Recently the European Union has adopted legislation and conducted a series of studies to frame the concept of Safe and Secure Truck Parking Areas (STPA). This was done in reaction to the following developments:

• The increase in targeted criminal activity in regards to cargo/vehicle theft and attack on drivers;
• Social dumping in the road transport sector;
• Further refugee and economic migration issues causing problems for transporters and risk for drivers.

These developments led to the following:

• The rising demand for Safe and Secure Parking Areas;
• The increased need to ensure drivers safety and dignity;
• The need to target the yearly cargo theft problem amounting to 8 to 10 billion € by securing (high value) loads;
• Minimising the risk of passenger stowaways.

One of the responses from the European Union has been to ensure that Safe and Secure Parking Areas were set up across Europe. The practical implementation has however shown that there is an urgent need for legal information and examples of best practice. Often investors, developers and public authorities lack clear indications on what is required and practically recommended to become a Safe and Secure Parking Area and thus provide the most important tool to tackle the above developments.

This site has been set up to provide all legal and best practice examples to aid any decision maker when moving towards establishing a new parking area or securing an existing area.

The site has been developed in the context of the EU-funded Project “Setup and ITS connectivity of safe and secure truck parking areas in Romania along the TEN-T Core Network Corridors (2015-RO-TM-0137-M)” in cooperation with the European Secure Parking Organisation (ESPORG).