Unless you’re a truck driver, you probably don’t think much, or at all, about where semi trailers get parked. Like a lot of infrastructure, most trucking takes place out of sight and out of mind, in industrial areas or at warehouses on the edge of town.
That’s why Andrea Jenkins, Ward 8 representative and Vice President of the Minneapolis City Council, took notice of all the trucks that started appearing in her neighborhood in recent years. They were nearly always there on South Nicollet Avenue, more appearing each year. So she began working on a solution.
[image_credit]City of Minneapolis[/image_credit][image_caption]Minneapolis identified areas where semi trucks are frequenly parked. The areas highlighted in purple are areas of concentrated poverty.[/image_caption]
Trailer parking woes
Truck parking has become a minor nuisance in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. For years, I’ve been scratching my head about the constant sight of trucks parked on Marion Boulevard right next to the NO COMMERCIAL VEHICLE PARKING sign. According to St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspection, they log about a dozen truck parking complaints a month, often in the same few spots around the city with regular scofflaw parking. For example, there are recurring and identical complaints about trucks parked on Eustis Avenue by Highway 280, Fuller or Thomas Avenues in Frogtown, or Ruth Street on the East Side. The complaints repeatedly state that these trucks cause problems because they block sight lines, block bus stops, idle for hours in residential areas and generally make it much harder for people to drive or walk in the area.
In 2019, the Minnesota Department of Transportation completed a lengthy study on truck parking, looking at its challenges and trends. In the big picture, truck tonnage has gone up 24 percent over the last ten years. In the meantime, new safety regulations require truck drivers to limit their hours and park more often (a good thing!) while industry trends have seen decentralized “owner operators” assume a greater share of the trucking pie. The result is that demand for truck parking increasingly outstrips supply as more trucks are parked more of the time.
From the truck drivers’ perspective, parking is an added cost and hassle. Finding cheap (or free) parking is not easy. Reading through a trucking message board, many truckers live in dread of a having their doors knocked on by private security guards. Meanwhile, popular trucking apps like Trucker Path list regional parking availability; for St. Paul, the closest listed sites are truck stops in South Saint Paul, Oak Park Heights, or Eagan.
(Other sites, like the Mall of America, are less official; reports of being able to park near the Ikea store vary, with many truckers complaining in the comments of dealing with “mall cops.”)
Because many more people own their own rigs these days, without a central parking lot, marginal city streets become an obvious place to go. That means nuisance issues and safety concerns for people living nearby.
[image_credit]City of Minneapolis[/image_credit][image_caption]Example of park trucking in the Seward Neighborhood of Minneapolis.[/image_caption]
“Oversized trucks parked on city streets block sight lines,” Jenkins explained. “They create opportunities for nefarious activities, people kind of get lost behind them as well as wintertime they idle for long hours. It really became a public nuisance.”
Last month, after completion of a two-year study, the Minneapolis City Council passed a sweeping ordinance that bans truck parking citywide. The discussion mostly centered on its impact on owner-operators, about 40 percent of whom are people of color according to the City of Minneapolis. That conversation led to an amendment supported by Council Member Jamal Osman to reduce initial penalties and help educate truck drivers about the policy.
“I do appreciate Council Member Osman’s amendment to the lessen the initial blow,” said Jenkins. “A lot of these divers nowadays are foreign-born, primarily East African or Somali, and we definitely are not trying to disrupt people.”
Moving the problem down the road
One consequence of Minneapolis’ new policy will be to push more truck drivers to find parking in nearby cities. For example, St. Paul, right next door.
That’s one reason why St. Paul City Council President Amy Brendmoen has said she is going to try and “fast track” a city policy addressing the same problem, making it easier and more common to enforce truck parking bans.
“There’s a need for semi parking but it can’t be willy-nilly all over the streets,” said Brendmoen. “There’s a lot of reasons why it’s problematic; in particular, for us this is pothole season coming into street sweeping season and plowing season. Those are heavy pieces of equipment and they do have a larger impact on our roads.”
Just as it was an issue for the city’s unorganized garbage trucks, the basic physics of pavement means that large vehicles, especially trucks with payloads, cause exponentially larger damage to city streets than regular passenger cars. For a city already struggling with basic street maintenance, a regional influx of trucks would exacerbate existing problems.
For Brendmoen, it’s a sign of a larger problem. Increasingly, businesses have turned to the “gig economy,” and more and more industries are relying on “self-employed” workers to do jobs that otherwise would have been part of a larger operation. The rise in small trucking operators is one example but there are others, like package delivery, Uber and Lyft drivers.
