TRUCK PARKING

DEVELOPMENT

HANDBOOK

September 2022

presents the fundamentals of truck parking issues, including reasons why drivers need to park,

factors that influence parking demand, and relevant regulations. The Handbook also introduces

quantitative approaches for estimating truck parking demand and for conducting a benefit-cost

analysis of truck parking developments. Practices for siting and designing truck parking facilities

are outlined, and the Handbook concludes with strategies for developing truck parking to support

driver safety and security, quality of life in communities with industrial uses, mobility, and

economic competitiveness.

Notice

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S.

Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange.

to reflect a preference, approval, or endorsement of any one product or

entity.

Non-Binding Contents

Except for any statutes or regulations cited, the contents of this

document do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to

bind the public in any way. This document is intended only to provide

information regarding existing requirements under the law or agency

policies.

Quality Assurance Statement

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality

N/A

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1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................5

2. QUANTIFYING TRUCK PARKING NEEDS, BENEFITS, AND COSTS ......................11

3. SITING AND DESIGNING TRUCK PARKING FACILITIES.........................................33

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5. CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................................69

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Figure 3. Line chart. National combination truck vehicle-miles traveled (2009-2019). ...............11

Figure 4. Diagram. Illustrative truck trip with parking stops. .......................................................17

Figure 5. Scatter plot charts. Relationship between daily truck trips and number of truck

bays. ...............................................................................................................................................19

Figure 6. Bar chart. Truck stop data by land use in the Maricopa region. .....................................20

for freight movement, often requiring truck activity even when other modes are also used.

Appropriate planning and policy can alleviate most community concerns and provide sound,

proactive land use strategies.

parking needs (see figure 2). Drivers must adhere to Federal and State hours of service (HOS)

regulations that place time-definitive limits on driving and rest intervals; modern supply chains

and consumer buying habits also influence parking patterns. Finally, truck drivers are essential

workers who need to take breaks for rest and safety. A primary goal of this Handbook is to

provide local communities with recommendations and practices they can use to create adequate,

safe, and appropriately located truck parking. More detailed information addressing this topic is

included in chapter 2.

well lit, secure parking increases personal risk from a driver safety perspective.

sought to address the

shortage of truck parking

nationally through

Specifically, Jason’s Law

conduct a survey and

comparative assessment

in consultation with

relevant State motor

carrier representatives to:

• Evaluate the capability of each State to provide adequate parking and rest facilities for

commercial motor vehicles engaged in interstate transportation.

• Assess the volume of commercial motor vehicle traffic in each State.

of a limited-access highway is prohibited in most States and poses a hazard to other motorists;

however, having fatigued drivers operate beyond the Federal HOS regulations can also be

dangerous.

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/infrastructure/truck_parking/jasons_law/truckparkingsurvey/.

Safe truck parking came into the national spotlight in 2009

following the murder of 35-year-old Jason Rivenburg, a husband,

father, and a truck driver. On March 4, 2009, Jason stopped for a

delivery in Virginia and then headed toward a delivery destination

in South Carolina. While only 12 miles from the delivery location,

that he had in his wallet.

alongside family, friends, and representatives of the trucking

industry to pass Jason’s Law under the Moving Ahead for Progress

in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act in 2012. Jason’s Law

established truck parking safety and security as a national priority

and requires the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to

regularly evaluate the need for safe truck parking.

Source:

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/infrastructure/truck_parking/jaso

the end of their HOS, they might park on roadway shoulders or ramps. Frequent stops and starts

from heavy trucks create more wear than the infrastructure was designed for, often leading to

pavement rutting and cracking of the roadside. The need to do shoulder reinforcements and

Impacts to Shipping Costs and the Economy: A survey conducted by the American

Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) documented the amount of lost revenue-earning time

that drivers experience by parking earlier than they otherwise needed to find parking. With an

average of 56 minutes of revenue drive time sacrificed by drivers per day, the parking shortage

effectively reduces an individual driver’s productivity by 9,300 revenue-earning miles a year,

which equates to lost wages of $4,600 annually.

costs associated with finding safe, reliable truck parking can also negatively impact driver

retention and recruiting, exacerbating an already tight labor market. The American Trucking

Associations (ATA) estimate that the driver shortage hit a historic high of over 80,000 drivers in

stock outs, thus increasing inventory carrying costs and ultimately, consumer prices. In addition,

to get the just-in-time service required to meet today’s supply chain demands, shippers often pay

premiums for guaranteed on-time deliveries. All these factors add to overall freight

transportation costs, supply chain costs, and overall economic competitiveness.

information addressing this topic is included in chapter 2.

