Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey - Report of Findings
Audio files require the Windows Media Player.
Nicole Coene
Good afternoon or good morning to those of you in the West. Welcome to the Talking Freight Seminar Series. My name is Nicole Coene and I will moderate today's seminar. Today's topic is Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey - Report on Findings.
Before I go any further, I do want to let those of you who are calling into the teleconference for the audio know that you need to mute your computer speakers or else you will be hearing your audio over the computer as well.
Today we'll have three presentations, given by:
Nicole Katsikides is currently the Freight Performance Program Manager for the Federal Highway Administration managing efforts to study freight performance, grow the practice of freight performance measurement and develop new data and tools.
Prior to FHWA, Nicole was the Director of the Maryland Department of Transportation Office of Freight overseeing multimodal freight policy, planning, and performance and the operations of the state-owned Short Line railroad
Nicole has also served as a rail and freight planner at MDOT, a regional representative for planning and economic development for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and as a logistics manager in aircraft production for the U.S. Air Force.
Nicole has an M.A. from Johns Hopkins in policy studies, several certificates and continuing education hours in logistics, railroad engineering, and community planning and is "all but dissertation" for a Ph.D. from University of Maryland, Baltimore County in public policy with a concentration on urban policy and planning.
Mr. Christopher McKenney is an Engineering Research Technician for the System Information and Research Division at the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD). He is also an adjunct instructor for the Department of Construction Management & Civil and Construction Engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where he received both his Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Construction Management. His master's thesis was an AHTD Research project, evaluating the cost/benefit of incentives paid for ACHM properties, which lead to a modification of standard procedures at AHTD. His research interests include sustainable materials, concrete materials, winter weather mitigation, and product evaluation.
Scott Grenerth is the Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Owner Operator Independent Drivers association. He is responsible for advocating for truckers by reviewing regulations which affect the industry and working with regulatory agencies. Scott was an over-the-road truck driver for 13 years before joining OOIDA. Scott is also a member of the Trucking Solutions Group and Truckers United for Charities.
Today's seminar will last 90 minutes, with 60 minutes allocated for the speakers, and the final 30 minutes for audience Question and Answer. If during the presentations you think of a question, you can type it into the chat area. Please make sure you send your question to "Everyone" and indicate which presenter your question is for. Presenters will be unable to answer your questions during their presentations, but I will start off the question and answer session with the questions typed into the chat box. If time allows, we will open up the phone lines for questions as well. If we run out of time and are unable to address all questions we will attempt to get written responses from the presenters to the unanswered questions.
The PowerPoint presentations used during the seminar are available for download from the file download box in the lower right corner of your screen. The presentations will also be available online within the next few weeks, along with a recording and a transcript. I will notify all attendees once these materials are posted online.
Talking Freight seminars are eligible for 1.5 certification maintenance credits for AICP members. In order to obtain credit for today's seminar, you must have logged in with your first and last name or if you are attending with a group of people you must type your first and last name into the chat box. I have included more detailed instructions in the file share box on how to obtain your credits after the seminar.
For those of you, who are not AICP members but would like to receive PDH credits for this webinar, please note that FHWA does not formally offer PDHs, however, it may be possible to receive PDHs for your participation in Talking Freight if you are able to self-certify. To possibly receive PDHs, please download the agenda from the file download box and submit this agenda to your respective licensing agency.
Finally, I encourage everyone to please also download the evaluation form from the file share box and submit this form to me after you have filled it out.
I'm now going to turn it over to Nicole Katsikides of FHWA to get started.
Nicole Katsikides
Thank you Nicole and Good Afternoon everyone. I am very happy to be here today to talk about the results of the Jason's Law Truck National Survey and Assessment. In MAP-21 we were required to do three of the following: (1) evaluate the capability of each State to provide adequate parking and rest facilities for commercial motor vehicles engaged in interstate transportation, (2) assess the volume of commercial motor vehicle traffic in each state, and (3) develop a system of metrics to measure the adequacy of commercial motor vehicle parking facilities in each State. There are a lot of other things that we are looking to do and planning to do and I will talk about that. For the purpose of this, we limited it to those three things.
The key findings that we found in the Jason's Law were that most states reported having a problem with truck parking. Not all states reported this but this is what they found, about 72% of the states did. We found that the greatest shortages for truck parking were experienced on weeknights. However, we found shortages at all hours, all days, and all months. While there was a pattern of heavier weeknight usage, there are shortages occurring in facilities at all times. We also found that capacity issues are present even in areas with high numbers of spaces relative to truck activity. Even in states where we counted the number of spaces and then we put them in a ratio in relation to GDP or miles or the National Highway System or VMT, we found that even in those places with high levels of parking were still causing shortages. We found that shortages are most pronounced along major trade corridors and near major freight hubs. This is a natural finding and it is something we presumed, but we were definitely validated. Despite the lowest ratio of truck parking to track activity, we found that there were significant problems in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regions. In that whole I-95 corridor leading to Port of New York there are definitely a lot of shortages.