“From time to time I think about Amazon or other delivery services that heavily impact the use of roads in our city,” explained Brendmoen. “As we move away from brick and mortar [stores] into gig work, there’s no entity that’s contributing to our property taxes that actually pay for that upkeep of our streets. People say the police should do a better job of tracking down these porch pirates but I’m [think] the Amazon business model is messed up.”
Yet online shopping, loading zones, delivery van congestion, and doorstep delivery are city problems for another day. For now, focusing on the highly visible tractor trailers lurking on the margins of the city’s streets will have to do.
Is there an attempt to differentiate between residential and industrial areas? Both cities have seen apartment construction creep into industrial areas.
From my own perspective, when driving in parts of St. Paul I have a problem with cars, not trucks, parked near to corners, which make it nearly impossible to safely turn left because there’s no way to see vehicles coming from the right. I’ve asked the City of St. Paul to take the appropriate steps, but nothing’s been done.
Again, government is banning something, without thinking thru what people are suppose to do. Before banning on street parking, how about creating and publicizing authorized truck parking areas? We all want our goods delivered, but aren’t willing to create the necessary infrastructure to make it possible.
Slightly off the main point but, no, I don’t want “our” goods delivered. I’d like a vast reduction in fossil fuel use and economic activity in general, so that we might be able to survive on this planet.
Sorry some want food and the odd new shoes
Just interested in what the solution is. If government says it’s a problem ( and don’t forget government is always right in the twin cities) what is the solution Bill? Not like you to write an article ( like you always did on your city street blog ) without proposing a solution. Agreed people are starting to drive their own trucks. Where are they supposed to park them Bill? Inquiring minds would like to know
Ms. Larey, you want to post your address somewhere so these guys can park their trucks in front of YOUR house?
My neighbor does, he stays away from intersections. He is anO/O and home on the weekends. No big deal
I’d urge you to read that MnDOT study I linked to here. There are a few solutions. Some require gov’t helping to organize lots, but in just about every case you have to start charging fees for truck parking.
Which seems obvious? I don’t get free public infrastructure support for MY business, why should they? I mean I just don’t get the opposing argument here, they’re arguing what, that they essentially have squatter’s rights over public property because they have a business to run? I mean I’d love a larger building to operate from, can I just head down to the county shop and kick out the workers, set up shop?
No one parks by your business or walks on public sidewalks to visit?
Umm not as a temporary campsite, complete with waste, sometimes illicit activity, and diesel exhaust.
Seems like this problem could be solved by opening up a truck stop with parking for semis in the Minneapolis area. Looks like there are options in Rogers, Shakopee, Inver Grove Heights and South St. Paul but none really close to Minneapolis.
Land is valuable, especially close in. Who is going to pay to park there, especially when it’s free to park on the street?
Oh it’s not free to park on the streets. Whoever told you that? There is no free lunch, someone pays.
As a property tax payer, I pay for the construction and maintenance of city and county roads and streets (not gas tax payers.) I’m not sure where we got this idea that property tax payers should subsidize the storage of private property, but I think it’s nuts.
The trucking industry is externalizing the cost of storing it’s capital equipment. The cost of that storage should be paid for directly by the trucking industry. If those costs, ultimately, get paid by the beneficiaries of the goods that are trucked, so be it. Then we can decide if we really want those goods that badly. This is a free market issue.
I would be pretty irritated if I had to pay a special assessment to fix roads that were ruined by semi trailers parking on my street.
As an over the road tractor trailer driver “company driver” myself, “the average citizen” does not fully understand the complexitites of the ongoing parking situation for semi drivers. Drivers are governed by what is known as the FMCSA or Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The FMCSA dictates “the life” of a trucker, from hours of service to weight restrictions, operations of a CMV or a commercial motor vehicle. However, this agency and those that support it’s actions have yet to address the most basic concept “parking”. So exactly where do you park a 5 ton, 80,000 pound machine. That question is as old as trucking itself. Gone are the days of “free parking” whenever a driver needed to take a break. Now, with the exception of Loves Truck Stops, every single truck stop in one form or another charges anywhere between $15 to $20 a night for Parking. So the average citizen will think “well, that’s not so bad” well, consider that I am on the road for six straight months and I had to pay every night $20 for parking (that I don’t get reimbursed for), and I operate seven days a week that’s roughly $140 a week and in one month that’s over $1000. Now, as I mentioned, I don’t reimbursed for this expense and because I’m a company driver, I can’t even claim this on my taxes. As a. Owner operator I could, but I’d be cutting into my profits. It has been posted that drivers need to be restricted in their driving times to thwart fatigue a d accidents. However, the most dangerous aspect of driving these days are cell phones, which every person has and illegally uses while operating a car. There is a way to find a “happy median” between hours of service rules for drivers and the parking situation. However, advocacy groups and those that want to restrict drivers but contemporaneously want their goods delivered will not listen to sound advise from those that actually have experience over the road. In closing, people want their goods and services, their want their commodities delivered to them to sustain their communities and society as a whole. If you keep restricting the trucking industry and every single trucker one day just decided to “shut down” and stop delivering, what would happen to the logistics chain. The chain would collapse, there would be panic, there would no commodities delivered, store shelves would be bare. Distribution centers would be overun with product but no way to be delivered. Think about the ramifications of a few semi’s parking for the night as to you and your communities not getting any deliveries at all.
