All of us have seen them: trucks parked on freeway entrance and exit ramps or just before or after entrances/exits to truck stops. Truckers don’t park in these unsafe and illegal places because they want to. In many cases, they simply can’t find legal parking within the boundaries of their hours of service (HOS).

Parking is not something I typically talk about, but it does impact efficiency, especially if a driver stops driving before their HOS limit is reached or if they are driving out-of-route miles to find safe and legal parking.

In August, I attended the Ohio Conference on Freight in Columbus. I spoke at the event on a Tuesday, and since I was there, I thought I would also attend some other breakout sessions during the time I was not speaking. I had several to choose from, and I selected one titled "Addressing Ohio’s Truck Parking Shortage." In all honesty, since the topic is outside NACFE’s typical scope, I figured I could use the time to check my email or even daydream, as I wasn’t certain if there would be any takeaways for me.

It turns out I was wrong. The session was incredible. In 2024, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine identified truck parking as a problem and then told the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to figure out how to solve it. He told them he wanted 500 new truck parking spaces, and he wanted them by the end of 2026. That was a big ask.

But the state of Ohio is getting it done by adding parking spaces at existing rest areas and decommissioned highway weigh stations in the state. They are spending about $81,000 per site; the national standard is $200,000 per site.

To be clear, in order to get them commissioned so quickly, these are not fancy parking spots. They are paved, and they have the appropriate turn angles and sidewalks, but most don’t have Wi-Fi or other amenities. It is akin to planning to build a house. When you start out, you just look at the house itself. But as things progress, you start thinking of things like fancy landscape and more. Before you know it, the cost of the house has skyrocketed ,and the time to move in has been delayed, often by many months.

The state of Ohio opted to avoid the fancy landscaping, so to speak. In the interest of getting more parking spaces in place quickly, they stuck to the basics. Yes, they are taking some criticism for this. But parking in Ohio—and in many other states—is at crisis level, so getting more basic parking spots in place became the goal. And Ohio is delivering on that.

Maybe as time passes, some of those sites will get more amenities. For now, I suspect drivers traveling through Ohio are quite happy to have 500 more safe and legal spots to take their breaks.

My hat is off to Ohio, my home state, for seeing a problem, finding a solution, and just getting it done.