To do the survey, I want to mention that we surveyed states through the help of AASHTO and we worked with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) to reach the state motor carrier safety personnel. We also did a survey with the help of the OOIDA and ATA truckers and logistics staff as well as the NATSO Truck Stop Owners and Operators. All of these stakeholders helped us to understand the truck parking capacity issues and needs. The results that you see in the survey if you take a look at the report highlighting the types of things we learned about state capacity but they are supplemented with the surveys we received from truckers and truck stop owners and operators and safety personnel so that we could really understand the truck parking issues. This slide is an example of the truck volumes on the National Highway System. If you recall back to Jason's Law requirements, this is the second requirement where we had to understand the truck volume in each state.
We used our Highway Performance Monitoring System data in order to derive the truck traffic data and then we mapped it as you see here showing where the highest volumes were. For the purpose of the report we mapped for each state the facilities and tried to indicate the number of spaces for each facility and whether it was public or private and we provided that in the report as well as that information as a shape-file and you can download that information from the Jason's Law website. This map is a map that shows the volume of truck activity in relations to the number of spaces. This gets to how we found that the highest number where you had a lot of activity correspond to the freight routes that we are familiar with and then the spaces where you had a lot of shortages definitely aligned where there is a lot of activity. If you look at the Jason's Law report, there are numerous maps in it that definitely provide different lenses of the truck parking capacity problem.
This slide is based off of the State Report. If you recall 72% of states reported a truck parking issue, this map shows you the problem. The states in light green are the states that did not have or observed truck parking shortages. One of the challenges we found with Jason's Law and we get a lot of questions about this too as to why didn't we get this information and so forth. We really found a varying degree of levels of data that each state has. Some states have very sophisticated truck parking counting programs and they understand a lot about the parking capacity in their state. Some states only have the number of facilities and the number of spaces that each facility. What we initially set out to do for Jason's Law, we wanted to understand the number of facilities and spaces, the utilization and issues, capacity constraints, needs for the future so we asked states a number of questions about parking. At the end of the day, we found these states had good data on the number of facilities and the type of facilities public or private, and the number of spaces. In order to evaluate nationally, a little more than that was available to evaluate the states. As we move forward, we would like to work with states and other stakeholders to try to understand ways in which we can develop better data. I will talk more about that shortly. The third thing that Jason's Law required was to develop a system of metrics. I just mentioned that we had a lot of challenges getting consistent data nationally from each state and there is varying degrees of data that each state keeps. We were charged to work with stakeholders to develop the types of metrics that could best help to understand the truck parking challenges.
The stakeholders sat down with us and we held a workshop and we developed a system that we could apply both publicly and privately to understand the needs of parking. The key things that came out of this is that stakeholders felt that we needed to measure truck parking through the lenses of eight different categories and they are listed on this slide. They include parking demand, parking supply, economic valuation, safety, driver demographics, location, environment, and development. Those eight categories really needed major metrics that we identified. If you want to boil them down, we felt like we could boil them down to supply and demand. To be comprehensive, these eight categories were necessary and we set out to develop the metrics we would need in order to get a better picture of truck parking.
Based on the work we did with Jason's Law, we realized that there is currently a lack of data to fulfill all of those eight categories. We tried to think about the data on hand and available, and what we can do that tells the story is to try to build it out. We went to Tier 1 metrics, and the idea is that this can be used today to understand some level of truck parking capacity challenges throughout the nation. As you get towards Tier 2 and Tier 3, looking at the truck activity in relation to this you can apply indicators as we did hear. Looking at the numbers as a ratio to the mileage of the NHS or in relation to vehicle miles traveled or by GDP, we recommend these three because it helped us get a sense of activity.
At a minimum level this helps us do what we did in Jason's Law and identify where the capacity challenges were. There are numerous maps and charts in the report that you can download which gives you some information about what we found. Tier 2 metrics additional data needed, these metrics we can do most of these today. We were not able to accomplish them for the Jason's Law survey. We found that by looking at these additional categories, we need to do a little more data collection. This is where not every state has this information and not every stakeholder was able to provide it. This is where we need to do more driver surveys, more work looking at State DOTs and police records, and more synchronization of safety types of records. This is where we really need to do some additional work in trying to get more data and much further efforts. Tier 3 metrics, these metrics are the ones that we need to put in some work to do. We may not have data or we may not have approaches to collect them, but they definitely get at the broader categories that we identified. This is where we need a lot more coordination with the private sector because we are getting into a lot more information about origins and destinations, business locations, and more into the planning and zoning for those types of reports and things.
Right now there is not a consistent data set for this and maybe even the approach for measurement isn't there. Certainly, we want to try to get to Tier 3, and if we can as a group of stakeholders then we can paint the picture better for what is happening with truck parking. A couple of concluding remarks that we found and then what we will do next: We found that truck parking was a capacity problem in all states though state of awareness varies significantly. We saw that 72% of states reported truck parking problems, but we heard from truck drivers, logistics staff, and even truck stop owners and operators that truck parking is a problem in every state. We also found out that consistent measurement is important to provide data to understand dynamic truck parking needs and whether the situation is improving or not. We tried to get a little more at the dynamic of the truck parking needs, but certainly continuing to measure the problem. We found that truck parking analysis is an important component of State and MPO Freight Plans as well as regional and corridor based freight analyses. We encourage States and MPOs to include truck parking in any freight plan or regional or corridor plan. We will continue to provide some best practices to State and MPO partners with this.