HOW DO COMMUNITIES ADDRESS THE NEED FOR TRUCK PARKING?

Many communities view “big-rig” parking in their communities unfavorably, focusing on

negative aspects of truck parking like noise, emissions, and litter. Since the adoption of Jason’s

Truck Parking (the “Coalition”), responding to the documented need for truck parking solutions.

Coalition members include the trucking industry, commercial vehicle safety officials, State

departments of transportation (DOTs), and commercial truck-stop owners and operators. In 2016,

the Coalition held meetings around the country to get input from key stakeholders on approaches

to solve the Nation’s truck parking problem. Recognizing the need for a venue to implement

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https://truckingresearch.org/2016/12/13/atri-truck-parking-case-study/.

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American Trucking Associations. Driver Shortage Update 2021. https://www.trucking.org/sites/default/files/2021-

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Truck-Parking-in-The-American-Jobs-Plan-Letter-to-Sec-Buttigieg.pdf (ooida.com).

areas. The Coalition Working Groups met from November 2017 to July 2019 to explore current

solutions. Working group members also identified the need for a comprehensive handbook to

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS TRUCK PARKING DEVELOPMENT

HANDBOOK?

parking can be viewed as a development opportunity and key

element of sound local land use practices.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE HANDBOOK?

This Handbook presents tools and strategies for local planners

and land use officials integrate truck parking into land use

plans and improve the state of truck parking in their

communities.

Chapter 2, “Quantifying Truck Parking Needs, Benefits, and Costs,” presents three topics

intended to inform planning and engineering practitioners about the importance of truck parking

in supporting the Nation’s economy, way of life, and how it impacts local communities:

• The National Truck Parking Shortage presents facts and data about the importance of the

trucking industry and the need for adequate parking opportunities for the safety of truck

This section also provides practitioners information on evaluating projects using benefit-cost

analysis (BCA) and presents case study examples.

Chapter 3, “Siting and Designing Truck Parking Facilities,” examines truck parking at the

community level and provides information on including truck parking in current and planned

commercial/industrial developments.

integrating truck parking into local communities through several case studies. These case

studies address new development as well as examples of how truck parking can be integrated

at existing facilities.

• Designing Truck Parking Facilities provides recommendations to local planning and

engineering staff for geometric design considerations, and compatible amenities such as

lighting, fencing and other safety features.

Chapter 4, “Encouraging and Requiring Truck Parking,” provides tangible steps for use in

addressing the truck parking shortages.

• Improving Land Use and Zoning Policies discusses how land use policies have failed to

keep pace with modern shipping practices. Communities can benefit from reviewing land use

more than 300 billion in 2019, a 12-percent increase from a low in 2011. Single-unit truck miles

of travel have steadily climbed since recovery from the recession in 2008.

Figure 3. Line chart. National combination truck vehicle-miles traveled (2009-2019).

Combination trucks are typically used for regional and interstate travel over long distances.

Long-haul operations require more hours on the road, with trips often lasting multiple days,

creating demand for overnight parking and rest. Modern logistics relying on practices like just-

in-time or lean manufacturing, require drivers to stage their loads to meet tight delivery

windows. The FHWA projects that trucks will remain the central mode of transport in American

commerce; FHWA estimates a 1.5 percent average annual growth in combination truck vehicle-

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American Trucking Associations (ATA), Economics and Industry Data online at:

https://www.trucking.org/economics-and-industry-data.

