
Truck Parking
Find truck parking facilities, trucking regulations and info on the City’s Truck Parking Strategy.
As one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, Surrey is committed to ensuring that its infrastructure, economy and communities are built to best serve its growing population.
Commercial trucking moves approximately 90 per cent of all consumer products and foodstuffs and almost two-thirds (by value) of Canada’s trade with the United States. As a gateway community, supporting an efficient local trucking industry and effective goods movement is important in Surrey.
Learn about truck parking regulations, parking locations and efforts to increase the supply of authorized truck parking facilities in Surrey.
Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Rules & Regulations
Heavy Commercial Vehicles
For the purpose of the City of Surrey's Highway and Traffic By-law, 1997, No. 13007, a Heavy Commercial Vehicle is any vehicle with a licensed gross vehicle weight over 5,000 Kilograms. This includes, but is not limited to, trucks, tow vehicles, wreckers, buses or highway tractors (with or without trailers).
The City of Surrey prohibits the parking of Heavy Commercial Vehicles from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on any street in Surrey, even those designated as truck routes. Learn about truck parking facilities located in Surrey in the map at the top of this page.
Heavy Commercial Vehicles can only park temporarily in a residential area for the purpose of loading or unloading at any time of day.
Heavy Trucks
A Heavy Truck is any commercial vehicle with a licensed gross vehicle weight over 10,000kg. This includes, but is not limited to, dump trucks, buses or highway tractors (with or without trailers).
Heavy Trucks are not allowed in residential areas for the purpose of deliveries between 7:00 pm and 7:00 am.
Truck Routes
Trucks Permitted
All truck routes are clearly marked with signage indicating direction of the truck route and time restrictions, if applicable. If there is no sign indicating a road is a truck route, it is not a truck route.
Trucks Not Permitted
Some roads have signage clearly stating No Heavy Truck Route. These roads, for a variety of reasons, are designated No Heavy Truck Route, as there are safety issues (school zones, playground zones, steep hills) associated with trucks travelling on them. As these roads are specifically named "No Heavy Truck Route," the fines associated with travelling on a No Heavy Truck Route are higher than roads without that designation.
If your delivery destination is off a truck route, you arrive at and depart from your destination by using the most direct route from the nearest truck route to your delivery point.
Securing Your Load
A properly secured load prevents injuries and accidents from occurring due to articles falling or bouncing off a truck or trailer.
You must ensure that not only is your load prevented from moving side to side or back and forth, but also upward. By preventing upward motion, you ensure your load, in the event of an accident, remains on the truck or trailer.
Learn more about Truck Parking in Surrey in Zoning Bylaw, No. 12000, Part 4, General Provisions, IL Zone and IH Zone sections.
Contact the Planning and Development Department with any questions.
Truck Parking Strategy
The Surrey Truck Parking Strategy, released on December 17, 2019, highlights the findings of the Mayor’s Task Force on Truck Parking and sets out potential options to increase Surrey’s truck parking supply. Read the Surrey Truck Parking Strategy: A Report by the Mayor’s Task Force on Truck Parking - Full Report for full details.
As the majority of the recommended initiatives are focused on encouraging industry-led solutions, the City’s role will primarily involve the establishment of and improvements to the policies, bylaws, and processes necessary to encourage and support these opportunities.
As the initiatives are implemented, the City will monitor their effectiveness and consider other new opportunities that may arise.
Recommended Initiatives
On-Street Truck Parking Pilot
We plan to implement the On-Street Truck Parking Initiative pilot in early 2021. After a detailed review of suitable streets, we have selected the following streets for the first stage of a one-year pilot:
- Sections of two roads in Port Kells: 189 Street and 190 Street south of 96 Avenue
- Road in Bridgeview: 115 Avenue between Bridgeview Drive and 132 Street
We’ve begun engaging with fronting businesses and property owners to notify them of the pilot.
The initiative will allow for 24-hour reserved truck parking along the identified streets in designated on-street stalls. A truck parking permit will be required to park in the reserved spot.