All good points, but better served as rationale to create dedicated parking facilities for truckers that yes, will probably cost money, as it’s a service provided TO you by someone else. Why should you receive services for free, and why do you think it’s reasonable to impact OTHER businesses with your actions? (you don’t think parking your rigs along industrial streets that other businesses rely on to provide THEIR goods and services is harmless, do you?). Its not like your employer, or the owner operators in question will be passing along any cost savings to their customers, your business model was set up with free parking as an expectation. It’s quite simple, folks should build parking facilities to accommodate you, they should charge a rate commiserate with the service provided, and you should raise your rates accordingly to mitigate the loss.
He can’t raise his rates, he us a company man. He squeezed.
So these truck companies are externalizing the cost of having somewhere to park their trucks every night. How very convenient for them (and inconvenient – and costly – for everyone else!).
Exactly me point me.boy
So who do you think should be paying for the increased cost of road maintenance resulting from heavy trucks parked on residential streets?
He could band together with his fellow employees and collectively bargain for better wages. But then, labor law pretty severely limits their freedom to do that.
His employer can
Your company won’t reimburse you when you have to pay for parking?
I suspect the MNDOT freeway rest areas with dedicated truck spaces get overrun daily (nightly).
I would see these as a part of the road taxes already paid by truckers. If not, we should look at, GASP!, transportation fuel taxes. Just look out for the CAE types who want to pay for nothing.
One would think some space could be found between the 4 corners of rest areas: Maple Grove, Woodbury, Forest Lake and Lakeville on the same basis as the rest areas.
The taxes paid by semi owners do not come close to paying for the damage they cause to highways in the first place, they sure don’t cover their costs at rest stops.
I have noticed in recent years that some rest stops have electronic signs that display how many truck parking spaces are available.
Back in the day, drivers had a union to negotiate things like this. But today, employers treat their employees so well, there is no need for unions. So employers are free to make employees pay for reasonable expenses.
Some how that makes sense.
Excellent points and points that need to be considered. While I don’t think that parking should be free because even if you don’t pay out of pocket, SOMEONE does, no one should have to go broke working. That said, $1000 a month for what equates to housing isn’t really that bad. Of course, I recognize that you probably also are responsible for paying for housing elsewhere (either to come back to or for family that’s not traveling with you). On the other hand, I don’t know how much you’re making as a company driver, so I don’t know how significant that is. I guess what I’m saying is that it sounds like your company is making you foot a bill that you shouldn’t have to. It would be one thing if you COULD come home every night and simply choose to stay elsewhere for convenience, but that probably isn’t the case. Your company needs to be paying for company resources, and that includes your lodging if you MUST be elsewhere during work. Of course, federal law only requires such reimbursement if the costs drop you below minimum wage… Again, I don’t know how much you make, but it seems like a good idea to keep close track of what your effective wage is.
As someone who has spent a minimal amount of time in the sleeper of an 18 wheeler it is often housing in the same sense as a collection of tents in Powderhorn Park are housing…
I imagine. And yet, it isn’t the same.
Drive on North Washington Ave. North of Broadway and it is a collection of trucks, abandoned cars and trailers on the West side of the road. Obviously the MPD has decided to just look the other way.
I’m not sure all of those cars and trailers are abandoned. I suspect some of them might be inhabited. But, yeah, the trucks along there make it nearly impossible to see, sometimes. Fortunately, there’s not a lot of pedestrian traffic there.
How many are O/O parking at home?
Does O/O mean Owner Operated?
Not trying to get on your case, but with topics I’m not familiar with it’s helpful if everyone spelled things out when possible. (And I know it’s easy to use shorthand, especially if posting from a phone.)
