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Taking the Hire Road is a podcast dedicated to providing tips to help manage the driver recruiting process while addressing the ongoing challenges related to the driver shortage and driver retention. Hosted by Jeremy Reymer, Founder and CEO of DriverReach, this bimonthly podcast shines a light on the challenges that carriers are facing and aims to help companies hire quality drivers with greater efficiency.
Jeremy Reymer (00:07):
Welcome to Taking the Hire Road, a special show dedicated to the trucking industry, primarily around the confluence of recruiting, retention, and compliance. In the fifth year as the host of this show, I bring over two decades of industry experience, both on the carrier side as well as the vendor side. Throughout the year, I interview industry experts and thought leaders who bring their insight to the driver lifecycle as we discuss the industry's greatest challenges. I always appreciate your feedback, good or bad. Don't forget to leave a rating and a review. I'd also like to thank and highlight the show's valuable sponsors. Their dedication and commitment to the industry and to the show is greatly appreciated. If you're interested in being a sponsor of the show or joining me for an interview, please email Jeremy@takingthehireroad.com. This week I'm excited to have back on the show an industry friend whose company is all about addressing one of the perpetual challenges in the industry, and especially drivers face every day. Evan Shelley, the co-founder and CEO of Truck Parking Club. So glad to have you back on the show, Evan.
Evan Shelley (01:04):
Yeah, thanks for having me again.
Jeremy Reymer (01:05):
Well, since we last connected back in September of 2023, I think, you've continued to expand both in parking availability and staff. I consistently see you at industry events and a number of folks from the Truck Parking Club team. They're always engaged. For the few listeners who may not be familiar with Truck Parking Club, perhaps you can provide some background on the company and how it's solving the parking conundrum, and I'd love to hear how things have been going the past couple of years, especially as we continue to be just mired in this ongoing freight recession. And I'm curious if you've had to pivot in any way as a result or if there's been any sort of evolution to your roadmap since we last connected. I know truck parking continues to be a top concern for drivers according to ATRI's annual Top Industry Issues survey, so perhaps you can share how you define success both for TPC and for this industry just as an issue going forward. I know that's a lot, but lastly, I'll make sure we touch on this episode's industry health question, which is sponsored by Project 61, so I think we are ready to dive in.
Evan Shelley (02:12):
Yeah, sounds good.
Jeremy Reymer (02:13):
Alright, well, before we do that, I do want to plant this seed. At the end of our conversation, I'm going to ask you for a book recommendation, something that you've read that's been impactful. You could put that question in your pipe and we'll talk about it a little bit later. But for the few listeners who may not be familiar with Truck Parking Club, can you share a bit of your origin story and how exactly you're helping to solve this significant industry challenge?
Evan Shelley (02:39):
My background is real estate. That's how I found out about the truck parking issue. So I had always been interested in real estate. I went to school for civil engineering, then I started working in general contracting and site development for a year or so after getting out of college. And then I went out on my own and started flipping houses and did a lot of that in Florida. And then that got a little mundane and I started doing large-scale land deals where I would go out and find pieces of property that were under entitled and reentitled them for something that would make the property of higher value and then flip it to a developer. And through doing those deals, I found out about the truck parking issue through a piece of property that I had that was zoned industrial. I went to the municipality and said I wanted to develop it for truck parking and they told me that they wouldn't support it even though it was zoned industrial and they didn't think anyone would support it.
(03:34):
When I talked to investors and people in the industry, everyone was saying there was a huge need for truck parking and that it was a great investment, obviously if you could buy it at the right price. So Truck Parking Club we're a two-sided marketplace where we help truckers find a reserve parking through our mobile app and a website and we help property owners and businesses monetize their extra space with truck parking. So ultimately there's one space for every 11 trucks. The average driver takes 56 minutes to find parking on a daily basis. What we do is go out and find existing space from trucking companies with extra space in the yard, tow truck companies, truck repair shops, CDL schools, truck parking operators, truck stops. Any space that's suitable for truck parking, we can get them in the business of truck parking the same day. And ultimately we've been able to add tens of thousands of truck parking spaces by leveraging existing space and technology, so ultimately creating more options for drivers to get suitably parked.
Jeremy Reymer (04:35):
You said you started in 2021. That was right in maybe the last really good year or right in the early part, probably a little bit before we started to really see the freight recession, the downturn that we've been experiencing ever since. And even though that was where you got your start, you still, because you've been solving and addressing such a critical industry issue, it seems like you've grown quite a bit and I know again, it's been a challenging time for most people. I don't know any company that's banging on all cylinders, but how are you even in the midst of that? How are you continuing to add parking availability and facilitate the ongoing demand?
