ITS Service definition
Two different services with regard to intelligent truck parking are considered:
Production and distribution of static and dynamic information on the truck parking situation on the TEN-T networks and access roads to manage the parking space, support the observation of rest and driving periods for drivers, reduce dangerous parking and improve drivers, load and goods vehicle safety and security. This information could be provided on-trip and pre-trip using different information channels and different end-user devices.
Beyond that the service can be combined with the individual reservation of a truck parking space with the help of telematic services via different devices. A parking space on site is reserved (blocked) and kept free for the pre-identified goods vehicle.
ITS Service objective
The main objective of providing information to the end user is improving the safety and the efficiency of the parking areas and the safety and security of truck drivers.
ITP is useful in sections where demand and capacity is nearly balanced but has many rest areas. The drivers need information which of the available rest area provides free parking spaces. ITP then reduce construction of new rest areas or parking lots on existing rest areas.
If the truck drivers know the upcoming parking situation in advance they would be prepared and could pro-actively change their route or park earlier. Parking information can be factored into both pre- and on-trip journey planning. This may change the parking times, assist the truck driver to take more effective routing decisions. Better-informed truck drivers find a safe and secure parking place more easily, sleep well and hence benefit from improved concentration.
ITS service radar
ITS service key words
The objective of parking area operators is to make the optimum use of the existing truck parking capacities along the highways and to improve safety and security on their (truck) parking area. “Intelligent Truck Parking” (ITP) will contribute towards optimising the use of available parking areas, which are a limited resource in many corridors today. The service will also enable efficient management of roads and parking areas which may become congested or overloaded with goods vehicles at certain times due to traffic/driving restrictions, weather or road conditions.
On-site guidance allows the goods vehicles to park without spending a long time looking for a place.
End users may receive all of the information they require to park their goods vehicles through various information channels, if necessary, across borders. Access to properly equipped parking and rest areas will reduce the risk for driving on “overtime”, will reduce driver fatigue, improve cargo security, and solve other problems relating to excessive driving periods and “wild” overnight parking. This in turn will reduce the sanitary, safety and security problems affecting truck drivers.
The specific needs of individual transport operators need to be borne in mind, such as those carrying dangerous goods or abnormal loads.
Reservation services support the individual reservation of a truck parking space with the help of ITS services on board of the goods vehicle via internet, call-centre and smartphone app. The parking space on site is reserved (blocked) and kept free for the identified goods vehicle.
ITP is useful in sections where demand and capacity is nearly balanced but has many rest areas. The drivers need information on which of the available rest area provides free parking spaces. ITP thus can reduce construction of new rest areas or parking lots on existing rest areas.
If the truck drivers know the parking situation ahead in advance they will be prepared and can proactively change their route or park earlier. Parking information can be factored into both pre- and on-trip journey planning. This may change parking times and assist the truck driver to take more effective routing decisions. Better-informed truck drivers find a safe and secure parking place more easily, sleep well and hence benefit from improved concentration.
ITP for truck parking areas:
Reservation for truck parking lots:
This information could be provided on-trip and pre-trip using different channels of information and different end-user devices. The service may comprise common information as well as personalised (individual) information.
Problems to consider:
The implementation of an ITP system has to be considered globally regarding the context of the area and the level of saturation in the areas. In some countries or regions, building new parking spaces or new parking areas is more economic than investing in ITS solutions for truck parking management. The main problem is in the detection of the occupancy of the areas. Equipping a truck area with an ITP system costs a lot of money. Road or area operators are not ready to spend this money because the ROI generated by this investment is very low – parking is free for the drivers in a lot of countries. Moreover, free truck parking doesn’t encourage other stakeholders (e.g. logistics platforms, or certain hauliers) to invest in truck parking areas. Motorway truck parking areas on the motorways are sometimes considered as logistics storage.
Relevant complementary information is covered by another ITS Core service:
This service is directed to the road user and may include general information as well as personalised (individual) information. The information provision should be in accordance with any traffic management plans (see TMS-07), which are in operation by the specific road authorities or traffic management centres.
ITS-Service radar
The graph below provides a quantification of the added value of “Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking” services regarding safety, efficiency and the environment.
In most European countries the truck parking areas available are predominantly operated without the use of ITS or telematic services.
Following the adoption of Delegated Regulation 885/2013 on the provision of information services for safe and secure parking places for trucks and commercial vehicles, an increasing number of countries have established a National Access Point for this type of data. For designated areas where traffic and security conditions require the deployment of information services on safe and secure parking places, the National Access Points are obliged to contain static parking information and information on safety and equipment of the parking area. For defined priority zones, where there is a shortage on safe and secure parking places, also dynamic parking data should be included in the National Access Points (when available). Data should be provided both by public and private truck parking operators.
This service description addresses the production and distribution of static and dynamic information on the truck parking situation on the TEN-T networks and access roads to manage the parking space, support the observation of rest and driving periods for drivers, reduce dangerous parking and improve drivers, load and goods vehicle safety and security. This information could be provided on-trip and pre-trip using different channels of information and different end-user devices.
Goods vehicle drivers and dispatchers need information on fuel stations and rest areas on their route both before and during their trip. This may be done through the information providers. In Europe, private and public information providers are involved in this information provision (see organisational requirements).
The figure below shows the typical functional architecture of the information service. The vertical lines show where it is appropriate to segment the whole functionality of the service into a maximum of three sub-functions.