Public and private sector stakeholder coordination is critical to address long-term truck parking needs. We cannot do this alone as the public sector, we need to partner with truckers and truck stop owners and operators and logistic personnel to understand what the needs are and try to get a handle on those needs. It requires the public sector to be with us at the table as we are trying to figure this out and identify with those challenges are and then put them into State and MPO Freight Plans so we can line up the types of capital and operational investment or policies that are necessary. Some recommended next steps that we identified at the Federal level: If you haven't heard already, we are kicking off a National Coalition for Truck Parking on November 10, 2015. This event will be held and bring together stakeholders here in Washington D.C to talk through what we heard from Jason's Law, where we need to go, what needs to happen in the various regions of the country in order to address truck parking, and then we will go from the kickoff meeting to a series of regional meetings throughout the nation where we will bring together stakeholders on a regional level and talk through how we can identify some solutions and what solutions we can work on together. We are very excited about this National Coalition for Truck Parking and look forward to everyone's participation. That goes with our development with new approaches and data to support advanced measurement.
We want to continue to work with the MPO's, State highway agencies, and private sector stakeholders and make sure that everyone is aware of opportunities to advance projects and the eligibility of these projects under the Federal-Aid Highway Program and any other funding program that we can identify. We want to continue to support ITS-based solutions that improve truck driver's awareness of parking availability; there are some examples out there. We need to investigate P-3 approaches that involved private sector partners in the development of truck parking investments. There was a lot of discussion that we heard during the development of Jason's Law work. We want to explore this opportunity and see how we can support that taking place throughout the nation. The next slide shows the recommended steps for State and Region which include: beginning to coordinate with other public sector and private sector stakeholders to identify those short-term emerging and long-term solutions. I think that our regional discussions under the Coalition will help us get there, but we want to continue to work with States and MPO's to keep that occurring. One of the things we heard through Jason's Law Survey was that truck parking is not limited to any jurisdictional boundaries.
We need to look at it in a much broader regional way and identify truck parking needs for different industries and commodities. It is very dynamic. We also need to expand the dialogue at the corridor level. Get to Tier 2 and Tier is very critical. We need to improve data collection and analysis. We need to update plans and investment programs to include truck parking solutions but for facilities and technology for truck parking information services. We need to work with States and local law enforcement to educate and train them about the improved use of safe and available spaces. The information I talked about today is available on the Federal Highway website. The easiest thing to do is Google FHWA Jason's Law. The report is listed and you can download the maps for each state and you can get the shape file. It will give you the attribute table for and those of you who are GIS savvy it will give you the location of the facility whether it is public or private and the number of spaces. That information you can use as a layer when you are doing any other kind of GIS analytical work. The private data we got from a private data source and as we look to renew Jason's Law and do the survey again, we would look to figure out ways we can get the public and private data and renew it as we go into the future. That is available for you. I am happy to answer any questions or provide any information you may need as you work toward your needs. Thank you.
Nicole Coene
Thank you, Nicole. We will now move on to Chris McKenney from the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department.
Chris McKenney
Thank you, Nicole and thank you for inviting me to be a part of the seminar. As a researcher you can dedicate months and years before seeing any tangible results which may or may not support early theories for research projects. So being invited to present what AHTD has been tracking is a great complement because it confirms the diligence of our people and being recognized by organizations of what we do. For other DOTs who are looking for guidance in starting their Truck Parking Survey, it is a simple quantitative research process. Excel spreadsheets were created for each route, which documents number of trucks, number of spaces available, and location. I have a template available for anybody who would like a template of putting your own survey together. To expand on the space availability means if designated spaces are not marked for truck parking, most lots tend to be open parking so determining an estimated maximum amount of parking is calculated by the area of a truck divided by into a measured lot size using something like Google Maps. It is not an exact science but it gives us an idea of recommended maximum amount for trucks for that area. A precursor to an AHTD survey was a NCHRP Synthesis stating, Arkansas was one of the states that had sufficient levels at .99 or 99% with respect to demand and supply ratio along state corridors and NHS routes carrying more than 1000 trucks per day.
From our data that we have collect since 2006, it is starting to show more of a deficiency. In 2006, a Federal grant was available for truck parking facilities through SAFETEA-LU so our research section decided to show how Arkansas had a deficiency in parking through an overnight truck parking survey while addressing direct competition with businesses. I will get into that later. Although we were not awarded a Federal grant, we continue to collect the data on an annual basis for our Transportation Planning and Policy Division. In 2007, it was a monumental year because Arkansas Law 997 was voted into legislation stating trucks are prohibited from parking on shoulders and ramps along Arkansas Highway System. At first I thought it was more of a safety issue, but is also a structural issue. Typically shoulders are not designed as full depth pavements. The continuous stress that large trucks placed on this pavement can trigger pavement distress costing money and time. How we conduct our survey is basic. We start at 10 PM along an Arkansas border in teams of 2 to 3 people and would drive designated routes. As you can see from our map, we had between five and six roots. These teams will drive the designated routes until they meet at our central office in Little Rock by 6 AM. They will stop at each exit to count the trucks and spaces. There's no discrimination of trucks that are parking with hazard lights or the ones that use the reflective triangles behind their truck to provide advance warning. The map I had showed the legal and illegal parking where we do the counts.
