Truck driver tells Congressman Young there's no space to park semis

A truck driver from Indianola is trying to bring attention to new federal mandates that are making it increasingly hard for semi drivers to find parking spots.

Scott Hampton said he's been talking to government officials at all levels about the problem, but it's a hard one to fix.

The strict federal mandates require truckers to pull over after 14 hours of driving, but Hampton says states aren't providing enough rest areas for semi drivers to pull over.

Hampton said trucks are no longer allowed in WalMart parking lots, and they're not allowed to park on exit ramps in most states. That leaves state patrol officers telling semi drivers to move their rigs off the exit ramps, but then ticketing them when they start moving for breaking the hours of service mandate, Hampton said.

He aired his problems to Congressman David Young during a town hall meeting in Milo Friday.

"I don't think there's anything in the federal government to address this except the mandates," Young said.

The two federal mandates in question involve the electronic logging device rule and the hours of service mandate.

The hours of service mandates says drivers can only work 14 hours per day. 

Hampton said if a driver walks out of the door at 7 a.m. he or she has to be back home by 9 p.m.

Even if the driver naps for four hours while waiting for their truck to be loaded or unloaded, they don't get those four hours back.

On top of that, as of December 2017 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration now requires semi drivers to log their hours electronically. 

Hampton said the electronic system doesn't leave room for error, so if he's driving his truck and he's 10 minutes from home but over his 14 hours, he risks getting ticketed.

Those two mandates, combined with a lack of parking, just made for a "huge, huge mess," Hampton said.

He said the mandates are unnecessarily punishing safe drivers.

"I can use drunk driving as an example," Hampton said. "That's like if your neighbor gets a DUI you'd have to get a breathalyzer in your car. They're punishing safe drivers like me."

The mandates will come back to affect the public, too, he said.

"All of that is going to come back to reflect the customer, the public, and their prices are going to go up," Hampton said. "I can't be as productive. In turn, our rates have to go up and that affects the prices at the grocery store."

Young said the only way the federal government could help the issue is through President Donald Trump's infrastructure package, which carries a trillion dollar price tag.

Congress is still debating how to pay for that — whether it could come from a fuel tax or bonds straight out of the treasury, Young said.