AASHTO Journal - Montana DOT Activates Truck Parking Info System

The Montana Department of Transportation recently launched its new Truck Parking Availability Information System or “TPAIS” to provide real-time information to truck drivers so they can locate safe parking when traveling on Montana’s I-90 corridor.

[Above photo by Montana DOT]

The agency said in a statement that truck parking information will be displayed on electronic road signs and via the agency’s 511 system for seven rest areas on I-90. Additionally, information for drivers and dispatchers will be available through in-cab displays and through the Drivewyze mobile application.

[Editor’s note: In April 2025, the American Transportation Research Institute and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials released a report that highlights insights and strategies for expanding truck parking at public rest areas across the country.]

Montana DOT noted that it received a High Priority Information Technology Deployment or HP-ITD grant for just over $1 million from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to help fund the deployment of this new truck parking notification system.

Other state departments of transportation have also deployed similar systems to aid truck drivers in their respective regions of the country.

For example, in May 2025 the Arizona Department of Transportation added real-time truck parking availability data along I-10 rest areas in the western and southeastern part of the state to the Arizona Traveler Information website, az511.gov. That information comes from the $2.8 million Truck Parking Availability System or TPAS the agency launched in January 2025; a system that uses electronic highway signs to alert truckers to available rest area parking spaces.

Those rest areas, which feature monitoring systems that track available parking for commercial systems, now supply parking availability information not only to the TPAS electronic highway signs, but to az511.gov and third-party sources used by truck drivers as well.

State DOTs are also working to expand and improve truck parking facilities as well.

For example, the Iowa Department of Transportation recently reopened a newly reconstructed rest area on westbound I-80 that features 19 truck parking spaces, new restrooms and vending machines, and that displays murals that celebrate the nation’s industrialization that followed World War II.

Meanwhile, as part of a broader statewide initiative to significantly boost truck parking, the Ohio Department of Transportation plans to convert the existing Medina County north and southbound rest areas on I-71 into a new truck parking facility.

The $6.8 million project includes expanding from 10 to 29 truck parking spaces at the I-71 northbound location and from 20 to 66 truck parking spaces at the I-71 southbound location. In addition to parking spaces, the site will include lighting and a restroom facility, the agency said.