5.2 F&LS-01 Intelligent and Secure Truck parking

5.2.1 ITS service at a glance

5.2.2 ITS service profile

5.2.2.1 General ITS service description

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.

5.2.2.2 What is the Vision?

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 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.

5.2.2.3 What is the mission?

ITP for truck parking areas:

• is to inform the truck driver about static and, where necessary and available, dynamic information relating to truck parking areas in order to support drivers in locating parking areas and/or free parking lots
• is only required where is a lack of capacity

Reservation for truck parking lots:

• is to reserve a parking space by time.

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:

• insufficient detection methods
• easy information access for the road user is unavailable
• diversity of information portals with different presentations
• incompleteness of information
• diverging interpretation of or disregard for the information by the road user

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.

5.2.2.4 Distinctiveness to other ITS-services

Relevant complementary information is covered by another ITS Core service:

• Multimodal Travel Information Service (TTIS-05)

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.

5.2.2.5 Contribution to overarching European ITS objectives

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.

• Safety
  • It is anticipated that the provision of truck parking information to the driver/ haulier will help improve road safety and Truck Parking Area safety. The service can significantly contribute to the prevention of accidents related to offsite parking, fatigue and stress.
  • A study^[1] that included an investigation of accidents taking place involving parked trucks shows the positive impact of the service with regards to safety: While the sample is relatively small, it is assessed that 50% of these accidents could have been avoided or have significantly smaller consequences had the trucks parked in a safe parking lot.
  • Stress and fatigue, both factors contributing to accident risk, can also be reduced by being able to more easily find a safe parking space through better guidance and more efficient use of existing parking areas.
• Environmental impact
  • The provision of information relating to alternative parking areas may help reduce time spent looking for available parking lots, which in-turn will help to further decrease the CO₂ emissions. There could also be benefits to environmental impact where identified parking could lead to less unacceptable behaviour by drivers who cannot find appropriate facilities to park.
  • In addition, ITP enables more efficient use of existing parking areas and thus contributes to the reduction of the need of building new Truck Parking Areas. Finally, the contribution of the service to safety/reduction of accident risk also has a positive effect for the environment through the reduction of the risk of accidents involving hazardous goods.
• Network efficiency
  • ITP will increase the overall efficiency of the Truck Parking Areas on a road sector/corridor. In addition, efficiency improves through reduced time spent and km driven while searching for a parking lot, as well as from reduction of off-site parking and queuing.

5.2.3 Harmonization Requirements and advice

5.2.3.1 Service Definition

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.

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.

5.2.3.2 Functional requirements and advice

5.2.3.2.1 Functional architecture

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.

5.2.3.2.2 Functional requirements and advice

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:

• FR1: The data provided for static information must be based on a consistent and geographic reference mode, which must be part of data description.
  • Note: In compliance with Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013, the geographic references must include latitude/longitude information of the entry point in the parking area, primary road identifier/direction (plus a second primary road identifier/direction, if the parking area is accessible from two different roads) plus – if needed – the indication of the exit to be taken from the primary road plus distance to the parking area in km or miles.
• FR2: The geographical basis for static and dynamic information may be left to the involved partners to define.

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:

• FR3: Source, scope and quality of data provided must be defined and must be part of data interface description.
• FR4: The geographical basis for dynamic information must be the same or compatible as the one for static information.
• FR5: The data provided must be based on a consistent and geographic reference model and a time validity model. For defined priority zones dynamic parking data must be included in the NAP (when available).
• FR6: Historic dynamic information data may also be required for algorithms or forecast.
• FR7: Data should be described using metadata^[1] to make it easier to search data, to make the data machine-readable and to improve common understanding of the data.
• FR8: Data should be described in English language as a minimum and possibly also other languages.