Our research supports other divisions within our highway department such as Transportation Planning and Policy. We continue to collect the overnight truck parking information that is utilized for freight planning and safety areas along Arkansas interstates. The truck parking information has been helping them determine route choices and allowing out Department to correlate state information with the National freight flow information. On the safety side, the Transportation Policy Division also uses the information to identify interchanges with higher truck activities. From that they developed safety projects to address the needs such as longer acceleration lanes, or on-ramps or wider turning radiuses at the intersections. Since working on this research study, I have become more aware of the drivers behavior as it relates to parking. I also understand the reason why drivers may supersede safety when it comes to parking and after learning the history of Jason's Law, I hope a common ground can be found because the trucking industry in the US relies heavily on each other.
When the highway department first applied for a grant to create gravel lots for drivers, there were two questions that need to be addressed as we conducted the survey. One, would we be in direct competition with the full-service truck stops? Two, are truck stops and travel centers supplying all of the driver's needs? From our annual surveys, one can see the highway department can possibly provide safer areas rather than parking on shoulders, ramps or other unsafe areas. Through driver's surveys, some have stated they tend to stay away from the truck stops and travel centers because there's a problem with prostitution and someone is knocking on the camp door while they are sleep. Some have stated they don't want to pay fees where it may be required in some areas. Many drivers tend to park in areas not as safe where they achieve their full rest. Where we counted the most important metric is the basis of our survey. An interesting question was asked about driver behavior. There were instances where we would see a truck parked and wonder why a driver would park illegally in these areas and in an unsafe manner to other drivers along the interstate when there is a truck stop very close by or huge parking lot at a big box store. Fortunately, in Arkansas Walmart allows truck drivers to park overnight at some of their stores.
Once a year, a date is set for the survey to be conducted which requires support from other sections within our division. Once completed the numbers are submitted into a spreadsheet along with comments that were noted. The data is made available for the other section divisions at the highway department. Now that we have all of the data, what do we want to see? One of the slides display our annual survey averages for Arkansas interstates showing adequate truck parking in 2006, but as the US was going through its recession, we were counting fewer trucks and more spaces than in 2010 when the economy began to turn around. We started to see an inverse in 2012 meaning there were more trucks and spaces and possibly more illegal parking. A couple of the other slide graphs were breaking down the estimated space availability and the truck occupancy. They were showing and confirming what was on the overall average slides showing that the increase of trucks and the decrease of spaces.
As I was saying, in the upper left-hand corner, the annual averages for Arkansas interstates are shown in 2006. We started counting fewer trucks and more spaces. In 2010, we started turning around and the number of trucks increased while the spaces started decreasing. In 2012, you see the inverse where we have more trucks than we do spaces which means overpopulation. The other two sides are just the separated spaces available and the truck occupancy. From this slide, you can see that Arkansas has about 13 parking areas with more than 100 spaces. The right-hand part of the screen you see the annual counts from our survey showing the number of available space and number of trucks as well as the percent change from year to year. In 2010 we started to see a spike in trucks and spaces. Through sequential years, available spaces decreased as the number of trucks increased. This is more supplementary research that was conducted for a TRB paper submission in 2014. The objective was to show a correlation between the business patterns along I-30 and I-40 corridors and the trucking industry. It is those available facilities such as travel centers and rest stops which provide spaces for overnight parking. Some counties had overall gains in available businesses. The overall annual total show nuances for the I-30 and I-40 corridors. When I address the percent changes in the number of trucks and parking spaces that show a slight difference between 2010 and 2013. When you look at these numbers and it would seem to support a theory that with decreased businesses along corridors it would indirectly affect the available and legal truck parking. This was more supplementary research included in the annual unemployment rate along with both corridors for the counties using the National Census. It is our understanding that these numbers would correlate with business patterns and the local economy as businesses are temporarily or permanently close the impact has affected the trucking industry. As the trucking industry decreased their fleets during the recession, it means higher prices for businesses and consumers, which may have led to business closings. Fortunately the US has started coming out of this recession. It now presents a new problem. The trucking industry has increased its fleets again, which is great for the economy, but it tends to suffer because we lack that truck parking we had back in 2006 and because of those businesses that are no longer available along the interstate. Some of the conclusions we have are pretty simple and as I tell my students planning is usually 80% common sense, 10% effort, and 10% education. Truck parking has become scarcer and the need for safe truck parking has increased. Truck parking has become scarcer as much as ADTH and other DOT's who want to do more and they find themselves in the same predicament as funding is an issue at the moment. We read about it talk about it and discuss it every day, so my last point is something I was actually told in the Air Force. Fail to plan, plan to fail. From one day to the next, the economy can change at any time on any level and what was there yesterday may be gone tomorrow. Accomplishing just a little research can keep a trip from being derailed my hope is that the trucking industry pushes safety first, not just by posting signs and emails but through education about how planning and time management is so important. I appreciate you letting me be a part of this presentation and I will hand it back over to Nicole.
Nicole Coene
Thank you, Chris, We will now move on to Scott Grenerth of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
Scott Grenerth
I will start off by saying thank you to FHWA for providing me with the opportunity to speak here from someone who was a truck driver for over 13 years. I now see since there is no truck parking problem in Hawaii, I need to fill out my application when this is over and know where to go. I want to look at this issue as the Director of Regulatory Affairs. One of the issues is and it is something that Chris said at the end is the planning. It has gotten harder for drivers to be able to plan because of all the factors. They must have 10 hour break, there must be a 30 minute break in the day, and even if they want to get a restart or reset on their hours for the week, so they don't have to every single day micromanage their hours, and getting a 34-hour break would be necessary to do this. All of these breaks have to be taken no matter where the driver is. If they are out in a rural area where there is less of an issue with parking or if they are trying to get into an urban area to make a delivery or to pick up a load, they are not really in control of these factors. This can include the fact of getting a delay. Unplanned, unexpected things do happen.
