Page 38 - Arkansas Trucking Report Volume 22 Issue 6

drivers each and every day — the lack of driver who commented, “ELD leaves no leads them to do so from three to seven
safe, available truck parking. In fact, room for dealing with full truck stops times per week.
while truck parking is number four on making it nearly impossible to preplan.” It’s difficult to keep drivers in the
the overall survey, among professional This is another area where the industry when they are faced with
driver respondents, it’s the number two industry must work with its supply challenges such as finding a safe place
issue after the ELD mandate. chain partners to educate them on, and to rest. And, keeping drivers in the
The growing scarcity of available collaboratively address, the truck park- industry rounds out the top five truck-
truck parking creates a dangerous and ing shortage. Those shippers and receiv- ing industry issues. While related to
costly situation for truck drivers who ers who recognize the HOS constraints the driver shortage, driver retention is
are often forced to drive beyond allow- under which drivers operate and who a separate issue on the annual list of
able HOS rules or park in undesignated provide truck parking and facilities trucking industry concerns.
and, in many cases, unsafe locations. for drivers will be best positioned to Driver turnover surged through the
Numerous studies have documented work with their carriers of choice to get first half of 2017 after falling for the
the truck parking challenge, including freight moved. duration of 2016, indicating that the
the congressionally mandated Jason’s Another top strategy for addressing driver market has tightened consider-
Law Truck Parking Survey Results and the truck parking shortage is to educate ably and will likely continue to do so in
Comparative Analysis. the public sector on the safety conse- 2018. To combat driver churn, which
In 2018 we may see the truck park- quences resulting from closing public dramatically increases recruitment and
ing issue gain even greater attention parking facilities and failing to expand training costs, motor carriers have begun
with all drivers on ELDs. In ATRI’s 2016 truck parking availability. ATRI’s truck to compete with one another using sign-
truck parking diary research, commer- parking diary research quantified how on/stay-on bonuses. As documented
cial drivers who were already using elec- frequently drivers are forced to park in in ATRI’s annual Operational Costs of
tronic logs were nearly twice as likely undesignated/unauthorized truck park- Trucking research, other carriers are
as drivers on paper logs to spend more ing locations like highway shoulders focused on safety performance and
than 30 minutes looking for available or ramps, with 48.7 percent of drivers on-time delivery bonuses as a way to
parking. In that study, ATRI cites one reporting that the parking shortage improve their driver retention numbers.

38 Issue 6 2017 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT