Episode 5 - Improving Truck Parking with Technology and TxDOT

In this episode Aaron has a conversation with two podcast guests about one of trucking's most critical issues - truck parking!

There is a severe shortage of parking for truck drivers and Aaron spoke with Scott Grenerth of TSPS.io and RigRest.com to find out what's being done to improve it. 

Aaron had the opportunity to speak with Scott after he led a panel discussion with TxDOT and truck drivers at the Great American Trucking Show. 

Aaron also collected input from our driver Sam Willoughby, who provided some valuable first hand insight into the problem. 

Through new technologies and regulatory study from TxDOT, positive changes are being made. 

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“Another problem you have is a lot of these truck stops. The parking, especially after dark can be hard to get into. My truck’s been hit twice by people backing into it, trying to get in parking places. And by the time I got out of the bunk, they were gone. I didn't know who did it, you know. So I have a dashcam now.”

Michael: Welcome to trucking for millennials, where we engage with the future of freight happening now. My name is Michael Clements.

Aaron: And I'm Aaron Dunn. And we're here to help trucking and logistics professionals stay up to date and ahead of the curve as our industry evolves. 

Michael: We're connecting with every step of the supply chain as part of our mission to increase transparency and provide world class freight solutions.

Aaron: Hey, thank you for listening to the Trucking for Millennials podcast. This episode is all about truck parking, and you're going to hear my conversation with Scott Grenerth of TSPS and rigrest.com as well as Sam Willoughby, a truck driver that drives for our company PDQ America. And I wanted to get their opinions on, you know, the truck parking problem. I met Scott at Great American Trucking Show a few weeks back in Dallas, and he led a panel on this particular subject of truck parking and I got to have a conversation with him after the fact. So the panel that he led included members of TxDoT, as well as some truck drivers and he pretty much summarized what the parking problems are for me and you as well as you know what the possible solutions would be as TxDoT looks ahead, as well as you know, he shared what his company is doing to help solve this critical problem in the industry right now. And then I wanted to get Sam's input as a driver. I wanted to get Sam's take on, you know, truck parking and learn from his experience driving over the road. So that's what you'll be hearing in this podcast. This episode is all about truck parking, and how it is being solved today.

Aaron: All right, Trucking for Millennials podcast. We are here at day three of GATS 2019 the Great American Trucking Show, and I am fortunate to have Scott Grenerth with me from RigRest. Introduce yourself and RigRest a little bit so the listener knows kind of who you are, kind of your background.

Scott: So I’ve done everything from the dry van stuff that pretty much everybody's on at some point in their career to really specialized trailers, and I had a flatbed with the side kit on it. So covered wagon hauling around aluminum and steel. So that's what I did through that part. And then after that, I had an opportunity to work for the Owner Operator Independent Drivers’ Association as the director of regulatory affairs. So like the big news of this past week, the hours of service changes, I would have been in the thick of that if I were still involved in that job today. Obviously, I still care about it too, but, but at least I don't have to do that day to day but that was my job working with FMCSA on regulatory reform, things like that. So I can help claim a little bit of the power part of saying, nudging them toward finally doing something look at hours of service. So, so that was the background there. And then our parent company that I worked for when they came to OOIDA’s office, it was really clear. They had a good vision for the future, what they could do to help address the truck parking challenge which was my number one stress as a driver, nothing else matched it. Even as owning my own truck, having to maintain it, that still wasn't as stressful as, am I going to be able to park tonight? Where am I gonna be able to park? Am I gonna wake up in the morning safe or is something gonna happen during the night? Who's gonna come by? What's gonna happen to my load in the trailer with all those things? So that was my number one stress. And when I knew there were people trying to address truck parking, and we had met them when they came out to OOIDA I was like, Hey, I get to help these people see what we can do to make a change in the industry. And so that's what I started doing a year and a half ago working for them. And we work with state DoTs, we work with private individuals. We work with existing truck stops, anybody at all. And we just want to match the truck drivers’ parking need with someone who is offering it so that the simplest way is what we're doing. 