You can have the issue where the driver can't make someone load their truck faster. They tend to look at the truck as something that is an extension of their warehouse. I mean that literally. They consider we have a truck here, as long as we get it loaded on our schedule that is fine. That can be dramatically different from what the truck driver was told of when everything should be expected to be loaded. Even if they do detain a driver, for a shipper or receiver facility, that still doesn't mean they will have any sympathy for the driver when they are done with causing the delay. You would be denied parking so you have to get off the facility even though we are the ones that held you here for four hours when you should have been in and out within half an hour. With those limited hours to drive, the driver must find a place to park as quickly as possible or they will end up in a situation where you think why in the world are they parking there? It is the reality that is dealt to them. They must take a break. Furthermore, you only have 10 hours to drive in and it must be done in a 14 hour timeframe. Getting as close as possible to the shipper and receiver is crucial. They can't just go ahead and park where ever they would like to park. The end result of all of this is parking in unsafe situations.
It's almost always because they didn't choose to be there. Even if the worst-case scenario is happening, this is incredibly stressful for the driver. There are some areas of the country where this is worse and some are better. It can vary within the niches of the trucking industry. Within the trucking industry you have private fleets, people who are out there with day cabs, you have people who have sleeper berth trucks and something I shouldn't gloss over, sometimes I hear people say the drivers are staying in a hotel right? No. That sleeper berth in the truck is there to save them the cost of staying in a hotel. You never know where you are and will end up. There can be exceptions, but that is generally the case for people who are over the road drivers. That doesn't mean necessarily ocean to ocean. That can be within a region. Some states like Texas are huge. There's definitely a lack of spaces out there and also as the Nicole mentioned it can be an issue with lack of information. That could be part of the solution as well. Chris mentioned that through the recession, there definitely was an impact. There were a lot of independent truck stops that went out of business. The corridor I used to run along I-75 in Ohio going towards Nashville, Tennessee had a lot of places go out of business.
Someone mentioned on the chat asking about where do some of these big-box stores exist that allow you to park. I am not exaggerating at all. One side of the street you could have big-box store parking lot that would not have a problem and welcome you and the other side of the street you could get turned away almost immediately. Word-of-mouth can let people know, but can you always trust that? No. That gets added into the mix. Instead there are some states and regions where the trends are little more friendly to truck drivers and others where good luck with trying to find a place. Let's take a look at how important the hour availability is for the driver. I'm using a real example from when I drove. This was only a year and a half ago that I came off the road. I went to Nashville all of the time. When you look at this map, we have a blue arrow pointing to a truck stop in downtown Nashville. It's a good location and a good place. Now where this green arrow is pointing is another truck stop. It's a good and safe place that you can park at. Those two places are only 15 miles apart, and even the one where I have the arrow near, it is relatively kind of close into town. Those other red dots on the map are the other truck stops. Some of them have only 30 spaces which are not very useful in the big scheme of things. This one right here is just north of downtown and is like that. Not a lot of capacity near downtown Nashville or even close.
That 15 mile trip can make a difference because I looked it up yesterday, the amount of time to get from those two points I've marked was going over 45 minutes. The difference if you can park close to your shipper and receiver can be dramatic when you go back to considering our hours of service issue. You need to be closer to where you are going to be delivering or picking up or else you have that clock running against you because of the hours of service that Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulates in past years has only become more and more restrictive. That is a huge issue for drivers. When we look at parking, not only on the state level or regional level, we need to consider drivers more than ever have to be where they are going. Being clear out here or beyond at a truck stop that might have parking available later into the evening before it fills up, it might seem like a it is available, but again, from there into downtown Nashville in the morning when your hours are available to drive again, that can be where they are wasting a tremendous amount of time. Moving on to solutions, we need to do something different. We have gone through talking about the same thing over and over again. We would all love a full-service truck stop available everywhere, but parking, just safe parking period, has to be the priority and finding places where that can happen. Whether it's an industrial park that is already zoned and where people are already used to commercial vehicles that would be great.
Whatever this might take the shape of we have to get beyond what we have tried over and over and not been able to accomplish and help. In the state where I live, in Missouri, there are great examples of if you go about 8 miles east of here. There is an old scale house that the state of Missouri decommissioned. They removed all of the buildings on the site and they just went ahead and left the pavement and made truck parking spaces for 15 to 20 trucks on each side of the interstate to park there. It was something that already existed. The pavement was able to handle it, and they opened it up to truck drivers. If that's all that is all that is available, it gets you very close to Kansas City for someone who is trying to deliver in the morning. I moved here from Ohio, they had the same opportunity there and I talked to the people in the state capital and they did not listen. They had the space for it. The pavement was already there and exit ramps as well. They said we can't do it and gave excuses. They had the exact same situation with an old scale house, but they didn't want to do it and they went ahead and put some dirt over it and let grass grow.
