It’s a Catch 22 for the transportation industry

October 5, 2006

By Greg Dineen
Industry Transportation Consultant

Twenty-four seven travel for most of the truck travel in California hasn’t eliminated all the problems in heavy-haul transport—CVC 21718 (a) Non-Emergency Stop on the Freeway is raising its ugly head again—and few seem interested in finding a solution to the problem of where to park a truck while it is waiting to deliver its load—except the haulers, of course.
The California Vehicle Code 21718 (a) is very clear, “No person shall stop, park, or leave standing any vehicle upon a freeway which has full control of access”.

Curfew restricts truck travel and varies from community to community—the one constant in the equation is the state prohibition against parking on the freeway. Caltrans has curfew hours in areas of Los Angeles and Orange County from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. that restricts any load exceeding 10 ft. wide from travel on the freeway during these periods. Some localities have a 7:00 a.m. curfew that restricts any construction-related traffic before 7:00 a.m. Others have rush-hour rules a 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. restrictions. These different curfew hours puts the transporter in constant turmoil. Industry has to be off the freeway and then off local roads also: what are they to do?

We were first contacted by a member in April of 2005 regarding getting a ticket for being parked on the freeway shoulder/off ramp waiting for curfew to lift. We were recently contacted again by two members whose drivers were cited for making a “Non-Emergency Stop on the Freeway.” These citations are not parking tickets; these are considered by the courts as moving violations. New federal laws no longer allow commercial drivers to go to traffic school, so these violations go against their commercial driver’s license.
We spoke to CHP and were told that the decision to issue the citation or not under CVC 21718 (a) is at the officer’s discretion. We were told that we need to do a better job scheduling our loads.

The question that a driver now has to ask himself when he arrives early or even on time, “do I park on the freeway or get off the freeway and violate the local ordinance or even the over-dimensional permit conditions?” If you violate curfew, you in turn violate the terms and condition of the permit, which causes the permit to become null and void or non existent. The drivers are caught in a Catch-22!

Catch-22 came from a 1961 novel by the American author Joseph Heller, the phrase is a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning. As a result of its specific use in the book, the phrase “Catch-22” has come into common use to mean a double bind of any type which is a communicative situation where a person receives different or contradictory messages.

We have another issue when a driver is trying to deliver or pick up in Los Angeles and then think that they have plenty of time, except who can judge traffic in this day and age? The driver proceeds with plenty of time and realizes that he is now in the middle of curfew with a 245 excavator and can’t park on the freeway. So he is suppose to get off the freeway by taking the first exit or next off ramp, except he doesn’t have a permit for that locality. He could end up with a $40,000 to $50,000 citation for not having a local permit and be fined with excessive weight and who knows what else. This is another example of a Catch-22.
This is a growing problem in the Orange County area. We spoke with the local CHP representative and were advised to either better schedule the load or make arrangements with local jurisdictions.

We agreed to speak to some OC communities and see what suggestions that they might have.

Dana Point said that even if they got off the freeway, they have no place to park.
San Clemente said if we arrive prior to curfew in their city, we’re to park on the freeway. I explained that is what our problem was and he said to call early if we have a problem then. I asked who would be in the office at 6:30 in the morning. They regretfully explained that those are their rules and to let them know what other localities are doing to resolve the issue.

Irvine was very receptive, but their ordinance states very clearly that construction traffic cannot take place prior to 7:00 a.m. They suggested that we take the load to the project but do not unload.

“What enforcement will do?” I asked. I was then referred to the Police Department, whose best suggestion was that we proceed to the safest place to park and stay away from any/all residential areas. The driver should do everything he can to get off the roadway. The city is very noise sensitive and it is not to say that you won’t receive a citation. We will be working with the city to address the concern of such a restrictive ordinance.

This is not just a California problem—a recent federal report discussed the shortage of truck parking options around the country—and offered no solutions.

One that we can suggest is that Caltrans re-open many of the interstate rest areas closed due to lack of maintenance funding in recent years and create new ones with this issue clearly in mind.

Caltrans is one of the largest landowners in the state—much of it right-of-way around freeways—and there must be a way for that land to be put to good use for our industry.
But, for the time being, the only thing you can do at this point is contact any local agency you might be working in and ask them what you should do if this situation should arise.
If you have experienced a similar problem, please let us know and we will contact those localities to see what can be worked out.