Three years after the last investigation into truck parking on German motorways, the ADAC automobile club conducted another survey and could not detect any change: The problem of dangerously parked trucks remains grave and unchanged in magnitude. According to the current survey at 100 rest areas, trucks were parked in high-risk areas such as entrances and exits or even on the hard shoulder – i.e., in the danger category Red. At 85 of the 100 tested sites, trucks stood in absolute stopping prohibition or on areas not permitted for them, for example on car parking spaces (category "Orange"). Parking outside marked spaces, such as in the lanes between the parking spaces, was nearly the rule (category
"Yellow").
ADAC testers counted at three survey times, at 22:00, 23:00 and 00:00 hours. A clear picture emerges. By the first count at 22:00, most rest areas were already completely full. Thereafter, the parking pressure continued to rise. The renewed negative record was recorded, as three years ago, at the Kassel Ost Lohfelden rest stop (A7, Hesse) with up to 138 parking violations, of which three in the red category. Also at the two rest stops Lichtendorf North (A1, North Rhine-Westphalia) and Tecklenburger Land West (A1, North Rhine-Westphalia) there was a particularly critical picture, with up to eight trucks in high-risk areas each. Only at the Plater Berge West facility on the A14 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
were there no violations. Ordered parking conditions could the testers observe at only one further rest area: Kutzhof South (A8, Saarland) with an illegally parked vehicle in the yellow area.
There are still 20,000 truck parking spaces missing
The problem has systemic causes: According to official surveys, there are still around 20,000 truck parking spaces missing along the motorways. The figure roughly corresponds to an analysis from five years ago. Although between 2018 and 2023 about 4,500 additional truck parking spaces were created, the number of parked trucks has also continued to increase and, according to official traffic projections, will continue to rise in the future. That truck drivers often park illegally is therefore not due
to lack of consideration, but to too few parking spaces. The shortage of nighttime parking options and the illegally parked trucks pose great dangers to road safety and can lead to serious accidents.
Therefore the ADAC calls on policymakers to accelerate the expansion of parking spaces significantly and to use existing areas more efficiently. In addition to the classic new construction and expansion, intelligent parking systems ("truck convoy parking") and digitally provided parking-space information as well as reservation solutions could be deployed more strongly. At the same time, illegal parking on on-ramps and off-ramps must continue to be enforced consistently. Companies could also help reduce the pressure, for example by temporarily providing company-owned truck parking spaces