There's my contact information for you. I am glad to be a resource. I know there are a lot of people who will listen to the call. If you have questions about in your area that you would like to find out or how you can help drivers out, please we are here to be a resource and want to be part of the solution. Thank you.
Nicole Coene
Thank you, Scott. I'd now like to start off the Q&A session with the questions posted online. A lot have been answered already, but one question is directed for you Chris. Is there a report that goes along with the spreadsheet of data that everybody is asking for?
Chris McKenney
I do have the TRB submission paper that myself and Alan Meadors had written. It's still kind of a rough draft and we are working on it, but I can email that out to anybody who would like it. Just drop me an email. The other one was the NCHRP Synthesis 317 the truck parking demands which basically kicked off a lot of what we do.
Nicole Coene
There is another question that a number of our listeners have asked as well. Some larger communities are now requiring or promoting off peak delivery windows. Do off peak delivery requirements somehow alter the truck parking equation? Or does that affect mostly local delivery vehicles? I will open it up for all of our speakers to answer.
Scott Grenerth
It can help with as far as being able to get in and out when traffic is minimal. Drivers would love to do that especially in the larger Metro areas. The problem is then okay you are done with the delivery, where do you go to go back to get some sleep? If you have been able to get your hours to work out that way and you continue to drive, is not such a problem. But If it is 1 AM, and you are trying to find a parking space anywhere near Nashville, including a ways outside of Nashville, good luck. That is the one issue we still have left with the parking problem in this situation.
Chip Millard
I have a question that is a follow-up to that. From what you're describing, in a situation where you have off peak deliveries it would be excellent. One of the challenges is that it is only certain businesses that allow off-peak deliveries and you still have other deliveries to make, that creates an issue because you still need to make the deliveries in the same general area and they may not allow overnight deliveries. That's a different issue than the parking, but that is an additional issue. You still have to make the deliveries for other businesses.
Scott Grenerth
That's accurate. It depends on what segment of the industry you are in. If you are doing LTL (less than trailer load) and you have two pallets going one place and three pallets going to another place that is when you would have a scenario like the one you referred to there. That is accurate. The majority you see going down the road have an entire load going to one place or they are going to pick up an entire load at one place so for the majority of people it is simply you're going in and making a delivery or picking up, and you may not know about your next stop. Because of how often people get delayed in their deliveries that are beyond their control, it is hard to say if you will deliver at 1 AM, you're guaranteed to get unloaded promptly. You might end up having to leave there right at rush hour even though you arrived at 1 in the morning. That is one other scenario.
Chip Millard
It sounds like one of the other things that may be an issue is that if you do have a truckload shipment and you can't make an overnight delivery at that location, and you still need to find parking, probably if it is overnight situation a lot of those spots are taken because of drivers that are not making deliveries overnight. Is that also an issue?
Scott Grenerth
Yes. If you go looking for a parking spot near Nashville by 5 PM, good luck. From there on, you will be lucky if you find a spot. By 6 PM, 6:30 PM, you better be way out of the outskirts if you're hoping to get a spot. Cincinnati Ohio, by 5 PM it is all filled up. 1 AM, 2 AM, forget about it. You will probably have to wait until maybe 3 AM to 4 AM when the early birds start to leave.
Nicole Coene
Thank you, Scott. One source of opposition to establishing new open-access truck parking facilities may be that they "count" in EPA's inventory of sources of mobile sources air emissions (MOVES). Were these facilities outfitted with idle reduction equipment (e.g., Shorepower low-profile units that power onboard equipment), they might qualify for a lower impact. Also, including "Truck Stop Electrification" equipment in the proposed design of facilities could improve local acceptance. Scott, OOs are some of the biggest fans of TSE; what do you think of the future of this technology?
Scott Grenerth
They could definitely make use of it. The problem is that you never know where you will end up at, so certainly people have to be able to idle and stay comfortable, they still have to be able to do that somehow. I think we need to look for having as many options available as possible. That will help in some areas where there is a concern of particular matter in the air. The new trucks today in Houston and LA, they can put out cleaner air than what is being breathed in because of the treatment that has been going on within the exhaust system. It can be an issue even though it's becoming less with the particulate matter. Any approach that will work will help in some areas.
Nicole Coene
What is the difference in truck parking availability in the Metropolitan/Urban areas versus the nonurban areas?
Nicole Katsikides
I think we found more shortages around metropolitan areas. There were definitely problems identified especially in rural areas. I think this might be a discussion from more of a regional nature to try to get into the metropolitan areas where there is freight activity and how to treat it. We did hear some stories from drivers who are getting freight from more rural areas whether it's fuel or some sort of agriculture product and they need parking too and there is a scarcity of places to park. It definitely requires a regional discussion. Were really hoping the National Coalition focus on nationally but also help drive those regional discussions as well.
Nicole Coene
How can communities be incentivized to accept truck parking sites since they control zoning and typically don't want this type of development?
Chris McKenney
I know for myself, when I'm going to work in the morning at like 5:30 AM there's a trucker that likes to park underneath the overpass because it is a wide shoulder. I don't think he/she understands you are also creating a blind spot for me to get onto that road to make a right turn because there's traffic already coming down that road. It's a huge safety factor. That is one of those things that I wonder why he didn't go not even one quarter mile down the road because there's a Best Buy, a Target, huge parking lot area that he could park at.
