How We’re Changing the Parking Game with Truck Parking Club in Trimble CoPilot
It’s critical that drivers are provided the information they need to find safe, reliable parking spots. That’s why we’ve partnered with Truck Parking Club to bring their industry-leading parking data into the Trimble Places database that powers Trimble CoPilot commercial navigation application, Trimble PC*Miler mileage and rating solution, and our developer-focused web app, Content Tools.
Understanding the Challenge
A dire lack of parking for commercial vehicles across the United States has decreased driver safety, delayed deliveries and increased costs and regulatory violations. According to a recent American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) survey of the most critical issues facing the trucking industry throughout 2024, parking ranked second for companies and first for drivers. A shortage of viable parking spaces across the US for commercial vehicles causes a wide range of problems for drivers and transportation companies.
Because spaces are often difficult to find, drivers frequently violate Hours of Service restrictions trying to find a spot suitable to their vehicle or are forced to park in locations that could be unsafe for the driver or their load.
American Trucking Association reports, per US Department of Transportation data, that “98% of commercial drivers regularly experience problems finding safe parking” and that “70% of drivers have been forced to violate Hours of Service rules to find safe parking.” According to the American Transportation Research Institute, “56 minutes of drive time per day is sacrificed by drivers.” And the Transportation Research Record says that “more than $6,800 of a driver’s annual pay is lost looking for parking, amounting to a 12% pay cut.”
In addition, the parking search itself can lead to a driver performing numerous unnecessary and unsafe maneuvers within unfamiliar locations, resulting in more accidents and risks to the driver’s safety. The time wasted and increased risk not only have a severe impact on a driver’s quality of life, but they also increase a trucking company’s fuel costs as drivers are forced to circle or idle, and if accidents do occur, they threaten others, incur legal penalties, and impact the company’s reputation.
How We’re Enhancing Our Solutions
Trimble has recently taken steps to address the parking shortage by giving drivers tools and insights that will help them find safe spots faster. Among a number of other enhancements, the latest version of our CoPilot navigation app gives drivers real-time information about parking availability in a range of locations across the US, so they can easily find and navigate to potentially open spots.
But Truck Parking Club goes a step further by enabling drivers to quickly search for a parking location they booked via the Truck Parking Club app or website and then directly navigate to that location in CoPilot.
Truck Parking Club is built on a network of more than 1,100 hourly, daily, weekly or monthly truck parking locations that are adequate for truck parking: this includes trucking companies, truck repair shops, tow truck companies, storage companies, CDL Schools, real estate investors, truck parking operators and more.
The properties listed are owned by individual property members offering their own spaces to commercial drivers for rent. Drivers can easily search for parking by city, state or amenities, complete their booking with Truck Parking Club, arrive and park. And should any questions arise, Truck Parking Club’s support team—staffed by former drivers—is available 24x7x365 to assist at +1 (888) 899-PARK.
Getting Started
Drivers or fleets in need of parking can book a spot in the Truck Parking Club app or website, then find and navigate to the parking location in CoPilot. Property owners with space suitable for parking can list their locations here: truckparkingclub.com/become-property-member.
To learn more about enhancing your driver experience with CoPilot and provide them more reliable navigation and parking, please contact our team.