Representative Kerry Benninghoff is circulating a co-sponsorhip memo for legislation that would increase the availability of truck parking. 

The proposed bill would give businesses a tax credit for building additional truck parking spaces. 

The memo reads: 

"In the near future, I intend to introduce legislation that would increase the availability of truck parking by giving businesses a tax credit for building additional truck parking spaces. The bill would further require the Department of General Services to conduct a study in relation to truck parking.

The truck parking issue has been an ongoing problem for our trucking community for decades. For example, in 2009, a truck driver named Jason was forced to park in an abandoned gas station parking lot that led to him being robbed, shot, and killed for the $7 he had on him. Despite this issue causing a major uproar surrounding the problem of truck parking, the issue has only become worse.

This need for truck parking arises due to two main reasons. One of these reasons is that distribution centers do not allow truckers to stay on their property should they arrive early with their load. This gets coupled with the reality that truckers must abruptly stop their journeys to comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Hours of Service rules. With these centers being concentrated in cities and near to each other, this means that the truckers run into the issue of having to compete for the limited number of spots that are available at one location, with other truckers. Thus, having nowhere else to go, these truckers are forced to illegally park on shoulders and ramps that then create an unsafe situation for the truck driver and other motorists. Additionally, trucks cause damage to the shoulders as well as on and off ramps of highways, that are not as strong as the main thoroughfare, due to their weight and idling. Finally, the reason why businesses along the highway do not provide the truck parking needed is because they receive no economic incentive to do so, but rather lose money in building and maintaining the parking while also losing more of their property to build it. This tax credit aims to be the economic incentive needed for businesses to create truck parking.

The tax credit itself consists of a $5,000 yearly credit applied to each publicly available and free of charge truck parking space created. A minimum of 5 new spots would be required to qualify for the tax credit with $100,000 being the maximum amount that could be claimed per taxpayer. Should the business not maintain or keep the truck parking, they will have to refund the full amount of tax credits granted to them by the Commonwealth. The Department of Revenue would be granted a total of $10,000,000 worth of tax credits in the first year, with a $1,000,000 increase yearly until 2035, when the tax credit gets capped at $20,000,000 yearly. If the full amount is not used in a year, the fund may roll over to the next year. Eligible businesses would be limited to those within the Tier 1 or Tier 2 corridors, as defined in the Expanding Truck Parking in PA study, done by the PA Transportation Advisory Committee. The study by the Department of General Services aims to create a list of property owned by the Commonwealth that could be sold off for the purpose of creating truck parking.

Overall, our truckers who transport our food, medicine, and goods deserve more action from our state government here in Harrisburg to make sure that they remain safe and in compliance with the law without endangering them. If we can do this while also benefiting the businesses in our Commonwealth and our transportation infrastructure, I see it as a great achievement for our state.

I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this legislation." 

Once securing cosponsors, the bill will be introduced and referred to committee.