Aaron: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty slick. It seems like a pretty slick interface. I haven't been able to use it. You know, I haven't downloaded it, but you know, the, the what you have on your website and things like that it's like oh, this is it looks just like you know an Uber or something but for truck parking. 

Scott: RigRest. And you know, you mentioned download, you don’t even have to download, you can just save it as your favorite or put it right on your home screen on your phone. If you want to tap it, it'll take you to rigrest.com. And any changes we've made are already automatically on there. So like right now we're still making changes to it. We've got multiple versions planned out, but we just we've got it up and running and have been had it up and running since basically the Mid-American Truck Show back in the spring and working just fine, where people can go on there on to rigrest.com and make a reservation for parking week hopefully, we will have on there where there are states all across the Midwest, especially that have invested in sensors to let you know exactly how many parking spaces are available. And they've done that primarily at rest areas. But states like Michigan and Iowa where we got that contract as TSPS we went in and we said hey, you can do better than that we can even go to truck stops. In Iowa we also even have a casino with truck parking, and McDonald's with truck parking, waystations that permit parking…all that's on this network providing real time exact data. It's not a guess it's not like we're someone of several hours ago posted on social media that “I think I see five spots,” you know, whatever. You know, that driver did not get their rear end out of the seat to do that. So stuff like that when it first came out. That was all we had. It's great. It's a tool, but our map their locations, they have the letter A on it. That means that it’s real time truck parking availability info exact right to the minute so that way a trucker can say hey, I can keep going because I know there's a spot of the head you hit hit, hit a spot where you can hit an exit ramp and all around put around to the on-ramp safely or pull into a rest area. That's You're still out, say, okay, plug your phone, or your tablet, whatever, look it up and go. All right now I can make my educated decision. How much room can I drive? Mm hmm. So that's more provide. Well, that's

Aaron: I mean, that's that's an incredible service. Because if I, if I remember, right, if I remember right, the 2018 truckerresearch.org named truck parking as top three? I know it’s top 5.

Scott: If you ask truck drivers, it's right at the top of the list. While working at OOIDA can't remember how many times I had people tell me, “Scott, it was it's my number one stress,” just like I told you. Same thing I've heard from truckers. OOIDA has had that as one of their top priorities that they've identified for years. Again, when it's the carriers, they're even starting to… at the ATA level you know, people they're even now starting to get into the game of saying, “Hey, we care about truck parking” because they realize it affects everybody's bottom line and how you operate because if you gotta stop your truck Short of where you want to be, you've got limited hours to work with. That means the next day you start your day off short of where you want it to be. So you're going to end up short again. That's not a good idea. And it doesn't make you make money. 

Aaron: Yeah, exactly. It makes everybody less efficient.

Scott: Yes. So as to congestion because people have to park where you don't want to be parked at you might be out in the suburbs of town. And then the next day you're in rush hour traffic. You wish you could have gotten further into town park that night, close to your shipper or receiver.

Aaron: Do you find that truck parking is is typically the the thing you think about most?

Sam: Well… Yeah, I think about it a lot. You get a late start, and you need to drive till eight or  nine o'clock at night. Most times you're just not gonna find a place. You got to park somewhere that's maybe not safe or maybe not legal. You know? Anymore if you're not at a truck stop by four or five o'clock in the afternoon, it's hard to find a place.

Aaron: Yeah. So how do you find parking when you when you go over the road?

Sam: Just happenstance, if I if I know that I'm going somewhere I will call and reserve, like at TA and Petro. And only thing about that is when you once you reserve it, you got to pay for it. You can't get there and the parking lot be half empty, and you get your money back. You know, that's the thing. You don't ever know. But usually you can count on by at least six o'clock there’s not gonna be any free parking space.

Aaron: So why do you think that is, you know, you've got, you know, decades in the industry at this point and lots of experience. What do you think has been the barrier for so long, that now it's like, Man, this is a really critical issue that it's you know, we're we're still kind of trying to figure out the best way to solve it. It seems like we just need more space though right?

