Dutch transport association TLN, together with unions FNV and CNV, organised the action day on 22 May 2025 to push the issue up the political agenda. Their joint plan warned that the Netherlands was short of roughly 4,400 truck parking spaces, with the largest gaps in Limburg, North Brabant and Gelderland. NOS also reported at the time that driver numbers were rising while parking capacity had failed to keep pace.
Twelve months later, TLN says there has been some progress. Motions have been adopted in the House of Representatives and several provinces, ministries are working more actively on the issue, and location studies are underway. The €43 million has also been earmarked. But money set aside has not yet translated into enough new capacity, and drivers are still waiting for visible change on the ground.
The challenge is tied to a broader rethink of Dutch motorway service areas. The government’s “service areas of the future” programme asks the same sites to accommodate electric vehicle charging, reduced fossil-fuel use, limited space and growing demand for truck parking — priorities that are not easy to reconcile.
For drivers, the consequences are more than an inconvenience. Rijkswaterstaat says motorway service areas are primarily intended for short breaks, while longer rest periods should preferably be taken at secure private truck parks with facilities such as showers, food and Wi-Fi. When suitable facilities are full or unavailable, drivers can be pushed towards unsafe or unsuitable places. An earlier enforcement report for the eastern and south-eastern freight corridors warned that parking shortages could lead to trucks stopping on motorway service areas for long rests, hard shoulders or secondary roads.
The problem is also being eroded from other directions. CNV has warned that truck spaces are disappearing at filling stations, parking bans are spreading across industrial estates, and existing bays are increasingly being occupied by other vehicles, including campervans.
TLN says it will keep pushing for structural fixes: more spaces, decent facilities at every location, and better coordination between national, provincial and local government. The message is simple: political momentum now needs to turn into tarmac.
