Good day,
The growing truck parking reservation service TruckPark is partnering with insurer Reliance Partners to explore how truck parking reservation systems might improve the quality of a driver’s rest.
Reliance said it believes that drivers who are more rested return to duty fresher and as a result operate safer. Fatalities are up nearly 5% from 2018, the firm said, adding that improving quality rest for drivers could potentially improve driver performance.
“This partnership exemplifies our commitment to safety and innovation by looking at how technology can be used to improve driver well-being and operational safety of commercial trucks,” Chad Eichelberger, president of Reliance Partners, said. “We’re confident that providing our members with solutions like TruckPark’s app-based parking reservation platform will help our members improve safety on the roadways by improving the quality of driver rest standards within their fleets.”
According to the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry 2018 report, 48.7% of respondents said the parking shortage leads to them park on ramps or the side of the highway between three and five times a week.
TruckPark founder and CEO Anthony Petitte has been growing his business since its official launch in the Chicagoland area in 2017. TruckPark provides technology that allows truck drivers to reserve a space in a lot operated by a partner company. In August, the company announced a partnership with Storemytruck.com.
“This is the beginning of something incredible; in the next two years we will be adding more than 10,000 new truck parking spaces available to our users,” Petitte told FreightWaves at the time. “We are very excited for this phenomenal partnership. Adding additional parking facilities will not only increase our supply but provide more safe and secure parking for drivers with dedicated routes in the South and Southeast.”
Storemytruck.com is a parking lot owner located primarily in the Southeast as of now, with a large presence in the Atlanta and Charlotte areas, as well as North and South Carolina, Alabama and Florida. The current agreement with TruckPark opens up locations in Atlanta, as well as in North and South Carolina to drivers.
“If you are a truck driver who is wired from a full day’s work, stressed out about not finding a parking spot and then being forced to hunker down in an unsafe or unauthorized location, it’s hard for the brain to feel rested, and if that state is not achieved, the driver doesn’t sleep,” said Cokey Ellerbe, vice president of strategy for TruckPark. “And if a driver becomes sleep-deprived because of poor rest quality, then overall operational safety can be compromised. TruckPark offers a fix by providing drivers a guaranteed parking spot in a safe secure space where they can really settle down, disengage, relax and get quality rest – we’re excited to explore this more with Reliance Partners.”
Additional insight into truck parking reservation systems “could lead to lower premiums for fleets that provide parking reservations to its drivers,” Reliance noted.
Did you know?
According to the American Transportation Research Institute’s Operational Costs of Trucking 2019 Update, trucking fleets that use speed governors saw a nearly 1 mile per gallon improvement in fuel economy, from 5.6 mpg to 6.4 mpg, from 2017 to 2018.
Quotable:
“These new findings reinforce the importance of the new generation of diesel in delivering vital societal benefits today in the here and now. No technology is as vitally important to achieving current and future goals as advanced technology diesel engines.”
– Allen Schaeffer, Diesel Technology Forum executive director, on the role diesel engines continue to play in the future of trucking, despite increased interest in electric and hydrogen alternatives
In other news:
Tariff rollbacks possible to secure U.S.-China deal
Negotiators for the U.S. and China are considering a rollback of some tariffs as a way to seal a partial trade deal. (Wall Street Journal)
Factory orders decline more than expected
U.S. factory orders in September fell 0.6%, slightly lower than the 0.5% economists expected, the Commerce Department said. (Wall Street Journal)
Running out of bandwidth
Transportation and mobile data providers are waging a battle for precious space on the U.S. information superhighway as the fight for bandwidth in a connected society heats up. (Roll Call)
Women in Trucking, Penske ink partnership
Penske Transportation Solutions has signed on as a Gold Level Partner for the Women in Trucking Association, and Jennifer Sockel, executive vice president, talent and enterprise services at Penske, will join the board of directors. (The Chestnut Post)
Washington Supreme Court approves trucking compensation
The Washington Supreme Court has approved the compensation practices of the trucking industry in a case that pitted the state’s minimum wage law against the industry’s piece-rate work pay rates. (Lexology)
Final Thoughts
The American Transportation Research Institute released its yearly update to the operational costs of trucking. The 2019 update, which covers 2018 cost data, found that trade cycles shortened, dropping from 7.6 years in 2017 to 6.96 years in 2018, even as the average mileage of a tractor increased 2% to 91,506 miles. The average age of vehicles was 4.4 years. The annual report includes a bevy of benchmarking data. FreightWaves will publish a full report on its website on Nov. 5.
Hammer down everyone!