Parking a moving truck overnight can be difficult, especially in big cities. However, there are many options for parking a moving truck overnight and finding the best place to park your truck is important.
Whether you park your moving truck at home or on the road at hotels, safety and availability should be considered when choosing where to park your vehicle.
Table of Contents
Tips on Parking Your Moving Truck at Home
Parking in Your Driveway
You can park your moving truck overnight at home. This may be the most convenient option, but you still need to make sure it is safe and secure. To park a moving truck safely overnight at home, back up to garage door, but leave enough room for any vehicles that will need to be able to get out of the garage to be able to do so.
Backing up your truck into the driveway is not only safer, but will be way more convenient while you’re loading the truck.
If you have any type of security system that has a motion detection camera, or at least a light (or both!), do your best to make sure that your truck is within the range to set off that motion alert.
Be sure driveway is clear of toys and other items that could block your truck. A 16′ Moving Truck is going to pretty much crush anything in it’s path.
Parking on the Street at Home
If you don’t have a driveway, you can still park your moving truck at home, but it may require a bit more planning. This is especially true if you live in a big city.
When we lived in Philadelphia, we were required to obtain a permit to park our moving truck in front of our house. What at first I thought was a pain in the rear turned out to be an absolute blessing. With our permit came two signs that we were able to use to reserve a space on our street.
Those signs were worth their weight in gold!
If you’re in a subdivision type neighborhood, it’s probably not as big of a deal to park a moving truck on the street in front of your house. If you really like to do your due diligence you can check with your HOA, apartment complex or local city/town police to be 100% sure.
Parking Your Moving Truck While on the Road
Once you leave the safety and security of your own driveway, you’ll encounter a whole new set of challenges parking your moving truck overnight.
Parking a Moving Truck Overnight at a Hotel
When you park your moving truck at a hotel, be sure to ask the front desk if overnight parking is permitted. If they say yes, then ask where it’s okay to park (near an entrance/exit or in the back of the lot).
Better yet, call in advance. Jen and I always like to start calling places a few hours before we’re about to make a stop. Ask if it is okay to park a moving truck at their hotel and if they have a designated place for oversized vehicles. We’ve even had some luck asking to have a spot reserved for our truck.
If driving a giant truck isn’t exactly your thing, then trying to park it is one of the worst parts of the process. Knowing a spot will be open for you to park is one less thing to have to stress over.
There is a secondary benefit to calling and searching for a hotel in this manner. It gives you something to do and focus on.
Moving trips can be extremely long and let’s be honest, boring. Calling and searching for a good hotel that has good parking for oversized trucks at a good price will give you something to do and help pass the time on those last few hours of the day when every minute can seem to drag on.
As long as you park your moving truck at a hotel, you should be okay. Just park your moving truck as close to the lobby as possible while still being able to get in and out of your parking spot easily.
Parking a Moving Truck in a Store Lot Overnight
If parking at a hotel isn’t an option, you can try to find a big box store (Ex. Wal-Mart, Target etc) that will allow you to park in their lot.
If you’re going to try this, MAKE SURE TO GET THE STORE’S PERMISSION. Some stores may allow you to park your truck, some may not. Either way, the last think you want is for you find your truck has been towed when arrive the next morning.
If you park your moving truck in an open lot, park near the entrance/exit so that others can see your vehicle at all times. Also, be sure that you park in a well lit area with lots of foot/vehicle traffic. This provides additional security and makes it less likely that someone could break into your moving truck overnight.
Don’t Leave Your Most Important Items in the Truck
If the worst case scenario happens and someone breaks into/tows away from parking spot where you left your moving truck for the night, all of your belongings could be gone in the blink of an eye.
Keep your most important belongings with you when you park and sleep overnight. This ensures that they’ll always be there in the morning, no matter what happens to your moving truck while you’re away.
We always pack a designated suitcase that holds our most valuable possessions. Documents like passports, birth certificates etc. Pictures and family heirlooms. You know the question, ‘what would save if your house was on fire?’ Think that kind of stuff. This suitcase never leaves our site while we’re traveling on the move.
Final Thoughts
Parking a moving truck overnight can be challenging. That said, if you park it correctly and park in a safe area overnight, you’re much less likely to encounter any problems.
Park the truck in your driveway when at all possible and while this should go without saying, always lock the door of your truck with a padlock, even at your house.
Call ahead to find places where you can park your truck on the road and shoot for well-lit, well-trafficked areas. Finally, keep your most important valuables with you so you don’t have to leave them in the truck.