HGV-Parking.co.uk is live: free for your first 12 months

The UK is short of somewhere between 4,700 and 11,000 HGV parking spaces, depending on whose estimate you take — while thousands of acres of fenced, lit, camera-covered hardstanding sit empty behind farm gates and haulage fences every night. Most cargo crime happens at unsecured parking. Those three facts never belonged in the same country, so we have built the thing that connects them.

HGV-Parking.co.uk is now live: an open UK marketplace where yard and land owners list secure HGV parking, and drivers, owner-drivers and fleets find and book it — by the night, the week or the month. It is free to use for your first 12 months, on both sides. No listing fees, no booking fees, no card details taken on the site. Here is how it works.

If you own a yard

List it in minutes: spaces, surface, vehicle types accepted, access hours, security features, and guide prices per night, week or month. Photos of the actual space are required, and a human checks every listing before it goes live — that moderation is why drivers can trust what they see. You stay in control throughout: enquiries and orders come to you, you accept or decline, and you invoice direct on your own terms. Nothing sits between you and your customer.

Your exact location and entry details stay private. Browsers see the area and the photos; the full arrival pack — where to park, how to get in — is only ever issued inside a confirmed booking's e-ticket, never shown publicly.

If you drive, or run trucks

Search by postcode and radius, then filter for what actually matters: fencing, CCTV, floodlighting, staffed sites, ANPR, showers, trailer drop, fridge running, operating-centre use. Compare photos, prices and reviews from drivers who have stayed. Enquire, or place an order for the spaces and dates you need; when the owner accepts, your e-ticket arrives with the private arrival pack, so there is no phoning a gateman from a dark gateway at 11pm.

It works the same whether you are a tramper sorting tonight, an owner-driver after a monthly space near home, or a transport manager lining up weekend standing and overflow for a fleet. Save your vehicles once — reg, length, height, fridge — and ordering takes seconds after that.

Can't see anything near your route? Post a Parking Wanted ad on the Parking wanted board — what you need, where and when. Every published yard within your radius that fits gets emailed automatically, so matching yards come to you. It works for tonight, for regular runs and for longer arrangements like weekend storage or an operating centre.

Reviews and badges, both ways

Trust runs in both directions here, so ratings do too: drivers rate yards, and owners rate drivers. Accounts that build a record earn it visibly — a Trusted badge at ten or more ratings averaging four stars and above, and Elite at fifty or more. Elite drivers get an automatic 5% discount at participating yards. Good behaviour pays, on both sides of the gate.

How it stays free

The site is funded by a small number of clearly labelled adverts — a handful of placements, always marked Sponsored, from companies relevant to the people here: recruitment, training, insurance and the like. That is what pays for the servers and the moderation, which is why we can make the site free to use for your first 12 months without taking a cut of anyone's parking money. If your business wants to reach UK drivers and yard owners, hgv-parking.co.uk/advertise explains how that works.

What happens next

The Android app, HGV Parking UK, is on Google Play, with an iOS version to follow. Coverage grows yard by yard: every listing added opens a corridor for the drivers who run it, and every Parking Wanted ad shows owners exactly where demand is waiting. The blog will keep publishing straight-talking guides — what yards earn, where drivers can legally park, what real security looks like — because this niche has run on guesswork for long enough.

We are at the beginning, and we would rather be honest about that than pretend otherwise: the more yards list, the better this works for everyone. If you own hardstanding that earns nothing after dark, be one of the yards drivers find first — list it free at hgv-parking.co.uk. Free to use for your first 12 months, and your empty concrete finally pulls its weight.