Women Truck Drivers Face Acute Safety Risks at Unlit Truck Parking Areas

Women make up approximately 7-10% of the U.S. truck driving workforce, roughly 250,000-350,000 drivers. These drivers face a specific and severe safety problem that their male counterparts experience less acutely: personal security at truck parking locations. Many truck stops and nearly all informal parking areas (shoulders, rest areas, industrial lots) are poorly lit, have no security cameras, no patrols, and no emergency call systems. Women drivers report being approached by strangers at their cab doors at night, finding people attempting to enter their trucks, and experiencing harassment in parking lots. This is not merely uncomfortable -- it is a barrier to workforce participation in an industry with a massive labor shortage. The ATA estimates the driver shortage at 60,000-80,000 drivers. Recruiting women is one of the most obvious solutions, but surveys of women who left trucking consistently cite personal safety concerns, particularly at overnight parking locations, as a top reason for leaving. Every woman who quits trucking due to parking safety fears represents $50,000-$70,000 in carrier recruiting and training costs to replace her. The problem persists because truck parking infrastructure was designed by and for a workforce that was 99% male. Security features like lighting, cameras, fencing, and emergency call boxes add $20,000-$50,000 per facility and generate no direct revenue for truck stop operators. The business case for security investment requires valuing driver retention and recruitment -- costs borne by carriers, not truck stop owners. This split-incentive problem means the entity that could fix the problem (truck stop operator) does not bear the cost of the problem (carrier recruitment expense), so nothing changes.