(NewsNation) — It’s something NewsNation reporters heard about all week during Truck Week— drivers frustrated over not being able to find a spot to pull their trucks over to rest on the road. That’s because truck stops across America are often full.
One trucker, Zach Roberts, said this means finding a lot of drivers parking on the shoulder.
“You find a lot of truck drivers being parked on the shoulder,” one trucker, Zach Roberts, said.
“It is a stress every driver has in their head every day when their day starts. Where am I going to park tonight?” another driver, Chris Eme, said.
Some Washington, D.C. lawmakers are trying to fix this with the “Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act” making its way through committees in the House of Representatives right now. This bill would set aside more than $750 million in funding over five years to provide more parking for trucks on the highway.
Rep. Mike Bost (D-Ill.) – who introduced the bill – says this is personal.
“I grew up in a trucking business and, matter of fact, came home from the Marine Corps and ran that trucking business for 10 years,” Bost said. “It’s still owned by my brother and my cousin.”
Bost has been working on the bill for a year— and is frustrated it’s taken this long to get some attention.
“Well, I’m really bothered by the fact that it was not included in the larger infrastructure bill,” Bost said, although he tried to get it in there.
Still, the bill is gaining support from both parties.
“They’ve got nowhere else to go. They time out with these electronic logging devices, they have to stop for the night, but we don’t have spaces for them,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, (R-S.D.), said. “This is a public safety issue; this is a highway safety issue and I’m glad to be a part of a small number of members who are willing to change it.”
Rep. John Garamendi, (D-California) also wants to see change.
“The truckers and the trucking industry are moving goods and services both north and south, south to north, east to west and west to east,” Garamendi said. “What happens if there is no place for those truckers to safely get off the road to take the necessary rest periods that are required both by law and by safety and by just being downright tired?”
Truck drivers say more parking can’t come soon enough. Their time on the road is monitored closely— and when they have to stop to rest, there’s no time to spare.
But the bill still has a way to go: it is currently waiting for a hearing in the Transportation and Infrastructure committee awaiting a hearing. It would still then have to go to the Senate.
“If we don’t get it this time, I guarantee you I will continue to fight to get it on the next set of bills that would begin to move at the beginning of next year,” Bost said.