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time, location, speed of travel, and other travel attributes. As a result, truck drivers nearing the

end of their allowable drive time may need to stop immediately. Alternatively, drivers may

choose to stop in a location far from their destination to ensure they can find parking, losing

productivity and creating demand for truck parking outside of congested urban areas. The failure

to locate safe parking near a route or a shippers’ facility often leads to desperation, and drivers

may need to park in undesignated areas like ramp shoulders, side streets, or abandoned lots.

drivers, the stress of finding legal parking is just one of many concerns. The time spent looking

for parking results in lost productivity and lost wages. Parking illegally or in undesignated areas

often presents the risk to personal health and safety, fines, cargo theft, or vehicle damage.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), 885 large-

truck drivers died in 2018 and 4,678 total people died in collisions with trucks.

Providing over-

Short-Haul

a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location, and the driver

m.

or overweight truck traffic traveling to, from, or through your community is essential. These

loads can be subject to additional constraints related to routing, hours of operation, and parking

that influence when and where parking is feasible. Table 2 summarizes information practitioners

should seek to characterize truck parking demand in their communities. Collaboration with State,

regional, and local planning partners, including economic development corporations attuned to

industry needs, can help answer many of these questions efficiently.

uses

located? Are they clustered,

or spread out?

• Are deliveries and pick-ups

confined to a time window,

or do they occur 24 hours?

• Do sites have on-site truck

parking?

• Are trucks carrying oversize

loads, such as heavy

equipment or wind blades?

• Time limitations can result in

• On-site truck parking can reduce

• Parking spaces with a larger

Intermodal

generators

• Are deliveries and pick-ups

confined to a time window,

or do they occur 24 hours?

• How much freight is moved

to/from trucks? Has this

volume changed since initial

facility design?

• Time limitations can result in

• Longer trains, larger vessels, and

the same size.

them. This tool can be used to estimate the impact of anticipated increases in

industrial development on truck parking demand. For example, what would happen if

our manufacturing base grew by 2,000 employees? Scenarios should align with

economic development goals to plan for future parking needs.

across several dimensions, making it easier for drivers to find a space by reducing both the time

spent searching for parking and the length of detours needed to reach an open space. These

improvements not only reduce trucking costs, but they also reduce the negative impacts of

safeguard decreases the productivity of the sector and leads to higher costs. Increasing parking

availability can improve the productivity and reliability of the trucking sector.

Truck parking projects may also generate broader economic development impacts. Economic

derive from reductions in transportation costs that in turn enhance regional economic

competitiveness, from attracting and retaining business establishments that serve truck drivers in

the surrounding area, and from the operations of the parking facility.

This section provides guidance on how to conduct benefit-cost analysis and economic-impact

analysis of truck parking projects, following USDOT guidelines and conventions. This section

be used to demonstrate how a truck parking project will have a positive impact on the

community.

Truck Parking Benefits

USDOT publishes guidance for conducting BCAs, including which benefits can be consistently

from these meetings supports the following observations on truck parking. The guidelines as of

2021 were used to outline specific benefits associated with truck parking. The quantitative

benefits of truck parking projects are summarized below:

• Safety for truck drivers.

• Safety for other motorists.

The above benefits are provided from the following outcomes of increased truck parking access:

• Decreased undesignated parking.

• Avoided detours while searching for truck parking.

• Improved trucking efficiency and productivity.

• Improved trucking reliability.

• Other factors.

Decreasing Undesignated Parking: Projects that improve truck parking availability will also

reduce undesignated parking in a community. Truck drivers avoid detours to search for parking

as an inconvenience and as an extra cost that cuts into wages and profitability. Drivers park in

undesignated locations along their route—such as on highway shoulders, interchanges, ramps,

reducing undesignated truck parking, can help to mitigate the following safety risks:

o Undesignated parking on roadway shoulders poses a significant crash risk with through

o Undesignated parking on the shoulders can also prevent other vehicles from using the

o Roads are designed to give drivers lines of sight onto other vehicles so they can make

o In urban areas, delivery trucks that cannot find curbside parking often resort to parking in

Designated truck parking facilities often have lighting, security cameras, fencing, controlled

damage, and driver assault. Projects that reduce undesignated parking reduce these risks,

benefiting the drivers, the trucking companies, and the owners of the cargo.

