Truck Parking

Out on the open road, there’s a rhythm to the way the land stretches out, how it pulls the horizon along like a never-ending thread, unraveling beneath the tires of a rig. The hum of the engine is a kind of promise—a promise of work done, miles conquered. But for the men and women who call that open road their home, it’s not the long highways or the endless skies that wear them down. No, it’s something much simpler, much more unforgiving. It’s the lack of a place to stop. To rest. To breathe.

Truckers have spoken again, and they’ve named truck parking as their greatest burden, the stone they carry day after day, mile after mile. The annual survey from the American Transportation Research Institute, released at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference, tells the same tale it has for years. Truck parking, or the lack of it, is the number one issue that gnaws at the bones of drivers.

Out there, on the road, there’s a sense of being swallowed by the vastness, but when the time comes to stop—to find a space wide enough to fit the rig, safe enough to sleep—well, that’s when the vastness seems to close in, turn hostile. Truckers crisscross the country, carrying the lifeblood of the economy on their backs, but when they need a place to lay their heads, there’s nowhere to go. And the road keeps going, indifferent.

A Different Kind of Hardship

But here’s the thing—while the truckers talk about parking, the carriers have their minds on something else. It’s the economy that’s their burden, and rightly so. In the same survey, the economy was the top concern for carriers, just as it was for the whole industry when all the answers were counted. There’s a kind of desperation creeping into the edges of everything, as costs climb and freight demand wavers.

Gregg Troian, the president of PGT Trucking, summed it up best: “Our costs continued to climb while freight demand struggled.” It’s a balancing act, and right now, it feels like the ground beneath the industry’s feet is shifting.

A Road Full of Worries

For the truckers, though, the list of troubles doesn’t end with parking. Behind it comes driver compensation—how to stretch a paycheck across all those miles, how to make the endless road worth it. Then there’s the economy, which sits like a storm cloud on the horizon. Detention at customer facilities follows, those long hours waiting while the clock ticks and the freight sits idle. Speed limiters, broker issues, the ever-present fuel prices, the looming threat of autonomous trucks, and the never-ending struggle of driver training standards—each one another piece of the load they carry.

There’s a split in the road between company drivers and owner-operators, too. Company drivers, bound to the whims of their employers, say driver compensation is their biggest worry, followed by parking, then the long delays at customer facilities. But for the owner-operators, the folks who own their rigs and run the risks, the economy comes first. Parking is second, but broker issues—those middlemen who can make or break a job—come next.

And still, there are the speed limiters, slowing down a way of life that’s already stretched thin. For company drivers, the economy ranks fifth, while owner-operators place fuel prices at number five—a reminder of how every penny, every mile, counts.

Carriers’ Struggles Run Deeper

On the carrier side, the worries look a little different. The economy still takes the top spot, but lawsuit abuse reform comes next—because every load carries with it the weight of legal threats. The driver shortage, insurance costs, and driver retention are right there too, as the industry scrambles to find and keep good men and women behind the wheel. Truck parking is seventh for the carriers—proof, perhaps, that while it’s a burden, other worries weigh heavier on those who run the fleets.

Then come concerns about the future: battery-electric vehicles and the distractions of modern driving. The roads are changing, and with that change comes uncertainty.

The Big Picture

When you put all the voices together—drivers, carriers, and everyone else—the economy is still the heaviest load. But right behind it, always lurking, is truck parking. It’s the place where all those miles must come to an end, and yet there’s never enough space. Lawsuit abuse reform, insurance availability, driver pay, and the push toward electric trucks all crowd the list, each one another piece of the puzzle that makes up the trucking industry.

Even law enforcement weighed in, naming driver distraction, hours of service, and FMCSA’s compliance standards as their top concerns. They see the same roads, the same risks, but through a different lens.

A Hard Year, Another Load to Carry

“Without question, this has been another tough year for the trucking industry,” said Troian. The road ahead isn’t any smoother, but ATRI’s survey, like a well-worn map, shows the way forward. The issues are laid bare, and with them, perhaps, a glimmer of a solution. But until then, the truckers will keep moving, searching for a place to stop, a place to rest, even as the road stretches out, unyielding, before them.

For the full report, visit ATRI’s website. The answers are out there, waiting, just like the drivers who roll down the highways day after day, looking for a little bit of peace along the way.