Nicole Katsikides
This gets into a broader discussion that we seem to have a lot when it comes to freight and that is linking freight to what it means to the economy and jobs. Certainly this came up in a discussion for Jason's Law but it comes up in a lot of other freight and that is how do you get the public to care? Especially local land use and governments, how do you get them to understand and care? That gets into a lot of the State Freight Plans and State Freight Advisory Committees getting information to the MPOs and local government.
Christopher McKenney
Perhaps we need a freight trucking week. In Arkansas I don't really see advertising on TV or the radio talking about that kind of awareness. Maybe that could be an option.
Nicole Katsikides
Great is a great idea. You definitely see campaigns especially from the railroads about seeing their commercials on TV about the freight that they moved. Perhaps it's time for some sort of trucking campaign.
Christopher McKenney
There is an industry image campaign that actually could be included as I mentioned some people don't realize that drivers do sleep in their trucks. People don't realize that they are restricted on their hours and that can certainly help with the whole idea of people understanding where there is a need.
Nicole Coene
Thank you everyone. In order to keep these data current, are you planning to add parking information to VIUS?
Nicole Katsikides
We are currently working on what the next version of the VIUS looks like and we have been talking to stakeholders about the needs are that need to be included and we look to have more information about that sometime next year. Currently, the way we have been thinking about this is I'm sure there is a lot of information we could get to inform this discussion some VIUS and VIUS is a very important tool. We will probably go out with another round of surveys in a year or two to try to collect the same information and additional information on state facilities and state perceptions. We will certainly try to figure out what we can get, but we would probably look to collect something similar until we can identify other data sources that are available.
Nicole Coene
You mentioned earlier FHWA opportunities/funding to help develop solutions. Would it be possible to launch a private initiative to pay incentives of some kind to "Big Box" stores with lots that could support heavy trucks to open up parking at night for trucks?
Nicole Katsikides
It would be nice to hear what Chris thinks of this. We identified a lot of different ideas and there has been a range of things that states and stakeholders and truck drivers talked about and certainly that concept of incentives to try to provide parking. I don't have a specific example to share, but that is something that people have talked about. I think that is something that we all as stakeholders need to work it out that there is certainly an opportunity to share.
Chris McKenney
I remember asking one of my former bosses why can't we work in conjunction with the private industry and we can't collect money at rest areas and rest stops unless it comes from a vending machine? We are also looking into doing electric plugs for E-cars, and being able to have charging station where they would pay, the problem is we can't take the money ourselves as the highway department so unless it is coming from the vending machines, we can't collect money. There's a fine line in a monthly charge and my thoughts are why can't we help build a truck station of sorts with having some services? Over time the private entities are buying out the contractor loan over time and ultimately they take it over. It's a lot of legislation to do that.
Scott Grenerth
With regards to the big box stores, it is so hit or miss out there. I can't overstate that. You have multiple layers of problems there because you have some cases there might be box store A doesn't have a problem with it, but the other box store B in the same shopping center does have a problem. Or it might be that the box store the manager wouldn't mind, but the landowner has the problem and they are leasing from them so they are not allowing it. There are multiple layers to that. It is something I am sure could be worked out in some areas and in some places, or in many cases, in areas where there are box stores that no longer exist, they could set something up there. Finding the appropriate land and speaking with the person who makes the choice would be what needs to happen. Even if there was only a one-year lease available, that would be one year of getting people off the road who need to take a break. Even if they could do a short-term lease, a year could make a difference. Then maybe it could be extended for another year and maybe if not look for another location in the area.
Chris McKenney
That's a great idea especially if there was some kind of group that was monitoring that research and keeping up with the data to show them from 2014 to 2015, we had X number of trucks illegally parked.
Nicole Katsikides
In Maryland, there was an Emergency Truck Parking program put in place and it was done at the park and ride lot so when there is a snowstorm or something, truckers can park there and they develop an app for that. We considered how we might approach big-box stores so if there is an emergency and we need a place to put trucks we could put trucks there. That's another thing that has been talked about but I don't know if there has been any movement on that. At least on an emergency side, it has been something that has been thrown out as an idea. It is worth considering.
Chris McKenney
There are some states that have had some initial efforts to try and reuse former rest areas. There has been at least one State on the East Coast where they have been trying utilize their construction staging areas as a place where trucks can be permitted to park as long as they don't have an active ongoing highway reconstruction project. They would allow trucks to park there. That is another potential solution that States would be able to do.
Nicole Coene
Thank you. In Nevada we had a Lease agreement with a private owner of a dead truck stop for $1.00 a month. We cleaned the pavement and striped it for 88 spaces. We added lights to it and we added a Sign that said "NDOT Truck Parking". No one was parking in it because they felt that the drivers could not their leave trucks and their log books would be inspected because of it being a DOT parking lot. First question: is the lighting sufficient enough under the new Jason's Law verses cameras or security guard? Second question: how would we be able to convince Truckers that State DOT's are not regulatory and will not inspect their log books etc.?
