“Not knowing where drivers will find available parking at the end of each day continues to be a challenge and a stressor for truckers,” said Brian Heath, CEO of Drivewyze.

In response to this need, Drivewyze has expanded its temporary rest area parking notifications to now include Arizona, Virginia and Ohio.

“Drivers are busy driving and don’t have time to keep track of changing open/close statuses at traditional parking areas,” said Heath. “This problem is exacerbated when you add temporary parking sites to the equation. New temporary parking is welcome, but how do drivers know where those are on a timely basis?”

Arizona recently opened two temporary sites, and Virginia is now allowing long-term parking at 10 weigh stations. In Ohio, the state DOT requested Drivewyze provide messaging to truckers as an extension of the state’s decision to keep all rest areas open, patrolled and safe. Notifications are available and free to carriers subscribed to the Drivewyze Safety Notifications service.

According to Heath, Drivewyze leveraged its GPS-based Safety Notification service to help drivers out in these three states.

“We volunteered to map out all the sites in these effected states and put our technology to work,” Heath said. “Truckers now receive an automated heads up notification with open/close status 25 miles and 5 miles prior to the rest areas in Arizona and weigh stations in Virginia. In Ohio, the notification that all sites are open goes out when a trucker crosses the state line. The goal is to give drivers in all three states a sense of relief in knowing where they can park.

“This work was done in conjunction with our state DOT partners – we saw it as a joint mission to help drivers and the alerts will continue as long as COVID-19 is impacting parking. We will add states and sites as circumstances change. It’s truly a liquid situation.”

This article was originally posted by American Trucker.