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 requirements:

• FR9: The geographical area of information dissemination should take into account the characteristics of the information transmission channel used.
• FR10: Traffic signs being used for information dissemination must be compliant with the requirements of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic Signs, where a Member has signed it. This means that the colours red, yellow and green cannot be used to show “the degree of occupation” of the truck parking area. Signs with language dependent written messages such as “free” should not be used.
• FR 11: To foster interoperability between all parties involved (content providers/non-technical sources, service operators, service providers) the sub-function may provide interfaces conforming to the following information structure:
  • static information
  • dynamic information
  • comment (free text)
  • information source
• FR 12: According to Delegated Regulation 885/2013 article 5 public or private parking operators and service providers must share and exchange data in DATEX II  (CEN/TS 16157) format or any DATEX II compatible international machine-readable format. Data shall be accessible for exchange and reuse by any public or private information service provider and/or parking operator on a non-discriminatory basis, and in accordance with access rights and procedures defined in Directive 2003/98/EC.

Functional advice:

• It is recommended that the capacity of the parking area is defined in relation to the measures of goods vehicles.
• The provision of the static information requires maintenance and availability of a list or a database as well as regular, systematic data maintenance.
• It is recommended that truck parking facilities beside the highway preferably are not farther away than 1 km from exit^[2].
• The automatically detected data may subsequently be further improved by the relevant algorithms to achieve good dynamic information without manually calibrating the system very often (e.g. comparison with historical data, with account of the physical upper and lower limits for occupancy). In addition, it is recommended to regularly calibrate the number of free truck parking spaces.
• It is recommended that dynamic data has a time stamp and information regarding its quality (period of validity).
• It is recommended that the smallest possible deviation from the actual/planned status is available about 1 hour before the full occupancy of the parking area. This is when the demand for dynamic data is the highest and the information for the users is the most valuable.

5.2.3.3 Interface requirements

Interface requirements: static information according Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013 Article 4 paragraph 1 and 2

• IFR1a: The Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking service must provide at interface 1 (see Figure 101) basic static information according to Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013 Article 4 paragraph 1 and 2:
  • Identification information of parking area (name and address) (200 characters)
  • Location information of the entry point in the parking area (20+20 characters)
  • One or two primary road identifier/direction pairs, depending on whether the parking area is accessible from one or two different roads (20+20 characters each).
  • Indication of the exit to be taken (100 characters) and distance from primary road in km or miles (3-digit integer)
  • Total number of parking places for trucks (3-digit integer)^[3]
  • Price and currency of parking places (300 characters)
  • Description of security, safety and service equipment of the parking including national classification if one is applied (500 characters)
  • Number of parking places for refrigerated goods vehicles (numerical 4 digits)
  • Information on specific equipment or services for specific goods vehicles and other (300 characters)
  • Contact information of the parking operator
    • Name and surname (100 characters
    • Telephone number (20 characters)
    • E-mail address (50 characters)
    • Consent of the operator to make his contact information public (Yes/No)

Note: For the collection, processing and storage of information the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies^[4].

• IFR1b: The Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking service should provide at interface 1 (see Figure 101) advanced static information about the parking area type:
  • truck only/ ”combined” parking facility (including non-goods vehicle)
  • number of spaces for cars, busses (defined by operator)
  • service features (facilities, fuel card, security^[5])

Interface requirements: dynamic information according Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013 Article 4 paragraph 3:

• IFR1c: The Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking service must provide at interface 1 (see Figure 101) DATEX II or any DATEX II compatible international machine-readable format coded dynamic information including the dynamic data on availability of parking places including whether a parking is:
  • full,
  • closed or
  • number of free places which are available.
• IFR2: If interface 2 is implemented, the Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking service must provide at interface 2 (see Figure 101) truck parking information coded in C-ITS messages including the following elements:
  • full,
  • closed or
  • number of free places which are available.
• IFR3: When relevant, the Intelligent and Secure Truck Parking service should collect at interface 3 (see Figure 101) C-ITS coded Probe Vehicle Data information (microscopic traffic situation) relevant to this ITS Core service.