Chris McKenney
I can go to the second part and it is a problem that drivers do have at times. Not that people are trying to get away with something, just the fear that if you find an extremely motivated officer you might not have issued too many tickets, and you might be the unlucky one who gets the extreme scrutiny. It is hard to convince drivers to park in areas. In Kentucky, they do have some of their scale houses that they have created very substantial parking areas with nice restrooms that are well-maintained and they are definitely not the first place to fill up, but as it gets later in the night, those places typically get real close to being filled up. Some nights they will get filled. Drivers will use it even in the case where it is right there. As far as how to communicate, this is not that you would be less likely to be inspected, it is certainly getting a hold of, myself we have a radio program on Series XML every day that broadcasts Monday through Friday. We are more than happy to get the word out to drivers that way. I would be happy to do that so feel free and contact me. We also have magazine where we get the word out throughout the industry directly to drivers. We actually represent drivers not just trucking companies. I would not be bashful about installing signs saying "This is a truck parking area and it is not an inspection lot." Let people know. I'll let Nicole answer about the lighting and Jason's Law.
Nicole Katsikides
Jason's Law only required DOT to do three things and it did not get into the type of lighting or security. I am not sure that I understand the first part of the question which says is the lighting sufficient enough under the new Jason's Law versus cameras or security guards. The Jason's Law component that we worked on here has to do with analyzing capability to provide parking. I'm not sure if anybody else wants to comment. If you want to clarify the question, I would be happy to take another stab.
Nicole Coene
Thank you, Nicole. One of the elements of truck parking that I have not heard mentioned here are the needs of local law enforcement. As I understand it, they sometimes have the difficult choice of permitting a truck to remain parked on a ramp or shoulder and NOT violate driver HOS, or ask the driver to move, in potential violation of HOS. From what I have heard, LEO would feel better about their options if there were an option that they could provide to drivers....such as "there's a park and ride where you can park until morning at xyz location" or "there is a park and ride where you can park until morning at xyz location" or "there is a closed weigh station that you can use." But, the lack of such "suggestions" put them in an uncomfortable position.
Nicole Katsikides
A big thing that came out of our discussions with the stakeholders for Jason's Law, really it had to do with the types of information that law-enforcement officers have to give to truckers and being able to direct them to places that are safe, places that have spots. We talked a lot about how we need to find solutions for this. We really hope that our regional discussions will help us get there and try to drive the parties to figure out the best ways to inform officers of options and opportunities and also using other types of facilities like weigh stations etc. That came out loud and clear in the discussion for Jason's Law in terms of capacity. We are definitely looking at how we can be able to identify spaces and let people know they are available and giving officers resources so they can better direct truckers is part of the solution that we hope will come out of the work moving forward.
Scott Grenerth
Part of the issue is assuming there would be anywhere you could suggest a driver move to, and in some areas there would be no point in saying you could try parking here or there, because the officer would know full well that every single one of those places will be full. It is certainly part of the whole solution definitely some way of getting the word out to drivers so people know what is available and that would be a good thing to make available to law enforcement.
Nicole Coene
Because we are running short on time, I have we have enough time for one last question. The question is: I keep hearing about certain locations that have set up some kind of truck parking app -- Nicole just mentioned one in Maryland. Maybe this is something that the federal public sector needs to get in on. Might FHWA, for example, look into compiling a list of any state or private truck parking apps, etc., and aggregate the info in one central repository app truckers could use?
Nicole Katsikides
We are at that point where we are trying to identify the types of things that need to advance and that's really why we want to have this National Coalition for Truck Parking kickoff in November and these regional discussion so that we can identify what are the best practices, whose doing what, who has a really cool idea, and whose doing something that's effective. Because these things are bubbling up as effective and useful, then we can decide together public and private stakeholders these are the things we want to try to find a way to move forward with or these are things we need to wait and develop a little bit more. So I can't promise that we will do some sort of repository for these apps and create one. But I hope that this discussion is carried forth with the National Coalition and into these regional dialogues because Jason's Law required us to evaluate something into come up with some metrics it really didn't require us to come up with solutions. We have a lot of things in Jason's Law that gives us a sense of what the solutions could be. But this is where we need to engage now are stakeholders and say here's what we learned. This is what we know, now what can we do about it? How can we work together and what needs to be first and what needs to be put to the side and so certainly these things like apps and getting information out those are things we heard from all stakeholders. I think that will certainly rise to the top as we get through these solutions. I encourage participation in that discussion so we can figure out what are the best things that are going to help communities, drivers, law enforcement and officers, what will give everybody the information that they need?
Chris McKenney
I think Michigan has a cool program, I think it's Michigan on the I-94 corridor. They have information boards along interstates and locations and it shows the available spaces remaining for truck drivers. That was all involved with their program. They probably could kick it off a lot quicker than others, but that might be something that could be looked at. Just keep in mind that apps are great but you just have to keep in mind that you have to have someone with a smart phone. I can tell you from our data here we are certain that an average age of a truck driver is up there. An app will not help everyone. That is just something to keep in mind. Another problem with it is that it is a push notification. Therefore, if you are signed in and giving out your location, you are not collecting all of the true data that is out there.
Nicole Coene
Thank you everyone. We are reaching the end of our 90 minutes and I believe we have answered all of the questions in the chat. The recorded version of this event will be available within the next few weeks on the Talking Freight website and I will send everyone an email when it is available. The next seminar will be held on November 18, 2015 and the topic is International Urban Freight Conference Presentation - Warehouse Locations and Community Impacts. Registration is available now and the link is provided at the top of the chat box. In addition, the announcement is available for download from the file download box. I encourage you to join the Freight Planning LISTSERV if you have not already done so.
