What Every Self-Storage Owner Needs to Know About Truck Parking Revenue

Truck Parking Club has now placed trucks in over 6,500 locations nationwide, and a good chunk of that growth is happening on self-storage lots that were already just sitting there doing nothing. Here's the math: 2 or 3 truck spots at $250 a month, that's $3,000 a year. At a 7-cap, that's roughly $43,000 you just added to your facility's value. Without pouring a single yard of new concrete, my guest today has sat in the operator's chair herself, and she's going to walk us through the revenue that most owners are standing on top of and don't even know it. I'm Joe Downs. Welcome to the story. Storage Moguls podcast. My company's acquired over 20 storage facilities, which is worth over $70 million in assets across multiple storage niches. And I've learned firsthand who succeeds in this business and why. And that's what drove us to build storagemoguls.ai, an AI-powered community with the tools, the structure, and the guardrails to help you buy your very first self-storage facility. And I am fired up about today's conversation. Let me introduce my guest, Sydney Wilta. I don't know why I just said that with a T. Cindy Wilda, VP, uh, Property Self-Storage at Truck Parking Club, which again is 6,500+ locations nationwide. Cindy's been in, um, self-storage in some fashion for nearly a decade. Onsite management, ops, ownership development. She's lived the objections and now she answers. She's a returning guest as well. Sydney, we're gonna have, we're gonna have to unpack this cuz I had you back on episode 2 of this podcast. Talk about boat and RV, but, and back in May. So we'll unpack that in a second. But as you know, no surprise to you before we get into it, we're gonna start with a true/false question. So Sydney, true or false? You ready?

Let's do it.

Self-storage in America. Self-storage in America is worth more than $400 billion. True or false? True.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I would say that one's true.

Just a nary over $400 million at $432 million, $400 billion at $432 billion in 2025. That's per the 2026 State of the Self-Storage Market Report. Cindy, welcome back.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. It was a, it was a fun trip.

Yeah. So, uh, let's just, let's just cover it now. What, what's going on? Last time I talked to you, you were with Anytime Storage. I was your, your customer, your client, or my company was, and now you're a truck parking club and I'm still your customer and your client. So what happened here?

You, you can't get away from me. Um, it was, it was kind of a, a transition period. Obviously self-storage will always be Some part of what I do, I'm very ingrained in that. But when Truck Parking Club had this opportunity arise, they needed someone to help lead that self-storage vertical that could really help educate owners. And so I threw my hat in the ring. I was like, "You guys, I think that this would be a great fit. I think that I can help you guys gain the traction that you need with self-storage owners. I speak their language. So let me help them not just picture some semi on their property. Let me." Help educate them on the numbers behind it and how it actually makes sense.

I love it. And, and, and, you know, I get it. You, you, uh, in your old position, your former position, or actually multiple former roles in this business, you've interacted with a lot of self-storage facility owners. You're very present at all the conferences. Uh, no, it makes, it makes sense for Truck Parking Club. Um, and, uh, you know, I'm sure they, they, whether they realize it or not, they, they obtained a great asset in you. And I don't mean to, To, um, to dehumanize you that way. Um, it's meant to be a compliment. Um, Sydney, you said something interesting there. They were looking for someone to help grow their self-storage vertical. What are the other verticals of Truck Parking Club? Before we get into what Truck Parking Club is, I would like everyone to understand The verticals of Truck Parking Club, cuz I think that'll help understand what Truck Parking Club is and which, which by the way is a mouthful. Truck Parking Club. Yeah, go ahead.

Yes. And don't shorten it. It is Truck Parking Club very clearly. Um, so one of the big things with Truck Parking Club is making sure that, you know, obviously truck drivers have a safe place to park. So within that, what's, what, what's a better use than self-storage? Warehousing, hotel parking lots. There's, there's countless numbers of verticals that we're looking into right now that really just help expand what we're trying to do, which kind of goes into what I think your next question's gonna be. So I'm just gonna answer it, which is our mission is just to take underutilized land and give it purpose. And that purpose is to help truckers across America to find a safe place to park so that way they can get back to their family safely.

