17 Nov
New data suggest truck parking mostly unchanged since Jason’s Law
Published six years ago, Jason’s Law survey results are a bit outdated. According to new data from Trucker Path, the truck parking situation has not changed much.
Trucking industry app Trucker Path recently released data about truck parking availability. States are ranked by parking availability in two time periods: midday (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and evening (7-10 p.m.). Essentially, the data represent the parking situation during peak parking hours of lunchtime and overnight rest.
Has truck parking changed since Jason’s Law survey results were published in August 2015? Not really.
Overnight truck parking is the worst
Something every trucker knows and is quantified in Trucker Path’s data is the fact that the worst time to search for a truck parking spot is when looking for one for the night.
According to the data, the state considered to have the most parking available during the evening still had more than two-thirds of parking spots filled. Specifically, only 33% of app users parking in South Dakota reported “many spaces available,” the highest percentage among the 50 states.
Trucker Path collects data using crowd-source information. When a trucker checks in at a parking facility, they let other truckers know if there are “many spaces available,” “some spaces available” or “no parking available.” That data is collected to compile the parking stats.
According to Trucker Path, more than 10 million parking status submissions are submitted each month.
The 10 states with the highest percentage of“many spaces available” during the evening hours:
- South Dakota (33%)
- Michigan (31.8%)
- Vermont (31.7%)
- Nevada (28%)
- Florida (27%)
- Montana (26%)
- New York (24%)
- California (21.4%)
- Wyoming (21.3%)
- New Mexico (21.2%)
Some of those states are familiar to truckers looking for an easier time to find overnight truck parking. Others may be surprising.
In Jason’s Law survey, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association respondents indicated Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming all had a sufficient supply of parking. On the other hand, they also stated that California, Florida, New York and Vermont were among the states with the worst parking shortages.
With those being the best states to find overnight truck parking, the situation in the bottom 10 of states is abysmal.
Ranked the worst, more than two-thirds of truckers indicated “no parking available” during the evening in West Virginia:
- West Virginia (68%)
- Tennessee (67%)
- Massachusetts (65%)
- Kentucky (64%)
- Arkansas (63.5%)
- Mississippi (62%)
- New Jersey (61%)
- Maryland (60%)
- Georgia (58%)
- Virginia (58%)
Georgia., Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia are all known problem states, based on Jason’s Law survey results. However, that survey also indicates that Kentucky has plenty of parking.
Lunchtime is no picnic
Although the parking situation from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. is better than the evening, it is still not great.
According to Trucker Path data, truckers have better than a 50/50 shot at finding a parking spot in the top 18 states. At the top, nearly three-quarters of app users looking for a spot during lunchtime indicated “many spaces available” in North Dakota:
- North Dakota (74%)
- Montana (69%)
- South Dakota (65.5%)
- Michigan (61%)
- Nevada (58.5%)
- New Mexico (57.9%)
- Wyoming (57.7%)
- Idaho (56.5%)
- Kansas (56%)
- Maine (55%)
Nearly every state with high rankings from Trucker Path for lunchtime truck parking was also among the states with the most sufficient amount of parking in Jason’s Law survey results.
At worst, just less than half of drivers looking for a spot during mid-day reported “no parking available”:
- Massachusetts (44%)
- New Jersey (39%)
- Washington (28.4%)
- North Carolina (28.1%)
- Maryland (27%)
- Florida (26%)
- Connecticut (25.2%)
- New Hampshire (24.9%)
- Georgia (22.9%)
- Tennessee (22.8%)
All but Washington and North Carolina have a significant truck parking shortage, according to Jason’s Law survey results. That suggests that the parking situation has not changed much over the last six years.
It is worth noting that Jason’s Law survey does not assess parking data in each state by time of day. However, it does calculate which hours of the day are the most difficult to find parking nationwide. According to OOIDA results, the worst time is between the hours of 7 p.m. and midnight, as indicated in Trucker Path’s results.
Also, Jason’s Law survey collected data from a variety of stakeholders, including self-reporting from drivers. The federal report attempts to account for the more than 300,000 parking spaces identified at rest areas and private truck stops. In contrast, Trucker Path currently monitors about 20,000 known truck parking locations, including any spot deemed safe by users (and vetted by Trucker Path). According to Chris Oliver, Trucker Path’s chief marketing officer, that is likely more than 200,000 individual spots.
Trucker Path’s truck parking data derives solely from app users who submit availability information. According to Oliver, a large portion of data used for Jason’s Law survey results came from Trucker Path. LL
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated Trucker Path monitors 20,000 truck parking spaces. That has been corrected to reflect Trucker Path monitors 20,000 truck parking locations, which is more than 200,000 spaces.
