Big wheels, little space
With Texas growing, trucks are in a bind for places to park
Like a lot of Texans, sometimes when he’s out and about, Jorge Chavez is just looking for a little Chick-fil-A. Finding it when you’re behind the wheel of a big rig is harder than one might think.
“We can’t go through the drive-thru window,” Chavez said as he walked around the front of the Jetco Delivery rig — his small business on big wheels.
Chicken sandwiches aren’t the only things hard to come by for truck drivers. Between a growing economy expected once the pandemic passes and regulatory changes in the industry, a safe, reliable place to park is increasingly another.
With more trucks coming in and out of the state, those extra-large spots are much more coveted and growing more precious as people pile into metropolitan areas. That’s leaving some trucks on the side of the road, where drivers feel less safe, but also where they’re an obstacle for all drivers and a potential crash hazard on freeway shoulders.
Parking spots for semis are already in short supply statewide, but two things about trucking have officials worried they are on borrowed time to find a solution: electronic logs that truckers must use and expected explosive growth in cargo coming to local ports.
Combined, they mean more trucks and drivers on the road — the volume of truckloads is expected to more than double by 2045 to
2.5 billion tons — and more drivers facing strict limits on their time behind the wheel.
“There is no fudging, no way to decide if there is a better spot in 15 more miles,” said John Esparza, CEO of the Texas Trucking Association, of the electronic logging devices now required. “It makes more hard lines.”
From books to digital
Truckers carried paper log books for 80 years, tracking their time in 15-minute intervals, before ELDs became mandatory in December 2017. Now the devices track that drivers are operating within the hours of service limits set by federal law, which allows a driver to work 14 hours and drive up to 11 hours during that time before they must take a 10hour break.
“You get fined if you go over, so it stops them in their tracks,” said Ed Emmett, chairman of the state’s freight advisory committee and fellow in energy and transportation at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Trucking is all about time — tracking it, planning it and trying to effectively spend it. If a commuter is stuck in traffic, it typically costs them their own time. For truck drivers such as Chavez, it affects their productivity, which has ripple effects through industries.
Chavez, last month named the state trucking association’s driver of the year, said he welcomed the change to electronic logs, unlike some of his peers.
“I love this because I don’t need paper,” he said. “If you spill coffee on your log book, you have to start over again.”
Still, he said, it definitely puts planning trips front and center for drivers. With the technology available to them, preparing where they will park hours ahead is the best method.
“Everything begins with your trip planning,” Chavez said. “And then you need to have a second plan or a third plan in case.”
When they need to stop, truck drivers have many options, but the concern is whether the 27,300 parking spaces in trucks stops and parking lots for big trucks across Texas are enough and where they need to be. In an assessment for the freight advisory committee, consultant Cambridge Systematics concluded at peak demand — typically the middle of the night — the state operated at 98 percent of capacity in 2018 for those available truck spots.
“They are full, and that’s why you see someone parked on the side of the road,” Esparza said.
In a survey of drivers as part of the parking study, half said they park in unauthorized locations — anywhere not specifically for truck parking — strictly because of service-hour limitations. For a variety of reasons, that is not ideal and in some cases dangerous, officials and drivers said. Trucks on shoulders of the side of the road can be struck by motorists, and drivers in unsafe areas face risk of robbery.
Without additional parking, the state’s needs could soon outpace supply, 90 percent of which is privately owned parking at places such as truck stops, restaurants and commercial centers. Three companies — Love’s, Pilot/Flying J and TA/Petro — account for onequarter of the 650 locations where trucks can park in Texas.
Drivers and officials said it’s unsurprising that probusiness Texas would have a trucking industry buoyed by private firms. Even though the Texas Department of
Transportation has plenty of land right off the freeway in many spots, opening it to trucks isn’t the solution in most spots, many agree.
“Anytime the government starts building facilities to compete with private sector, there is pushback,” Emmett said.
For drivers, private locations will remain the more popular option.
“I’d prefer a truck stop because it is safer,” Chavez said.
He’d also like more truck stops to have Chick-fil-A franchises. Though they share the road, drivers of automobiles and big rigs operate in different realms. An automobile driver can skip off the freeway and take another route. Trucks have to think a little more about the bridges and turns before they detour.
Parking is no different. Tucking a pickup into a downtown Houston spot can be tricky but doable. Parallel parking in Rice Village can take some practice but is possible, just not for a big truck.
“You need a place to come in and out. That’s preferred,” Chavez said. “We can’t just pull in and out. We need a lot of room.”
At private parking locations, amenities abound for drivers who are often looking for a number of services while they’re off the clock for 10 hours. Prepared food, showers, lighting for safety, restrooms and internet are just some of the offerings a private lot can provide that public ones cannot — at least without significant costs.
The question is where the balance between private and public lots lies when there is enormous unmet need, Emmett said, noting the prohibition on prepared food at state rest areas. During the COVID-19 crisis, with sit-down restaurants closed and truckers still on the move, federal officials waived the 1956 ban on commercial food service at public interstate rest areas — but only to allow food trucks. Eleven states quickly seized on the chance to offer food vendors the option and drivers the service.
Despite a push by trucking industry lobbyists and local officials around the state, the proposal went nowhere in Texas. Chavez said he and many drivers started carrying their own food, something he said he still does to reduce contact during the pandemic and to assure he has a meal.
In many parts of the state, including Houston, private parking is the only legitimate option. As the state’s largest city and largest TxDOT district, Greater Houston has the most parking with 3,000 spaces, but every space is privately held.
Ground to cover
Texas Transportation Commissioner Alvin New said more study is needed to see where the state can fill gaps in the private options.
“We have a lot of ground to cover,” New said, referring not only to the massive distances in Texas but the growing need.
The starting point, New said, could include more roadside picnic areas rarely visited by automobile travelers and pullout areas in rural parts of the state. Still, the market is going to provide a lot of that need, Esparza said.
“If a guy wants to make a buck today and take a cotton field today outside Amarillo or someplace in Sealy and offer it for truck parking, I think that’s going to be explored,” he said. “We know the demand is there, and we’re getting questions all the time about how to meet that need. It’s just about catching up.”