Hilton cited West Memphis as being a problem because it’s at the crossroads of I-55 and I-40.
SAFETY FIRST The parking situation forces driv-
ers and carriers to balance competing priorities. They only get paid when the truck is on the road, so ideally they would drive until they reach their hours of service limit and then park just in time. Unfortunately, parking isn’t
always available then, so they have to decide how much wiggle room to allow. Finding a place to park and then pulling into the stop eats up valuable minutes – even hours – of a driver’s allotted time. What does a carrier do when a
driver has reached his limit but can’t find a place to park? In that case, driv- ers don’t have a choice but to exit the highway at the first safe opportu- nity. Jeff Loggins, president of Loggins Logistics out of Jonesboro, said his
owner-operators will note the situation so that, if stopped by an enforcement officer, they can prove what happened. An hours of service violation can affect the carrier’s CSA score, and that’s a problem. However, it’s not as big a problem as leaving a driver in an unsafe situation. “You always put safety first,”
Loggins said. The parking problem was worsened
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by the recent FMCSA hours of service rule that required drivers to take rest periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on two successive nights in order to take advantage of the 34-hour restart provi- sion. That rule, suspended in December by a congressional act, forced a lot of trucks off the road at the same time and then put them back in traffic together just as congestion was about to worsen in the morning. That made it harder for drivers like James Collado, an owner-operator who has driven for Calark for 15 years. “Everybody was converging in the truck stops at the same time,” he said.
MORE THAN FUELING LOCATIONS AND GREASY DINERS The number of truck stops in
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Arkansas is growing, but not quickly enough. Among the major chain pro- viders, there are two TA spots, at Earle off I-40 and Prescott off I-30, and two Petro stops, both on I-40 at North Little Rock and West Memphis. Between them, the four stops offer 992 spots. Tom Liutkus, vice president of Travel Centers of America, which owns both, says the company has added about 30 properties to its network during the last three years, but there are no identified spots in Arkansas where negotiations are taking place. Among its six Pilot Travel Centers and three Pilot Flying J Travel Plazas, Pilot offers 1,150 parking spaces in Arkansas, according to Anne LeZotte, communications manager for Pilot Flying J. It also has no plans to build any new stops. Love’s Travel Stops offers 452 spaces at its eight current locations, including a location in Searcy that opened last July with 80 spaces.
22 ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 1 2015
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