November 30, 2023 • 29 mins
This episode discusses the truck parking shortage in America with Evan Shelley, CEO of Truck Parking Club. He explains why there's a lack of parking spots for truck drivers, how long this has been an issue, whether it's the government or private sector's responsibility to solve it, and how his company's marketplace app connects drivers to businesses with extra parking capacity. Listen to learn about this major logistics challenge and hear more about Truck Parking Club's innovative solution.
LINKS:
Feedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.
-----------------------------------------
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!
Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program.
CloneOps AI-powered phone operations for inbound and outbound calls with speed, scale, and efficiency. Our virtual agents handle high-volume interactions, automate workflows, and deliver real-time insights, freeing your team to focus on growth. Designed for logistics, retail, and beyond—seamless communication, smarter conversations, faster resolutions.
CargoRex – Your Logistics Hub. Explore, discover, and evolve with the all-in-one platform connecting you to the top logistics tools, services, and industry voices. Whether you're a leader, researcher, or creator, CargoRex helps you stay ahead. Explore Now
Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services her...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Blythe Brumleve (00:05):
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
I'm your host, Blythe Brumleve,and we are proudly presented by
SPI Logistics, and we gotanother good show for you today,
this time with Truck ParkingClub CEO, Svan Shelley.
Welcome to the show.
This has been such an importanttopic that I've been wanting to
(00:26):
dive into.
You are the perfect guest totalk about the lack of parking
in this country, so welcome in.
Evan Shelley (00:32):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Blythe Brumleve (00:34):
Absolutely Now, for folks who may not be
familiar with you, your backstory.
How did you get into freight?
What's your freight founder'sstory.
Evan Shelley (00:42):
Yeah, so it's not typical, I guess.
I came from real estate, sobackground in civil engineering
and started really inconstruction and rolled into
development in real estate,buying and selling houses and
then ultimately buying andselling land.
And through doing land deals Ifigured out from some brokers
(01:03):
and investors at Truck Parkingthere was a huge demand for it
and that there wasn't enough ofit.
This was back in 2021.
And from there really startedinvestigating like why is it a
problem and why can't we justbuild more of it and things of
that nature.
So over the course of like 12to 18 months I started talking
(01:28):
with people in the space, goingto conferences, talking with
truck parking operators andreally understanding what's the
actual problem.
And then from there startedTruck Parking Club.
Blythe Brumleve (01:41):
And so you were from when I was reading.
You were in stealth mode for awhile and so that kind of just
reading between the lines, itsounds like you were having a
lot of those conversations,those insights, what was sort of
the light bulb moments thattold you that this is something
I got to try, I got to do.
Evan Shelley (02:00):
Yeah.
So I don't know if I'd call itstealth mode, because it was
like I think I was trying tofind if there was a place in the
market to make a difference,and so I didn't even know if
there was something.
I originally thought I was justgoing to go buy a bunch of
Truck Parking and just be a realestate play, but then I
realized you're not actuallyhelping with the problem and
(02:23):
it's very difficult to scale itthat way.
So I was really justinvestigating, I guess I mean
stealth mode sounds better so Imay start using that.
But ultimately I don't knowwhat's your original question,
that I got lost on the stealthmode.
Blythe Brumleve (02:39):
So, with all the conversations you had, how
did you sort of come to themoment of you know this is such
a problem that I want to createa solution around it?
Evan Shelley (02:49):
Yeah, yeah, just through a lot of conversations
with people, I actually met somepeople who had other
marketplace type apps and carparking apps and stuff like that
.
I was like I think there'ssomething there where you can
leverage technology in existingspace.
Like a lot of car parking apps.
They'll take someone's drivewayor something of that nature and
(03:13):
leverage that existing spacewith technology and allow
someone to reserve that spaceand use that space.
So it really just applied thesame thing to truck parking club
and create a marketplace wherewe help business owners monetize
their extra space while alsohelping truckers find and
reserve that space all acrossthe US.
Blythe Brumleve (03:35):
Yeah, because for folks who may not know and
where I read the word stealthwas coming from a freight waves
article that you were in stealthmode for a while.
And it opens up the article.
It says there are about 3.5million truck drivers in the
United States yet, according toAmerican Trucking Associations,
there are only 313,000 parkingspots for those drivers.
That means on average thatthere are 11 or 11 truckers
(04:00):
fighting for any given space onaverage, which is crazy to me
and I'm wondering through yourconversations that you had do
you know how long of a problemthat this has been?
Because it feels like I neverheard about this issue and then
all of a sudden I hear about itall the time.
So I'm curious as to if youknow how long this has been a
(04:21):
problem.
Evan Shelley (04:22):
Yeah, so you talk with drivers that have been
around for 20, 30, 40 years andthey all say they've had issues,
even a few decades ago, withfinding parking, I think.
But the experienced guys learntheir routes and learn where to
go and typically they have lessof a problem.
But you hear it From, we hearfrom drivers all the time.
(04:46):
You know, in the 90s I knewthis was going to be a big
problem.
I was having trouble findingparking then and no one did
anything about it.
And then now it's gotten to thepoint where it's just gotten
extreme.
I think is the reason thateveryone is talking about it now
, and I think it's become alittle bit more political now
(05:06):
because you're seeing theheadlines where you know
fatalities are occurring becauseof trucks parking on, on ramps
and off ramps and things thatnature.
So it's becoming more political.
The media has picked it up, somore people are talking about it
and I think that awareness isultimately going to help.
You know, there's I thinkthere's like $750 million in
(05:31):
federal funding that's trying tobe put into use for truck
parking.
So I honestly think it's justan awareness thing.
