TruckParkingClub.com announced Wednesday its customers now have the ability to view available parking spaces in real-time across eight states including Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The scarcity of truck parking spots has been a persistent issue nationwide. Currently, there’s just one parking space for every 11 trucks, causing drivers to waste about an hour daily looking for a place to park, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
The free-to-use TruckParkingClub.com application, available both online or through its mobile app, enables drivers to find safe, clean parking locations, often in areas that lack large enterprise truck stops.
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TruckParkingClub.com launched in November when its co-founders, with backgrounds in real estate, found that a number of industrial and commercially zoned sites could be used to help solve truck parking shortages.
With its expansion, TruckParkingClub.com now provides real-time reservable parking locations at 143 rest stops and 120 premium parking locations for overnight, multi-night and up to monthly stays.
To build this network, TruckParkingClub.com has been working with property owners throughout these eight states to list their unused space for the driver community. These locations range from extra yard space at trucking companies to storage facilities, CDL schools, towing yards and private vacant properties.
The company anticipates enlarging its accessible parking sites thanks to federal legislation aimed at addressing the truck parking problem. If approved, the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act would allocate $755 million over three years to create more truck parking spaces, focusing on constructing new facilities and converting existing rest areas and weigh stations.
Meanwhile, TruckParkingClub.com executives have been proactive in building relationships with the trucking community as well as property owners.
Evan Shelley, co-founder and chief executive officer of TruckParkingClub.com, told FreightWaves that traveling to industry events across the country allows his team to hear what drivers need from the application and what services and amenities they need at their parking locations.
“The main lesson we have learned is to make the experience as simple as possible. Don’t overcomplicate it. Remove the nonsense,” he said. “We keep track of location requests to determine where we need more properties too.”
Providing real-time visibility into available parking spots was one of the main concerns that drivers had for Shelley. Other applications in the past have offered up parking but often the available spot count was wrong. For Shelley, addressing this matter was imperative.
“This feature is an easy replacement to using road signs on the interstate to showcase how many spots are available too,” he told FreightWaves.
Shelley will continue to use his travels to gain further insights from the trucking community.
“What do our members need to make their lives easier? That’s what we look for to implement next,” he said.
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TruckParkingClub.com launches parking marketplace platform
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