Yep
There is all sorts of industrial space with huge surface lots running along both sides of Highway 280. Owners of those lots should get creative and offer some of that space for overnight parking for long haul truckers. Similarly, retail locations like The Quarry right off 35W could do the same. Wire up some outlets so that the trucks can plug in and not have to idle and make some money off this space that is otherwise going entirely unused.
As for the truck driver who mentioned not being able to get reimbursed for paying for parking, since there is a huge shortage of folks who are both qualified and willing to do your job, that gives you something called leverage to negotiate a better deal for yourself. There’s no good reason for you to be paying for that yourself.
It does seem weird to me that industrial loading docks would sit empty at night while the trucks park on city streets.
It’s probably not that simple. There would need to be provisions for restrooms. That, or be careful picking up those plastic soda bottles!
Also, it’s my understanding that prostitution has been correlated with truck stops. I doubt I’d want to host over night semi parking on my property.
For a lot of reasons I’ve been thinking ( and I don’t think I’m alone with my thoughts about this) about nations, and failed nations lately. One characteristic of a successful nation is the ability to recognize and organize responses to crises or at least clear and present dangers. Failed nations are those who lack THAT capacity.
I hate to say it but the US, while it may still have some economic affluence and momentum at this point, has clearly tipped into the category of a failed state in the sense that we simply cannot recognize much less organize effective responses to clear and present dangers. From global warming to COVID dunderheads have turned every attempt to organize any kind of collective response into an exercise in futility crippled by debate gaming pretending to be science, patriotism, or critical thinking.
Here we have a local microcosm of that national crisis. Mr. Lindeke writes a nice tight little article about a clearly legitimate problem that a city is responding to and out of the woodwork come the “critics” who would cripple any attempt to actually recognize the problem much less even deal with it. The “business” crowd shows up with it’s complaints about “guvmint” as if everyone in any given community is obligated to live with any toxic results that flow out of the business practices and models. Not only are we obligated to live with the garbage these guys dump on us… but we should do so happily.
The trucker shows up complaining about being regulated, as if finding a place to park his truck should be someone else’s problem. As predictable as that “problem” is apparently no one in the trucking industry has thought to organize some kind of solution… instead they just spend years fighting regulations. They sit around and wait for someone else to come up with solutions, and then they whine about the solutions they took no part in. None of you guys noticed that finding a place to park was becoming a problem? You sit in your trucks driving around on public streets and roads without which your industry wouldn’t even exist, and when the people responsible for building and maintaining that infrastructure try to do their jobs you suddenly show up to reveal the “reality” of trucking? Whatever.
The Libertarians shows up with their predictable complaints about anything the government does, but we notice they don’t post their own addresses and offer to let the truckers park in front their homes, apartments, or businesses. They want everyone to be “free”… as long they do it somewhere else.
The city council is just doing it’s job here. They are simply recognizing a legitimate problem and responding to it. The whole point of liberal democracies like ours is that citizens can participate in governance, but if you don’t believe in governance, if you just believe that selfish competition always produces the best outcomes… you opt out of your own participation. If enough people do that governance starts to become impossible. This idea that citizenship is just about being an adversary to the “guvmint” is nearly destroying our nation on a macro and micro level. From pandemic to parking we have a solid group of people who just believe in recognizing and/or organizing solutions. It’s not about surrendering freedom, it’s about being responsible, and organized, and thoughtful.
Privatize the profit, socialize the costs.
The question that occurs to me: is the metro area the home base for these truckers, or are they in transit and waiting to pick up a load? Devising a long term solution to the problem would seem to depend on the answer, wouldn’t it?
I do not belive the trucks are parked on Nicollet. 30 deep? There is no room. Prove that and prove that there are nefarious activites. I used to see them parked around my place of work. There are no homes on the streets they park on. No problem. No litter. The drivers were peacefully resting. What about the motor homes scattered around the city, those generators are loud, the residents of the motor homes are living on the same blocks far longer than a trucker getting the rest/down time that is mandatory. The truckers deliver just about everything that we need. Give them a break. YES, they pay taxes. If they purchase fuel anywhere in the state, they pay taxes, Minneapolis receives Local Government Aid from those taxes. If they patronize businesses in Minneapolis, they pay city taxes.
Can anyone actually verify that trucks are parked on Lake and Nicollet? Exactly what are the nefarious activities in St. Paul?
Pat yourself on the back Jenkins. You alienated an entire group of essential workers. Instead of focusing on the real issues in Minneapolis that threaten the safety of anyone who lives, works, passes through Minneapolis. Priorities…