The previous part of this two-story feature: Truckers still torn: Truck Parking Club's huge growth with pay-to-park
When Truck Parking Club founder Evan Shelley promised to "fight for the driver" he was speaking at this year's Mid-America Trucking Show specifically about predatory-type tow companies who've on occasion shown up at TPC-reserved sites unauthorized.
Yet the quote might also sum his view of the company's recent efforts toward building momentum to unlocking the real estate necessary for new truck parking from the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) attitudes that too often stymie development in ideal places near freight corridors.
For example: The big metros flagged by Overdrive readers in the 2025 Highway Report Card in dire need of truck parking.
At MATS, Evan Shelley pointed to the UnlockTruckParking.org site the company's launched as central location for a coalition it's working toward to advocate for more parking options, which could include what he calls a "top down" approach to bringing parking where it's truly needed.
"Taxpayer-funded parking is great," Shelley said.
An example: What the state of Ohio is doing to expand options at rest areas and other locations on publicly owned land. The effort will ultimately add roughly 1,400 spaces if taken to complete fruition, yet state leaders envision it playing out over years.
Ohio was lauded as No. 2 for Best Parking in the Truckers' Highway Report Card last year. Truckers most praised the general ease of parking there, and loads of truck stop options with amenities. Only three in 10 respondents flagged a dearth of pay-to-park options there as a positive.
Another 1,400 spaces over a couple years doesn't come close to matching what TPC-listed property owners have there for reservations today, with nearly 200 locations and spaces in the thousands.
Taxpayer-funded parking just won't be enough by itself, Shelley said, to "create measurable improvements" to the parking shortage. "We think truck stops building more" of their own capacity, and companies like TPC itself unlocking other private property, together are "going to be a key part of expansion."
[Related: Baltimore officials eye severe parking restrictions in residential areas]
That's long been the case in large measure, and "isn't going to change," he added, but what could is regulatory barriers put on parking by municipalities. Members of the general consumer public "want a package today, but they don't want to see a truck" in their locale.
That top-down approach Shelley offered as an option at MATS he describes as federal limitations with standards for, say, 1-5 miles from any interstate highway, where local governments' ordinances must meet rules for truck parking development.
The notion is to limit local truck parking restrictions within those corridors and encourage private parking development.
At once, Shelley added, "we do not support that in a residential neighborhood."
He points to the success of Love's expanding network, and builders using TPC's own, as evidence that the "private sector does have capital" to invest in new parking capacity. He said he'd bet truck stops themselves would build "five times as much" parking as they do today if such an approach were taken and NIMBY attitudes could be mitigated.
Unlocking more space isn't an either/or proposition with respect to public or private dollars, he added, "it's all of the above."
TPC's even been willing to make a public-safety case in their own advocacy toward more parking. The recent press release announcing the company's 5,000-location milestone came with a headline that said, in part, "America's Truck Parking Shortage Fuels Deadly Roadside Crashes."
The release itself cited federal crash data showing "457 fatal crashes and more than 41,000 total crashes annually involve large trucks on highway ramps and shoulders."
It's a reference to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's 2020 "Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts" publication and crash tables 15 and 16 specifically, which show the number of crashes that year in relation to where they occurred.
There is no "on highway ramp" location specifically in either table -- the 457-fatal number appears to be a combination of crashes that occurred "on shoulder" and "on roadside," including but not limited to ramp shoulders/roadsides.
"Drivers aren't choosing these spots," as TPC's release put it. "They park there because they have no alternative."
Owner-operator Allen Lattimer, fundamentally, understands the situation independent truck stops find themselves in. And as noted in the prior piece of this report he doesn't categorically object to the Leroy Truck Stop and others' approach to leveraging TPC in effort to get truckers to spend money at the store.
Yet that day earlier this year when he stopped there, when he was so perturbed by what he was seeing -- and already knowing the Love's across the highway had a full lot -- "I told them, 'I’m going on down the road,'" he said. "'I’ll park on a ramp or something.'"
[Related: Survey says: Paid parking not utilized, resented by many truckers]
