Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein region is short of 370 HGV parking spots according to its local transport authority. The construction of more parking places is planned, but in the meantime some digital solutions are being floated.
The Ministry of Transport in Kiel has announced that 450 more parking spaces for trucks will be constructed within the “medium-term”.
However, the current shortage is leading to a number of problems, including trucks parked on the hard shoulder or on the periphery of existing lorry parks.
A local Hamburg newspaper claims the bottlenecks are particularly bad on the A1 (Hamburg-Heiligenhafen) and the A24 (Hamburg towards Berlin).
Between 2008 and 2018, the number of HGV parking spaces in Germany actually increased by 31%. Truck traffic nonetheless grew by 38%, resulting in a shortage of spaces.
One solution for alleviating the problem, suggested by Schleswig-Holstein Transport Minister Bernd Buchholz, is to use an app that would offer parking spaces that are currently not used in depots, for example by freight forwarders. In addition, the app would show motorway parking spaces.
There had been plans to survey companies to see if they would be willing to comply, but the results of those surveys are not yet known.
One app is nonetheless being developed to report free parking spots in lorry parks on the A7 between Bordesholm and the Hamburg state border. A tender is currently being prepared for five rest stops in each direction.
Photo credit: Jochen Teufel / Wikimedia Commons