Q: We were following a delivery truck heading east on a county road. The driver stopped in the road, put his flashers on, and got out of the truck to deliver a package. We were close to a curve in the road and it was difficult to pass safely. On our way back a short time later he was parked in the westbound lane again blocking the road. Is this legal?
A: By the letter of the law, this is an easy answer. No, it’s not legal. The Revised Code of Washington states that “Outside of incorporated cities and towns no person may stop, park, or leave standing any vehicle, whether attended or unattended, upon the roadway.” There are a few exceptions, but none of them apply to delivery trucks. For the curious, here they are:
- Disabled vehicles – only when it’s impossible to avoid stopping because of the condition of the vehicle. The driver has to remove the vehicle promptly.
- Public transit vehicles – when picking up or dropping off passengers at a marked stop.
- Garbage and recycling trucks – when picking up garbage or recycling.
We could end the article right here, but I think there’s a question behind the question: “What kind of enforcement action should be taken for delivery truck drivers that stop in the roadway?” If you immediately answer that breaking the law is breaking the law, no matter who you are and all laws should be enforced, you’d fit right in with the approach in New York City. Last year UPS paid twenty-three million dollars in parking fines in New York City, And FedEx paid nine million. That’s a lot of parking tickets. Delivery companies In New York get so many parking tickets that they buy them in bulk. Actually, that’s not totally accurate. The delivery companies, which anticipate that they’ll receive numerous parking tickets, agree in advance not to contest the tickets in court, and by doing so get a reduced fine.
But officers regularly exercise discretion in choosing to take enforcement action. And that’s generally a good thing. While all traffic laws should be obeyed, we have different expectations about how various violations should be handled. If a friend told me he got a ticket because his license plate light was out, I could sympathize with him, but if he complained that he got a ticket for texting while driving I’d probably tell him to suck it up and put his phone away next time.
The question revolves around where this delivery truck violation fits on the spectrum of “probably just a warning” to “better be a ticket.” The greater the safety risk, the more the violation gets pushed toward stronger enforcement. In your question you described two scenarios with the same truck; the one near the curve created a safety concern while the other possibly was more just an inconvenience. Both are a violation of the law, but we should recognize that their impact isn’t the same.
Stopping in the roadway can be a hazard, but so is backing up a delivery vehicle. Delivery companies have lower crash rates than the general public, partly because they encourage their drivers not engage in higher risk driving actions like backing up. In some situations a driver might be making the decision between a backing maneuver (risky) and stopping in the roadway (not legal). An officer might consider those same factors when deciding what kind of enforcement action to take.
Short version: It’s not legal, but officers can exercise discretion when enforcing the law, considering the hazard a violation poses to the public.
The law is LAW! I just witnessed a bad crash where a vehicle was parked in the street unattended with its flashers on when the vehicle behind me went into the same lane to pass. The driver couldn’t see the parked vehicle nor its flashers when he traveled to the right lane and slammed into the parked car traveling approx 45mph.