Neighbors Oppose Truck Parking Expansions

By Susan L. Hodges, Special to Transport Topics

This story appears in the Nov. 26 print edition of Transport Topics.

Mark Zaluski was one of the lucky ones. At 3:10 p.m. on Oct. 25, his rig occupied one of only 16 truck parking spaces on the north side of a travel plaza off Interstate 94 about 40 miles north of Chicago. All other spaces were full, causing four more tractor-trailers to line up along the guard rail and two others to idle partway down the exit ramp.

“Large cities are the worst when it comes to parking,” said owner-operator Zaluski, who owns KZ Ranch Inc., an intermodal carrier based in Zion, Ill. “You’re tired and you can’t find a space, so you try to make it to the next stop and when that’s full, the one after that.”

But at some point, hours-of-service rules or the need for sleep, food or a restroom forces truck drivers to pull off the road.

When designated parking isn’t available, drivers stop on shoulders, exit ramps, shopping center parking lots or other areas where often they’re ordered to move on by police officers or security guards.

No wonder, then, that from New Haven, Conn., to Sacramento, Calif., owners of truck stops and travel plazas are trying to win approval to build more facilities with more truck parking and to expand existing stops. But for a variety of reasons — ranging from a feared increase in air pollution to the proximity of nearby schools — they’re being turned down.

The result is a dearth of parking places and facilities for truckers who, as Greg Fulton, president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association points out, have the same needs as other travelers: food, rest, safety and a hot shower.

As an intermodal carrier, Zaluski has permission to park and sleep in train yards, which he often does. “But what about all these other guys who can’t do that and don’t know the area?” he asked, concluding, “It’s pathetic.”

Kenneth Ast, a driver for Baldwin Transfer Inc. of Mobile, Ala., agreed. “It’s possible to drive 16 to 17 hours to find a place to pull over,” he said.

Ast, who delivers plumbing supplies between Chicago and Sheboygan, Wis., said he usually tries to find a place to sleep on one end or the other. “There’s always a spot near Sheboygan, but Illinois is one of the worst,” he said.

“Sometimes, the police will give you permission to stay on the side of the road,” Ast added, “but who wants to sleep on the side of the road in Chicago?”

Matt Croarkin, driver of a day cab for JRR Inc. of Lockport, Ill., said truck parking is “always bad anywhere around I-294.” Croarkin tries to time his breaks so that they’ll occur in Indiana or in Wisconsin, he said, but that it isn’t always possible.

As 2007 draws to a close, the lack of truck parking along U.S. interstates and highways is reaching critical proportions. A 2005 analysis of commercial truck parking performed by the Federal Highway Administration found that 35 states had shortages of public parking spaces for trucks and 12 states had shortages of commercial spaces.

Public parking spaces are those found at highway rest areas and weighing stations. Commercial spaces are the ones provided at commercially owned truck stops and travel plazas. Public parking spaces are generally free of charge, while commercial spaces may carry an hourly occupancy fee charged by the truck stop or travel plaza.

At Greater Chicago I-55 Auto/  Truck Plaza in Bolingbrook, Ill., for example, drivers can stay three hours for free, or pay $10 for 24 hours. Purchase of 75 gallons of fuel earns free 24-hour parking.

“In rest areas, they weigh you and tell you that you have to leave,” said Ast of Baldwin Transfer. He particularly objects to roads on which he must pay a toll but which have no truck parking.
But Fulton observed, “I don’t think truck drivers distinguish between public and commercial spaces. . . . They just know that the problem of truck parking grows every day — and it’s going to get a lot worse as freight movement increases.”

Figures published by FHWA show that numbers of both tractor-trailers and straight trucks on the road increased by about 40% between 1980 and 2004, the latest year for which complete data are available. During the same period, the number of rail locomotives in operation decreased by 25%, and the percentage of active water vessels grew by about 4%.

Improvements in capacity can be credited for the decrease in rail and the slight increase in water traffic, but different forces are at work in the trucking industry. FHWA data show that between 1990 and 2000, U.S. international trade more than doubled — to $2.2 trillion from about $900 billion.

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1994, U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico has risen by about 90% and is now responsible for one-third of all commercial truck traffic.

