LAS VEGAS. Trucking and truck stop leaders on Monday launched a new highway safety initiative to help professional drivers find available truck parking with a free mobile app called Park My Truck, the result of efforts by the NATSO Foundation, NATSO, Inc., the American Trucking Assns. (ATA), and the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).
“Park My Truck was developed by the truck stop industry in conjunction with our trucking partners based on feedback from professional drivers and trucking companies who often describe truck parking availability as a critical need,” said Lisa Mullings, the president of NATSO and the NATSO Foundation, speaking at the ATA Management Conference and Exhibition here. “The NATSO Foundation and its allies are committed to providing America’s truck drivers with easy, up-to-date information regarding available truck parking. Working together, we can advance safety on the highways for all drivers by sharing information and helping truck drivers more easily find and utilize existing capacity.”
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Scott Darling emphasized the importance of trucking to the nation’s economy and, in turn, the importance of truck drivers’ having a safe place to park and rest. And he’s experienced the problem of finding parking on his ride-alongs with truckers.
“The trucking industry operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Darling said. “Parking is not a narrow issue effecting just trucking, it’s a highway safety issue—it impacts all of us. We have a responsibility to act.”
Park My Truck includes the total number of truck parking spaces for nearly 5,000 truck stops in the U.S. and some rest areas. Participants providing parking information include independent truck stops as well as chain locations representing 150,000 truck parking spaces.
“Finding a safe place to park is a consistent issue for drivers in our industry,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “While we would love to see the number of spaces increase, tightening state and federal highway budgets will limit the opportunity to expand parking capacity for the foreseeable future. It is important we have ways to let drivers know where the spaces currently exist, which is why this app, developed in cooperation with ATRI and NATSO, is so important. Directing drivers to safe parking spaces will give them opportunity to get the rest they need and the off-duty time they are required to have.”
Administered by the NATSO Foundation, Park My Truck is accessible for free by internet or through smart-phone apps by all professional drivers, trucking fleets, state and other administrators of highway rest areas.
Truck parking operators need only to have internet access and the ability to count available spaces, whether by observation or by electronic means. Truck parking providers can contact the NATSO Foundation at (703) 549-2100 or [email protected] to establish an account to provide truck parking availability.
For links to download the app, visit www.ParkMyTruck.com
