BATON ROUGE, La. – The next time you see an 18-wheeler parked on the shoulder of an interstate, it may not be there because the driver chose to stop. It may be because there was nowhere else to go.
What looks like a single truck parked along the roadside is often a visible sign of a much larger problem. Across the country, truck drivers routinely struggle to find safe, legal places to park when they reach federally mandated driving limits. When parking isn’t available, many are left with very few options – forcing them onto interstate shoulders and access ramps, creating risks for themselves and everyone else on the road.
To help address this growing issue, the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) a $640,000 Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant. This funding will allow DOTD to identify where the demand is the greatest, evaluate opportunities to expand parking at publicly owned sites, and position Louisiana to compete for future federal construction funding.
“Truck drivers are essential to our economy and everyday lives. They deliver the food on our shelves, the supplies our businesses need and the products families depend on,” DOTD Secretary Glenn Ledet said. “When those drivers can’t find a safe place to stop, it creates real safety concerns on our highways. This grant gives Louisiana the opportunity to improve safety, strengthen our freight network and better serve everyone who travels our roads.”
The need is significant.
Between 2023 and 2025, Louisiana State Police investigated 430 crashes involving parked commercial motor vehicles on or near state roadways. More than half resulted in injuries, and 18 were fatal. During commercial vehicle inspections conducted in 2025, troopers documented nearly 1,500 violations involving trucks parked illegally on interstate shoulders and access ramps, along with more than 12,000 violations for failing to activate hazard flashers or place required warning devices.
“This is an important project that will keep shoulders clear for emergencies, improve visibility for all drivers and reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes in this busy corridor,” said Lisa Freeman, Executive Director of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission. “I commend DOTD for pursuing this grant and working to improve safety for travelers and our commercial motor vehicle partners.”
Behind those numbers is a simple infrastructure challenge: There are more trucks that need a safe place to stop than there are spaces available.
Federal regulations limit how long commercial drivers can remain behind the wheel before taking mandatory rest breaks. Those rules are designed to reduce fatigue-related crashes, but when truck stops and rest areas are unavailable, drivers often have few safe or legal alternatives.
Nationally, there is approximately one designated truck parking space for every 11 commercial drivers.
While it may seem like a problem exclusively for the trucking industry, the shortage impacts everyone on the road.
Trucks parked along shoulders and ramps reduce visibility, complicate emergency response, increase crash risks and contribute to disruptions along already busy freight corridors.
Nearly everything people use in their daily lives spends part of its journey on a truck – from groceries and medications to construction materials, fuel and nearly all consumer goods. A safe, efficient freight network is essential to keeping those products moving.
Sitting at the center of one of the nation’s busiest freight networks, Louisiana plays a major role. More than 331 million tons of freight valued at more than $392 billion moved across the state in 2021, much of it traveling along the I-10 and I-12 corridors. Keeping that freight moving safely is essential to Louisiana’s economy and to the supply chains Americans rely on every day.
The federal BUILD funding will allow DOTD to:
Identify where truck parking demand is greatest along I-10 and I-12.
Evaluate opportunities to expand parking at publicly owned sites where improvements can be made efficiently and cost-effectively.
Position Louisiana to compete for future federal funding dedicated to expanding truck parking options.
This funding is a positive step toward solving a problem that has been building for years.
For most motorists, truck parking may not be something they think often about. Yet its impact can be felt on the safety of the highways they travel, the reliability of the products they depend on and the strength of the transportation network that keeps Louisiana moving.
This grant is a step toward addressing that challenge with a clear goal: safer roads, more reliable freight movement and a better transportation system for the future.