$5.5 Million contract awarded for I-5 truck parking solution

Together with NAVTEQ’s customized truck parking mapping and routing services, ParkingCarma can identify the nearest available truck parking spot and allow reservation, improve driving time, and alleviate illegal parking and sleep-deprived driving.

The Trucker News Services

7/28/2008

TROY, Mich. — The West Coast’s Interstate 5 and the East Coast’s Interstate 95, two of the nation’s busiest interstates, will receive more than $5 million each in federal support for innovative strategies to reduce the frustration of truckers looking for parking on congested routes. ParkingCarma, a Flint-based company, developed the Smart Parking system that will be implemented on California’s congested Interstate 5, which connects the country’s second largest border crossing to the bay ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

ParkingCarma’s information network is designed to make driving safer and to improve fuel efficiency by identifying and reserving nearby available truck parking.

I-5 is one of two interstates selected under the Corridors of the Future Program, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s national congestion initiative. California Department of Transportation was awarded the I-5 contract for its innovative uses of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technology to provide truckers with real-time information on available parking.

As part of the program, Caltrans, in partnership with ParkingCarma, NAVTEQ, and University of California, Berkeley, will monitor parking availability and transmit the updates to truckers. “We are excited to use our unique parking information network to be part of this public-private partnership designed to improve road safety and goods movement efficiency, while reducing emissions of Class 8 trucks,” said Rick Warner, CEO, ParkingCarma. “Through our Smart Parking information network, truckers will be able to access data about available parking spaces - via cell phone, the Internet, or an onboard computer.”

The I-5 carries between 15,000 and 40,000 trucks a day, and has grown nearly 17 percent over the last ten years. According to research, 153 million pounds of CO2 emissions per city could be eliminated per year if just 2 percent of city drivers used ParkingCarma’s information network to find a parking spot.

“We are looking to show that there will be similar energy efficiency gains for truckers,” said Warner.