Scott: Right behind us today in the stage back here we just had I helped lead facilitate a discussion at Texas DoT on truck parking because they are right in the middle of looking at a truck parking study of what they're going to do where they're going to invest their dollars. And right before that, I was talking with their head of freight operations. And when I was talking with her that very thing you came up with just with me, and she brought up what you just said, for the people at the state DoTs and the federal level, it is not simply put has not been a priority all along. What really got things kicked firmly in the rear end and moving is what's called Jason's law. There is a driver named Jason Rivenburg who lost his life because he was told he could not park at a receiver that he was trying to deliver to. “You gotta get out of here.” You know, they had land to park there and all that they wouldn't let him. He went found the nearest place that he thought was safe. It wasn't. He was shot during the night for about I think it was five bucks he had in his wallet, and his widow was left at home left at home with a child about to be born. So thank goodness his widow Hope Rivenburg is an awesome advocate, very strong willed woman. Fantastic. And so Jason's Law as it became to be known got passed by Congress really easily.

Aaron: What is Jason's law?

Scott: It simply says that the Federal Highway Administration the branch of the Federal DoT that they need to look at truck parking, and find out and do what they needed to do a study which they have done now they're actually doing the update study right as we speak. I think it's every five years or updating it so five years ago, they came out with the first study and they looked at every state around the country to identify where's the truck parking need? And so to no trucker surprise again. Yeah, every big city so here in Texas, it's the Texas triangle. You know, that's, that's the bad area all around. And if you're in any of those points of the triangle that's where it’s the worst. If you get near Atlanta, it's horrible. If you get near, you know, Nashville, it's really bad. You get near whatever you name big city, and it's bad where you're on the West Coast or East Coast, and that whole entire East Coast I 95 corridor is bad. So that's what I did it help them have the funding to look into truck parking for the first time on the big scale, partnering with the states to give them the input or doing studies to further drill down on what to do, because…Hey, I was an owner operator and it was my fuel tax dollars that were going into the states … and I appreciate the fact they want to be careful about their money being spent, even though it's frustrating, like we could tell you go to the big cities go to these areas, we can really easily tell them the major areas but they also same time we're being careful about it and want to spend the money wisely. So that's where that's kind of initiated and it's led up to  now many states are actively pursuing it one way or another.

Aaron: Well that's good. There's progress being made slowly but surely, but it seems like there is a firm kind of kick the pants but, but it's unfortunate circumstances that led to that actual awareness.

Scott: Very true. And it was even Jason right where I used to deliver all the time. Right before I work for OOIDA, I was delivering loads to this place in Detroit, Michigan. That right when I started that exact same load I hauled in there I could tell you exactly how his trailer been loaded. I mean, I know it intimately. And he parked outside on a very hot summer day right there. And again, shot and his truck was burned, actually, while he was in there. Yeah, so again, it's been unfortunate circumstances but thankfully, slowly but surely it's being addressed. Yes. One of their big challenges they have is, you know, and having paid my fuel tax money into states for eight years, including some of that money went to Texas so I came down here to GATS every year at least…how that money gets spent is crucial. They don't want it to be misguided, you're going to the places where it's not going to be as helpful. So and as part of that, what they need to juggle as a state do t and all states do is okay, where's our priority lie?

Aaron: What do you think could be a possible solution?

Sam: I don't know unless they build dedicated truck spots, you know. But you, anytime you do something like that it’s kind of one of those deals, anybody that wanted to use it, could use it. So you you'll have RVs and all that kind of stuff. They'll come in there. But you know, they need rest, too. You know, so, I don't know. Unless you build more parking like at the scale houses and stuff. Some states don't allow you to park overnight in their scales, even though they've got truck parking places. Kentucky's really good about it. They have huge parking places… they have huge parking lots at the scales and it's a 24 hour safe haven for trucks. But something like that because truck drivers have messed in their own mess with some of these things. They just don't some of them and you know, as I can't fix 1% they can ruin it for everybody. And a lot of states have shut down perfectly good rest areas and I'm sure it's because of the cost to maintain it.

