Where's my Valet?

In recent months there's been an increase in the discussion regarding plentiful, safe truck parking. Yes...I highlighted the word safe for a reason. There's a lot of research and survey's being undertaken right now to try to address this problem. If you're  not a truck driver then you may ask yourself "How can they consider this a problem...I see truck stops every other exit on the highway!" And you're right...in SOME areas there are many, many truck stops to choose from. Generally those the highest travel traffic lanes and with the large amount of trucks passing through there...I can guarantee that sometimes trucks will still have difficulty finding parking. Recently we've even seen truck stops implementing "reserved parking" where you can call ahead and reserve one of several spots designated as reserved parking...for a price of course (so what do you do if you have no money to reserve a spot?). "What about all those rest areas?" Rest areas fill up quickly. There are not a lot of spaces available to start with and it doesn't take long for trucks to fill up the side of the roads leading in and out of the rest area. And sometimes...you even come across a rest area that doesn't allow overnight parking.

So..let's address the term SAFE parking. Truck drivers are limited to no more than 11 hours of driving in a day within a 14 hour window of time. Once they have reached the maximum of one or the other they are required to take a 10 hours break. At this point...you MUST be parked or you'll be breaking the "hours of service" rules. As we are working careers that don't pay unless we are driving (you ain't earning if the wheels ain't turning) we try to run our allowable hours to the maximum. If my hours allow me to run until 10pm but I stop at 7pm that's 3 hours of time I couldn't be earning money but am not. Unfortunately if you don't get into a truck stop or rest area by 7pm at the latest you may not have a space to park in. So where does that leave you? If you still have those 3 hours you can drive further down the road and try to find somewhere else (although it'll still be a stretch after 7pm to find anything). But let's say you're hours end at 7pm. You start searching for a place to park but everywhere you go is filled up. What now? You may have no choice but to park on the side of an on/off ramp, in a store parking lot and as a very last resort...along the side of the highway. These options are NOT safe. A slightly safer choice would be to park at the shipper/receiver's but many of them will not allow overnight parking for trucks.

I myself have had no choice but to park in areas that were not considerably safe. Mall parking lot in Detroit, side of an off-ramp, the side of a highway once. It's dangerous for any trucker, but I worry because as a female trucker it truly makes me a much bigger target than a male trucker. 


A perfect example of the danger's of having to park any place other than areas designed specifically for truck is of the story of Jason Rivenburg. On March 4, 2009 Jason had gotten close to the shipper he was scheduled to pick-up a load from but he was not scheduled for loading until the next morning. He had plenty of time to get there...that was not a problem. Where the problem came is that the shipper did not allow truckers to show up early. So Jason asked some other truckers where would be a good place to park for the night and was told of an abandoned gas station that was supposed to be safe. Jason proceeded to park there but unfortunately it was not a safe place to park after all. Jason was murdered in his truck that night and the assailant got away with $7. That's right...I said seven dollars. You can find stories of many other trucker's who have been robbed and/or assaulted by having to park in non-safe areas to take their rest break.

Jason's widow has initiated a bill called Jason's Law to get our government to address the problem of safe, accessible truck parking. Safe parking is high up on the list of any truck driver's concerns and it has to start being addressed by those in power. Truck driver's are the life blood of the flow of commerce in this country. It's so important that we pay attention to this issue! Show support for Jason's law by doing what you can to help (Jason's Law - How You Can Help). And let you're friends know. We need this support to make life on the road safer!