Evan Shelley (05:13):
I officially started the business in late 2022, which I think was things were starting to change quite rapidly around that time. I think I was just naive. I just didn't know any better and I knew there was a problem. Everyone within the industry agreed that there was an issue, so I just went for it. The market hasn't been quite weak, I think most people would say the last couple years, but ultimately there's still a problem to be solved and we've been able to grow quite quickly. I think the last time I was on this show, we were probably a hundred or so locations and we're almost to 2,000 locations now. I think we're at 1,969 locations as of today. We add about eight to 10 new locations per day and we have tens of thousands of drivers that actively use us to find parking. We've continued to scale through this tough market, and I think it just speaks to the problem that exists within truck parking.
Jeremy Reymer (06:20):
And in fact, it has been throughout this period of time. I mentioned ATRI's Top 10 Industry Issues survey. It's at or near the top for drivers throughout this period. So it's not just because of the demand for freight and therefore, all of a sudden, parking is an issue. It's going to get worse for certain when things pick up, but even in the absence of that, it is still a really big issue. And you mentioned one space for every 11 trucks, right?
Evan Shelley (06:48):
Yeah, that's a common stat that comes from the ATA.
Jeremy Reymer (06:52):
Yeah, I've heard that before and I think that's just crazy and the fact that it takes upwards of an hour of a driver's productivity and opportunity cost that's lost with trying to find parking. So definitely striking a chord, which is really cool. But since we last connected, you talked about that growing from a hundred to almost close to 2,000 locations. Any other major pivots or any particular achievements or milestones, not that that's not pretty significant one, that you've reached that you want to touch on?
Evan Shelley (07:25):
I think it's really just been staying focused on what the goal is and the goal is to get to tens of thousands of locations and to help drivers find parking in 10 minutes or less. And really how we do that is create more parking, create more suitable safe legal parking and deliver great experiences to drivers every time they use us. And that's really the main goal every single day. It's not getting distracted with shiny objects. AI is kind of a buzzword now, and we do leverage AI internally and it is quite effective, but we're never going to go off and say we're an AI company because that's kind of the hot thing now. We are just very focused on adding more parking and delivering great experiences and just staying focused on that is a big enough of a challenge.
Jeremy Reymer (08:12):
You leveraged technology, so you talked about an app that drivers are accessing and that's where they're able to find and secure parking. I would say overwhelmingly there's been a lot of support and interest in what you're doing, but I've also heard and seen just because we're both, I know, active on LinkedIn, I've seen some critical positioning from and messaging from drivers, a lot of times some old school sort of drivers in that mindset, usually just being frustrated with having to pay for parking that used to be free and that sort of thing. How does that impact you? What are your thoughts on just that? I know it's overwhelmingly positive, but still once in a while you get some of these frustrated drivers.
Evan Shelley (08:53):
Yeah, I mean it's true for any business. You're going to have some people that do not like whatever you're doing. I think for us, I understand completely where drivers that are used to having free parking, now they see that some places are going to paid parking. I think Pilot and TA led that a couple decades ago. It's just continued to expand across truck stops and other locations. So I understand the frustration. I mean, if you've been parking somewhere 20 years and then half the lot goes to paid parking, that's going to frustrate you. I completely understand where they're coming from and in a perfect world speaking for truck stops and most locations, ideally it would be free. The problem is that there's businesses that operate at those locations and they have to stay in business as well. So it's just a function of ROI and being able to pay their own bills.
(09:51):
So that puts pressure back on the driver, back on the carrier, and that's specifically really overnight parking that we're talking about. There's more facets to our business, but I understand where they come from. I do think that all businesses involved do have to be able to stay in business and converting to paid parking is a choice that they make. Most of it stems from truck stops going to paid parking really for our business and those truck stops, they're making that choice to do that even though they know for a fact that they're going to make some of those drivers mad, but they also know they need to pay their staff and they need to maintain the parking lot and they need to maintain their store. So it's a business decision that these locations make. We're in the middle of it because we facilitate the technology, but I get both sides of it and we just want to deliver great experiences and ultimately I can definitely understand the driver isn't happy about it.
