FMCSA study on truck parking squeeze launched, seeks comments

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is going ahead with a study on truck parking, first signaled in a November notice to the Federal Register. FMCSA is calling the study “Quantifying the Benefits of Creating New Truck Parking Spaces.”

It was first signaled in a 60-day notice in November, which starts the clock on a preliminary comment period prior to the submission of the full Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget.

“This research study will collect approximately 1,000 survey responses from truck drivers about their experiences with finding truck parking spaces to estimate the monetary benefits of creating new truck parking spaces.” the notice in Monday’s Federal Register said. Comments must be received by May 6.

The Federal Register portal for the ICR can be found here. In its Federal Register notice, FMCSA said its information gathering will focus on four key questions: How many trucks are parked in authorized and unauthorized areas per day on average? What are the most cost-effective methods for increasing truck parking capacity?

Which truck parking information management systems are used most often and are most effective? What percentage of drivers routinely make reservations, pay for parking or use various other truck parking services? The November notice sought comment on the issue as well. It only received eight.

But two were from the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Truckload Carriers Association.

“Seven of the eight commenters were supportive of the study, while one commenter (an anonymous truck driver) was skeptical of government involvement in truck parking and preferred to let private truck stop companies solve the truck parking shortage entirely,” FMCSA said in its recap of the reaction to the November call for comments.

Earlier comments noted growth in paid parking The ATA and one individual commenter, FMCSA said, noted in those comments that there had been growth in parking parking, “and the frustration truck drivers often feel when their only options are paid spaces and unauthorized spaces.”

But FMCSA said the upcoming agency study “will focus on the benefits of truck parking spaces in general and does not intend to assess the advantages and disadvantages of paid and free spaces.” FMCSA made clear elsewhere in its ICR announcement that its study is not going to take in every aspect of truck parking.

For example, while the ATA and an individual commenter in response to the November call cited amenities as being important at parking spots, like restrooms and vending machines, “FMCSA agrees that those amenities are important, but estimating their benefits would be beyond the scope of this study.”

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