70% of truckers forced to violate hours-of-service to find safe parking, ATA says

The dire lack of safe semi truck parking is the focus of a new campaign from the American Trucking Associations (ATA) as the group pushes lawmakers to act to increase funding for parking projects.

The ATA recently shared a mini-documentary video on the U.S. truck parking crisis as part of an effort to convince Congress to act to secure additional funding to expand safe truck parking. According to the ATA, there are only 313,000 truck parking spaces nationwide, and approximately 3.5 million truck drivers.

Also as part of this effort, ATA also shared an infographic highlighting the toll that the truck parking shortage takes on America’s truck drivers. Notable here is the group’s assertion — based on U.S. Department of Transportation data — that 70% of truck drivers are forced to violate hours-of-service regulation in order to secure a safe parking space.

“A chronic, nationwide lack of truck parking is forcing America’s professional truck drivers into an untenable position—either violate federal hours-of-service regulations that mandate rest breaks at specific times, or park in unsafe and unauthorized locations,” the group said.

Take a look at the video below.