That probably should havehappened a decade ago and it
wasn't a big enough problem for,I would say, the average person
that you know.
The media or anything reallypicked it up and then now, like
(05:53):
you said, I mean it seems to bequite the buzzword now.
Blythe Brumleve (05:57):
And you mentioned that, the federal
funding and that brings up oneof my followers.
I had asked this question onTwitter and they had you know,
preparing for this interview,and one of the my followers said
that a superior truckingpayroll service asked this
question.
He said who is responsible fortruck parking and what is the
case that the government shouldprovide this.
(06:17):
So do you think it should beyou know a situation where the
government is funding thesekinds of initiatives, or is it
you know where the privatemarket comes into play, like
with your solution?
Or maybe it's a combination ofthe two?
Evan Shelley (06:31):
Yeah.
So I would definitely say it'sa combination of the two.
I meet people who say it's aprivate sector thing and I meet
people who say it's purely apublic sector thing, and I think
it's probably something in themiddle.
Is, you know, 750 million willcreate tens of thousands of
(06:52):
spaces.
The shortage, the numbers thatare thrown around today, the
shortage is 600,000 or so spaces.
So that 750 million is going toput, you know, hopefully a 10%
dent in the actual problem.
So it can't ultimately just bea federal thing, it needs to be
private sector as well toultimately really help in a
(07:21):
significant fashion.
The core issue of, you know,creating 600,000 or so spaces.
Blythe Brumleve (07:30):
And so talk to me about Truck Parking Club as
the solution provider,especially in the private sector
.
I see on your site you havesome call to actions.
You know, become a propertymanager or become a property
member, but then there's alsoareas for you know the driver to
sign up as well.
Walk me through what the driveronboarding experience is versus
(07:52):
the property member experience.
Evan Shelley (07:55):
Okay, cool.
So Truck Parking Club is atwo-sided marketplace.
So, like you just said, we havea trucker member and a property
member.
So the trucker member will goto our site or our app or our
web browser and they will searchfor, let's say, they're looking
for truck parking in Atlanta.
They can search for Atlanta orthey can zoom in on our map
(08:16):
either one.
I think people use a little bitof both and look for that
location.
Let's say they're in, you know,north of Atlanta.
They'll see that we have, youknow, 15 or so locations in that
area and then from there theycan click a listing and see the
pricing, the photos that willshow them what the facility
(08:37):
looks like, the amenities,whether that is showers,
restaurants, food, 24-7 access,etc.
And then the bookingavailability, whether that's
zero spaces, 10 spaces, 50spaces, whatever it may be at
the time.
We have real-time availability,so that driver is going to know
(08:59):
if they have availability ornot at that location and
everything is instant on ourplatform.
So when you book you get thatlocation at your determined
check-in time immediately,whether that's an hourly, daily,
weekly or monthly booking.
So that's a quick overview onthe trucker side and then on the
(09:21):
property member side.
It's just like uploading alocation on Airbnb.
You go in, you give adescription of your property,
location of your property, howmany spaces you have available,
if it's available on certaindays or not.
You know, maybe we have peoplethat will turn off their
(09:43):
location on the weekends orsomething of that nature, and
then pricing if they want to dohourly, daily, weekly or monthly
.
That is their choice.
And then photos of the propertyand then we have an internal
bedding process for every singlelocation.
Blythe Brumleve (09:58):
Oh wow.
So it's really and that was oneof the first things I thought
of is like this feels a littlebit like Airbnb, but for trucks.
So I imagine, from the propertystandpoint, you know who is, I
guess, a target fit for this?
Is it, you know, warehousesthat just have extra space?
Is it any kind of propertyowner, just in general, who is
(10:19):
sort of I guess your two orthree like top demographics?
Evan Shelley (10:23):
Yeah, so we have a good connection with carriers,
especially smaller carriers,that maybe they have one
terminal or one headquarters,one hub for their trucks and
they have 10 spaces and maybe anextra 10, 20, 30 spaces in
their yard.
They'll add their location toour platform and then we'll help
that carrier monetize thatextra space, help them make some
(10:48):
more cash at their facility andthen we help trucks find that
additional parking.
So that would be one another.
It's like you just said,warehouses.
You know a lot of warehouses dohave some amount of extra space
and we have a lot of warehouseson our platform where they have
an extra 10, 20, 50 spaces andso they add their location and
(11:11):
we help them monetize that extraspace.
And then we have truck repairfacilities is another one where
and you know, in that scenario alot of times guys will end up
getting their truck worked on ortheir trailer worked on as they
need when they're staying there, or if they drop a trailer,
they'll have their trailerworked on while it's staying
(11:31):
there.
So it's really I mean, it isthe sharing economy, where maybe
that truck is booking at thattruck repair shop that ends up
realizing that their service isclosed, their service is on site
that they can use, so we createa community really.
Blythe Brumleve (11:54):
That's cool and I imagine I love the ability
for you know like a smallercarrier, to be able to add some
additional income.
You know revenue streams,especially in a market like this
.
How do you go about?
You know, I guess you knowfinding new places Because we
were talking before the showabout, because I'm from
Jacksonville and so I'm lookingon here and I'm like why hasn't
(12:16):
any Jacksonville businesses orproperty owners stepped up and
signed up for this?
So how do you think about sortof filling the gaps between you
know different locations,especially in the state of
Florida, where that's where sucha deadhead state for the
majority of carriers.
Evan Shelley (12:31):
Yeah, so to date, the majority of our locations we
have 175 or so locations havebeen word of mouth, inbound,
social media Nice Just articles,podcasts and someone figures
(12:51):
out about us that has some extraspace in their yard.
