A 17-year veteran commercial driver has published a free directory listing 2,031 truck parking locations across 45 states, an attempt to compress what truckers currently pay multiple subscription apps to do into a single no-cost platform.

Shawn Gresham, founder of Trucking Life Academy in Dalton, Georgia, and a fuel operations employee at Rosedale Transport, opened his Trucking Life With Shawn platform to the public this month after building it since July. The directory breaks down into 1,882 truck stops, 78 dedicated truck parking lots and 71 hotels that accommodate commercial vehicles. It carries 259 additional listings for repair, tire services, roadside assistance and heavy-duty towing. Eighty listings were added in the past 30 days.

"Truckers get nickeled and dimed to death across a hundred different apps: one for parking, one for fuel prices, one for HOS math, one to study for the CDL," Gresham told FreightWaves. "I built one place, by a trucker, with all of it, free."

What the platform actually does — and does not do

The parking tool does not show real-time space availability. Listings are marked to indicate whether overnight parking has been confirmed or remains unverified — a meaningful caveat for drivers planning stops near the end of their hours of service. There is no app download and no account creation; drivers search by state, interstate and exit number.

A separate repair directory lets drivers find towing companies, tire services and repair providers near interstate exits. Gresham said the feature grew out of his own breakdowns, when finding assistance meant calling companies dozens of miles from his position.

The diesel price board updates daily, drawing on pricing information supplied by Love's Travel Stops. Drivers can compare estimated prices by state, region and city, and run a fuel-cost calculator.

"It's not perfectly average, but it gives you a good idea of what that state's going for that day," Gresham said. For fleets and owner-operators routing fuel stops, the tool offers directional guidance rather than transactional pricing.

A navigation system is coming

Gresham expects to release a truck navigation system and trip planner publicly on New Year's Eve. The GPS product is currently in testing with 87 working drivers, a pilot he has deliberately kept small.

"I didn't want a brand new driver to use it, and then it did something wrong," he said. One early defect — delayed turn notifications — has been corrected, according to Gresham.

The trip planner flags potential stopping points based on route, weather, traffic and remaining driving hours. Drivers enter their available hours manually, and Gresham stressed the tool is not an electronic logging device and does not replace federally required hours-of-service records. Interested drivers can join the pilot through the website.

How free stays free

Driver tools carry no charge, but the platform monetizes through three channels: sales of Gresham's trucking books and guides, affiliate commissions from Truck Parking Club, and paid featured listings for businesses such as repair shops. Truck Parking Club is working to integrate its reservable — paid — parking locations into the directory; Gresham earns referral compensation on qualifying bookings. The free directory remains usable without a reservation.

"Drivers never pay, and they never will," Gresham said of the driver-facing tools.

The platform extends a broader project. Gresham's Trucking Life Academy, a CDL training school in Dalton built with equipment and contributions from drivers and businesses, is scheduled to open this month pending final state approval. Classes are capped at six students over eight weekends, a response to concerns he has raised about CDL training quality.

Usage figures do not yet exist — the service is newly launched, and Gresham acknowledged he has no meaningful data on adoption. Working drivers can submit parking locations and corrections, which he reviews before publishing.

"Parking is a huge problem," he said. "I just want truckers using it."

The promise is attractive: one directory, no subscriptions, coverage across 45 states. Whether a one-man operation can keep 2,031 listings accurate without live availability data — and whether affiliate-backed paid parking integrations change the economics for drivers — will be the test as adoption grows and the navigation product ships on December 31.