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The Atlanta Regional Commission is outlining strategies to help local governments add truck parking where it’s most needed as freight demand rises. (Atlanta Regional Commission)

Commercial truck parking challenges persist nationwide, but government leaders are increasingly paying attention to this issue, from the halls of Congress to statehouses and regional planning commissions.

The received $200 million in funding to support truck parking projects and enhance ef­ficiency along freight and commuter corridors through the fiscal 2026 funding package passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Feb. 3.

Legislation to improve truck parking also could move forward this year as part of Congress’ next policy road map for surface transportation.

“I think truck parking is positioned to be a part of the reauthorization debate. It’s showing up as an issue tied to safety, supply chains and local impacts — all things Congress cares about in this cycle,” said Katie Economou, legislative director for the .

She pointed to the latest version of the bipartisan Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, introduced last year by Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.). That legislation would direct the U.S. Department of Transportation to provide competitive grants for projects that “provide public parking for commercial motor vehicles and improve the safety of commercial motor vehicle drivers.”

The biggest hurdle to addressing the nation’s truck parking shortage has been adequate funding, according to Adrienne Gildea, deputy executive director for the .

“While truck parking facilities are an eligible investment under various infrastructure programs, they are rarely the top priority, having to compete with more roads and bridges,” she said.

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Meanwhile, states are discussing how to effectively disperse federal funds to accommodate more truck parking, said Andrew Fain, research analyst with the American Transportation Research Institute.

The private sector also may have a role to play in securing physical spaces, he added.

“States are getting creative in terms of how they are going to address the shortage,” Fain said, noting Florida, where about 1,000 ­spaces have been added, and Ohio, where that state’s DOT plans to add about 1,400 spaces and repurpose some state-owned facilities using state funds.

Indiana, “another state doing it right,” recently announced plans to expand and add 1,200 truck parking spaces to rest areas and welcome centers, Fain said.

“Generally, states actively applying for federal funding for truck parking tend to be doing things right,” he said. “Surprisingly, ATRI’s research found that only 40% of states have applied for grant funding for truck parking initiatives.”

Fain explained that Southern and Midwestern states generally have more parking spaces per rest area than other regions: The average Southern state has 25 truck parking spaces per rest area, while Midwestern states have, on average, 21 spaces per rest area.

“[Where funding goes] hinges on states having the requisite data and information to understand where parking is most needed and then demonstrating that value to secure funds,” he said. “A truck parking space near a freight hub in a densely populated area is likely, though not always, more valuable than a space in a rural, sparsely populated area.”

Regional Planning

Efforts to improve commercial truck parking also are advancing at the local and re­gional levels.

The , for example, developed a freight mobility plan that recommends two approaches for area municipalities or counties seeking to increase parking for tractor-trailers. The commission established that plan after local government leaders expressed concern about trucks parking on highway ramps and other unsafe places.

One approach adds more options to the existing zoning code to allow for the creation of designated spaces for long-term truck parking or temporary truck staging. The second option allows municipalities to enforce the model short-term truck parking ordinance, which enables short-term parking access so that truck drivers can meet mandatory rest requirements, explained Daniel Studdard, senior planner at ARC.

“The plan provides a menu of zoning options for governments to consider and is not meant to be proscriptive,” he said. “Each community would evaluate the information in light of their own community needs and goals.”

ARC conducted an analysis of the amount of truck parking in each county in the region, as well as a few adjacent counties along interstate highways. The commission determined that the Atlanta region has demand for about 5,300 overnight truck parking spaces, but only 3,800 spaces are available.

It also conducted stakeholder outreach, in which a number of transportation companies and organizations were involved, including UPS Inc., Amazon, Coca-Cola, Southeastern Freight Lines Inc., US Foods and Georgia Motor Trucking Association. The group also reached out to truck drivers, industrial workers, private sector leadership, other businesses, government staff and the public, according to Studdard.

AMPO’s Economou noted that municipal planning organizations, or MPOs, also have a role in increasing truck parking capacity.

“When drivers can’t find safe, reliable parking, they often spend extra time circling or idling, and that can mean more congestion and more emissions,” she said. “For many MPOs, those are exactly the outcomes regional planning is designed to reduce.”

MPOs’ core mission is to help coordinate federal transportation investments in urbanized areas through a locally led decision-making process, according to Economou. Boards are made up of local officials with partners across the region to set priorities connecting local projects to regional goals and federal performance expectations, she said.

“One of an MPO’s strengths is convening. We can bring freight operators, the private sector, local elected leaders, economic development partners, transit agencies and state DOT leaders to the same table,” Economou said. “That’s a potential space where public-­private solutions start to take shape.”

Fighting for Funds

While federal grants offer opportunities for states and MPOs to increase truck parking capacity, ideally the federal government should consider pursuing dedicated funding, ATRI’s Fain said.

“States must compete with other types of projects that are important also,” he said. “A dedicated fund for truck parking would make it easier, where the state doesn’t have to decide where [or] what to prioritize.”

Another option, Fain said, would be to bolster public-private partnerships between states and independent companies, as most truck parking is actually provided by the private sector.

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“I’d like to see states embrace more of those sort of innovative approaches to add capacity that aren’t strictly constructing new facilities,” Fain said, noting an example of a weigh station repurposed to allow truck parking.

“We can make better use of existing facilities, like an inspection station, that have a lot of open space that could be used for parking,” CVSA’s Gildea said, acknowledging the liability concerns at the state level. “The fact remains that there is a lot of space that could be better utilized and made available for truck parking.”

However, Gildea cautioned, “even if we maximize the existing infrastructure, we’re still going to need more parking spots to keep pace with the growing population of commercial motor vehicles on our roads.”