But also we're looking intodoing more outbound to filling
gaps, like you mentioned.
You know Jacksonville being oneof them for sure, where we know
that we have gaps in our mapand ultimately we want to fill
(13:13):
those to provide the most valueto the trucker.
Blythe Brumleve (13:18):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home,or perhaps you're a freight
agent in need of a betterpartnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the Freight Agent
Trenches, sponsored by SPILogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
successful logistics firms inNorth America, who helps their
(13:39):
agents with back officeoperations such as admin,
finance, it and sales.
But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
freight agents themselves.
I want better way to do thatthan by listening to the
experienced freight agents telltheir stories behind the how and
the why they joined SPI.
Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to
(14:00):
these conversations or, ifyou're ready to make the jump,
visit spi3plcom.
And I don't know if you know theanswer to this, but I was just
thinking as you were talking.
Is this a uniquely US problem,or is truck parking an issue
globally, or maybe in othercountries?
Evan Shelley (14:23):
So I think there is a bit of an issue in Europe.
I think it varies from countryto country, but I think it
becomes a little morecomplicated over there as far as
finding parking and secureparking over there is actually
more of a concern than it ishere, and so they deal with
(14:46):
similar things but maybe alittle bit different.
But I think there is a bit of ashortage over there as well,
from what I've talked with othercompanies over there and heard
that.
I've heard that in certainparts of Canada is an issue.
I don't really know much aboutCentral or South America, but I
(15:08):
think there's similar aspects inEurope and in Canada.
Blythe Brumleve (15:12):
Interesting?
Yeah, because we had a previousepisode where we were talking
to Overhaul, which is monitorslike cargo crime and things like
that, and they said for a lotof drivers in Mexico that
they're told not to drive atnight, that you only drive
during the day, and so secureparking is something that is few
(15:33):
and far between where it's lifeor death like dangerous if you
were to park overnight somewherewhere you're not exactly sure,
and I'm sure that those casesexist in the US as well.
I did want to ask because youmentioned podcasts.
You mentioned a lot of yourreferrals come inbound, which is
fantastic.
I wanted to ask you about yourfounder drip, because I'm a big
(15:56):
fan of founder driven marketingand it feels like you have been
I told you this at CSCMP likeI've seen you make, like the
podcast circuit and go on allthe shows.
Is that a conscious effort thatyou're doing in order to get
those inbound leads, because itfeels like it's an important
strategy for you guys.
Evan Shelley (16:15):
Yeah for sure.
So when I first was reallystarting the company I guess
when I was in stealth mode I wasreally thought about what would
drive growth for the companyand what was important for the
company.
And then, as we launched androlled out the company and
really started talking about andadvertising it, I started to
(16:40):
realize what were the importantparts of the business and what
really makes a marketplace work.
And it just so happened that itseems like podcasts really work
well for our business model,because I can sit and have a
conversation with you, we canhave a nice chat, and then
(17:04):
someone sees this and throughthe course of this podcast they
become educated on what we do,what we stand for, what we're
trying to accomplish, how wetreat our customers all in one
podcast and ultimately thosebecome some of our best
customers.
So for our business and ourmodel it works very, very well
(17:28):
and I feel very thankful thatpeople let us such as yourself,
let us come on their podcast andtalk about what we do.
Blythe Brumleve (17:36):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, as you're talking aboutthat and thinking earlier to
what your comments about Airbnb,what happens if some kind of
issue happens on the property?
Who are they complaining to?
Are they complaining to you?
Do you have to handle thosecustomer service issues or is it
on the property member and thedriver to handle it themselves?
(17:58):
What happens if an issue comesabout?
Evan Shelley (18:02):
Yeah, that's a great question and it's a common
thing with marketplaces, likefault for issues and things of
that nature, and to date we'vehad certain types of issues
nothing insane but certainissues that we've had to work
with our trucker members andproperty members on but for the
(18:24):
most part, with everything we'veexperienced to date, we haven't
had any large legal issues.
I mean a common one I can easilytalk about is someone gets a
ding on their truck when they'reparked at a location, or a ding
on their trailer.
It's pretty common, and so whatends up happening is typically
they'll call our customer careteam and we'll talk with them
(18:48):
about what's happening.
We'll talk with the propertymember, We'll see if we can
resolve and figure out whathappened, et cetera.
So we do.
We want to make sure that allof our members have a great
experience, whether it's atrucker member that is having an
incident and we need to resolveit.
(19:08):
We're to answer your question.
We're okay with helping ourtrucker members work through
issues.
I'll give you an example.
Our customer care team is madeup of former truckers.
Blythe Brumleve (19:25):
So when you call, in.
Evan Shelley (19:26):
Yeah, you're talking to a former trucker and
when there's an incident thathappens let's say someone's
truck gets dinged Our team talkswith experience on how to
handle those situations and Ican't tell you how many times
I'll talk with my team after thefact, or I'll see MRCRM like
(19:47):
that the trucker member isthanking our customer care team
for telling them to call thepolice and get a police report
or immediately call theirinsurance company or all these
different things that they knowfrom experience, and they'll
thank us for that and ultimatelywe could very easily say that's
not our job, but we're adamantabout taking care of our trucker
(20:08):
members.
We're very trucker centric.
We do everything we can toprovide the most value to
truckers.
So we do get involved in thosesituations as we need to be, and
the main thing we do is try tolend experience that our team
has in helping resolve whateversituation is happening, because
(20:30):
at the end of the day, thisshould be like the smallest
thing on a trucker's day as faras like parking their truck or
going to get their truck inexiting a facility.
It should be the smallest partof their day.
So we try to mitigate andminimize any issues that happen.
