Sleepy Truckers Get Forgotten in Supply Crisis Choking Economy

But truckers say the coronavirus pandemic has brought the issue to a breaking point.The word “parking” doesn’t appear anywhere in the Biden administration’s 2,333-word “Trucking Action Plan” released last month as part of the rollout of the new infrastructure law during the height of the pre-holiday emphasis on supply-chain snags.While the Biden administration is focused on congestion at coastal ports and a broader truck driver shortage, the lack of safe and legal parking spaces for rigs also causes ripples throughout the supply chain.Government regulations typically force drivers off roads to take 10-hour breaks after driving 11 hours. Another mentioned it six times on his top 10 listof most pressing issues.Without additional funding from Congress, the infrastructure bill simply asks each state to assess its truck parking needs.NATSO, a truck-stop operators association, said any additional parking should complement the services already supplied by commercial truck stops.“NATSO has long maintained that the best way to address any truck parking capacity concerns is for motor carriers to negotiate truck parking in their contractual relationships with truck stops and travel plazas,” NATSO’s Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman wrote in a memo to member truck stops last year.The problem is most pressing in the Northeast.