5.2.3.4 Organisational Requirements

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:

• OR1: The organisational and operational structure of the service as well as the role of each organisation/body and its exact tasks in the chain must be defined. These parties and their role in the organisational structure of the ITP-service demand special attention and finally agreements/ contracts.
• OR2: Contracts/agreements must be established, which set up the rules of cooperation.
• OR3: Collaboration processes/workflows and interfaces must be described.
• OR4: The information provision should be in accordance with any management plans which are in operation of the road authorities or traffic management centres.
• QR5: A Quality Management and Assessment of compliance with the requirements systems must be set up according to Articles 7 and 8 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013. Details of these procedures must be clarified with the designated national competent body in charge of assessment of compliance with Delegated Regulation (EU) 885/2013.

Organisational advice:

• Since static data is subject to continuous change, a systematic standardised maintenance of the data is recommended.
• It is recommended to robustly calibrate dynamic data at regular intervals. The frequency of calibration depends on the requirements of the users, the accuracy of the detectors, the number of entering and departing goods vehicles, and the algorithm employed. In the case of daily calibration (which illustrates major discrepancies) it is recommended to calibrate shortly before the area is fully occupied.
• It is not legally possible in all Member States to restrict the general use of public parking areas through the reservation for individual users. In these countries only private sector solutions are conceivable.

5.2.3.5 Common Look & Feel requirements

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:

• CL&FR1: Information for the end user must be consistent, whatever media or end user device is used for distribution.
• CL&FR2: The display of signs/pictograms on VMS or other end-user devices should be in accordance with prevailing national road codes and:
  • Member States which ratified the Vienna Convention MUST respect the Vienna Convention and the European agreement supplementing the convention (1st May 1971) and SHOULD consider the Consolidated Resolution on Road Signs and Signals (R.E.2).
  • Member States which did not ratify the Vienna Convention SHOULD follow the Vienna Convention and also consider the R.E.2.

5.2.3.6 Required standards and specifications

• IPS1: If a Service for Intelligent and Secure Truck parking is implemented at interface 1 the information (see IFR1) must be profiled based using the “DATEX II Profile for Truck Parking” defined in CEN/TS 16157-6:2016 or any international machine-readable format fully compatible and interoperable with DATEX II.

5.2.3.7 Level of Service Definition

5.2.3.7.1 Level of Service Criteria

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)

• Level A: Provision of basic static information on parking areas
  • The trucker gets basic information about the location of existing truck parking areas, number of parking places, information on pricing, safety and equipment, and contact information via National Access Points, maps, navigation systems and signs along the principle roads.
• Level B: Advanced static information
  • In addition to the basic information provided in level A, the driver gets more detailed information the available service on-site, such as toilets, fuel stations, restaurants, etc.
• Level C: Provision of real-time information
  • Real-time occupancy information is provided to the road users. Occupancy information can be transmitted via several modes. The real-time information can be given for one area only or for several areas in a section/ on a corridor.
• Level D: Level C + forecast for one point
  • Pre-trip information on the current number of total available parking spaces is provided via several modes. Occupancy forecast information is given depending on the current situation, the filling rate, the traffic density, local historic profiles and actual data. According to the estimated arrival time of a goods vehicle a forecast of free parking spaces is given. No guarantee can be given that there will be free parking spaces by the time the goods vehicle arrives.
• Level E: Level D + pre-trip and on-trip forecast information on a larger area
  • On-trip information on the current number of total available parking spaces (per area) is provided via several modes, either on the roadside or through mobile devices etc. The forecast algorithm will take into account a larger area and several parking sites. This level provides a better short-term forecast with a wider reach than Level D and improves the possibility to seek alternative free parking spaces available in an area within the permitted driving time. This level offers the opportunity to adapt the route choice during planning in order to optimize the use of available driving time.

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.

5.2.3.7.2 Level of Service Criteria related to Operating Environment

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.)

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[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

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[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