Blythe Brumleve (20:48):
Yeah, I love that you said that, because
Airbnb is a company that wasjust such.
It was seen as such a darling,and then I think they kind of
lost their way a little bit whensome of these property owners
started overcharging cleaningfees, for example, things like
that.
So it's good to see that theusers of the platform feel like
(21:09):
they're being taken care of notjust by a customer service team,
but by a customer service teamthat's filled with drivers who
know their pain points and knowthat those situations are going
to arise.
But here is how you handle it,Because that's all the drivers
are looking for.
Evan Shelley (21:24):
Exactly, and I think you made a good point
about Airbnb and every companyloses their way at points right.
I'm a fan of Airbnb.
I do think they lost their waythere for a little while.
I think they're trying to getthat in check.
Hopefully they do, but you know.
Blythe Brumleve (21:41):
The CEO, I think, even came out publicly
and said that and he's like, wekind of lost our way a little
bit.
But here's how we plan to getback.
Evan Shelley (21:48):
Yeah, I think they've got like four million
properties now or something, soit's very easy to lose your way.
But I think the biggest thingI've drawn is we don't treat our
business like it's a commodity.
Dollars in parking space,reserve, dollars out, deal with
a customer.
We don't think about ourbusiness like a commodity.
(22:11):
We think of our business ashaving a product that helps
customers.
Our trucker members get parkedLike we are our service to them
and we provide world-classcustomer service to them and we
create an experience for them tomake what should be the easiest
part of your job a little biteasier on you at the end of the
(22:33):
day or the beginning of your day, whatever it may be, and we're
very, very focused on that.
Blythe Brumleve (22:40):
So what does, I guess, sort of is there a next
phase to truck parking club?
Is there properties you'regoing to purchase or additional
locations?
I would imagine is for sure.
What are drivers looking fornext?
Because I think I was readingtoo that they spend on average
(23:02):
an hour a day looking forparking.
So I imagine you're alreadytrying to solve a big problem.
I don't know what the productroadmap looks like for you, but
maybe it's just staying in thisone spot and trying to figure
that out.
Is that a safe assumption?
Evan Shelley (23:16):
Yeah, so I'll answer it with this.
So we have a North Star that wereally talk about amongst the
team.
So truck parking club helpstruckers save time and fuel by
efficiently finding andreserving truck parking across
the US.
So everything we do on aday-to-day basis, on a monthly,
(23:38):
quarterly, semi-annual andannual basis, all the strategies
we talk about and the tacticsneed to tie into that.
If it doesn't tie into thathelping truckers save time and
fuel by efficiently finding andreserving truck parking across
the US then we don't do it.
We're just not focused onanything other than that.
(23:59):
And so what does that mean?
Right?
So like, as you mentioned,takes nearly an hour for
truckers to find parking on adaily basis on average.
Our goal is to get that down tofive or 10 minutes and help the
trucker find parking, and howdo we do that?
We need more property.
(24:19):
Right, we have 175 or so as oftoday.
We need five or 10,000.
So for us it is continuing onthat mission and hopefully we
can look back on this podcast in12 months and say, hey,
truckers are finding parking alot faster now because we have
2,000 properties, and then,maybe 24 months from that, we
(24:42):
have 5,000 properties.
So that's what we think about.
That's really all we thinkabout is executing on that.
Blythe Brumleve (24:52):
So, as we kind of round out the conversation,
is there anything that you feelis important to mention that we
haven't already talked about?
Evan Shelley (25:02):
I mean no, I think you've done great.
I think we've hit on a lot ofreally cool things.
I like how we dealt a littlebit more into the business and
what we're doing and what westand for, so this has been
awesome.
Blythe Brumleve (25:13):
Awesome, well, appreciate your time.
Where can folks follow more ofyour work?
Sign up for Truck Parking Club.
That's also the website,truckparkingclubcom, become a
property member and also, as adriver, sign up.
Is it all app-based, or I thinkyou mentioned that you can use
a web browser as well.
Evan Shelley (25:31):
Yeah, we have a desktop web browser mobile app.
It works well.
It's optimized for all of those.
So you can catch us ontruckparkingclubcom in the
footer of our Website.
We have all of our socialmedias.
We're on all the socials tiktok, facebook, youtube, x and
LinkedIn.
I've me personally if you wantto reach out to me, I'm.
(25:53):
I'm on LinkedIn.
Typically I try to check X moreoften, but it can sometimes go
a week without me looking at it.
I get behind.
But I'm very active on onLinkedIn and I would say we have
a 24 7 customer care line, thenumbers 888 899 Park.
(26:14):
That's 888 899 727 5 for any ofthe drivers out there, carriers
that just want to call orproperty members that want to
call and Talk about the business.
You know our customer careteams there to talk with you
about those types of things ortransfer you to someone who will
assist you.
Blythe Brumleve (26:33):
Awesome.
Yes, I will make sure I'mcopying that information, that
the phone number and the website, from your website, just to
make sure that we include it inthe show notes so folks can
check there, to just make iteasier on everybody.
But, evan, this was a greatconversation, one that I've
wanted to have for a long timenow.
So I appreciate you coming onthe show and breaking down a
(26:53):
very big problem that not enoughAmericans are aware of.
So appreciate you explainingthat and break it down for us
and then also, you know,building a solution to combat
the problem.
Evan Shelley (27:05):
Yeah, thanks much for having me really enjoyed it.
Blythe Brumleve (27:09):
I Hope you enjoyed this episode of
everything is logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over at everythingis logistics calm.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let y'all know
about another company I operate, and that's digital dispatch,
(27:33):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a Neighbor down the street orstranger around the world, where
you probably spend more timeexplaining the freight industry.
