Jeff Clark’s blog yesterday deals with the issue of the perceived driver shortage. Jeff made the point that the issue is more of a pay issue rather than a shortage of people wanting to drive a truck as a career. This scenario is what I refer to as the “pay to pain ratio.” You may ask… what does that mean? This is simply the fact that the pay doesn’t equal the sacrifice level required by the job.


This article in relation to shortages made me think of the perceived shortage of parking which is also another hot topic these days. The reason that I use the word perceived in these scenarios is to paint you a picture. Let’s say I give you $10,000 to use toward a parking spot for one night. At this rate, I could most likely find a parking spot location just about anywhere I wanted. Let’s reduce that figure to $1,000.00 to park for one night. Now… this figure would still allow me many choices in which to select and park my rig safely for the night. Now… let’s say I give you $100.00 to park for the night. Most likely the selection will still be adequate for you to find a good spot however not as many choices. Now… we’ll knock it down to $10.00. With this amount of money, your selection will look very slim. However, in the 10-15 dollar range, you can reserve a parking spot at most TA/PETRO locations. Let’s say you must now find a spot with no money at all. You are looking for a good, safe spot for free now. You might be lucky and find it… or you may not. For free… would you want someone parking a semi truck in your driveway? For $10,000 a night, I would let a driver park and even idle the truck. For that figure, I may even build a private garage for him/her to park inside.


The point I’m trying to make here is that there isn’t a shortage of parking, however there is a shortage of people willing to pay for parking. There is plenty of paved asphalt around the country in which to park and take our required rest breaks. You may ask… where is this parking? It’s in the parking lots at shopping malls, home improvement centers, strip malls, industrial parks and possible sport stadiums. I understand that many of these areas are off limits to trucks. There are even signs telling us “NO TRUCK PARKING.” The owners of these lots can use the same “pay to pain ratio” scenario when it comes to their property decisions. Asphalt is expensive to lay, repair and maintain. Add an 80,000 pound semi daily sitting on the surface of this asphalt and this owner has some costly expenses in their future.


In looking at the driver and parking shortage, they mirror one another from an economic standpoint. In both scenarios, there isn’t a shortage but a lack of monetary funding to overcome the “pain to pay ratio.”

Comments (9)

Henry Albert

Henry Albert is the owner of Albert Transport, Inc., based in Statesville, NC. Before participating in the "Slice of Life" program, Albert drove a 2001 Freightliner Century Class S/T™, and will use his Cascadia for general freight and a dry van trailer. Albert, who has been a trucker since 1983, was recognized by Overdrive as its 2007 Trucker of the Year.

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I do not support drivers having to pay for parking. I feel as though it is the owner of the trucks responsibility for charges such as paid parking.

April 26, 2015 7:04:35 AM

Charging drivers to park is bull*****.Thats my humble opinion.

April 25, 2015 18:08:10 PM

Charging drivers to park is bull*****.Thats my humble opinion.

April 25, 2015 18:07:50 PM

This is a good article Jeff. You are very informed and I like reading what you write.
However I just want to add a few quick nuggets.

1) Higher pay is a noble goal to achieve for our nations drivers. I think I mentioned a year ago that our entire pay scale has lacked what I like to call "step up pay". On a grand scale we have not acknowledged 'experience' in the business to where there is a huge seperation between 2 years and 22 years of driving.
Also, we know that pay has never really coincided with the cost of living. Never has for most Americans, let alone truckers. However when we have a majority of truckers living on a;
"If I can just make it to payday mentality".

Then we are faced with 3 very important factors to consider.

1) How many poor money managers are there in trucks. That often times have advanced themselves right out of a check. So then when it comes to needing safe parking, some of them can barely feed themselves. Heck, we have FB groups bringing meals to drivers.
That speaks volumes about the current state. So if they are broke, they must struggle to find a place to sleep as well. I ask with so many people in society with their fingers in truckers wallets.
At what point do we say Enough?

2) Driver pay is a huge factor. But with poor money managers. If they cannot manage a little- giving them more, they may just squander that also.
So is educating them out of the gate part of what we need to do with the next generation so that what you wrote above, can be successful.
We have to get our truckers of off dependence. Then they can willingly, and monetarily accommodate the truck parking fee.

3) So it begs the question. If its not working now the way we want it to?
When does this become a humanitarian effort on the part of all Americans. I am all for profit. I admire self made millionaires. I do not frown on success.
Now my wife and I work our tails off with 5 different jobs in our communities to help build our lives for our two children and the DFF, and for the future of truckers.
What pay for parking says to me?
Is that whether you are charging $10,000 or $10.00. The message is very clear, that your life only has value when we charge for it. If you can't pay. You are on your own Brother.
Sorry we are placing you in danger. Because you can't pay me. That sounds horrible.
Thats a very bad message to send to our nations truckers.
Keep up the great work. I hope we can all find closure to this issue for the safety of all.

Kind regards

December 15, 2014 13:19:11 PM

Kurt ,
You bring up a good question. . I guess the point is nothing is ever free . The second point is to position yourself to get your piece of the economic pie .

December 12, 2014 8:16:29 AM

If you take this example, and then combine it with increased driver pay for retention, then the question is will customers/consumers pay for this, or will it become just one more item to further erode the income of the trucking company/owner operator?

December 12, 2014 6:53:58 AM

A lot of the malls, box stores, etc. Are off limits because of bad behavior from at least some drivers, we a a driver group need to police ourselves much better, truck stops need to police better and ban companies when they find drivers doing nasty stuff on the lot, I an sorry to say we have generally wore out our welcome and I don't blame places for banning trucks. Interesting concept though if they charged to park, unfortunately the damage couldn't be recouped on a reasonable fee for a nights pay.

December 09, 2014 18:33:33 PM

TA/Petro is bridging this gap as their pay to park spots are expanding. Many of us do not want to pay BUT we want a safe place to park and restroom facilities.

December 07, 2014 7:45:23 AM

It is an interesting concept. The biggest hurdle is trying to charge for something that you have always given away. When the internet took hold many newspapers put themselves on it free of charge. When they saw their hard copy circulation drop, they attempted to charge for internet access. Largely, it did not work. People found alternative ways to get their news. The same will be for pay parking. If there is a free alternative people will use it. If there is no free alternative, then it can succeed.

December 07, 2014 4:38:11 AM