Geo-spatial Analysis of Truck Parking Needs

The availability of safe and convenient temporary parking facilities for commercial trucks is essential for both efficient truck transport and compliance with hours of service (HOS) regulations for drivers. With increasing volumes of trucks on the highways, adequate truck parking is becoming scarce. This study describes an online GIS survey instrument that is used for collecting the location information of areas with truck parking capacity shortages. To effectively analyze the sporadic and widely spread location data, this paper adopts an algorithm for location clustering and cluster ranking and proposes an alternative cluster visualization method along highways. This clustering concept recognizes that parking capacity shortages occur along highway segments. It is found that the most frequently experienced shortages are in the outskirts of major urban areas, reflecting the need of staging for next day delivery. These findings are consistent with observations by highway patrol.