Then it takes to actually buildthe dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atdigital dispatch.
(27:54):
We've been building onlinesince 2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
your company to be a centralplace to pull in all of your
social media posts, recruit newemployees and give potential
customers a glimpse into how youoperate your business.
Our new website builds start aslow as $1,500, along with
(28:15):
ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
at $90 a month, plus some bonus, freight marketing and sales
content Similar to what you hearon the podcast.
You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digital dispatch
I.
Oh.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
how we can build your digitalecosystem on a strong foundation
(28:37):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
I'm your host, Blythe Brumleve,and we are proudly presented by
SPI Logistics, and we gotanother good show for you today,
this time with Truck ParkingClub CEO, Svan Shelley.
Welcome to the show.
This has been such an importanttopic that I've been wanting to
(00:26):
dive into.
You are the perfect guest totalk about the lack of parking
in this country, so welcome in.
Evan Shelley (00:32):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Blythe Brumleve (00:34):
Absolutely Now, for folks who may not be
familiar with you, your backstory.
How did you get into freight?
What's your freight founder'sstory.
Evan Shelley (00:42):
Yeah, so it's not typical, I guess.
I came from real estate, sobackground in civil engineering
and started really inconstruction and rolled into
development in real estate,buying and selling houses and
then ultimately buying andselling land.
And through doing land deals Ifigured out from some brokers
(01:03):
and investors at Truck Parkingthere was a huge demand for it
and that there wasn't enough ofit.
This was back in 2021.
And from there really startedinvestigating like why is it a
problem and why can't we justbuild more of it and things of
that nature.
So over the course of like 12to 18 months I started talking
(01:28):
with people in the space, goingto conferences, talking with
truck parking operators andreally understanding what's the
actual problem.
And then from there startedTruck Parking Club.
Blythe Brumleve (01:41):
And so you were from when I was reading.
You were in stealth mode for awhile and so that kind of just
reading between the lines, itsounds like you were having a
lot of those conversations,those insights, what was sort of
the light bulb moments thattold you that this is something
I got to try, I got to do.
Evan Shelley (02:00):
Yeah.
So I don't know if I'd call itstealth mode, because it was
like I think I was trying tofind if there was a place in the
market to make a difference,and so I didn't even know if
there was something.
I originally thought I was justgoing to go buy a bunch of
Truck Parking and just be a realestate play, but then I
realized you're not actuallyhelping with the problem and
(02:23):
it's very difficult to scale itthat way.
So I was really justinvestigating, I guess I mean
stealth mode sounds better so Imay start using that.
But ultimately I don't knowwhat's your original question,
that I got lost on the stealthmode.
Blythe Brumleve (02:39):
So, with all the conversations you had, how
did you sort of come to themoment of you know this is such
a problem that I want to createa solution around it?
Evan Shelley (02:49):
Yeah, yeah, just through a lot of conversations
with people, I actually met somepeople who had other
marketplace type apps and carparking apps and stuff like that
.
I was like I think there'ssomething there where you can
leverage technology in existingspace.
Like a lot of car parking apps.
They'll take someone's drivewayor something of that nature and
(03:13):
leverage that existing spacewith technology and allow
someone to reserve that spaceand use that space.
So it really just applied thesame thing to truck parking club
and create a marketplace wherewe help business owners monetize
their extra space while alsohelping truckers find and
reserve that space all acrossthe US.
Blythe Brumleve (03:35):
Yeah, because for folks who may not know and
where I read the word stealthwas coming from a freight waves
article that you were in stealthmode for a while.
And it opens up the article.
It says there are about 3.5million truck drivers in the
United States yet, according toAmerican Trucking Associations,
there are only 313,000 parkingspots for those drivers.
That means on average thatthere are 11 or 11 truckers
(04:00):
fighting for any given space onaverage, which is crazy to me
and I'm wondering through yourconversations that you had do
you know how long of a problemthat this has been?
Because it feels like I neverheard about this issue and then
all of a sudden I hear about itall the time.
So I'm curious as to if youknow how long this has been a
(04:21):
problem.
Evan Shelley (04:22):
Yeah, so you talk with drivers that have been
around for 20, 30, 40 years andthey all say they've had issues,
even a few decades ago, withfinding parking, I think.
But the experienced guys learntheir routes and learn where to
go and typically they have lessof a problem.
But you hear it From, we hearfrom drivers all the time.
(04:46):
You know, in the 90s I knewthis was going to be a big
problem.
I was having trouble findingparking then and no one did
anything about it.
And then now it's gotten to thepoint where it's just gotten
extreme.
I think is the reason thateveryone is talking about it now
, and I think it's become alittle bit more political now
(05:06):
because you're seeing theheadlines where you know
fatalities are occurring becauseof trucks parking on, on ramps
and off ramps and things thatnature.
So it's becoming more political.
The media has picked it up, somore people are talking about it
and I think that awareness isultimately going to help.
You know, there's I thinkthere's like $750 million in
(05:31):
federal funding that's trying tobe put into use for truck
parking.
So I honestly think it's justan awareness thing.
That probably should havehappened a decade ago and it
wasn't a big enough problem for,I would say, the average person
that you know.
The media or anything reallypicked it up and then now, like
(05:53):
you said, I mean it seems to bequite the buzzword now.
Blythe Brumleve (05:57):
And you mentioned that, the federal
funding and that brings up oneof my followers.
I had asked this question onTwitter and they had you know,
preparing for this interview,and one of the my followers said
that a superior truckingpayroll service asked this
question.
He said who is responsible fortruck parking and what is the
case that the government shouldprovide this.
