Paradox Engineering: New Solution to Enable Smart Truck Parking

The lack of convenient and safe truck parking is a well-known issue for professional drivers. An EU-funded study carried out in 2019 tracked only 300,000 parking places currently available in the EU, with a shortfall of 100,000 to meet total estimated demand. Only about 7,000 of the existing parking places, less than 3 percent, are in safe and secure areas. The alarming data pushed the European Commission to adopt new standards and procedures for the development of a network of certified truck parking areas.

Conditions for lorry drivers and their cargo aren’t any better in the United States. After fuel prices and driver shortages, the lack of parking is the third-ranked issue for truck drivers, says the American Transportation Research Institute. It is directly tied to driver recruitment and retention issues, including the difficulty to attract more women to the profession, as it creates safety issues for workers who often have to drive fatigued until they can find available parking or stop in undesignated parking, such as a highway shoulder or ramp.

According to the Truckload Carriers Association, 70 percent of drivers admit violating federal hours-of-service rules to find parking and 96 percent frequently park in areas not designed for trucks. On the other hand, lost wages for those who park prior to running out of hours-of-service limits to find a safe parking place are estimated to be around US$4,600 annually per driver.

A safer and more comfortable parking experience

While European and US authorities work to expand truck parking capacity, smart technology can improve the management of existing rest areas along highways and frequent itineraries for heavy goods vehicles and coaches. Swiss technology company Paradox Engineering, part of MinebeaMitsumi Group, has successfully developed a Smart Truck Parking solution to support highway operators and logistics area managers to offer safe and secure rest areas to professional drivers.

The solution is based on a wireless network of parking sensors to monitor vehicle occupancy of truck lots and send data to a centralized management system. This can be easily integrated with third-party applications and systems to make information available to drivers through variable message panels and highway signage, dedicated mobile apps, or onboard navigation systems. Drivers can thus plan their rest in respect of hours-of-service rules by checking live parking availability and deciding in advance when and where to stop. Reservation and contactless payment systems can also be added to enable pre-booking.

While offering professional drivers a safer and more comfortable parking experience, Smart Truck Parking systems contribute to improving overall road safety. Another positive side effect relates to environmental sustainability, as these solutions help decrease CO2 emissions generated by the idle driving of trucks and coaches looking for available rest areas. 

About Paradox Engineering 

Paradox Engineering is a technology company that designs and markets Internet of Things solutions for device and data management in Open Cities and other smart environments. Established in 2005 and headquartered in Switzerland, the Company is part of MinebeaMitsumi Group, leading global provider of Electro Mechanics Solutions™, and controls Tinynode, specialized in Smart Parking technologies.

For further information about PE Smart Urban Network, please visit https://www.pdxeng.ch/smart-city and https://www.pdxeng.ch/interoperability

Video materials are available on Paradox Engineering’s YouTube channel. The AR Smart City mobile app can be downloaded for free from Apple Store or Google Play to experience a unique Augmented Reality immersion into PE Smart Urban Network and IoT applications for Open Cities