David Tenney knows why an increasing number of big rigs are being parked on Manteca city streets often for days at a time.

“It’s the best deal in the state,” the owner of Manteca Trailer & RV told the Manteca City Council Tuesday night.

The deal Tenney is referring to is the $32 fine truckers risk if by some chance they get cited by the Manteca Police Department.

He noted overnight parking at locations around Manteca run from $18 a day at Flying J in Ripon to $30 a day at various established truck yards in Lathrop, French Camp, and Manteca.

Longer-term parking by the month at established truck parking lots can run several hundred dollars a month.

Vaconcellos Avenue off  East Yosemite Avenue happens to be one of the few places where there are signs that prohibit the parking of trucks. Specifically, the Vasconcellos signs prohibit parking vehicles that are 6-foot or higher.

Despite the signs trucks that are not making deliveries park along Vasconcellos daily. Tenney noted it isn’t usual for six trucks to be parked along the street.

He told the council it is getting worse along Moffat Boulevard and that trucks are parked on the street throughout the city.

On Wednesday there were 16 trucks parked along Moffat. Some of them were from a “truck parking yard” just west of Spreckels Avenue. While the yard is currently being paved trucks connected with the facility are often parked on Moffat Boulevard.

By that happening other truckers not connected with the facility park their trucks on the city street as well. They go as far as disconnecting trailers and leaving them parked along the city street for days at a time while taking the truck cabs elsewhere.

Trucks routinely park illegally in front of a fire hydrant on Moffat. They also block the Tidewater access at Cowell Street for those in the Powers Tract neighborhood.  The result is pedestrians — including pre-teens — are forced to walk along fast moving Moffat traffic that often travels in excess of 45 mph to find an opening between trucks parked several feet apart to reach the Tidewater.

The trucks also effectively block sight lines where the crosswalk would be requiring pedestrians to poke their heads out between trucks to see if cars are coming.

Moffat also has trucks parked in clusters near Woodward Avenue and Austin Road. They are also parked south of Spreckels Avenue s in an area where the city has posted no truck parking signs that are routinely ignored.

Tenney said ticketing such trucks would be a “great source of money” for the city. In reality when the city writes non-moving violation tickets they get only several dollars and the rest goes to the state when fines are collected. That said the ticketing process is in place to make sure everyone — including truck drivers — comply with parking rules

Trucks, unless they are making pickups and deliveries, aren’t supposed to be in residential areas. They are supposed to stick to adopted truck routes.

A number of residents along South Main south of the 120 Bypass, those living near the Airport Way corridor and elsewhere have complained in recent years about out-of-control truck parking that often includes refrigeration units running all night long.

The residents were mollified by city representatives by saying they’d address areas that should be made illegal for truck parking that create quality of life issues once a truck route study was completed.

Not only has it taken two years to complete but apparently the city is waiting to adopt it after the council adopts the general plan update.

The study creates a number of new truck routes. No public details have been made about whether parking issues will be addressed.

As for trucking parking, there is already a 153-truck parking yard on Intermodal Way in northwest Manteca with another 486 space truck yard approved to be built along the same road. Two smaller truck parking lots opened earlier this year in the Manteca Industrial Park.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com