(06:17):
So do you think it should beyou know a situation where the
government is funding thesekinds of initiatives, or is it
you know where the privatemarket comes into play, like
with your solution?
Or maybe it's a combination ofthe two?
Evan Shelley (06:31):
Yeah.
So I would definitely say it'sa combination of the two.
I meet people who say it's aprivate sector thing and I meet
people who say it's purely apublic sector thing, and I think
it's probably something in themiddle.
Is, you know, 750 million willcreate tens of thousands of
(06:52):
spaces.
The shortage, the numbers thatare thrown around today, the
shortage is 600,000 or so spaces.
So that 750 million is going toput, you know, hopefully a 10%
dent in the actual problem.
So it can't ultimately just bea federal thing, it needs to be
private sector as well toultimately really help in a
(07:21):
significant fashion.
The core issue of, you know,creating 600,000 or so spaces.
Blythe Brumleve (07:30):
And so talk to me about Truck Parking Club as
the solution provider,especially in the private sector
.
I see on your site you havesome call to actions.
You know, become a propertymanager or become a property
member, but then there's alsoareas for you know the driver to
sign up as well.
Walk me through what the driveronboarding experience is versus
(07:52):
the property member experience.
Evan Shelley (07:55):
Okay, cool.
So Truck Parking Club is atwo-sided marketplace.
So, like you just said, we havea trucker member and a property
member.
So the trucker member will goto our site or our app or our
web browser and they will searchfor, let's say, they're looking
for truck parking in Atlanta.
They can search for Atlanta orthey can zoom in on our map
(08:16):
either one.
I think people use a little bitof both and look for that
location.
Let's say they're in, you know,north of Atlanta.
They'll see that we have, youknow, 15 or so locations in that
area and then from there theycan click a listing and see the
pricing, the photos that willshow them what the facility
(08:37):
looks like, the amenities,whether that is showers,
restaurants, food, 24-7 access,etc.
And then the bookingavailability, whether that's
zero spaces, 10 spaces, 50spaces, whatever it may be at
the time.
We have real-time availability,so that driver is going to know
(08:59):
if they have availability ornot at that location and
everything is instant on ourplatform.
So when you book you get thatlocation at your determined
check-in time immediately,whether that's an hourly, daily,
weekly or monthly booking.
So that's a quick overview onthe trucker side and then on the
(09:21):
property member side.
It's just like uploading alocation on Airbnb.
You go in, you give adescription of your property,
location of your property, howmany spaces you have available,
if it's available on certaindays or not.
You know, maybe we have peoplethat will turn off their
(09:43):
location on the weekends orsomething of that nature, and
then pricing if they want to dohourly, daily, weekly or monthly
.
That is their choice.
And then photos of the propertyand then we have an internal
bedding process for every singlelocation.
Blythe Brumleve (09:58):
Oh wow.
So it's really and that was oneof the first things I thought
of is like this feels a littlebit like Airbnb, but for trucks.
So I imagine, from the propertystandpoint, you know who is, I
guess, a target fit for this?
Is it, you know, warehousesthat just have extra space?
Is it any kind of propertyowner, just in general, who is
(10:19):
sort of I guess your two orthree like top demographics?
Evan Shelley (10:23):
Yeah, so we have a good connection with carriers,
especially smaller carriers,that maybe they have one
terminal or one headquarters,one hub for their trucks and
they have 10 spaces and maybe anextra 10, 20, 30 spaces in
their yard.
They'll add their location toour platform and then we'll help
that carrier monetize thatextra space, help them make some
(10:48):
more cash at their facility andthen we help trucks find that
additional parking.
So that would be one another.
It's like you just said,warehouses.
You know a lot of warehouses dohave some amount of extra space
and we have a lot of warehouseson our platform where they have
an extra 10, 20, 50 spaces andso they add their location and
(11:11):
we help them monetize that extraspace.
And then we have truck repairfacilities is another one where
and you know, in that scenario alot of times guys will end up
getting their truck worked on ortheir trailer worked on as they
need when they're staying there, or if they drop a trailer,
they'll have their trailerworked on while it's staying
(11:31):
there.
So it's really I mean, it isthe sharing economy, where maybe
that truck is booking at thattruck repair shop that ends up
realizing that their service isclosed, their service is on site
that they can use, so we createa community really.
Blythe Brumleve (11:54):
That's cool and I imagine I love the ability
for you know like a smallercarrier, to be able to add some
additional income.
You know revenue streams,especially in a market like this
.
How do you go about?
You know, I guess you knowfinding new places Because we
were talking before the showabout, because I'm from
Jacksonville and so I'm lookingon here and I'm like why hasn't
(12:16):
any Jacksonville businesses orproperty owners stepped up and
signed up for this?
So how do you think about sortof filling the gaps between you
know different locations,especially in the state of
Florida, where that's where sucha deadhead state for the
majority of carriers.
Evan Shelley (12:31):
Yeah, so to date, the majority of our locations we
have 175 or so locations havebeen word of mouth, inbound,
social media Nice Just articles,podcasts and someone figures
(12:51):
out about us that has some extraspace in their yard.
But also we're looking intodoing more outbound to filling
gaps, like you mentioned.
You know Jacksonville being oneof them for sure, where we know
that we have gaps in our mapand ultimately we want to fill
(13:13):
those to provide the most valueto the trucker.
Blythe Brumleve (13:18):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home,or perhaps you're a freight
agent in need of a betterpartnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the Freight Agent
Trenches, sponsored by SPILogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
successful logistics firms inNorth America, who helps their
(13:39):
agents with back officeoperations such as admin,
finance, it and sales.
But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
freight agents themselves.