But improvements in the U.S. highway system have not kept pace. Additional information from FHWA shows the number of vehicle miles traveled by trucks increased about 90% between 1980 and 2000, while public road lane-miles increased by only 2%.

Continued growth in domestic transport, along with the potential addition of Mexican trucks to U.S. roadways, make it reasonable to believe the parking crunch will only intensify.

Jim Miller, owner of the Sacramento 49ers Travel Plaza in Sacramento, Calif., applied five years ago to expand his 225-space parking lot by eight acres on land he already owns. But Sacramento County squelched the attempt by requiring that in addition to the $600,000 expansion, Miller also pay for $1.5 million in off-site improvements, such as traffic lights and interchange modifications.

Said Miller, “We had the plans and money in the bank [for our project]. But when a government agency extracts so much from you, it’s just not worth it.”

Miller has been in business since 1976 and employs 133 people. He pays “a lot” in property taxes, he said, and collects a significant amount in states sales taxes, because California charges sales tax on fuel. But he sees Sacramento as one of the worst places in the nation to try to expand a truck stop.

The price of land, “which can cost half a million dollars an acre or more along I-80,” Miller said, plus strict state environmental requirements and excessive permitting processes make the prospect of adding parking spaces anywhere in California bleak, despite the demand.

“Practically every truck stop in California is full by 4 p.m.,” Miller said.

The situation becomes even worse in winter, when snowstorms close down Donner Pass, which crosses east to west through the Sierra Nevadas. “Ten thousand trucks a day go along I-80, and when this happens, they have nowhere to go,” Miller said. “Sometimes, they close the road down for two days.”

In Lincoln, Neb., Dave Shoemaker of Shoemaker’s Truck Stop alleviates the overflow from his 150 paved parking spaces by allowing truckers to park on land he owns across the street.

“We’ve made our own entrances without asking,” he said of the space that accommodates another 25 to 30 rigs when necessary. “And we were talking about lighting this area the other day,” he said. “But then we thought, ‘At some point, the government’s going to want to get its hands in here.’ ”

Shoemaker built another truck stop south of town about eight years ago without problems. But further expansion to the Lincoln stop would be prohibitive, he said, because the city annexed the area and the total cost of building more spaces would be roughly $3.50 a square foot. “When you’re talking about parking,” said Shoemaker, “that doesn’t make sense.”

Mindy Long, vice president of communications for NATSO, which represents truck-stop owners, said she believes that, in general, community resistance to truck stops and other facilities that offer truck parking stems from a public perception problem. Fearing crime, noise and bright lights that might illuminate not only parking areas but nearby homes and businesses, residents frequently and openly advocate NIMBYism —“Not-In-My-Back-Yard” — when opposing planned new or expanded truck stops.

Some examples of NIMBYism:

• In Monroe Township, Mich., a group called Monroe Citizens Against the Truck Stop formed to fight a truck stop proposed by two Detroit developers near Interstate 75, citing traffic and environmental problems as concerns. School officials also voiced concern about the security of students who attend school nearby.

• In Greenwood, Ind., city leaders recently placed a ban on new truck stops within city limits, citing quality-of-life issues. “We have three stops at one interchange already and another one on another highway,” said Ed Ferguson, Greenwood’s director of planning. The city would prefer a mix of businesses near its interchanges, Ferguson said.

• In Mahway, N.J., Pilot Corp.’s recent application for a truck stop off Route 17 with overnight parking was rejected after townspeople argued that the stop would jeopardize the health and safety of children attending school just a few hundred feet away. Pilot has since downscaled its application, asking permission to build only a gas station and convenience store.

A study conducted for NATSO by the University of Maryland in 2003 projected that truck-service facilities at highway interchanges will employ 2.2 million full- and part-time workers by 2010 and pay $1.8 billion in property taxes.

“Truck stops are also large tax collectors,” Long said. By 2010, the study projected that truck stops and travel plazas will collect $4.2 billion in state sales taxes and $4.5 billion in local and state lodging taxes.

As for crime, Long said, truck drivers tend to be victims rather than perpetrators.
“Truck-stop owners don’t want criminal activity at their locations, and drivers will lose their commercial driving licenses for a felony,” she said. “The problem is usually not with truck drivers but with someone in a four-wheel vehicle that has come in.”