(10:51):
I wouldn't, if I were in their position, I would be frustrated, but also a lot of the feedback is this parking lot used to be really trashed up and say negative things about it, but then converse to paid parking and they have someone that's actually watching the lot and cleaning the lot, you start seeing positive reviews. We have reviews on our site so you can go to those locations and see what people say. I would say the only thing that is frustrating is when it's false narratives, false news that comes. It's very unfortunate when people start saying things that aren't true and try to destroy a business that is really just working to solve a problem. But ultimately, I think also we live in the United States of America and everyone should have their own voice and be able to say what they think. So I have no problem with that, that either. We know what we stand for, we know what our values are, we know what our ethics are. Half of our team's former drivers, so that really creates the culture for the company and we do everything we can to help drivers have a great experience when they park with Truck Parking Club, and as long as we feel good about that, we feel good about our values, we believe we're doing the right thing, and we've got tens of thousands of drivers that say the same thing.
Jeremy Reymer (12:03):
Do fleets pay oftentimes for their drivers for the ability to park or do drivers pay themselves or is there a mix? What does it look like from your side?
Evan Shelley (12:12):
A lot of carriers are now paying for their driver's parking. We're helping to leave the charge on that because we make it very, very easy to do. It's not universal yet, but I think there's a lot more carriers that are paying for parking now that Truck Parking Club exists than there was before we started, and we continue to see carriers more and more often pay for their driver's parking because of the stress that it relieves on a daily basis, the retention that it creates for companies. They see those benefits and they see that it's a competitive edge to be a better carrier. And so we see really by the day, more and more carriers paying for their driver's parking, but not all carriers do pay for their parking. So company drivers can be put in a tight spot if they're having to pay for parking for equipment that they don't own. I can understand that argument as well being tough, but with that being said, 60 or so of the top 100 fleets, their drivers have used Truck Parking Club. It is being rapidly adopted by carriers and company drivers.
Jeremy Reymer (13:13):
And that's great to hear, and especially as we were talking about ATRI earlier. Again, in that Top 10 survey, if a company's top 10 issues are driver retention, recruiting and those sorts of things, and if you want to improve on that, then you should be listening and paying attention to the issues that the drivers face and reference all the time. And that is always high on the list is truck parking. And so I'm encouraged to hear that more and more companies are embracing addressing that issue, paying for that for their drivers to eliminate that stress, to improve their productivity and those sorts of things. I think it's a wise investment and I'm sure that the companies, the top companies to drive for are some of those companies that get it and they're the ones that don't have some of those retention issues because they're making that investment. So I'm encouraged to hear that and I'm sure that that is one thing that I think will be impacted positively as we get out of this freight recession. I think you'll see a lot more companies embracing that and recognizing that as a retention tool or even a recruiting tool for them.
Evan Shelley (14:15):
Yeah, I think it's going to naturally go that direction. I think it already is, to be honest. It's just not being talked about that much, but it is a very strong tool, and I think the thing that Truck Parking Club is doing and that we have to continue doing is educating carriers on what we actually do. Because there's many times we sit down with a carrier, they have 300, 500,000 trucks, the first thing they say is, you're trying to force my drivers into paying for parking. And it's like, no, we're not trapping drivers into paying for parking. The next question is, how many hours a day are your drivers driving out of the allowed 11 out of 14 hours? Well, eight and a half, nine. It's like, okay, imagine that you increase that by 60 minutes across your entire company and you leverage Truck Parking Club as a tool to use us when you need us.
(15:04):
If they can find that free parking for that night, great, but if they can't, we've got something 60 more miles down the road that they can pay $20 for. That's a win for you all. That's how you want to leverage us, not that you have to use us all the time, use us when you need us. And ultimately what we find once they leverage us as a tool and they see the productivity and the retention, the reduction of stress, it's like, oh, this is a great tool that we should be using more often because the ROI does make sense.
Jeremy Reymer (15:33):
I would believe that a hundred percent. I mentioned earlier about the growth and you've added some people, you talked about some of the folks on the team, some of 'em who I know, the ones that are former drivers even, and I'm seeing 'em at events pretty often. How important is it to be involved and engaged and present at industry events just that are held across the country?
Evan Shelley (15:55):
It's almost everything, to be honest for newer companies, right? We're 29 months old, so we have to be at events meeting with our current customers and new customers, especially on the executive side, talking with carriers, talking with brokers, talking with partners, just creating relationships that, hey, we're the real deal. We believe in what we're doing. We're here for the long run. We want to help you do your respective jobs better, whether that's a driver, whether that's a broker, whether that's a technology partner. We want to help you guys do your job better by leveraging our network of parking and technology. And that's been a big part of our success, but it's not always easy. Like you mentioned, it's a financial investment. It's a time investment. There's a lot from a mental psychological standpoint, if you're on the road for three weeks at a time, it's not easy. So my team feels that, I feel that being out here on the road, but it's all worth it. I come from real estate. Relationships are everything in real estate. Same thing fortunately in transportation logistics. Very, very similar. From the very beginning, I started going to industry events. I knew no one essentially, and I think that's critical. If you want to be in logistics, transportation, trucking, you got to be out here with everybody, seeing what's going on, understanding what's going on, or you're going to have a really hard time being successful, I think.
