President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan comes up short on addressing a key issue of parking for truckers, and the Trucking Action Plan fails to mention parking once in the law, as Bloomberg reported.
As the nation becomes more reliant on online orders and shipping, while dealing with supply chain woes during the Biden administration, Illinois-based driver Merry Leach told highway officials in December the problems will remain "until drivers are able to utilize their whole 11 hour drive time driving, not driving around in circles, fighting for the next parking spot."
Truck parking is a top-five issue for drivers, according to the American Transportation Research Institute's annual report, and an infrastructure provision for $1 billion in truck parking grants was removed from the bill before passage.
"This is the 10th year that the lack of available truck parking has made the top 10 list of industry concerns, and among commercial drivers it has consistently ranked in their top three," the report read.
Drivers, paid by the mile and not by the hour, shorten their drive times expecting troubles in finding parking, particularly in the Northeast, according to the report.
Evening rush hour is a prime time to stop for fuel and parking, too.
"Since most truck stops fill up between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., finding parking is a huge pain," according to a Reddit user discussion the issue, Business Insider reported. "Basically there are way more trucks on the road now than there were 20 years ago and truck parking hasn't changed to accommodate the new rigs."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.