In The News

Despite lower freight levels, parking still major problem, truckers say

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Two truckers interviewed at truck stops here in the wake of the recent introduction of Jason’s Law, a bill named for a trucker murdered at an abandoned fuel station, noted that there are still times when it’s difficult to find parking, and perhaps because of the economy, there’s a need for added safety precautions.

“It seems like, because of the economy, there’s a little more riffraff out here, even more than there was even a year ago,” Jeff Harris, a leased owner-operator from High Point, N.C., said. “I typically avoid the more dangerous places like Memphis, Jersey City, Atlanta — there’s a lot of places that can be crazy. In any big city, truck stops are a magnet for bums and hustlers and prostitution, all that.”

Jason’s Law is named for New York trucker Jason Rivenburg, who was scheduled to make a delivery in South Carolina on March 5. But as he approached his destination, it was too early to unload. So Rivenburg pulled into an abandoned fuel station just off Exit 136 on Interstate 26 just a few miles south of Columbia. Law enforcement authorities found him dead inside the cab of his truck behind the station after someone called 911.

Rivenburg’s killer shot him through the truck’s windows and investigators believe he was given no chance to surrender.

As a result of the incident, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would provide grant money to increase security and improve conditions at truck stops across the country, including the development of more commercial truck parking.

Trucker Steve Verduce knows from experience the need for safer parking. “I’ve been doing this since 1978. There are a bunch of people out here now that don’t know what they’re doing,” Verduce, an owner-operator from Hartsville, S.C., said. “I was going to park in the lot across the street last night. I’m a car hauler, so I was hanging out the back about five feet past the guy next to me, and I looked and someone had taken the front of his hood off. It was all ripped to pieces. So I left that lot and came over here and parked around back.”

“The more popular places are still crowded,” he added. “You may or may not get a parking spot after 9 o’clock at night. I try to schedule around it. I try to take a look in my mind where I’ll be stopping for the night, because I look to be in somewhere by 7 or 8 o’clock, and if it’s going to be late then I try to think of somewhere that’s a little more remote.”

The odds of getting a place to park are better at the mom-and-pop truck stops sometimes, Harris said.

“Some of the larger areas, the major interstates and interchanges, they group truck stops there — and they’re usually the worst places, even though they’re two or three truck stops. Rest areas are usually someplace you can’t get a parking spot at night. It’s kind of a shot in the dark. You take a chance. But with the tonnage being off, I do think availability is a little better. But if you pull up and you’re out of hours, you have to do what you can. “

“Monday nights are a mess, no matter where you’re at,” Verduce said. “The East Coast is always hard to get to. California is always hard to park on Monday nights. You’ve got to hit it early. You’ve got to get up early and be in at 6 or 7 o’clock. Two or 3 o’clock in the morning ain’t no good anymore.

“Last night I got here at 1:30, and spent 30 minutes trying to find a place to park — that’s the biggest problem.”

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