Somebody finally added up the truck parking money

Plus diesel at a three-month high and 6,395 live locations

Author

Reed Loustalot
August 21, 2026

TRUCK PARKING CLUB

Friday Bulletin • August 21, 2026

Good Morning Truck Parking Club Members,

Does Your Fleet Help You Park?

Your carrier talks about safety and efficiency. We want to know whether any of that reaches you when it is time to shut down. Does dispatch plan around parking? Has a fleet manager ever helped you find a spot? Did anyone teach you this in training, or did you figure it out on your own? Ten quick questions.

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The Big Thing

Somebody Finally Added Up the Truck Parking Money. Here Is What It Buys.

There is more public money pointed at truck parking right now than at any point in this industry's history. Nobody has added it up. So we did.

On the federal side, Congress put $200 million into a dedicated truck parking line in February, the first time it has ever done that. DOT awarded another $62 million in BUILD grants across five states in July. Florida is working through $180 million in federal freight money for 917 spaces along I-4. Call it $442 million already committed.

The states are spending on top of that. Ohio put $150 million toward at least 1,400 new spaces at 33 sites, breaking ground this year and finishing by the end of 2027. Wisconsin spent $20.4 million rebuilding two rest areas on I-43. Colorado is adding 50 spaces on I-25 near Pueblo. Pennsylvania is adding 1,202.

Here is what jumped out when we lined the projects up side by side. The price of a parking space is nowhere near the same from one project to the next. Ohio is paying about $107,000 a space. Florida about $196,000. Wisconsin about $283,000, though that money rebuilt two entire rest areas and not just the parking. Mississippi about $409,000, which includes availability technology.

Then there is Pennsylvania. It is delivering more spaces than Ohio, and it never announced a big capital number, because it did not need one. PennDOT and the State Police walked land the Commonwealth already owned. On-ramps with clean sight lines. Weigh stations. Highway right of way. They marked it and put up signs. Of those 1,202 spaces, 339 are already open at 24 locations, and the rest land by the end of the year.

That is the lesson sitting in the data. Pouring concrete takes three years and six figures a space. Activating ground that already exists takes months and a sign. Both are worth doing, and the federal money is real and finally moving after years of drivers asking for it. But the spaces you can actually back into this year are overwhelmingly the second kind.

Now the honest math on all of it. Add every project above, public and private, including the 1,500 spaces Love's is putting in this year and Pilot's 112, and you land around 5,400 spaces once everything is built. DOT counts roughly 311,000 legal spaces nationwide, about one for every 11 trucks. So the largest parking push in memory moves the national number about 1.7%, spread over three years. That is not a knock on the money. That is the size of the hole.

Two dates to keep an eye on. The House comes back August 31, and the highway bill carrying $750 million for parking still needs a floor vote before the current authority runs out September 30. The 2027 spending bill carries another $200 million and cleared committee in June.

The money is finally showing up. Just do not plan tonight around it.

Mile Markers

Where the numbers landed this week.

Diesel: $5.454/gal, up 19.7 cents on the week. That is the highest weekly average since late May, and it now sits about $1.74 above where it was a year ago. (EIA)

Spot rates (all-in, national average): Van $2.93, Reefer $3.38, Flatbed $3.54 per mile. Linehaul softened for a sixth straight week, with flatbed taking the deepest cut and reefer holding about flat. All three are still running 34% to 38% above a year ago. (DAT)

Stay Off The Ramp

You shouldn't have to choose between a highway ramp and a HOS violation. Thousands of drivers make that call every night. We built Truck Parking Club so you don't have to.

Use code ramp25 for $25 off any daily booking at any of our 6,395 locations. Find a real spot tonight.

Quick Hits

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  • MORE BENEFITS TO COME!

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News

Brake Safety Week Starts Sunday. CVSA's Brake Safety Week runs August 23 through 29 across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and inspectors are zeroed in on drums and rotors this year. A brake-related out-of-service violation parks you where you sit until it is fixed. Get under the truck this weekend and look for cracks, deep scoring, and heat damage. Read more on CVSA

FMCSA Has Pulled 15 ELDs Since July. Two Deadlines Are Coming. The agency revoked 10 devices on July 9 and five more on August 6. If you run one from the July batch, you have until September 8 to move to a compliant unit. The August batch runs out October 6. Miss your date and you are considered to be running without an ELD, which means out of service at the scale. Check your device against FMCSA's registered list now, and do not wait on your provider to fix it. Read more on FMCSA

Google Built Real Truck Routing. On August 17 Google turned on Large Vehicle Routing in the U.S. It routes around low bridges, weight limits, narrow tunnels, and tight turns, and it takes height, length, axle count, and hazmat into account. One thing worth knowing: this is a tool carriers build into their own apps, not a new button in the Maps app on your phone. If your fleet picks it up, you may see it show up in the software you already run. Read more on Truck News

Brokers Are Looking Harder at Who They Hire. Since the Supreme Court decided Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II in May, brokers can be sued in state court for negligently picking an unsafe carrier, and a Dallas jury has already returned a $604 million verdict. The practical effect for anyone running their own authority is more vetting: safety rating, inspection history, insurance, crash record. Pull your own SAFER profile and clean up what is on it before a broker does it for you. Read more on The Trucker

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