Germany to add 1,725 truck parking spaces by 2028

Germany's federal government has confirmed that Autobahn GmbH will build 1,725 additional truck parking spaces on the motorway network between 2026 and 2028, according to figures released in response to a parliamentary question from the Greens and reported on 2026-08-28 . On the same day, at a mobility and logistics summit in Emstek, Lower Saxony, Bosch Road Services proposed a different lever: toll discounts for hauliers that book reserved spaces on secure private sites. Both approaches target the same daily operational failure, which is drivers running out of legal parking before they run out of permitted driving time.

What the federal figures actually show

Germany's truck parking information system currently lists 65,635 spaces at 1,838 facilities along federal motorways, with a further 750 spaces on federal roads. Privately operated Autohof sites add more capacity, and a 2023 survey of 261 such locations counted 19,680 spaces. Against that base, the planned expansion is modest: 850 new spaces at managed service areas and 875 at unmanaged sites, for a total of 1,725 by 2028.

The programme is not limited to asphalt. Autobahn GmbH also intends to introduce consistent standards for sanitary buildings at unmanaged service areas and to raise toilet cleaning from once or twice a day to between two and five times a day. That detail matters more than it sounds. Drivers choose where to stop partly on facilities, and poor sanitation pushes traffic towards the same small set of usable sites.

The shortfall is roughly 19,600 spaces

The scale problem is unchanged. The Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen puts the national shortage at around 19,600 truck parking spaces, a figure cited at the Emstek summit and reported by Verkehrsrundschau . Autobahn GmbH itself states that around 84,500 spaces exist across roughly 1,900 rest areas and private Autohöfe, that the federal budget provides EUR 100 million a year for rest-area construction and expansion, and that telematic concepts such as compact parking and column parking can raise capacity at an existing site by up to 50 percent.

This is a European problem, not only a German one. A 2019 European Commission study identified a shortfall of 100,000 overnight heavy-vehicle parking spaces across the EU, and found that of roughly 300,000 available spaces only 7,000 sat in certified secure areas, which is why the Commission adopted the bronze to platinum security standard for safe and secure parking areas. IRU (International Road Transport Union) research from a 2018 driver survey found that 83 percent of drivers consider the number of safe and secure areas insufficient for their regular rest, with 15 EU countries flagged as in urgent need.

Toll incentives and better use of what already exists

The Bosch proposal is the more interesting policy signal. Instead of funding new sites directly, it would give operators a financial benefit through the toll system when they book reserved private parking, making existing private capacity more attractive to fill and new private investment easier to justify. Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger and Parliamentary State Secretary Gitta Connemann were present, and organisers reported general openness to practical proposals of this kind.

For dispatchers, none of this changes tonight's plan. What changes tonight's plan is knowing occupancy before the driver commits to an exit, which is why live data tools such as Logifie's Germany truck parking map and in-cab planning through the Driver Assistant app matter more in the short term than a 2028 build programme. Parliamentarians also noted a second issue that infrastructure alone will not fix: trailers left without tractors and vehicles parked far longer than a break requires continue to block spaces other drivers need.

Planning German long-haul work and want rest-stop capacity built into the routing rather than discovered at 21:00? Talk to our carrier team about how we plan and monitor loads across the German network.