Partnership aims to reduce truck parking in neighborhoods
SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) and SecurSpace have signed an agreement aimed at identifying additional statewide locations for safe and secure truck parking. SecurSpace is an online marketplace that connects trucking companies looking for truck and trailer secure parking and storage options to property owners with dedicated or excess capacity.
A lack of space at designated truck parks along the Wasatch Front often forces long-haul truckers out into neighborhoods and on the side of busy streets to rest. Without a place to plug in auxiliary units, those trucks must idle to keep drivers warm. Based on driving surveys and overnight truck counts conducted earlier this year, UIPA estimates that as many as 300 trucks per night park along roadways in and around the Port Authority’s jurisdiction.
“This agreement with SecurSpace is a first step in addressing a logistics industry problem that has grown along with our society’s increasing dependence on goods movement,” said Jack Hedge, Executive Director of UIPA. “By identifying supply and matching it with demand for truck parking, we are also addressing a real safety issue for truckers and our neighborhoods, particularly on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley.”
SecurSpace was founded in 2017 as what has been described as an Airbnb for the transportation industry. Today, more than 2,500 companies use its nationwide parking and load management platform, which will be accessible through a direct link on UIPA’s website.
“I’m proud to be partnering with the UIPA to solve one of the most intractable issues facing truck drivers and carriers today,” said Lance Theobald, CEO of SecurSpace. “The e-commerce explosion, accelerated by COVID, has intensified the truck parking problems around the country and the UIPA isn’t standing idly by waiting on the market to find a solution in Utah.”
Evaluating truck parking demand and promoting new, sustainable truck parking sites with renewable energy plug-ins is a strategy identified in UIPA’s Strategic Business Plan as a way to promote sustainable industry practices. UIPA is also discussing ways to install charging infrastructure to minimize idling while addressing parking shortages.