o Drivers parked for a longer period of time (overnight or staging) often leave their engines

o Engine idling also results in additional emissions of pollutants relative to parking in a

o Undesignated parking is often associated with litter and waste because drivers do not

o In urban areas, trucks making deliveries might stop for an extended time on the travel

the roadway system, which can be calculated in terms of vehicle miles traveled and vehicle hours

these large and heavy vehicles travel throughout the roadway system, alongside passenger

vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists, they generate costs to the general public. These costs

include increased crash risk, emission of criteria pollutants, emissions of greenhouse gasses,

in general will generate benefits by reducing these costs.

• Reduced Driver Fatigue Safety Risks: Drivers are more likely to be fatigued when searching

for parking, as this comes at the end of their shift, and drivers might even be distracted if they

spot are likely to reduce these safety risks.

day early by more than 1 hour.

Drivers can be reluctant to wait until the very end of their day

to seek parking if they believe parking may be difficult to find, instead ending their shift early if

daily trucking costs by 0.8 percent.

This value was estimated using conservative assumptions

and could be significantly higher for certain types of trucking.

The limited availability of parking, over a region or corridor, will directly reduce the productivity

of trucking. Over time, the lower productivity of trucking will lead to higher transportation costs,

and, ultimately, higher consumer prices.

Improved Trucking Reliability: The reliability of shipments is an important variable for trucking

companies and shippers.

Modern supply chains are highly optimized and depend on freight

arriving at its destination on time. Projects that increase the availability of truck parking can

increasing the “slack,” or buffer time, in their schedule to ensure on-time performance in the face

of traffic congestion and unexpected issues. Trucks that arrive early for a pickup or delivery are

often not allowed to wait on premise, which creates a need for “staging” or temporary parking in

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https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/Projects/Pages/Commercial-Truck-Parking-Study.aspx.

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freight/studies/truck-parking/final-report.pdf.

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drivers to meet their appointments and decrease the reliability of supply chains.

could help ameliorate the driver shortage.

• Facilitate regulation compliance: Readily available parking would make it easier for

trucking companies to comply with HOS rules. Otherwise, trucking companies and drivers

must spend time and effort planning routes and stops so that they maximize the productive

driving time and be able to find safe parking within the HOS rules. This takes effort, and

might cause stress for drivers, particularly on new routes.

• Increased productivity of nondriving time: The amenities and services available at truck stops

allow truck drivers to be productive during nondriving time, and even to get better rest

relative to parking at a location without these amenities. The ability to refuel or perform

maintenance on the trucks while meeting the HOS allows drivers to get more out of their

the engine. Parking facilities could also have stations that allow for recharging of electric

trucks. All this leads the parking facilities to support the deployment of green technologies in

the truck fleet that reduce emissions of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gasses.

Truck Parking Costs

Previous sections discussed the benefits of providing truck parking. This section discusses the

costs. Capital costs are the one-time expenses incurred to build the project. Operations and

maintenance (O&M) costs should also be included in the analysis, however in a BCA framework

they should be included as a negative benefit, and not added to the capital costs. Some projects

might decrease O&M costs, which would result in a benefit, however most projects that involve

new construction are likely to increase O&M costs, and therefore would be included in a BCA as

reducing the net benefits of the project.

design, environmental reviews, utility relocation, construction, and transaction costs to secure

financing. Capital costs should not be limited to those for which public funds are sought for the

project.

These costs will vary widely throughout the U.S. Some municipalities make parcel and property

tax data available, which can help provide estimates of a parcel’s value.

The O&M costs of the parking facility should also be included. O&M costs can be broken down

• Utilities.

• Maintenance.

• Administrative costs.

• Consumables.

support economic development, in terms of additional jobs, income, and taxes. The following

types of economic development impacts are typically associated with truck parking projects:

• Facility Operations: The expenditures required to run the parking facility will also have

region.

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itself. For a broader discussion of the benefits of freight to local communities see the FHWA

https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Projects/Pages/Commercial-Truck-Parking-Study.aspx.

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