Mm-hmm.

way they can get to their next job safely and to make sure that they're not parking on the on-ramps or, you know, they're not stuck at, you know, the little, the little, uh, stops in the middle of nowhere. We want, we wanna make sure that they actually have a place that they can rest without worry.

Okay. So, and that's a wonderful noble cause, uh, on the one hand. Um, and I know as the, uh, As a, as your customer, but, um, as a space provider with Self Storage Villas, it's obviously not just a noble cause. There's some revenue tied to it. But let, let me, let me walk back here a second. So on the one hand, if for you, the truck or for Truck Parking Club, one of your clients is the truck driver or the company that he drives for, he or she drives for, right? Mm-hmm.

Correct. Yes.

Okay. And so kind of like, uh, and, and I've heard this likened to the Airbnb for truck drivers, right? So on the one hand, you've got the truck driver looking for a safe space to park said vehicle. And those spaces, those, um, places are sometimes found at self-storage facilities. Sometimes they're found on just iOS lots if we're talking like Which is just industrial outdoor storage, which is basically storage, but it's, that's where you see like the fleets of vehicles parked, right? And then you, you've also just solved a mystery for me, uh, especially as somebody who's been in a lot of hotels recently. Um, and especially, uh, on weekends where I'm, you know, whether it's for my kids' lacrosse tournaments or whatever, you know, and I look out the hotel window and I see semis parked in the back of the, of a hotel parking lot and like, what's going on here? Um, so, so that's interesting. So you have, and that, and then might shopping malls and retail strip malls also be places where I'm, I'm just thinking of where I see—

Yes, absolutely.

Truck trailers that look outta place.

Well, and the whole thought behind it is they just need somewhere that they can stop that is gonna be safe for them, right? So that could be any number of places, but we also wanna make sure it's a legal place to stay. I know that everyone was like, oh, well, why can't we, you know, go park in the Walmart parking lot? And Walmart kind of went away from that. You know, there used to be truck drivers that would, that's where they'd stop, and now they can't any longer. It's no longer a place that they're, they're welcome to do that overnight.

Unless, unless Truck Parking Club is, is providing that space in the Walmart parking lot. Is that right?

Correct. Yes. So unless there's, Obviously the owner of that property has to approve Truck Parking Club to be able to be there.

Okay. So, and, and I, I wanna break this down in its simplest form. You, you, you know, eat, sleep, and breathe it. But for the listener who's never heard of Truck Parking Club, I wanna make sure everybody understands what this is. So I'm a truck driver, I need a place, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna introduce a concept here as well. I need a place to, Store my truck overnight, maybe for the week, or maybe even for the month. My options are limited. Along comes Truck Parking Club. They have negotiated and arranged for spaces, safe spaces at hotels, at strip malls. And now this is in you know. This is where you come in also at self-storage facilities, right? Is that, that's accurate? Correct. Yeah. So that's how this looks and feels like Airbnb, right? To the novice, right? It's 'cause what does Airbnb do? I'm a traveler looking to vacation somewhere. They've arranged for multiple places for me to vacation if I want to pay that rate, et cetera, with those amenities, right?

Exactly.

And they're really just a matchmaker, right? And that's, is it fair to say that's what Truck Parking Club is? It's a matchmaker of truckers and spaces, safe spaces, right?

Yes. So, I mean, think about it, you're on the road, there's specific hours of service that a truck driver has to adhere to in order to, you know, follow kind of the DOT regulations. So with that, they have to stop. So whether that's, you know, 40 miles from home, 100 miles from home, plus 1,000 miles from home, They still need that safe place and, you know, they're, they have to have a place that they can get to. So if they're running low on time, all they have to do is open up the app, look in their area, and that can quickly give them options that we've already onboarded onto the platform so that way they have a safe place to go. They know what's gonna be there when they get there, cuz we list out all the amenities. We list out what's nearby as far as food, restaurants, you know, hotels, Uber. All of those things so that way they know exactly what they're getting when they get into a space. Okay.

