Truck Parking Fell Off Trucking's Top 10 While Drivers Still Rank It Second

In the same week that Washington put $200 million behind new truck parking, the industry's own ranking of its biggest problems pushed parking out of the Top 10 for the first time in more than a decade. The two facts point in opposite directions, and they come from different groups. Fleet executives, squeezed by diesel and lawsuits, have moved parking down their list. The drivers who spend the last hour of every shift hunting for a legal space have not.

A Ranking That Fell While the Shortage Stayed

The American Transportation Research Institute released its 2026 Top Industry Issues report on October 18, built from nearly 3,100 responses. Fuel prices took the top spot, and the economy fell to sixth after three years at No. 1. Motor carriers ranked lawsuit abuse reform, fuel prices and the driver shortage as their top three concerns. Truck drivers ranked fuel prices, truck parking and driver compensation as theirs.

That split is what moved parking. According to TheTrucker.com, parking slid to No. 11 overall from fourth in 2025, the first time it has missed the Top 10 since 2012, even though it remained the No. 2 concern for professional drivers. Drivers made up 25.8% of respondents, so their priorities carry less weight in the combined list than those of the carrier executives and other stakeholders who make up the rest. Jason Damron told TheTrucker.com that "there's a lot of dangerous parking out there" and that "parking at night is almost impossible."

The ranking measures attention, not capacity. Nothing about the physical shortage changed between 2025 and 2026. What changed is that diesel above $6.50 a gallon and lawsuit exposure crowded the executive agenda, leaving parking as a problem drivers feel every night and carriers rank behind cash flow and legal exposure.

$200 Million Buys About 2,400 Spaces

On October 14, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced $200 million through the INFRA grant program for 14 projects in 12 states. Land Line tallied the listed projects at 2,403 new spaces, against a national ratio of about one truck parking space for every 11 trucks on the road. The largest by capacity is Tennessee's I-40/I-24 freight corridor network at 500 spaces for $23.95 million. The largest single award, $27.74 million, goes to a new Minnesota rest area near Fergus Falls with 63 truck spaces. Across the program, the money works out to roughly $83,000 per space.

Drivers already pay for the gap with their time. Transport Topics reported that drivers can lose 56 minutes a day and $5,600 a year searching for parking, while the American Trucking Associations cited an ATRI analysis putting the lost wages at $6,813 a year, and a USDOT study finding that 98% of drivers regularly have trouble finding safe parking. "Truck parking is not simply a matter of convenience," said Henry Hanscom, ATA's chief advocacy and public affairs officer, calling it "a critical safety and supply chain issue." Duffy put it more simply: drivers "shouldn't have to spend over an hour looking for a safe place to rest at the end of the day."

More money may follow. ATA says Congress approved $200 million for truck parking in the fiscal 2026 package, the House Appropriations Committee has advanced another $200 million for fiscal 2027, and the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act would provide $755 million in competitive grants. None of the newly funded spaces exist yet; each project still has to clear planning and construction.

"Truck parking is not simply a matter of convenience." Henry Hanscom, American Trucking Associations

Where Shippers Fit Into a Parking Problem

Parking is usually framed as a highway infrastructure issue, but some of the demand is created at the dock. Two of the 14 awards sit at ports. The Port of Wilmington's $6 million project, Port City Daily reported, pairs about 140 truck spaces with about 50 container staging positions for early arrivals and appointment-based terminal deliveries. That is a facility built around the gap between when a truck shows up and when the freight is ready for it.

That gap is old and well documented. In earlier ATRI detention research covering 2014 to 2018, one in five drivers said preloaded trucks were not ready by their appointment time, and delays of six hours or more rose 27.4% over the period. Every hour a driver waits at a shipper is an hour of service clock spent off the road, which pushes the end of the shift later into the evening, exactly when ATRI's respondents say parking is hardest to find.

What Fleets and Shippers Can Do Before the Spaces Open

New public parking will take years to build. In the meantime, the operators handling the shortage best are focusing on these steps:

• Plan the stop, not just the route. Build the overnight parking location into the dispatch plan so drivers are not left searching in the final hour of their available drive time.
• Measure the search time. Telematics can show how many minutes each driver spends circling before parking. At 56 minutes a day, that is a productivity loss worth putting on the operations dashboard.
• Treat unsafe parking as a safety risk. Ramp and shoulder parking exposes drivers and equipment to collisions. Coach on it and track it the same way as hard braking or speeding.
• Hold shippers to their appointment times. Late loads push drivers into the evening parking scramble. Detention data gives carriers the evidence to negotiate earlier release windows or on-site staging.
• Offer on-site parking where you can. Shippers and receivers with spare yard space can let drivers stay overnight or arrive early, which improves on-time pickups and helps them stay a preferred customer.
• Watch the funded corridors. Lanes through Tennessee, Iowa, Georgia and the funded ports will gain capacity first. Factor those projects into lane and terminal planning as they open.

The Top 10 list says the industry has bigger worries this year. The drivers who rank parking second, and the one space available for every 11 trucks, say the problem has not gone anywhere. The fleets and shippers that plan around it now will not have to wait for 2,400 new spaces to arrive.