Book Parking | List your Property 

DOT Truck Parking Pilot Misses the Mark in NYC

-Lombard

New York City’s DOT launched a pilot program to try and deter commercial vehicles from parking illegally in residential areas. According to Haidee Chu, a reporter for The City news publication, it leaves out some of the most impacted areas. Southeastern Queens seems to be the number one complainer when it comes to trucks parking on city streets. District 13 logged some 2,438 complaints just last year.

This part of NYC has had a major influx of Amazon and other distribution centers built within the past ten years. What the general public still fails to realize is they think that faster delivery services such as Amazon Prime don’t just happen because of some magical technological advancement. It can only be accomplished by a major increase of warehousing infrastructure, and with that new infrastructure one of the most important things is left out. It is true that “if you build it they will come,” and by they that means thousands of more trucks on top of what normally drives around densely populated areas. It doesn’t help that JFK Airport happens to be the busiest hub for international cargo in the Northeast.

The DOT truck parking pilot launched at the beginning of March introduced a whopping 45 parking spaces, and only covered 2 of the 10 community districts with the most complaints about overnight truck parking. The two districts selected were Maspeth in Queens, and Flatlands in Brooklyn. Hunt’s Point Market in the Bronx was selected as the third.

Southeast Queens Councilmember Nantasha Williams, who in February introduced legislation to establish overnight parking spaces in industrial business zones across the city, lamented how DOT had failed to consult local residents and elected officials while planning for the pilot project.

“When I got into the Council, one of the requests I gave was to have an interagency task force to address trucking related issues. I didn’t get any feedback on that — then all of a sudden, the administration created this and didn’t tell us,” Williams said.

DOT Spokeperson Vincent Barone has come out in defense saying that they are working on expanding more truck parking at JFK Airport. Nearby JFK trucks line both sides of Rockaway Boulevard that obscure local businesses and jam up traffic. Many trucks will be lined with parking tickets, other trucks remove their plates in hopes of avoiding tickets. According to local residents some of these trucks are parked there for several days or months.

For 53-year-old Navin Jaimangai, a seafood wholesaler near Rockaway and Baisley boulevards who relies on truck drivers to deliver his goods, the inundation of illegally parked trucks — along with the scarcity of legal parking space — have also increased the cost of doing business.

“We’re getting issues from truckers that are saying, ‘We’re not coming to New York because we have nowhere to park’… Now they’re sending smaller trucks to do the pick-ups, and it increases shipping costs,” Jaimangai said. “We have a serious issue that’s developing and it’s getting worse every year.”

At a local deli, 57-year-old manager Mary Kim said sales there often come and go with truck drivers. And business has been hurting over the last year, she added, because there’s nowhere for them to park.

“They will stop by and they come here, get breakfast. But no more, because there’s no spot,” Kim said.

New York City, like many others failed to get ahead of this because all to often the ones calling the shots only look at dollars, and not the true cost of what growth of a city comes with. While at the Mid America Truck Show this week I engaged with several drivers who all ask why when warehouses are being built, they’re not zoned and planned with truck parking to go along with new construction. This further proves the unspoken costs of the truck parking crisis this country faces nationwide. In an effort to expand as fast as possible, short term savings always end up with long term cost.

I want to hear from you! For Driver Submissions, questions, and comments contact me at: [email protected] or Text me directly at 423-275-2444

More details on the San Antonio story below:

The City

DOT Compliance Corner

by, Santiago Talamantez

Good evening all! This week I am excited to announce that starting this coming Wednesday April 2nd , I will be going live on my YouTube channel each week at 6:00 PM CST to have open discussions with all subscribers. Some weeks I will choose topics to address, however the main focus is I want to answer as many questions as possible to help provide truckers and companies advice and guidance on whatever issues they have faced or be facing. I would especially love to hear from all you drivers who have encountered questionable behavior or actions on the part of a DOT officer or civilian inspector during a roadside or scale house inspection. However, I will also be giving my perspective and outlook as an unbiased resource; I don’t always agree with enforcement, I don’t always agree with the company, and I don’t always agree with the driver. I am simply looking to be a resource that you can trust, evidenced by the numerous reviews left on my website, Google, and Facebook page. I also achieved a new milestone, as I have now had over 500 students sit through my DOT Compliance Manager Course, which instructs students on the duties and responsibilities of managing a safety program. I’ve had over 100 CDL drivers attend the course that were either wanting to understand the regulations better or looking to transition into an administrative role inn trucking after sitting behind the wheel for years! I sincerely hope many of you will subscribe, join in on the live discussions, and help me build a community to debunk and provide true and accurate information to drivers when it comes anything and everything DOT compliance wise..

Driver Question: Does the 14-hour rule mean I can only work up to 14 hours in a day?

No, what the regulation in 395.3(a)(1) states is that you cannot drive after 14 consecutive hours on duty. Let’s say for example on a typical day you come on duty at 6:00 AM. You’re only allowed to drive up to 11 hours in the next 14 consecutive hours, so by 8:00 PM you can no longer drive. If you either drive for more than 11 hours within the 14 or beyond the 14 th hour, that’s when you would be placed OOS. However, if you only drove 11 but then worked at the yard for the next 6 hours, you’re not in violation unless you start driving before you take another 10-consecutive hours off duty. You would just log that yard time as “on-duty, not driving” and all that time would count towards your 70 hours for the week.

Santiago Talamantez on Youtube

Health Tip of the Week

Changing your Thoughts

Changing the way you think will change your life. This is relative to practicing mindfulness. It’s very easy to get caught up in negativity, and not thinking the best in ourselves. One of the best ways to combat this is through meditation. Here are 7 benefits of meditation:

1. Meditation will sharpen your attention. Something important while over the road.

2. Long term meditation increases resiliency against stress

3. Increases our compassion

4. Improves mental health

5. Improved relationships

6. Reduce psychological bias

7. Improves physical health

How you think will be how you act. How we do anything is how we do everything. If you are not thinking and speaking of yourself highly, then how should you expect to feel? Having a Growth mindset can change your entire life, and is the best first step in being a healthier you. A Fixed mindset would be like saying “I can’t get any better” where a Growth mindset is saying “I am going to learn to get better.”

Read more on meditation here

$10 towards your next booking!

Use promo code talelites11 (all lowercase - one time use) at checkout for $10 off your next Truck Parking Club booking at one of our 1400+ Property Member locations!

Partner Post of the Week

Always a good time watching Truckin with Rich on Youtube! Check out his latest video of his recap at MATS! If you need $20 off a booking you can use code TWR20 for a one time booking!

Truck Parking Club Partner Program

Do you create content for truckers, and want to help solve the truck parking crisis? Let’s work together! Click below to apply for Truck Parking Club’s Partner Program today!