FMCSA advances plan to survey thousands of truckers about the struggle to find a truck parking spot
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will proceed with a study that aims to quantify the benefits of creating new semi truck parking spaces.
FMCSA will submit a proposed information collection titled Quantifying the Benefits of Creating New Truck Parking Spaces to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval, according to a Federal Register Notice to be published on April 6, 2026.
The agency plans to survey thousands of truck drivers on their experiences with finding truck parking spaces in order to estimate the monetary benefits of creating new truck parking spaces. The goal of the survey is to collect 1,000 complete responses.
As part of the study, FMCSA will ask truckers for information on how often they:
- Park in unauthorized spaces
- Stop driving early to obtain a parking space
- Drive off their routes to find parking
- Drive past hours-of-service limits to find parking
The survey will also work to answer the following questions:
- How many trucks are parked in authorized and unauthorized areas per day, on average? In other words, how large is the nationwide shortage of truck parking spaces?
- 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?
Officials say that they are designing the study to demonstrate the monetary benefits of increasing truck parking availability to state and local governments.
“Many government, safety, and industry organizations are working to create more truck parking spaces, but there is a lack of research on the actual precise monetary benefits of new truck parking spaces. These benefits include decreasing carriers’ costs, increasing drivers’ well-being, and reducing the number of crashes. To help State and local policymakers make informed decisions about the construction of truck parking spaces, FMCSA is conducting a research study, titled Quantifying the Benefits of Creating New Truck Parking Spaces, which will survey truck drivers about their parking habits and experiences, gaining the exact information needed to quantify the benefits of new truck parking spaces,” FMCSA said.
FMCSA initially announced the survey in November 2025 and invited public comment on the proposed information collection. Seven of the eight public comments received were supportive of the truck parking survey.