No Parking—or at Least, Not Enough
Limited truck parking has become a local and national issue
Photo: Jon D. Kennedy
By Steve Brawner Contributing Writer
After hauling “anything legal” for
CalArk for 25 years, Allen Robertson knows his way around the highways. He also has mastered one of the most underappreciated but necessary skills for a driver – knowing where to park. Parking is an important issue,
for him and for the industry. In the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) annual “Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry” survey
ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 1 2015
of 4,000 stakeholders, truck parking was ranked as the sixth most important issue and was ranked number one by 5 percent of respondents. It was the second year in a row that the issue was ranked sixth. Before 2012, it wasn’t even on the list. Arkansas has an estimated 4,282
truck parking spaces at truck stops, plus 280 offered by the state at rest areas and other locations, according to Danny Straessle, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department assistant public information officer.
Dennis Hilton, CalArk’s vice presi-
dent of safety, gave the state a B grade and said his drivers don’t complain much about parking in Arkansas. On the opposite end is California, which some drivers prefer to avoid because the parking situation is so bad. Robertson, who drives throughout the 48 states and Canada, said Arkansas is “better than most” states – certainly better than California. But there still aren’t enough spaces here – particularly in urban areas.
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