Smart technology enables safer truck parking

The lack of convenient and safe truck parking is a well-known issue for professional drivers. An EU-funded study carried out in 2019 tracked only 300,000 parking places currently available in the EU, with a shortfall of 100,000 to meet total estimated demand. Only about 7,000 of the existing parking places, less than 3 percent, are in safe and secure areas. The alarming data pushed the European Commission to adopt new standards and procedures for the development of a network of certified truck parking areas.

Conditions for lorry drivers and their cargo aren’t any better in the United States. After fuel prices and driver shortages, the lack of parking is the third-ranked issue for truck drivers, says the American Transportation Research Institute. It is directly tied to driver recruitment and retention issues, including the difficulty to attract more women to the profession, as it creates safety issues for workers who often have to drive fatigued until they can find available parking or stop in undesignated parking, such as a highway shoulder or ramp.

According to the Truckload Carriers Association, 70 percent of drivers admit violating federal hours-of-service rules to find parking and 96 percent frequently park in areas not designed for trucks. On the other hand, lost wages for those who park prior to running out of hours-of-service limits to find a safe parking place are estimated to be around US$4,600 annually per driver.

A safer and more comfortable parking experience

While European and US authorities work to expand truck parking capacity, smart technology can improve the management of existing rest areas along highways and frequent itineraries for heavy goods vehicles and coaches. Swiss technology company Paradox Engineering, part of MinebeaMitsumi Group, has successfully developed a Smart Truck Parking solution to support highway operators and logistics area managers to offer safe and secure rest areas to professional drivers.

The solution is based on a wireless network of parking sensors to monitor vehicle occupancy of truck lots and send data to a centraliSed management system. This can be easily integrated with third-party applications and systems to make information available to drivers through variable message panels and highway signage, dedicated mobile apps, or onboard navigation systems. Drivers can thus plan their rest in respect of hours-of-service rules by checking live parking availability and deciding in advance when and where to stop. Reservation and contactless payment systems can also be added to enable pre-booking.

While offering professional drivers a safer and more comfortable parking experience, Smart Truck Parking systems contribute to improve overall road safety. As Paradox Engineering points out, another positive side effect relates to environmental sustainability, as these solutions help decreasing CO2 emissions generated by the idle driving of trucks and coaches looking for available rest areas.

About Paradox Engineering

Established in 2005 and headquartered in Switzerland, Paradox Engineering is the Internet of Things (IoT) Excellence Centre of MinebeaMitsumi Group. The company pioneers technologies to implement highly scalable IoT network solutions, from edge devices to management platforms, to control critical public services such as streetlighting, parking management, municipal waste collection, environmental monitoring, video surveillance, emergency response & critical asset monitoring. Thanks to intelligent technology solutions, Paradox Engineering strives to unleash opportunities for people and communities, helping the transition towards more liveable, sustainable, and smarter cities.

For further information, please visit https://www.pdxeng.ch