National Coalition on Truck Parking: Funding, Finance, and Regulations Working Group Meeting 4 - August 14, 2018

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Contact Information: Freight Feedback at FreightFeedback@dot.gov

U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
Office of Operations
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

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Champions:

• Lisa Mullings, National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO)
• Tiffany Wlazlowski-Neuman, NATSO

Facilitators:

• Tiffany Julien, FHWA
• Jeff Purdy, FHWA
• Jordan Wainer, Volpe

Welcome and Introductions

Jordan welcomed the group to the meeting and provided an overview of the phone settings and webroom. She also stated that the meeting is being recorded for those who cannot attend and that the link to the recording will be distributed via email shortly after this meeting. Jordan then turned the meeting over to the group Champion, Tiffany Wlazlowski-Neuman.

Final Product Review

Tiffany stated that the Working Group decided to develop three products, but that the third one—a brochure/pamphlet on capital and operating costs of truck parking— is not yet available because NATSO is continuing to gather necessary cost data.

The Working Group products created are:

1. Truck Parking Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) – Examples and Considerations
2. Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Fact Sheet
3. Brochure/pamphlet on capital and operating costs of truck parking (not available yet)

Tiffany then transitioned to discuss the Truck Parking P3s document and asked the group whether it had any comments. Jordan stated that all of the examples had been approved for publication by the States, so the meeting leadership is only looking for minor changes at this time.

1. Truck Parking Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) – Examples and Considerations

• Fernley, Nevada:
  • Tiffany had a few questions about the Fernley, Nevada example.
    • Jordan replied that she believes that the information in each example is accurate because it was confirmed by the States and relevant local contacts.
    • Tiffany stated that her contact at the Pilot rest stop in Fernley has a different understanding of how the public-private partnership in Fernley came to be.
    • Jordan asked Tiffany to share her contact at Pilot so that Jordan can reach out to them.
  • A Working Group member asked how in the Fernley example the State was able to spend public money on the land that wasn't owned by it.
    • Jordan said that when she reaches out to the Nevada DOT for confirmation again on the Fernley example she can also ask about that detail. She stated that would be a useful perspective to include. Jeff Purdy said that he and Volpe could also reach out to the FHWA Division Office to ask about the right-of-way and realty aspects of this example.
• Virginia Rest Area Sponsorship:
  • Regarding the Virginia rest area sponsorship example, Tiffany asked what "catering was contracted out separately" means. Jordan replied that the State provided that information. She said that the private sponsor doesn't provide catering when they sponsor the rest area and that it's not part of the P3 arrangement.
    • Jordan said she can get more clarity on the issue and can reach back out to Virginia to see if she can get that information. Perhaps that sentence could be replaced with "they contract their vending machines out separately."
• Decatur, Illinois:
  • A Working Group member suggested making figure 2 smaller to fit it on the page.
• Interstate Oasis Program in Utah:
  • Tiffany stated that she would like to rephrase this example so that the fourth sentence is clearer. Tiffany stated that she will send revised language to replace the current text.
  • A Working Group member pointed out a typo in the footer of the document. Jordan said that she will fix that error.

2. CMAQ Fact Sheet

• Tiffany Wlazlowski-Neuman asked the Working Group members whether they had any feedback on this example. Hearing no comments, she turned the discussion over to Jordan for the Next Steps part of the agenda.

Next Steps

• Review and public affairs processes:
  • Jordan said that Volpe will share the products with FHWA leadership in the next few weeks, then they will go through the public affairs process at FHWA, which will take a few weeks. Final decisions about how to package the documents can be made at that time.
• Product packaging:
  • Jordan asked the Working Group members whether they had a preference for how to distribute the documents.
  • One Working Group member said that he'd like the products arranged by target audience. That would be most helpful to him in his work.
  • Tiffany Wlazlowski-Neuman asked what the other Working Groups are doing for packaging.
    • Jordan said that the Parking Capacity Working Group said that the products should be standalone. Some Working Groups said the products should be organized by target audience, some said by subject, some said they just want them as pdfs so they can download them and send them to whoever they think would benefit from them.
  • One Working Group member said the products would probably be used in an email to introduce concepts. The Working Group member also said that the Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky examples in the chart on page 3 of the CMAQ document weren't completed.
    • Jordan said that she will remove line 4 of the chart.
• Jason's Law Survey:
  • Jeff Purdy shared that FHWA is close to launching the updated version of the survey. This iteration will look at increases in truck parking demand in specific locations. The survey will identify truck parking locations as well as locations with smart truck parking. It will also examine State and MPO freight plans.
  • One Working Group member said that she can help publicize the survey by sharing the link on her company's website.

National Coalition on Truck Parking Annual Meeting

• Meeting purpose:
  • The purpose of the National Coalition on Truck Parking annual meeting is to convene all the Working Groups to share their progress over the last year and discuss possibilities for how to move forward.
• Tentative meeting structure:
  • During the meeting, each Working Group champion will speak for about 15 minutes. The champion will represent the Working Group at the meeting. Jordan asked what the Working Group members would like the champion to convey about their group during the annual meeting. No Working Group members responded.
• Role of the Working Group in the meeting:
  • The Working Group has an opportunity prior to the meeting to help guide what the champion will say about the Working Group's work. Jordan said that Working Group members can reach out to her at any time if they have feedback to share.
• Jordan mentioned that the tentative date for the annual meeting is the week of December 3rd. She asked whether anyone was aware of any conflicts with this date. No Working Group members raised any conflicts. One Working Group member offered to promote the annual meeting through the I-95 Coalition.

Future Research Needs

Jordan stated that although the Working Group accomplished a lot this year to advance truck parking availability, there are still many topics that the group didn't address. Jordan asked what topics the group would like FHWA to focus on next year in terms of truck parking research. She displayed a slide in the webroom that listed all of the topics that were suggested by the Working Group members in its first meeting, but that the group ultimately didn't pursue.

• One Working Group member said that he'd like to have the products arranged by the target audience so that it's easy to direct users to the most relevant products.
• One Working Group member said that it would be good to know how many State or local DOTs have a capital funding program for truck parking.
• Hearing no other suggestions for future research, Jordan said that if anyone has any other ideas they can send them to her after the webinar.

Tiffany Julien thanked the group for its hard work this past year. She mentioned that she's looking forward to sharing the documents developed by this Working Group on the National Coalition on Truck Parking website for a larger audience to see. She also thanked Tiffany Wlazlowski-Neuman for her leadership as champion.

Jordan also thanked the Working Group and then adjourned the meeting.