Parking

When you are 2 hours away from your 11 hour duty limit...and you are at a fuel stop, and you decide to check truck stops to see if they have parking, and they say they are full......take their word for it lol.

I was headed up to sumner, wa to the Costco there. About 2 hours away from my destination, and about 2 hours til my 11hours were up. Appt time wasn't until the next day, and my next load doesn't pick up til the day after. Stopped for fuel and decided to see if any truck stops in the area had parking.

Now, apparently in northern Washington, they don't believe in truck stops, and there were few to choose from near my destination, and traffic up that way was heavy.

I called a pilot station near where I was going, they said they were pretty full. Checked trucker path and it also said lot was full. However, because I don't always trust trucker path...some drivers will apparently report the truck stop is full when it really isn't, not exactly sure why, I decided to go have a peek and see. Mind you, the fuel stop I was at was not full, I don't believe, didn't really look too hard.

Drove there and sure enough, lot was full. Now I'm scrambling to find parking, with an 11 hour clock ticking down.

Found another truck stop and called and they said they have parking. I start to drive that direction and I get down into an area where it's a business district, but is a truck route, but the traffic is heavy. Came to one area near the truck stop where there was a stop light and traffic backed up for more than half a mile.

Got to the stop and there was parking, but I set my brakes and logged out with 14 minutes left on my 11 hour drive clock.

Moral of the story, if your not in a hurry and you see there may be parking where you are at, and someone tells you that the only truck stop near where you are going is full...might want to take their word for it lol.

Hey Sambo. First thing I would have thought of would be, can I make it to the Costco in the 2 hours and just shut down at Costco? Not sure about the Costco in WA. In Montana it's wide open spaces and I shut down right there just outside the dock and they were cool with that. I completely understand the stress of trying to get to shut down and maybe only make it by minutes. Truck stops tend to fill up in the evenings. Drive safe.

This was at like 3 or 4 pm local. Apparently, truck stops around here fill up early lol

You did the right thing. That Costco has no parking nearby except a small local truck stop. Unless your Swift, there's a terminal next door.