{"id":2571,"date":"2019-02-21T19:53:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T19:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/atri-truck-parking-shortage-costs-nearly-5k-a-year\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T16:47:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:47:30","slug":"atri-truck-parking-shortage-costs-nearly-5k-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/atri-truck-parking-shortage-costs-nearly-5k-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"ATRI: Truck Parking Shortage Costs Nearly 5K a Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The difficulty of finding truck parking is pushing drivers out of the business and contributing to the industry\u2019s persistent driver shortage, according to experts who spoke at the Natso annual convention.<\/span><\/p>\n

American Transportation Research Institute Vice President of Research Dan Murray said his organization\u2019s research shows the average driver spends 56 minutes a day looking for parking, reports Transport Topics. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, they\u2019re not getting paid, it\u2019s frustrating time and costs the average driver about $4,600 in direct lost compensation looking for truck parking,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a safety and compliance issue; it\u2019s an economic issue for some of these drivers, and our data shows for some of these drivers it\u2019s the last nail in the coffin, and they\u2019re out of here. It\u2019s costing them time and money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Natso CEO Lisa Mullings said incentives are needed to encourage the truck stop industry to make more parking available, and if drivers need to pay to reserve a spot, that is a better option than spending nearly an hour a day looking for free spots or parking unsafely on ramps or other locations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can guarantee you, the truck parking issue would be gone if people were willing to pay for it. It\u2019s a cost of doing business that the truck stop industry has,\u201d Mullings said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Across the country, the cost of funding improvements to the nation\u2019s infrastructure also is top-of-mind, according to Dave Manning, president of TCW Inc. in Nashville, Tenn., and immediate past chairman of American Trucking Associations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStates are desperate for ways to increase their funding mechanisms. That\u2019s because the federal government is not doing its job,\u201d Manning said.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Manning said he\u2019s optimistic that leaders in Washington \u2014 including President Donald Trump \u2014 sense the urgency and will take action. One way to get the ball rolling, he said, is an increase in the federal tax on diesel and gasoline, which could fund repairs to the crumbling nation\u2019s highways, roads and bridges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president has got to take a lead on this,\u201d Manning said. \u201cThe hearings have already started on infrastructure, and I do think there is going to be some movement on this, and I do think there is a better chance of a fuel tax increase now than there might have been in the past.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Manning said an extra 10 cents a gallon for fuel is a small price compared with what it would cost to repair a truck\u2019s tire or suspension system if the vehicle ran through a deep pothole and spent part of the day in a garage. He added that now is a good time to increase the fuel tax because the price of gasoline is about 30 cents a gallon less than it was a year ago, and diesel is nearly a dime cheaper than the same period in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

The federal motor fuel tax is 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel. The taxes were last raised in 1993 and are not indexed to inflation.<\/span><\/p>\n

While drivers are out on the road, a retail expert told Natso attendees the truck stop industry should consider their competitive threats and focus on improving service, such as adding more and better food choices and upgrading the overall environment. This also could include better inside and outside lighting to make the facilities more inviting to the truck driving community and the general motoring public.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA truck stop operator \u2014 like any form of retail, like any form of business in the world these days \u2014 has to be thinking very broadly because we don\u2019t know what type of changes are coming next,\u201d said Michael Sansolo, research director for the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council of North America. \u201cCompanies are concerned about retaining relevance \u2014 in the face of new shoppers and new demands, in the face of new competition and new technology.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And he had this advice for attendees who have been successful but face increasing competition in a strong economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat got us here, will not get us there,\u201d Sansolo said. \u201cIn essence, what got us to where we are today is not a guarantee of success in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The difficulty of finding truck parking is pushing drivers out of the business and contributing to the industry\u2019s persistent driver shortage, according to experts who spoke at the Natso annual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,252],"tags":[88,333,75,810,313],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment-fuel","category-infrastructure","tag-atri","tag-diesel","tag-hours-of-service","tag-rest-stops","tag-truck-parking"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}