Truck parking spaces on highways still in short supply

According to the ADAC, the parking spaces required for truck drivers to take breaks are in short supply in many places - including Saxony. As a result, trucks are often parked with hazard warning lights on the entrances and exits of rest areas because there is no regular space available, the automobile club reported on request. The debate about driving and rest times for bus and truck drivers has been in full swing again since the serious bus accident on the Autobahn 9 near Leipzig.

"Improving truck parking capacities on the federal highways is an urgent task," said Tino Möhring, spokesperson for Autobahn GmbH Ost. Truck parking spaces are an important factor for compliance with driving times and therefore for the safety of all road users.

More parking spaces, but room for improvement

However, according to the ADAC, a lot has changed since the most recent survey of truck parking spaces by the Federal Highway Research Institute in 2018. The number of parking spaces has increased and conditions have also improved somewhat. However, there is still room for improvement.

Every five years, data on parking spaces for trucks on freeways is collected nationwide. The survey was postponed due to the pandemic, but started last year. According to the latest data, there was an average of 4264 trucks parked in Saxony during the night in 2018 - but only 2715 parking spaces were available.

Increased focus on rest areas on the A4

"There are currently just under 10,000 truck parking spaces in almost 270 individual facilities in the branch area, which includes Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia," said Möhring. This means that around 280 new truck parking spaces have been created in the past two years. By the end of 2023, around 500 spaces will have been added in the branch area over the past five years. Of these, around 225 are in Saxony, around 170 in Saxony-Anhalt and around 100 new parking spaces in Thuringia.

The fact that most of them are being created in Saxony is no coincidence, as the highway 4 between Dresden and Görlitz is a hotspot with a high volume of traffic, says Möhring. In percentage terms, the share of heavy traffic in total traffic nationwide is highest in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.