I want better way to do thatthan by listening to the
experienced freight agents telltheir stories behind the how and
the why they joined SPI.
Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to
(14:00):
these conversations or, ifyou're ready to make the jump,
visit spi3plcom.
And I don't know if you know theanswer to this, but I was just
thinking as you were talking.
Is this a uniquely US problem,or is truck parking an issue
globally, or maybe in othercountries?
Evan Shelley (14:23):
So I think there is a bit of an issue in Europe.
I think it varies from countryto country, but I think it
becomes a little morecomplicated over there as far as
finding parking and secureparking over there is actually
more of a concern than it ishere, and so they deal with
(14:46):
similar things but maybe alittle bit different.
But I think there is a bit of ashortage over there as well,
from what I've talked with othercompanies over there and heard
that.
I've heard that in certainparts of Canada is an issue.
I don't really know much aboutCentral or South America, but I
(15:08):
think there's similar aspects inEurope and in Canada.
Blythe Brumleve (15:12):
Interesting?
Yeah, because we had a previousepisode where we were talking
to Overhaul, which is monitorslike cargo crime and things like
that, and they said for a lotof drivers in Mexico that
they're told not to drive atnight, that you only drive
during the day, and so secureparking is something that is few
(15:33):
and far between where it's lifeor death like dangerous if you
were to park overnight somewherewhere you're not exactly sure,
and I'm sure that those casesexist in the US as well.
I did want to ask because youmentioned podcasts.
You mentioned a lot of yourreferrals come inbound, which is
fantastic.
I wanted to ask you about yourfounder drip, because I'm a big
(15:56):
fan of founder driven marketingand it feels like you have been
I told you this at CSCMP likeI've seen you make, like the
podcast circuit and go on allthe shows.
Is that a conscious effort thatyou're doing in order to get
those inbound leads, because itfeels like it's an important
strategy for you guys.
Evan Shelley (16:15):
Yeah for sure.
So when I first was reallystarting the company I guess
when I was in stealth mode I wasreally thought about what would
drive growth for the companyand what was important for the
company.
And then, as we launched androlled out the company and
really started talking about andadvertising it, I started to
(16:40):
realize what were the importantparts of the business and what
really makes a marketplace work.
And it just so happened that itseems like podcasts really work
well for our business model,because I can sit and have a
conversation with you, we canhave a nice chat, and then
(17:04):
someone sees this and throughthe course of this podcast they
become educated on what we do,what we stand for, what we're
trying to accomplish, how wetreat our customers all in one
podcast and ultimately thosebecome some of our best
customers.
So for our business and ourmodel it works very, very well
(17:28):
and I feel very thankful thatpeople let us such as yourself,
let us come on their podcast andtalk about what we do.
Blythe Brumleve (17:36):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, as you're talking aboutthat and thinking earlier to
what your comments about Airbnb,what happens if some kind of
issue happens on the property?
Who are they complaining to?
Are they complaining to you?
Do you have to handle thosecustomer service issues or is it
on the property member and thedriver to handle it themselves?
(17:58):
What happens if an issue comesabout?
Evan Shelley (18:02):
Yeah, that's a great question and it's a common
thing with marketplaces, likefault for issues and things of
that nature, and to date we'vehad certain types of issues
nothing insane but certainissues that we've had to work
with our trucker members andproperty members on but for the
(18:24):
most part, with everything we'veexperienced to date, we haven't
had any large legal issues.
I mean a common one I can easilytalk about is someone gets a
ding on their truck when they'reparked at a location, or a ding
on their trailer.
It's pretty common, and so whatends up happening is typically
they'll call our customer careteam and we'll talk with them
(18:48):
about what's happening.
We'll talk with the propertymember, We'll see if we can
resolve and figure out whathappened, et cetera.
So we do.
We want to make sure that allof our members have a great
experience, whether it's atrucker member that is having an
incident and we need to resolveit.
(19:08):
We're to answer your question.
We're okay with helping ourtrucker members work through
issues.
I'll give you an example.
Our customer care team is madeup of former truckers.
Blythe Brumleve (19:25):
So when you call, in.
Evan Shelley (19:26):
Yeah, you're talking to a former trucker and
when there's an incident thathappens let's say someone's
truck gets dinged Our team talkswith experience on how to
handle those situations and Ican't tell you how many times
I'll talk with my team after thefact, or I'll see MRCRM like
(19:47):
that the trucker member isthanking our customer care team
for telling them to call thepolice and get a police report
or immediately call theirinsurance company or all these
different things that they knowfrom experience, and they'll
thank us for that and ultimatelywe could very easily say that's
not our job, but we're adamantabout taking care of our trucker
(20:08):
members.
We're very trucker centric.
We do everything we can toprovide the most value to
truckers.
So we do get involved in thosesituations as we need to be, and
the main thing we do is try tolend experience that our team
has in helping resolve whateversituation is happening, because
(20:30):
at the end of the day, thisshould be like the smallest
thing on a trucker's day as faras like parking their truck or
going to get their truck inexiting a facility.
It should be the smallest partof their day.
So we try to mitigate andminimize any issues that happen.
Blythe Brumleve (20:48):
Yeah, I love that you said that, because
Airbnb is a company that wasjust such.
It was seen as such a darling,and then I think they kind of
lost their way a little bit whensome of these property owners
started overcharging cleaningfees, for example, things like
that.
So it's good to see that theusers of the platform feel like
(21:09):
they're being taken care of notjust by a customer service team,
but by a customer service teamthat's filled with drivers who
know their pain points and knowthat those situations are going
to arise.
But here is how you handle it,Because that's all the drivers
are looking for.
