Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/748284
VOICES CHANNEL 19 4 | Overdrive | November 2016 Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. Have you noticed that all we tend to hear about around the parking shortage solutions relates not to getting more spaces but to delivering information about space availability? This is particularly true in crowd- ed lanes on the eastern seaboard, where the Truck 'N Park information demonstration is live at two sites in Maryland and Virginia. I was reminded of the quote above after news emerged from one of those states last month. According to a story from the Warrenton, Virginia-based Faquier Now news source, residents showed opposition to the Virgin- ia Department of Transportation trucks-only rest area project, which had planned to break ground this fall. In Overdrive's analysis published in December 2015, Virginia ranked 16th among states most in need of addi- tional parking capacity. The rest-area project planned for the westbound side of I-66 near Markham would be only 30 spaces, the fourth such area opened statewide in recent years. A Fairfax resident who had a home in the area collected more than 100 signatures against the project and presented them at a recent public meeting. The opposition cited truck noise, fumes and light pollution, as well as "irreparable environmental, scenic and wildlife damage," wrote Faquier Now reporter Don Del Rosso. Most objections had less to do over residents' health than that of wildlife in the area. And truckers' need for rest? VDOT determined after studying their own parking issues in the wake of Jason's Law that the I-66 corridor needed 500 additional spaces to satisfy the need for parking there. Del Rosso quoted Chris Marshall, owner of a 10-truck milk-hauling fl eet located in the area: "After midnight, there's trucks parked everywhere. There's not enough (rest area parking) for these trucks." Marshall called the meager 30 spaces "a good start." Here's hoping VDOT gets it off the ground. Join the discussion around parking via the Sept. 20 post to the Channel 19 blog. Parking trials and tribulations in Virginia At September's Guilty by Association Truck Show in Joplin, Missouri, I met Georgia-based Jay Holsomback, leased to Nashville-headquartered Fleet Movers Inc. The recession of 2009-10 derailed Holsomback's early plans for a full custom build-out of the working 1996 Kenworth W900L he bought in 2004 – "I almost lost everything," like a lot of people, he says. The lease to Fleet Movers and pickup in the economy led to an awesome result. The unit's got 3:55 rears and a 305-inch wheelbase, and it's powered by a 550-hp Cat with an 18-speed transmission. Scan the QR for a video run-through of the rig and Holsomback's one-truck business, or fi nd it in the Sept. 27 post on the blog. For more videos from Joplin, see the Sept. 30 and Oct. 6 and 14 posts, too. An oversized-hauling work of art Jay Holsomback hauls steel beams, often over-length, in this beauty of a Kenworth W900L. We all know that capacity is the biggest issue. — Marygrace Parker, Truck 'N Park project coordinator with the I-95 Corridor Coalition