Smart truck parking
The SmartPark reservation system is not yet fully functional, but should be operational in the next few weeks. Truckers can go to www.smartpark4trucks.com to learn more. Truckers can go to http://www.smartparkingusa.com to reserve parking at the McMinn site and soon can reserve a spot at the Bradley location. A SmartPark mobile app is available at the site. Use of the site requires minimal registration.
Big-rig truckers’ smartphones soon can help them find parking space along the Interstate 75 corridor in East Tennessee with the opening of a couple of new, high-tech research sites to study the feasibility of providing real-time parking information to truckers on the road.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have teamed up on the project, dubbed SmartPark. It consists of one study site already opened on the northbound side of I-75 at the rest area near the 45-mile marker south of Athens, Tenn., and another developing site at northbound mile marker 23 south of exit 25 in Cleveland.
Officials say the idea is to allow the two sites to be networked in real time so truckers can be diverted from one site to the other when spaces fill up, so they will have time to rest.
TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said Friday that crews this week are working on the Bradley County site, a formerly unimproved trucker rest stop.