Evan Shelley (21:24):
Exactly, and I think you made a good point
about Airbnb and every companyloses their way at points right.
I'm a fan of Airbnb.
I do think they lost their waythere for a little while.
I think they're trying to getthat in check.
Hopefully they do, but you know.
Blythe Brumleve (21:41):
The CEO, I think, even came out publicly
and said that and he's like, wekind of lost our way a little
bit.
But here's how we plan to getback.
Evan Shelley (21:48):
Yeah, I think they've got like four million
properties now or something, soit's very easy to lose your way.
But I think the biggest thingI've drawn is we don't treat our
business like it's a commodity.
Dollars in parking space,reserve, dollars out, deal with
a customer.
We don't think about ourbusiness like a commodity.
(22:11):
We think of our business ashaving a product that helps
customers.
Our trucker members get parkedLike we are our service to them
and we provide world-classcustomer service to them and we
create an experience for them tomake what should be the easiest
part of your job a little biteasier on you at the end of the
(22:33):
day or the beginning of your day, whatever it may be, and we're
very, very focused on that.
Blythe Brumleve (22:40):
So what does, I guess, sort of is there a next
phase to truck parking club?
Is there properties you'regoing to purchase or additional
locations?
I would imagine is for sure.
What are drivers looking fornext?
Because I think I was readingtoo that they spend on average
(23:02):
an hour a day looking forparking.
So I imagine you're alreadytrying to solve a big problem.
I don't know what the productroadmap looks like for you, but
maybe it's just staying in thisone spot and trying to figure
that out.
Is that a safe assumption?
Evan Shelley (23:16):
Yeah, so I'll answer it with this.
So we have a North Star that wereally talk about amongst the
team.
So truck parking club helpstruckers save time and fuel by
efficiently finding andreserving truck parking across
the US.
So everything we do on aday-to-day basis, on a monthly,
(23:38):
quarterly, semi-annual andannual basis, all the strategies
we talk about and the tacticsneed to tie into that.
If it doesn't tie into thathelping truckers save time and
fuel by efficiently finding andreserving truck parking across
the US then we don't do it.
We're just not focused onanything other than that.
(23:59):
And so what does that mean?
Right?
So like, as you mentioned,takes nearly an hour for
truckers to find parking on adaily basis on average.
Our goal is to get that down tofive or 10 minutes and help the
trucker find parking, and howdo we do that?
We need more property.
(24:19):
Right, we have 175 or so as oftoday.
We need five or 10,000.
So for us it is continuing onthat mission and hopefully we
can look back on this podcast in12 months and say, hey,
truckers are finding parking alot faster now because we have
2,000 properties, and then,maybe 24 months from that, we
(24:42):
have 5,000 properties.
So that's what we think about.
That's really all we thinkabout is executing on that.
Blythe Brumleve (24:52):
So, as we kind of round out the conversation,
is there anything that you feelis important to mention that we
haven't already talked about?
Evan Shelley (25:02):
I mean no, I think you've done great.
I think we've hit on a lot ofreally cool things.
I like how we dealt a littlebit more into the business and
what we're doing and what westand for, so this has been
awesome.
Blythe Brumleve (25:13):
Awesome, well, appreciate your time.
Where can folks follow more ofyour work?
Sign up for Truck Parking Club.
That's also the website,truckparkingclubcom, become a
property member and also, as adriver, sign up.
Is it all app-based, or I thinkyou mentioned that you can use
a web browser as well.
Evan Shelley (25:31):
Yeah, we have a desktop web browser mobile app.
It works well.
It's optimized for all of those.
So you can catch us ontruckparkingclubcom in the
footer of our Website.
We have all of our socialmedias.
We're on all the socials tiktok, facebook, youtube, x and
LinkedIn.
I've me personally if you wantto reach out to me, I'm.
(25:53):
I'm on LinkedIn.
Typically I try to check X moreoften, but it can sometimes go
a week without me looking at it.
I get behind.
But I'm very active on onLinkedIn and I would say we have
a 24 7 customer care line, thenumbers 888 899 Park.
(26:14):
That's 888 899 727 5 for any ofthe drivers out there, carriers
that just want to call orproperty members that want to
call and Talk about the business.
You know our customer careteams there to talk with you
about those types of things ortransfer you to someone who will
assist you.
Blythe Brumleve (26:33):
Awesome.
Yes, I will make sure I'mcopying that information, that
the phone number and the website, from your website, just to
make sure that we include it inthe show notes so folks can
check there, to just make iteasier on everybody.
But, evan, this was a greatconversation, one that I've
wanted to have for a long timenow.
So I appreciate you coming onthe show and breaking down a
(26:53):
very big problem that not enoughAmericans are aware of.
So appreciate you explainingthat and break it down for us
and then also, you know,building a solution to combat
the problem.
Evan Shelley (27:05):
Yeah, thanks much for having me really enjoyed it.
Blythe Brumleve (27:09):
I Hope you enjoyed this episode of
everything is logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over at everythingis logistics calm.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let y'all know
about another company I operate, and that's digital dispatch,
(27:33):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a Neighbor down the street orstranger around the world, where
you probably spend more timeexplaining the freight industry.
Then it takes to actually buildthe dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atdigital dispatch.
(27:54):
We've been building onlinesince 2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
your company to be a centralplace to pull in all of your
social media posts, recruit newemployees and give potential
customers a glimpse into how youoperate your business.
Our new website builds start aslow as $1,500, along with
(28:15):
ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
at $90 a month, plus some bonus, freight marketing and sales
content Similar to what you hearon the podcast.
You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digital dispatch
I.
Oh.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
how we can build your digitalecosystem on a strong foundation
(28:37):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.