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When I saw this, my first thought was; What a waste of time and money.

FMCSA May Fund System to Advise Drivers of Parking Availability in 50-Mile Radius

6/17/2005

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is considering funding
projects using commercially-available technologies to provide real-time
parking availability to truck drivers on the road.

There’s plenty of parking out there. Instead of planning your trip, you only have to be creative, here’s a few parking hints -

• The striped lines that say NO PARKING that’s really camouflage for a parking space.
• Spots with a weird blue and white design – Parking for anyone.
• Next to the CAT Scale – Don’t worry about being in anyone’s way, if they’re any kind of truck driver, they can drive around you.
• The fuel island – If you’re only going in to shower or eat or wait in line at Subway or something that takes less than an hour. The fuel island is perfect. It’s close, you won’t be out of breath when you’re ordering that Double Whopper and extra large fries. And don’t worry about the people behind you, they’re used to it, if they’re not, they need to get used to it.
• When the parking row ends and the driveway begins, there’s actually still room for two or three more spaces, the truck stop ran out of paint so, it’s okay.
• Anywhere you’re in the way. Someone has probably already parked there before so it’s probably really a parking spot anyway. If anyone complains, it’s because they can’t really drive a truck very well.

Any of these places will do if you have trouble backing, you’re fat and want to get fatter, perfect for the lazy. If you’re fat and lazy, it’s really perfect. If it’s raining, snowing, sleeting, misting or dew on the ground, too hot, or too cold.

The rest of us that can park, plan a trip and have more than an ounce of respect and consideration for others, don’t mind at all if we have to back off the fuel island or have to drive around the truck stop like it’s a really small maze avoiding your stupid fenders because we don’t want to deal with the paperwork and you’re stupidity after a long day of driving.

Originally posted 2005-06-17 09:02:40.