Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/989498
June 2018 | Overdrive | 31 drive time boosted. Owner-operator Rico Muhammad hauls reefer freight between his two- truck fleet's home in the Atlanta area and North Carolina. At truck stops along the I-85 corridor at night, "it's a real corn maze to work your way through the lots," he says. At rest areas along the route, "I'm seeing overflow on both the entrance and exit sides," Muhammad says, with truckers parked on ramps. "I can only imagine that for the guys who don't have a regular route, it's really getting rough." Rigid application of the hours of ser- vice rule under the ELD mandate only compounds the pressure on parking, especially on heavily trafficked corridors and around metro areas. With truckers subject to the 10-hour off-duty period and the majority of them running days, that means parking spaces are occupied longer around sunset and daybreak. Nearly seven in 10 Overdrive readers reported that as the principal feature of the post-ELD mandate's parking reality. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials did not respond to a request for comment on whether this development was foreseen by regula- tors as a potential consequence of the e-log shift. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance asked its state enforcement members whether officers had seen changes in parking availability with truckers' adjustment to ELDs. Sgt. Walter Newton of Delaware's truck enforcement unit noted there's been no increase in the frequency of drivers stopping to ask for long-term parking at two weigh stations along I-95, a practice typically not allowed. What has changed, though, is increased awareness of the parking issue among drivers and enforcement personnel, Newton says. At the top, the Federal Highway Administration recently announced intentions to conduct another survey about parking needs as part of its compliance with the Jason's Law provi- sions in the 2012 MAP-21 highway bill. Newton says Delaware has large park- ing facilities – a rest area and a truck stop – downstream from their scale loca- tions where drivers can go. Even those facilities can fill up at peak times. The widely-used Trucker Path app allows users to report parking availabil- ity ("Lots of spots," "Some spots" and "Lot full") at most any facility around the nation. At Overdrive's request, Sam Bokher, business operations director for Trucker Path, analyzed driver reports from March and April of 2017, compar- ing them to the same months this year, after the ELD mandate came into play. "There isn't much difference between 2017 and 2018" in the driver-report data, Bokher says. But when he analyzed the number of searches for parking information from within the app, it told a different story, one that's of a piece with Newton's contention that the real change is in awareness of parking issues. Increased operational planning around parking, too, seems to be a reality. While Trucker Path's user base increased just 20 percent over the time period analyzed, parking-info look-ups as drivers planned stops had nearly doubled, with a very steep curve upward in search numbers between 3 and 8 p.m. ET. Owner-operator Tilden Curl, who specializes in step deck freight along the congested I-5 corridor between his Washington State home and Northern California, has seen the peak extension phenomenon firsthand. Before the man- date, he says, "things were really starting to get pretty full at rest areas and other places" by 8 or 9 p.m. Now "you have to plan your schedule to be parked by six in the evening." Of TA/Petro's 47,021 spaces nation- wide, about 5,600 are reservation-only. The company's current reservation program began in 2012 after years of meetings with drivers, says Liutkus. The program's grown recently due to "hours of service, combined with ELDs," as well as a "general increase in our busi- ness," he says. On busy corridors, such as I-95 up the East Coast, half of the parking spaces at How has parking availability changed on your routes since the ELD mandate came into play? Lots are full or very close to full earlier in the evening and/or later in the morning 64% Parking has gotten more difficult, generally 18% I've resorted to using paid parking reservations 4% It's about the same as before Dec. 18 6% I run nights, so longer-term parking isn't usually a problem 4% Spaces seem more available on my lanes 1% Other 3% Few readers are using paid parking reservations as a solution to the growing parking problem. This hotshot car hauler was parked on an I-40 rest area's ramp shoulder in middle Tennessee around 9 a.m. Other truckers also occupied ramp areas as central parking places remained nearly full. Many truck- ers say peak parking times have broadened since the ELD mandate went into effect. Todd Dills