Jeremy Reymer (17:32):
This is a relationship industry and as big as it is, it's still pretty tight. And at the end of the day, people do business with people they know and trust and being present, being engaged, being involved, then seeing you always there, always supporting the industry is the right approach. But I do know, yeah, it can take its toll on you, time and resources and so on. I get it. A couple more questions, but before we go, how can carriers, fleet owners, even solo contractors learn more about Truck Parking Club? Where should we direct them?
Evan Shelley (17:59):
Just go to truckparkingclub.com. You go on there. You can see all of our locations there on the home screen with map. If you want to add a location, if you're a carrier that has extra space in the yard, a warehouse owner that has extra space, any space that's suitable for parking, you can click "Become a property member" in the top right hand corner and that'll take you to a landing page that will answer probably most of the questions you have, and you can click get started and add your location. If you're a driver, you can sign up and just with a phone number, email, password, and you're signed up and you could book within minutes right there from the site or the mobile app. You can go to either the app stores and type in Truck Parking Club and we will pop up.
Jeremy Reymer (18:41):
Before we go, I want to be sure we take a minute and answer a question during the show's industry health segment, which is sponsored by Project 61, and the question is, how does the ability to secure truck parking play a role in improving driver health and wellness? What are your thoughts?
Evan Shelley (18:57):
I think first and foremost, it's a reduction of stress on a daily basis. I've heard people starting to call it parking anxiety. It's a huge thing for drivers always in the top one, two, or three in the ATRI study. I think being able to reduce that on a daily basis is huge. Ultimately, stress kills. It can really do a number on a person, even though it's not something that is maybe more visible at first but becomes apparent. Let's imagine you're a driver and you're out there hundreds of days a year, and you do that for 10 years and let's say half the time you have parking anxiety, that's probably not great. Obviously there's not really any studies on it at this point, but I do think that first and foremost, that can be a big part of it. We feel that we're already seeing that just from the feedback from our members.
Jeremy Reymer (19:45):
Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense and at the end of the day, stress, it's not only going to affect you physically, but certainly a mental health issue to address. And so I think I agree with you a hundred percent that from a alleviation or at least certainly a considerable reduction in what is basically a daily stressful issue as they have reflected consistently in their Top 10 Industry Issues stuff. So yeah, well said. And last but definitely not least, I want to circle back to that book recommendation. In January of 2025, I formed a trucking industry book club. It's all managed through a cool app intuitively called Bookclubs. We've got over 80 people in the club and we haven't really promoted it publicly. That said, if you're listening and you're interested in joining the club, please send me a note on LinkedIn or you can send an email to jeremy@takingthehireroad.com and I can send you an invitation. Alright, so Evan, what book has been impactful to you that you'd like to recommend to the audience?
Evan Shelley (20:41):
I think the one I said two years ago, if I was guessing, was probably Sam Walton "Made in America". I think that's the one I probably said. I still really love that book. Another one I think of, I actually need to reread this, I've read it three or four times probably in the last 10 years, is "Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight with Nike. Just a really good book on a new entrepreneur that goes out and forges his way and it's not easy and just very determined and persevere through what it takes to start a business and then turn it into this huge global brand is quite a cool story. Those are two that I think about a lot. Ted Turner's got a good book too. He's more of a cowboy kind of rogue guy, but he did some really, really cool things and he was a really cool dude. I'm going to give you one more. So there's this podcast called Founders Podcast, and essentially it's all these biographies, like the ones I just mentioned, and this guy goes for an hour or so and will just talk about the biography, and he's got hundreds of them. I just started religiously listening to the podcast in the last couple months, but it's really good and pretty much any entrepreneur you've ever thought of, he's probably done a podcast on it.
Jeremy Reymer (21:56):
What is clear to me is that you draw inspiration from hearing from other entrepreneurial story and their success, the challenges, their journey. So for anybody listening, I think they can relate. That's some of those books and certainly the Shoe Dog has been referenced a few times. So Evan, thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to seeing you at some upcoming industry events.
Evan Shelley (22:16):
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Jeremy Reymer (22:18):
And thank you for taking the hire road with me. Once again, special thanks to the sponsors of the show. We really appreciate you. If you're interested in being a sponsor or joining me for an interview, please email Jeremy@takingthehireroad.com. Until next time, thank you for taking the hire road.