With nearly a dozen interstates and the third-largest port in the nation, as many as 55,000 trucks pass through N.J. daily — all battling for less than 3,000 legal parking spots.
At night they're where they aren't supposed to be -- on the shoulder of the interstate, by highway on-and-off ramps, tractor-trailers parked in illegal spots.
In Mahwah, officials say they are at their wit's end with trying to stop tractor-trailers from lining up daily on a stretch of Route 287.
With nearly a dozen interstates and the third-largest port in the nation, as many as 55,000 trucks pass through the Garden State each day -- all battling for less than 3,000 legal parking spots.
"This problem is far too common," said Scott Grenerth, regulatory affairs director for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. "You can't find a driver who doesn't want a safe place to rest."
Yet there is only one less-than-adequate truck stop on I-287 in New Jersey. It's a similar situation at the truck stop on I-80 in Allamuchy Township -- few parking spots, reeking port-o-potties and garbage spilling out of trash cans.
Drive further west, however, and just before the Pennsylvania border you'll find the Norman Knight Travel Center run by TA in Columbia. There are multiple restaurants at the trucking oasis, including a country buffet, a laundry room, auto-mechanics and even a movie room.
Inside Mahwah's illegal truck stop
By 8 p.m. on a recent weeknight, there were only a handful of spots left out of the available 200 at the expansive TA truck stop.
"There are spots here but we are a long way from the congestion, this isn't the bad part," Trucker Micki Maurer said referring to areas closer to NYC. "I don't even come to the Northeast if I can avoid it."
Trucking continues to dominate the freight industry, with three million trucks moving goods across the nation. In 2015, trucking accounted for more than 80 percent of the nation's freight bill and brought in more than $720 billion, according to the American Trucking Association.
While trucking is projected grow more than 40 percent over the next 30 years, new parking spots for those trucks is lagging far, far behind.
"Truck parking shortages are a national safety concern," reads a federal report dubbed the Jason's Law Study, named after Jason Rivenburg, a trucker who was robbed and murdered in 2009 when he parked in an abandoned gas station when he couldn't find a spot.
Nine out of 10 of drivers interviewed for the Jason's Law Study reported struggling to find safe and available parking during night hours.
While the issue of truck parking affects the entire country, New Jersey might be the worst offender. Over 7,000 independent truck drivers listed the state as the worst for truck parking, according to the Jason's Law Study.
"In a state like New Jersey it's a very tough issue, even if you had the local support, the cost of real estate is too high," said Thomas J. Phelan, an engineer and New Jersey resident who played key roles in two truck parking studies. "When they do find the appropriate land, they decide it's better for other use like malls or residential developments."
In 2008, Phelan worked on a study with the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority to look at the issue of truck parking in Northern New Jersey.
The study identified four areas that had the biggest need for parking -- the interchange of I-78 with the NJ Turnpike, I-287 corridor, the area around the Vince Lombardi rest area and in Newark.
A sample facility in the study looked at a 40-acre parcel of land in Newark between Route 1 and 9 and by the NJ Turnpike. The study found that a truck stop built there with a retail convenience store, full service restaurant, fast food, truck maintenance facility, fuel pumps, and 200 truck parking spaces would generate 120 jobs and $13.5 million in sales for the city and Essex county.
Often the development of truck parking falls to private companies due to struggling DOT budgets and a growing list of demands, such as asphalt and bridge repairs. Of more than 300,000 parking spots nationwide noted in the Jason's Law Study, only 36,000 were public.
Even when companies like Pilot and TA try to build truck parking, residents in local communities fiercely oppose them. In Ramsey, residents have stalled the construction of a Wawa due to possible truck traffic.
In Mahwah, residents fought and won to limit the size of a now-packed Pilot truck stop while it was being built.
"Local communities need to identify where they keep having this problem, I always get stuck in the same spots," said Desiree Wood, trucker and President of Real Women in Trucking. "(The Mahwah stop) is a horrible place, but there is nowhere else to go. That area is a staging area for New York and New Jersey and for 70 miles there's nowhere to park."
State Assemblyman Daniel R. Benson (D-Mercer/Middlesex) reintroduced a bill this year that would examine truck parking in the state.
"The bill has two main purposes: To examine where the trucks can park now and to look at the lack of parking and where we can build," Benson said.
Benson was alerted to the issue after a number of accidents and concerns with truck parking, most notably the 2014 death of three Mercer County teens after a drunk driver plowed into a truck parked on the shoulder of an off-ramp.
Benson said the bill is set to go nowhere soon due to the current transportation funding crisis, since the bill is dependent on stalled DOT studies.
The trucking industry, however, is making an effort combat the problems themselves.
Englewood-based Unilever, one of the biggest consumer goods companies in the world, which produce products like Dove soap, Breyer's ice cream and Lipton teas, recently partnered with trucking company Kriska to allow drivers to park overnight at their facilities.
"The single biggest thing that can be done is for shippers and receivers to allow space for parking overnight," said Grenerth, also a member of a national coalition that is looking for a solution to truck parking. "Even if they allowed one or two trucks to park in the facility, that frees up other parking spaces."
But the state stalls on solutions to the truck parking issue, the problem is likely to grow with the recent completion of Panama Canal Expansion that will allow larger ships through the canal and in turn increase trucking on the East Coast and in New Jersey.
The bustling Port of New York and New Jersey, which saw record growth last year and handled 11,000 trucks a day, is spending billions to accommodate the expansion. Upgrades include giant cranes in Bayonne and increased container space in Newark.
An interview request with state Transportation Commissioner Richard T. Hammer on the issue was denied. Instead, spokesperson Steve Schapiro said the state is working on the issue.
"It's a challenging issue, particularly in New Jersey with the state's high population density, lack of available rights-of-way, and truck rest areas have been met with local opposition," Schapiro wrote. "NJDOT is in the initial stages of developing a freight plan that will encompass the issue of truck parking."
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration made the issue of truck parking worse when they revised the rules on required resting for drivers, industry officials said. Before 2005, a trucker could split up the amount of hours they worked and rested however they saw fit.
The revised rules, however, called for a continuous eight hour rest period to mimic a natural rest cycle. The result was more truckers pulling over at night when they hit their required rest period.
Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. Find NJ.com on Facebook.