BACKGROUND

In general, carriers and drivers operating commercial motor vehicles must comply with federal hours of service (HOS) regulations, which specify the maximum amount of time drivers are permitted to be on duty, as well as the number and length of rest periods, to help ensure drivers stay awake and alert. Truck parking areas provide legal and safe facilities for drivers to get adequate rest to comply with federal HOS regulations. Truck parking also refers to staging areas, which are the pickup and delivery windows at facilities, and to emergency truck parking areas, which are used during disruptive events. The United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) has a public database of truck parking facilities, and states have truck parking information in their state freight plans.

Truck parking plays a vital role in critical supply chains in the freight industry, which rely on interconnected systems, resources, and processes essential for the efficient and reliable movement of goods across local, national, and international markets. Truck parking shortages in critical supply chains have been widely documented. When adequate truck parking isn’t available, truck drivers may park on the shoulders and ramps of highways, in areas that may not be safe. 

State departments of transportation (DOTs) have limited construction, operations, and maintenance funds for truck parking areas, and research is needed to help them as they plan for and manage authorized truck parking areas.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to develop a framework to evaluate authorized truck parking areas in the context of critical supply chains, safety, and resilience for decision-makers who develop and manage those truck parking areas. 

At a minimum, the evaluation framework shall consider:

• A variety of multimodal critical supply chains and a variety of commodities and flow types
• Funding mechanisms for constructions, operations, and maintenance
• Innovations (including emerging technologies and new developments in land use and funding) and opportunities (such as land development)
• Intrastate and multistate freight corridors in rural, urban, and suburban contexts
• Prioritization and strategic planning for current and future truck parking demand (including the allocation of resources, access to facilities, and the number of spaces in both existing and new areas)
• Design of parking area (including circular versus single point of entry and lighting) and security in and near the parking area
• How to access and assess inventories of truck parking areas (including amenities and capacity), considering how often the data is updated and if the data provides the information needed for decision-making
• Data availability
• Truck loads that meet size and weight limits, as well as oversize and overweight truck loads
• An analysis of barriers and how to overcome them (including federal, state, and local regulatory constraints)
• Safety (including crashes involving trucks and the personal safety of the truck driver)
• Resilience, which is the ability to sustain critical supply chains during and after a disruptive event

At a minimum, the framework shall include the following criteria to evaluate truck parking areas:

• Measures of success
• Environmental aspects
• Freight system fluidity, which is the performance of the supply chain, including the reliability of travel time and the cost of freight
• Emerging trends and industry conditions (such as alternative fuels, changes in demand for truck parking and services, changes that affect the supply of trucks and truck services, and contextual changes in technology, public goals, and economic development)
• Operations and maintenance costs of public facilities
• Application factors (such as land availability, land ownership, proximity to truck routes, and utilities)
• Multicriteria prioritization (such as crash data, cost, demand, site size, and configuration)

The primary audience for the evaluation framework is decision-makers responsible for truck parking areas both in public agencies (including state DOT leadership) and in private entities. The evaluation framework shall be tested with the primary audience as well as:

• Other state DOT staff
• State legislatures
• Law enforcement, emergency management, and economic development agencies
• Officials from cities, counties, and metropolitan planning organizations
• Port, airport, and turnpike authorities
• Freight community (including truck drivers)
• State public-private partnership offices and private sector partners (including the technology sector and developers for truck parking areas)
• Other relevant stakeholders

RESEARCH PLAN

Proposers are asked to develop and present a detailed research plan for accomplishing the project objective. The work proposed must be divided into tasks and proposers must describe the work proposed in each task. Proposers are expected to present a research plan that can realistically be accomplished within the constraints of available funds and contract time. Proposals shall (1) present the proposer’s current thinking in sufficient detail to demonstrate their understanding of the topic and issues and the soundness of their approach to meeting the research objectives, (2) identify data and data sources that may be used to undertake this research, and (3) propose the format(s) for the final research product(s), which must include:

• An interim report and meeting with the NCHRP project panel. The interim report shall contain (1) analyses and results of completed tasks, (2) a detailed plan and schedule for the remaining research tasks, (3) an annotated outline of each of the final research product(s), and (4) strategies for dissemination and implementation of the final research deliverables. The panel meeting will take place after the panel review of the interim report. The interim report and panel meeting shall occur after the expenditure of no more than 40 percent of the project budget.
• Final deliverables. The final deliverables shall include an evaluation framework and a research report that documents the research process and contains an analysis of barriers and how to overcome them (including federal, state, and local regulatory constraints), examples of effective practices, and a glossary of terms related to truck parking.
• A PowerPoint presentation with presenter’s notes, suitable for a webinar.
• A technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products”.

STATUS: Proposals have been received in response to the RFP. The project panel will meet to select a contractor to perform the work.