Where you land in that range depends on your market, your amenities, and what carriers can get elsewhere within a reasonable drive.
What do you need to know before you set a rate?
Before you post a number, you need three things: what your competitors charge, what vehicle types you will accept, and what your lot actually offers a driver or carrier.
Vehicle type sets your floor. A bobtail or day-cab space carries a monthly rate of $50 to $150. A semi with a dry-van trailer runs $150 to $350 per month. A semi with a reefer that needs a power outlet runs $175 to $400 per month, according to Semiyard. If you are not wired for reefer power, you cannot charge reefer rates, and that is fine, but you need to know it before you price.
Amenity level sets your ceiling. An industrial or private yard with few amenities typically commands $100 to $250 per month per space. An urban commercial lot with gated access runs $250 to $500 per month. A storage facility with gated access falls in the $200 to $400 range, according to RecNation Storage.
How do you survey your local market?
The FHWA Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey documented more than 308,920 truck parking spaces nationwide, with 272,698 of them, or 88%, at private truck stops and commercial lots. That means your real competition is other private operators, not rest areas.
Call or visit every yard within 10 to 15 miles of your gate. Ask what they charge per month for a dry-van spot and for a reefer spot. Ask whether the rate is month-to-month or requires a longer commitment. Note whether they are fenced, lit, and monitored. Write it all down.
Then look at your own occupancy. A 150-space secured lot is considered viable once stabilized paid occupancy reaches roughly 65% to 80%, according to Wert-Berater.
How do you work through the pricing decision step by step?
- List every competing yard within 15 miles and record their monthly rate, vehicle types accepted, and security features.
- Categorize your own spots by vehicle type: bobtail only, dry-van, reefer with power.
- Set a floor for each category using the vehicle-type ranges from Semiyard above.
- Compare your amenity level to competitors and position your rate accordingly within the RecNation Storage ranges.
- Check your current paid occupancy. If it is above 80%, test a rate increase on new agreements only. If it is below 65%, hold or reduce until you stabilize.
- Revisit the survey every six months, or sooner if a competitor opens or closes nearby.
What should you check before you post rates?
- Confirm whether your municipality requires a conditional use permit or business license for commercial vehicle storage.
- Confirm your zoning allows overnight tractor-trailer parking; some industrial zones restrict it.
- Confirm your insurance covers commercial vehicles on the premises.
- Confirm you have adequate lighting and a working gate or fence before charging a secured-lot premium.
- Confirm you have power pedestals before advertising reefer spots.
- Confirm your lease agreement specifies the vehicle type, spot number or zone, and monthly rate.
Hypothetical example: pricing a 30-space yard
Hypothetical example. You own a fenced, lit yard on the edge of an industrial district. You have 30 spaces. Your lot has the same features.
A well-designed lot fits roughly 25 to 30 semi-truck spaces per acre, and at $250 per month per space one acre yields approximately $7,500 per month or $90,000 per year, according to Wert-Berater.
What mistakes do operators make when setting rates?
The most common mistake is pricing from a gut feeling instead of a survey. The second is charging a flat rate regardless of vehicle type, which leaves money on the table for reefer spots and may underprice bobtail-only spaces.
A third mistake is ignoring demand pressure. The FHWA Truck Parking Development Handbook cites ATRI research showing the parking shortage costs drivers an average of 56 minutes of productive drive time per day and reduces individual driver productivity by 9,300 revenue-earning miles per year. Carriers feel that pain. A well-located, reliable yard has real pricing power, and operators who do not test higher rates at high occupancy are leaving revenue behind.
Do not set a rate and forget it. Seasonal freight cycles shift demand. A carrier that parks 10 trailers with you in January may drop to three in the summer slow season.
What should you measure to know if your rate is right?
Paid occupancy rate: divide the number of spots generating revenue this month by your total available spots. Collect this from your lease agreements on the first of each month.
Revenue per available spot: divide total monthly parking revenue by total spots, occupied or not. This tells you whether a rate increase on occupied spots offsets any vacancy.
High turnover at full occupancy often means your rate is still below market. High turnover at low occupancy points to a service or security problem.
Track all three monthly. No benchmark is universal because markets differ, but your own trend line over six months will tell you more than any published range.
What should you do next?
- Drive or call every competing yard within 15 miles this week and record their rates and amenities.
- Pull your current lease agreements and count paid spots by vehicle type.
- Calculate your paid occupancy rate and your revenue per available spot.
- Set or adjust rates by vehicle type using the ranges above, positioning against your survey results.
- Schedule a rate review for six months out and put it on the calendar now.