If you’re a truck owner in the trucking industry, it’s vital to know what costs are involved to be in business. This statement holds true whether you’re an independent owner operator, leased on owner operator lease purchase owner operator, small fleet, medium size fleet, large fleet or a mega fleet.
There are many costs incurred regardless if your trucks are moving or parked. Many refer to this as day pay or fixed costs as these costs don’t go away. Some of these include: various insurance, truck/trailer payments, licensing fees and many more.
Today’s blog will not be the subject of figuring out a trucking owners cost, however we will discuss the cost of parking which seems to be in the headlines lately. I myself have been curious to know how much it costs for the average parking space to be occupies by a semi truck and trailer. I decided to do some research to see if I could come up with any figures on this subject. It turns out members of NATSO which is the National Association which represents the Travel Plaza and Truck Stop industry has been attempting to get its members to understand the true cost of their parking facilities. They understand parking is a loss leader in that there is no money to be gained from most parking spaces. This I find interesting in that this parallels trucking owners as we often face the same struggles in knowing costs associated with our business, especially items which are loss leaders.
In looking at the math to calculate costs of parking spaces, it appears one of the major chains assigns a value of $21.92 per day of the 365 days per year. Of course, remember this is just an average. Real estate prices, weather and taxes would dramatically affect this figure up or down based on the conditions of a particular area. For example, I don’t think you can expect to pay $21.92 in New York City or Los Angeles to purchase or maintain a parking space for a semi truck/trailer parking space.
If you want to take a look at an interesting blog on this subject, click on the highlighted area below.
Find the True Cost of Parking at Your Truckstop