At this time, interested truck operators are encouraged to email us at truckparking@surrey.ca to express interest in participating in this pilot initiative. Please include your name, contact information, as well as the truck type and trailer size that will be used for parking. For example, tractor with a 53’ trailer or dump truck with a transfer trailer. Your email will not guarantee participation of the pilot, due to limited availability of parking spaces. We may also contact you should we have further questions to assist us with the pilot.
To encourage uptake of the pilot, the permit will be offered at no charge during the pilot. A permit fee will be introduced upon the completion of the pilot based on feedback from the industry.
Parking in Low-Density Residential Areas
This initiative allows for truck parking on residential properties that are one acre or larger and have the appropriate zoning. We are piloting this now through the City’s Temporary Use Permit process.
Your property is eligible if it meets the following guidelines developed by staff:
- The property must be zoned ‘RA’;
- The property must be a minimum of 4,046 square metres (one acre) in size;
- The property must be within an approved secondary land use plan area and be designated for industrial or commercial use;
- The applicant must demonstrate adequate turnaround maneuvers can be achieved on-site and that the proposed truck parking spaces do not result in vehicles backing out onto a highway;
- The property must have landscaping to visually screen trucks from the highway and any adjacent residential properties;
- A maximum of two trucks will be permitted for properties between one and 10 acres, and a maximum of three trucks for properties 10 acres or larger in size;
- All trucks parked on the property must be registered to the owner or occupant of the property;
- The applicant is responsible to construct adequate access to and from a designated truck route; and
- The applicant may be required to register a Restrictive Covenant on the property to restrict idling time and operations of heating or refrigeration systems
If you’re interested in this initiative and your property meets the above guidelines, contact us at planningdevelopment@surrey.ca or 604-591-4448 to discuss further.
Each Temporary Use Permit application would still be subject to the typical Council approval process and be evaluated based on its individual merits.
Reduce Costs of Development for Truck Parking Facilities
We plan to remove the requirement to fully pave truck parking sites to reduce costs of developing authorized truck parking facilities.
Staff have developed a draft Terms of Reference for Environmental Assessments of Truck Parking Facilities with guidelines to help truck parking facility business owners meet annual environmental monitoring requirements. Staff will notify the industry of the draft Terms of Reference and any related proposed amendments to the Business License Bylaw. All Bylaw amendments will be brought forward for Council’s consideration by June 2021.
Truck Parking App
The City facilitated the development of the following mobile apps to help truck operators find and pay for available parking spaces offered by private property owners:
* The application(s) (or “App(s)”) listed above are operated and maintained by third party companies. The City of Surrey has provided links for information purposes only; we do not guarantee and make no representations about the quality or appropriateness of the service provided. Use of the App(s) is entirely at the user’s own risk and the City of Surrey accepts no liability of any kind for using or relying on an App. All questions and inquiries regarding the App(s) should be made directly to the respective App owner.
Increase Parking Provision of Trucking Companies
We’re working on bylaw amendments that will require trucking companies to provide parking for all trucks used on an exclusive basis. The engagement process is planned to be a minimum of six months in duration and will begin in January 2021.
In June 2021, staff will present to Council the engagement results, proposed amendments to the Business License Bylaw, along with the First, Second and Third Readings of the Business License Bylaw. Subsequently, all affected businesses within the City would be provided with a formal written 14-day notice and an opportunity to make written submissions to Council prior to Final Adoption of the Bylaw amendments.
Local Area Service Program to Facilitate Truck Parking Development
To support the development of truck parking facilities, we have been exploring the opportunity to use the Local Area Service (LAS) program that would have property owners fund the improvements to the roads that would meet the servicing standard requirement for truck parking facilities.
A pilot area has now been identified in South Westminster, and in order to expedite timelines on this initiative, this is now planned to proceed as a Council-initiated LAS.
Related Corporate Reports
- R007: Truck Parking Strategy Initiatives Update - January 11, 2021
- R116: Truck Parking Initiatives Updates - July 13, 2020
- R085: Proposed Bylaw Amendments to Facilitate Development of Authorized Truck Parking Facilities - April 14, 2016
- R015: Truck Parking Status Update - February 2, 2015