Sub-function 1 “Data collection (static/dynamic)”
The devices and methodologies for traffic data collection are not covered by this service description. Amongst other considerations they depend on the particular data collection system used and are left to the operator to select. Note that even dynamic data collection isn’t only done by automatic systems. Note that the number of spaces must be defined by the operator.
Functional requirements:
Sub-function 2 “Management of Information”
Within Europe different methodologies exist to manage the static and dynamic data. These methodologies are not covered by the present guideline and are left to the operator to select. They depend amongst others on the (until now) covered data and the need to offer it.
Functional requirement:
Sub-function 3 “Transmission of Information”
Information provision is carried out by different service providers in accordance with specific business models. The information provision to the truck driver has to be done using various information channels e.g. on signs and end-user devices (see introduction). When providing customer-oriented forecast and real-time information services, the users’ benefit can be increased by providing parking information combined with general traffic information (i.e. Traffic Condition and Travel Times (see TTIS-02), Road Weather Information (see TTIS-06) and Speed Limit Information (see TTIS-03)) as well.
Functional advice:
Interface requirements: static information according Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013 Article 4 paragraph 1 and 2
Note: For the collection, processing and storage of information the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies[4].
Interface requirements: dynamic information according Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013 Article 4 paragraph 3:
Note: A general overarching description of the key actors, their roles in the value chain and the related conditions for TTI service provision are outlined in Chapter 3.1.4.
Organisational requirements:
Organisational advice:
Goods vehicle drivers and hauliers want to know where to find the right general information in language independent and comprehensible form. Roadside information must be provided in a language independent form, and be consistently designed so as to be understandable throughout Europe.
There are private internet platforms, which enable the driver or forwarder to book truck parking spaces. As an alternative this can also be done by telephone. A charge for the reservation has to be expected.
A possible pictograph for security information has been developed, reference: EU resolution on preventing and combating road freight crime and providing secure truck parking areas (Council Meeting of the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs; 8 and 9 November 2010).
In the EasyWay project, the expert group on VMS harmonisation had obtained good results for onepictogram signs specifically indicating parking for trucks various comprehension tests. This eases the use of VMS concerning ITP for all one-pictogram VMS available in Europe (the majority of VMS devices).
Common Look & Feel requirements:
Table 44 gives the Level of Service recommendations for an Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking service. The background of this concept is descripted in chapter 2.6.
Table 44: Level of Service recommendations for Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking
The first thing to establish is what possibilities exist for truck parking management and what is necessary to solve existing problems. For the provision of information concerning truck parking, the following service levels have been defined: (Note: The levels of service for each criterion are independent. In this case, it is intended that higher levels of service offer greater capability than lower levels of service)
It is not imperative to try to achieve the highest level. For some route sections with a low demand for truck parking level A will be sufficient. If there is a demand for service offers level B has to be chosen. Only if the congestion of individual truck parking areas requires management of the parking area do levels C to E become economically useful for a better distribution of the demand for parking.
For the provision of information, the decisive factors are the (expected) demand of third parties, for example service providers, and the frequency of change of static data for the level to be chosen.
All data to be disseminated is purely informative and offered to about 20 % of the users of longdistance roads. For this reason, the erection of signs only for the transfer of information is excessive in view of the large number of truck parking areas, and as level A, it can only remain restricted to individual cases. For longer route sections the information may be presented to the driver in the vehicle cab. This is the only place where there is sufficient time to receive and evaluate this information and to react accordingly. Information channels can be used before and during the trip.
For detection within private areas, manual procedures with guards can also be economical. In other cases, automatic procedures/barriers would be appropriate. Downstream algorithms review the calculated number of free parking spaces. Historical comparisons and limit values (maximum and minimum capacity) offer themselves here.
For reservation, first the demand for such a service, along with the willingness to pay, has to be assessed. Then, depending on the total number of relevant truck parking areas (one or several), the economical level of use can be chosen.
Allocating the LoS to the operating environments is not useful for ITP. The necessity of ITP (stationary traffic) is not oriented towards the category of the road or the number of its lanes or whether it is prone to congestion, because these are the characteristics of moving traffic. Rather, the decisive factors are the number of goods vehicles that are on the road, the importance of the road and its position in the network with the resulting demand for truck parking spaces. This demand for parking has to be determined separately and locally. It results in the number of required truck parking spaces and the necessary relevant requirement of the individual ITP levels. Finally, the LoS are applicable to all OE´s.
The number of goods vehicles on the road has to be assessed with the availability in truck parking areas to be a good parameter for ITP deployment (e.g. there are motorways with low levels of truck traffic but also with very low truck parking availability and, consequently, often the problem of saturated truck parking areas.)
[1] There are different ‘standards’ for metadata (coordinated metadata catalogue, DCAT-AP). A guideline on metadata is available here: https://www.its-platform.eu/filedepot_download/1976/6295
[2] It should be noted that recent (2017) stricter interpretation of the driving time regulation might lead to truck parkings farther away.
[3] The current text of 885/2013 is phrased “number of free parking spaces”. This seems to be either an editorial error or a very ambiguous phrasing, since this is the section for static data. What is meant is the total number of spaces, independent of the current occupancy.
[4] More information: www.gdpr.eu
[5] An example reference for security features is the „Study on Safe and Secure Parking Places for Trucks“: https://ec.europa.
eu/transport/sites/transport/files/2019-study-on-safe-and-secure-parking-places-for-trucks.pdf
[1] The full study can be found here: ITS Action Plan – Priority Actions E and F – Information and Reservation Services for Safe and Secure Parking Places for Trucks and Commercial Vehicles – Final Report