Scott: When it comes to truck parking, there's the need for what's referred to as staging or queuing. So for example, someone needs to come in here to Dallas to deliver to the there's a great Farmers Market not far away from here and I know one of the gals on the panel today she's delivered there. So she was a great example that she said you know, I would come in before rush hour traffic got going. She had a place she knew she could kind of sneak back in and just hide there and be out of everybody's way mostly and then be able to take a break while traffic was still happening. And then when the market opened she would make her deliveries just a few blocks away. So that's staging you know, she didn't need to be there overnight just there for a couple hours, whatever until the her point was open. So she invented this space, right? That's what they want to move away from and be able to provide formal places for that to happen to say, and then make sure there's good lighting there. So it's a safe environment so that, you know, especially female drivers, but really everybody should be concerned about their safety out there. And so that's, that's one thing that came up. So we talked about staging, we'll talk about needing it primarily to help with like to avoid being stuck in rush hour in the morning or the evening, to just get in, get parked for short term. You don't even have to be right at your shipper receiver, just a mile away. That's great, because that's only a mile of traffic versus 5, 10,  20 miles of traffic. So when it comes to looking at this need, the overall discussion a lot of people really is just simply having more options. And more places, even if they're smaller was really a common theme that came up today. And both for staging and overnight parking.

Aaron: It does make sense or you make you know, these very efficient, but adequately sized places strategically placed around cities because cities, you know, are are engineered in such a way that you're going to have sectors of the city that's going to have you know, more manufacturing and more, you know, places that you're going to be making those deliveries I suspect. So if you could say, Okay, well, you kind of take a systemized approach to where, okay, well we have this amount of funds, and then we can apply those funds to 10 of these type of parking spaces around the around this area, this metropolitan area… 

Scott: Instead of only five…instead of smaller or the bigger ones. That's what they wanted that input on and they heard it today.

Aaron: So, Texas Department of Transportation is looking at this in a pretty comprehensive way. They have a lot of stakeholders and they're asking truck drivers and trucking companies and they're really…and experts like Scott. They're really looking at this closely to provide solutions at a state level and an a regulatory level. But that's not the only solution that is being put forth. Because the company that Scott works for TSPS has developed rigrest.com, a platform that helps truck drivers not only know where to park, but how many individual spots are available, and if they can be reserved for a future stay. 

Scott: Sure, real simple…when folks go to rigrest.com what I encourage them to do is to go check it out, just take a look at the map on there and see where we've got the type of information we have, which again, will have soon be real time availability info on there, there are places you can reserve. A good thing to do would be to just when you go there, click on the top right side it says “Create an account.” That way you got your account set up ready to go first time you say “hey, you know what? This is one of those times I need to make reservation.” The rest of the time the information is free and it's available. We just know that at some point you'll use that and so we want it to be there when it's right for you.

Aaron: You know, it's an unfortunate thing that a tragedy had to take place prior to federal and state governments taking meaningful action to improve trip parking around the state but it is good to see that TXDoT is finally taking this issue seriously and is in this in the process. of finding some comprehensive solutions. When we did reach out to them, they said that they are they've been pleased with the responses that they've gathered so far and are in still they're still in the process of determining the need and where best to allocate the funding that they have in 2020, when the survey is up, and they develop the action plan, so we look forward to seeing that action plan. And we'll keep you updated on the progress that's being made. And when those changes are introduced. Thank you so much for listening to Trucking for Millennials. If you have a podcast topic that you'd like us to cover, be sure to send it our way. We would appreciate it. We'll talk to you next time.

Katie: Hello, this is Katie from PDQ America. I wanted to invite you to join our newsletter The Transmitter. If you'd like to receive the latest trucking news, industry insights and other valuable information every week, visit pdqamerica.com/podcast