop Operators) report has found that rest area parking areas reduce overall truck parking capacity by a large margin.
Right now, interstate highways that are invested in by the private sector offer nearly 70% more parking spaces for commercial trucks (per mile) than highways that feature public rest areas. The research by NATSO that came up with this stat looked at more than 12,000 miles of interstate in the U.S. and evaluated how the total capacity for highway truck parking matched with public commercial rest areas.
According to the report, commercial interstate segments feature one truck parking facility ever 12.8 miles while non-commercialized segments usually have one truck parking area every 8.4 miles.
What Do These Statistics Mean?
NATSO president and CEO Lisa Mullings states that these findings lead to only one conclusion: truck parking should be handled by the private sector. Many in the trucking industry believe that the issue of truck parking along the highway has gotten worse in recent years. They attribute this to the growing correlation between a reduction in truck parking capacity and public rest areas offering commercial parking.
Many who are pushing the commercialization of rest areas along the highway say that this will increase truck parking capacity; however, it’s easy to see in this study that this is not at all the case.
NATSO was founded in 1960 and represents the travel plaza and truckstop industry in the United States. For more information about truck parking capacity and the commercialization of interstate rest areas around the nation, see the NATSO study here.