Impact of the Social Law on Truck Parking Sustainability in the EU

Abstract

Road freight transport in its current form has significant issues in terms of sustainability. These problems arise from an increase in density as well as from legislative decisions. Although not obvious, the parking of freight vehicles and legislation are connected. EU legislative decisions have reduced the sustainability of the parking system. The first and main goal of our study was to test the hypothesis that social law requirements negatively impact truck parking. The second important goal was to create a methodology that can determine the necessary number of parking spaces that comply with the requirements of social law. The method used for this research included the counting and numbering of parking spaces on specific routes in the EU compared with the intensity of freight vehicles on these routes. Our study shows that it is not possible to meet the requirements of social law and that the current state of freight vehicle parking is unsustainable. Planning sustainable parking areas in accordance with regulatory requirements is necessary, otherwise drivers will circumvent the rules, leading to a distortion of the freight transport market. In this paper, we also outline the proposed methodology for numbering parking spaces in a specific area.