Dive Brief:

• Bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would invest hundreds of millions of federal dollars into more truck parking was reintroduced in Congress Wednesday.
• The Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act seeks to address a shortage that has widened in recent years to one parking spot for every 11 trucks on the road, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. OOIDA, which lobbied for the bills, says drivers waste an average of one hour per day looking for parking.
• OOIDA expects the reintroduced legislation to pass this session, and the association noted the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure passed an amended House version of last year’s bill in July.

Dive Insight:

Previous bills resulted in a committee report in December before the session ended, and the legislation was reintroduced Wednesday by Sens. Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming, and Mark Kelly, of Arizona, and Reps. Mike Bost, of Illinois, and Angie Craig, of Minnesota.

“Senator Lummis, Senator Kelly, Representative Bost, and Representative Craig have heard from small business truckers across America and are leading the charge in Congress to improve road safety through expanded truck parking,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a statement.

As with the last version, the law would primarily focus on building new truck parking facilities and converting existing weigh stations and rest areas into parking spaces for truck drivers. The U.S. Department of Transportation would award funding grants to applicants on a competitive basis.

The federal funding would supplement other public and private efforts already underway.

Love’s Travel Stops, for example, has added 397 truck parking spaces this year with new store openings in Jacksonville, Florida; New Boston, Texas; and Lafayette, Indiana; plus a rebuilt location in Gary, Indiana.

With its planned openings this year, Love’s expects to add approximately 1,600 truck parking spaces in 2023, according to spokesperson Brett Dawson.

Bost said in a statement that his family’s trucking business taught him how difficult, “and oftentimes dangerous, it can be when America’s truckers are forced to push that extra mile in search of a safe place to park.”

“By expanding access to parking options for truckers, we are making our roads safer for all commuters and ensuring that goods and supplies are shipped to market in the most efficient way possible,” Bost said. “This is a matter of public safety, and I’m committed to do all I can to drive this legislation over the finish line.”

Ellen Voie, founder of the Women In Trucking Association, highlighted concern about personal safety as the top reason women leave the trucking industry — and for the group’s support of the parking legislation.

“Parking areas need to be safe and available for breaks when needed,” Voie said in a statement. “A safe place to rest is something our members absolutely need and deserve while moving our nation’s goods.”