The results are in. Professional drivers do not like to pay for their parking. Most don’t even do it much. They also don’t rate attempts to convert free parking to paid parking.
Two rounds of polling were conducted among Overdrive readers, who are mostly owner-operators. The polling was conducted after a report on company driver Michelle Kitchin finding that only a quarter of parking spots at a Flying J she has frequented for years were free.
Kitchin said that Truck Parking Club , which was originally created to allow landowners to “monetize vacant lot” by making truck parking reservations, “crossed a line” when, instead of adding free truck parking spots, they paid-walled them behind the app. Kitchin also couldn’t use her Flying J points to reserve a TPC space, so she had to pay cash.
Evan Shelley, the founder of Truck Parking Club, countered by saying that his organization adds thousands of previously unoccupied spots for all drivers and owners. He also said that operators of any kind should compensate landowners for their stay. At least, that’s what they each said. Click here to read the complete story.
[ Related: Truck Parking Club turns paid spaces into free spaces: Is this what the future of truck parking looks like?]
Shelley and the company have clearly explained why land owners should monetize their lots with truck parking. Overdrive then polled their audience of pro-drivers to find out what it was that they thought.
Let’s look at how frequently owner-operators pay for parking.
Shelley said that a significant part of her business is helping drivers park for days, weeks, or months. This is something you can’t do at truck stops and rest areas. The small 5% of respondents to the question above who had a predictable need such that it justified a weekly/monthly/annual payment, though, could underscore that the biggest needs sit elsewhere for most owner-operators when it comes parking needs on unpredictable timetables and locations.
We’ve asked the question above before. Since 2019, the percentages of respondents in some areas have changed significantly.
Owner operator Chris Thomas is also a social-media ambassador for the Truck Parking Club. He said that it has become a point of pride for owner operators to brag about how often they park for free and how well they know their own secret parking spots.
Truck Parking Club, for example, seems to fundamentally disrupt this status quo. They take some of these secret spots, sign up the landowners and advertise them on their app.
Kitchin believes that drivers, especially company drivers who will not be reimbursed, are being squeezed in the shift. She said that this is especially true when it comes TPC-managed truck stops.
Operators of all stripes will be forced to pay for the additional revenue streams that the company proposes to landowners. Shelley and her company believe that their strategy in general is a net plus for the overall parking capacity. However, the idea of increasing capacity by advertising new pay-to park opportunities did not sit well with Overdrive audience members.
Owner-operator Jayme Anderson told me that he and partner spend between $3,000 and $4,000 per week at truck stops, “buying fuel and everything I need out here.”
Anderson is irritated by the frequent posts made on social media by Truck Parking Club, and its affiliates. They sell their parking spots to drivers. They post memes. They make small talk. “Don’t act like you are trying to help drivers, when you’re buying free parking spaces,” he said. “They are feeding off the truck drivers, like we’re everyone’s piggybank.” This opinion, which was also expressed online by him, has earned him jeers from Truck Parking Club members, some of whom were not drivers.
“People who are trolling, clowning and being children,” he said “it makes my eyes sick.” I went off at them.”
In the opinion poll (results below), the second most common response was that pay-to park will not work. About 15% of respondents agreed. Those who responded said that too few truckers would ever support paid parking. “I don’t mind losing a few hours of driving to get free parking in order to save money,” said one commenter. He attributed the truck parking problem to time constraints, which are further restricted by the mandated use electronic logging devices.
Evan Shelley, TPC’s Evan Shelley, responded directly to this notion by citing some parking statistics as evidence: “Our mission is to help trucks save time and fuel through efficiently finding and reserving parking for trucks across the U.S. The American Transportation Research Institute released a report in 2016 that cited the average driver taking 50 minutes or more to find parking every day. An update is currently being prepared. Shelley added: “We hope to reduce this time to 10 minutes or under by providing thousands of parking options. This will save drivers money as they can travel further.
How far would you drive if you didn’t have to pay $15-$40 for parking? Would you risk a fine or a boot in order to avoid paying?
Shelley and the parking-reservation advocates drive a hard deal there.
[ Related to: Overdrive Readers diverge on the worth of a parking reserve]
Shelley may not have to convince the next most common group of respondents (about 11% total), as they are already in his camp. This group chose “Probably serves us well — too many drivers treat the parking lots like garbage bins.”
It’s difficult to deny the magnitude of the problem in some lots. It is well known that heavy vehicles can also wear out the paving when parked between the lines. Shelley’s harshest critics admit that drivers take advantage of free parking by a variety means. Shelley said, “There is no such thing as free lunch.” “Any private solution to a particular problem must make money in order to survive, just as any publicly funded solution must take money from taxpayers to survive.”
Around 10% of respondents viewed pay-to park as a necessary evil.
Richard Davis, a commenter on the paid/free debate made a case that truck parking is a public duty. Davis pointed out that regulators have influence over all aspects of a trucker’s business and life, including “how many driving hours a driver is allowed to drive”, how long the breaks must be, maintenance and health. “All these regulations were supposed to be for safety,” but what could be more important than a “free and safe place to park?”
Davis called for “large truck rest areas like service plazas” to be “built in high-traffic zones with food courts and a shower.” He felt that competition would make truck stops more competitive, and “maybe then they will fight for drivers’ and trucks’ business again.”
Shelley said he supports the government building more parking. However, he thought it would be a poor idea to wait for this to happen. “We’re not against more free parking but if you do the math it’s going take billions of dollar and decades to make any dent,” said he. “Truck Parking Club is a more immediate solution and the driver does not have use it if they don’t want to.”
An Overdrive study of government-created park in 2023 found that billions of dollars in federal, state, and local funds could be available for this purpose, but only a few hundred lines were actually sprayed onto pavement.
[ Related: How you can fight for your right of parking the truck]
About one in ten (9%) respondents to the poll said that they valued the ability to reserve parking spots in advance and were willing to pay for it. Approximately 93% of Truck Parking Club spots offer the option to reserve a parking spot in advance.
Kitchin’s spot and many TPC spots at large truck stops do not.
Shelley has an update on that front.
He said that they were in talks with Pilot to integrate their points program at these locations to allow loyalty points to be used for paying for space. “The technical aspect of things is the difficult part. We would integrate immediately if we could just snap our fingers. It’s a positive for both drivers and Truck Parking Club. We want it done ASAP.
truck park is a major issue for working haulers. It’s a problem similar to housing insecurity. It’s a stain to the nation’s infrastructure when truckers struggle to find parking to meet regulatory requirements.