City calls $50 fine and driver word-of-mouth a “great game plan” in face of truck parking issue

A new Amazon warehouse has left truckers in a Massachusetts city with nowhere to park, and the city has offered very few solutions. 

Elected officials in Haverhill, Massachusetts are attempting to resolve citizen concerns over owner operators parking in neighborhoods through “education” and $50 fines. 

“We believe that once we inform these drivers of what they’re doing and not to go there—we’ve been told drivers talk, so once they know they can’t go there and know if they do they will get a $50 ticket, they will no longer go there,” State Rep. Ryan M. Hamilton said to WHAV. 

“So, the information part and the education part is what we’re hoping does the trick and, if it doesn’t, well then they’re going to have to pay that $50 fine every time and that will get costly.”

Hamilton calls the $50 fine and relying on driver word-of-mouth a “great game plan” in the face of increased truck traffic due to the Amazon warehouse in North Andover. 

“It could be overnight or a couple of days. Basically, Ward Hill has become a truck stop,” said Haverhill City Councilor Catherine P. Rogers. “It could be overnight or a couple of days. Basically, Ward Hill has become a truck stop. They’ve been in Duffy’s. I know they’ve thrown them out. They’ve been in Dunkin’ Donuts along the connector. They’re sleeping there at night. They’ve been on Neck Road.”

Rogers says that officials have been speaking with Amazon to come up with a plan for the truck parking issue. Currently, that plan involves taking pictures of illegally parked trucks, sending it to law enforcement, who will then send the pictures to Amazon. Supervisors at the Amazon warehouse would then speak to the photographed truckers directly about where they’ve been parking their trucks. 

“They really care, they want to work with the community. They don’t want their facility, by any means, to hinder or put any community members in harmful situations. They’ve been great to deal with,” Hamilton said.

“They had five representatives from Amazon that came from around different places,” Rogers continued. “I think we worked something out, a strategy where the police department sends pictures directly to them so we can target specific trucks so Amazon will be happy to talk to them and try to get them off of our streets.”

Amazon claims to be looking into potential land purchases in order to provide truck parking for drivers frequenting their facility. City officials say they will follow up with Amazon on those plans in January 2025.