Posted By Hit The Road Jack on Jul 21, 2015 | 2 comments

A huge issue as a driver is the problem with finding a safe place to “set up camp” for the night. There’s too many trucks, too little parking. The challenge of finding a safe place to park leads to the misfortune of wasted hours that you could be using sleeping or worse—getting attacked in an unsafe location. Some drivers find themselves resorting to unsafe locations like industrial parking lots, behind grocery stores, abandoned gas stations or freeway ramps.

The American Truck Parking Shortage

Paying overnight fees or wasting the gas getting to a truck stop to spend the night is not the ideal situation for drivers. According to a survey conducted on Interstate 5, a California highway, 70% of drivers found that truck stops were full and had to keep going.

4,000 drivers were surveyed in 2013 and found that:

• 40% spend over an hour on average to find night parking
• 28% regularly or occasionally stay on freeway ramps
• 52% pull up behind shopping centers
• 45% hunt for places like abandoned gas stations/vacant strip malls.

“All the truck stops fill up early,” Debora da Rocha, a driver in the Northeast told the Wall Street Journal, “If you don’t find a place by 4 p.m., you’re in bad shape,” she says.

The Solution to the Overnight Parking Problem

The solution to the problem of finding good spots for drivers in the U.S. could come in the form of an iPhone app that launched in September 2014. Greg White and Richard Shore used their experience in the industry making the app by truckers, for truckers. RoadBreakers is a mobile app drivers can use to find hundreds of spots nearby to park to grab a full night’s rest safely. In the past, the only option to locate these spots were in the form of books and lists drivers would purchase. But it’s 2015—no one wants to get left in the dust with outdated lists.

The convenience that comes with apps right in the palm of your hand is just what the industry needs to help drivers find safe places to pull over for the night. Plus, right now, it can be downloaded for free! This is obviously a great solution compared to the loss of time and fuel it could take roaming around searching for a lot.

How Does RoadBreakers Work?

The app is part of a large database of 11,000+ truck parking locations throughout the country. The app uses your current GPS location to find nearest spots to the driver with no internet connection necessary.

The app does more than just help find places for truckers and RV drivers to crash for the night. It also works as a sort of social network that allows drivers to share information about locations to help others out. Additionally, the app’s database of locations is constantly updated by users who are able to both add and delete places.

Right now, the app is being developed in more Canadian locations.

You can download the app here for iPhone here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/roadbreakers/id914301158?mt=8

You can download the android version here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.roadbreakers.android