Start a truck stop.

What really makes me mad is the way the government treats us. They want us to pay ridiculous amounts of money for logbook violations, and omg if you falsify your logs. With freight at some companies the way it is now, what are you going to do with a fine that's thousands of dollars? There should be some kind of immunity for drivers that had to drive an extra hour or two to find parking.

In some places, trucks are allowed to park at closed weigh stations to sleep. Not all places, but I presume the DOT isnt going to throw much of a fit if you did it to avoid breaking their laws. I'm going to do every thing i can to never park at a weigh station, because i mean...come on, i want to be as far away from that thing as i can be! :D I log 95% legal, probably about as legal as anyone on the road does, but some of these DOT officers are so strict, you know. I bet they have ticket quotas. I know they have to do a certain amount of random inspections a day at the weigh stations, otherwise they'd probably never do one!

Anyway, in most places, if they shut a weigh station down they block it off so you cant get into it, or even post no trespassing signs. Some states have gates so you cant get into weigh stations when they're closed (heh, that would have saved me from that time i accidently went into a closed weigh station because i saw another truck go in!). There's also blocked off closed rest areas. In particular, on the US-31 freeway in michigan just north of the indiana border, theres a concrete pad with ramps where they planned to put a weigh station, but never built anything, and its blocked off. It wouldn't cost a dime to leave these accessible so trucks can park there. You don't need to put up any signs, but they could put up "REST AREA - NO SERVICES - WE HAVE BUSHES TO PEE BEHIND". And again, they dont have to, but if they put in some lines to mark off parking spaces, more trucks would fit because most people park better when theres lines.

There's also some truck stops that are blocked off. That's usually private property, so I can understand that, but the people that own these places could let trucks park there.

Heh, i parked at this one truck stop for a couple hours. It was closed down but wasnt blocked off. Parking was full, so I tried to park at the fuel island. I got mad because someone took my fuel lane! :D

Also, it'd help if more truck drivers were decent people. I dont want anyone to be offended, because im sure most of the people on this forum are good truckers like I am and dont do this stuff, but most truckers throw trash out their window (omg its too hard to lift my belly off the steering wheel and walk to a trash can), urinate on the ground (omg its soo hard to walk to the bathroom), and other nasty habits. Can you blame businesses with big parking lots for not allowing truck parking? There's a lot of stores like Wal-Marts where the parking lots are soo huge that they are never full enough that trucks would effect customers looking for parking places. At the one by my house, theres this big section of lot where trucks always park, its like 6 feet lower than the rest of the lot because of that, no car EVER EVER EVER parks there, i mean, not even at christmas eve at 6pm (they close at 6 on christmas eve, and thats when the most customers are trying to get in!). They have no truck parking signs, but they dont enforce it at all...you can park your truck there for multiple days and they wont say anything.
 

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