Efforts to create a national truck parking management system in the U.S. may soon be getting some extra help from the U.S. Department of Transportation, according Dan Murray, vice president for the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), as truck parking is increasingly being viewed as a way to address driver fatigue issues.

According to Fleet Owner magazine, Murray said that while truck parking doesn’t rank high on the industry’s list of top concerns, the lack of parking is seen as growing problem due to HOS rest period requirements.

“Yet states have been closing public rest areas to save money,” Murray said in his keynote address at the Pegasus TransTech User Conference in Safety Harbor, FL. “Meanwhile, time in some rest areas is limited and enforced by police, who also ticket drivers pulled over on entrance and exit ramps when no other space is available to them.”

The shortage of truck parking – which has been a growing problem for over a decade – is only projected to get worse as freight volumes are expected increase by some 25% by 2021, according to research by the American Trucking Assns. (ATA).

To combat the parking shortage issue, ATRI is working with several groups to help develop a “truck parking reservation system” so drivers and fleets can check on parking availability along an interstate corridor in real time using wireless devices, Murray said.

– Read the Full article from Fleet Owner here