So that sounds like an awesome, amazing option for truck drivers. Um, and I'm glad we, we broke that down. Now let's bring this to the Storage Moguls community. So here, here's where we're gonna be more interested in, well, what does that do for us? Right? And I don't mean that to sound selfish, but We are looking for ways to drive revenue at our self-storage facilities or our iOS lots. So if you are listening and you've got a couple acres and you haven't figured out what to do with it yet, or you've already reached out to us at Storage Moguls and we've said, look, I don't, you know, this, your area, or maybe you're even a student already and you've determined yourself through our education that, hey, where I am at, where I own this land, We don't need any more storage. We're saturated. Along comes this concept of truck parking clubs. So whether you, you own a facility or you own dirt, right? Um, now I need to put this truck parking club lens on, right? So Sydney, walk me through the process for, 'cause I want to get into the revenue. What, what could this mean for me from a revenue standpoint? And then how do I go about it? And I want to get into what are the headaches? What's the downside? What are the issues? The upside is clearly the revenue, right? I don't, I don't know if there's any other upside than that. Let's talk about that first. Then let's get into what are some potential downfalls, if any, that we need to be aware of. And, and more importantly, What's the process? Because I'm not looking to create another job here if I'm enjoying my passive or semi-passive self-storage ownership lifestyle. So let's talk revenue first. And to talk revenue, what do I, what do I really need? I own a self-storage facility. What do I need in terms of space to be a viable option For you to put me on your platform.

So let's rewind just a little bit with that because there are several self-storage facilities out there that maybe they fenced in early thinking that they could do an expansion. There's boat and RV parking. Maybe it didn't fill up as fast as they had anticipated. There's, there's always some form of vacant land on a property that's not just there for drainage purposes. It's there because it was supposed to have a purpose and that purpose hasn't been fulfilled. Whether the numbers haven't made sense, you know, they couldn't get it off the ground, the city changed their mind, which, you know, municipalities love to do, any number of those things. So along comes Truck Parking Club. So with that, I mean, the smallest space we need is a 12 by 28, so that way we could accommodate a box truck or a bobtail. And what we do is we list off on our website, we say, hey, this area Has these spaces with these amenities, and this is what can be parked here. So that way a driver knows, hey, this location is cocktail box truck only. This one is tractor trailer only. So the semis out there, any number of those things, right? That's what we're putting together in these vacant spaces. So when you see a blank piece on your property and it's like, hey, you know, why isn't that making us some money? That's where we should come into the picture, the thought of. Hey, that's a really easy ancillary revenue source that you don't have to do anything extra to accommodate because you already have the space, you already have it there. All we're gonna do is just give it a purpose.

Okay. So the smallest space is a 12 by 28, is that what you said?

Mm-hmm. Yep. And that's just to accommodate a box truck or a bobtail that can fit in that space, whether that is just overnight, whether that's for a week or that's for a month. That way we can match a trucker to that space that they, that they need. And I mean, as a property, as someone who owns the property, right? Don't you wanna see it maximizing every dollar it can? And you don't have to put any money into it. It's just there and available and you just list it with us. It sounds too easy, I know, but it really is just that simple.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, it, it, it is a little bit. What's, so what's the first thing you look for then when you walk a pro— do, first of all, does somebody come out and walk the property to see if this is gonna work? Or are you, how are you doing? How are you, how do I know?

We have a fantastic onboarding team. And so our onboarding team, if someone has a property and they're like, hey, can this accommodate a truck parking club? Then they would talk with one of our fantastic onboarders. Who will pull it up on Google Maps to look at aerials. If you have any photos, they'll pull those up to Street View, all of it. So we're combining a number of different data sources to make sure that it's possible. And not only that, but all of I think all of our onboarders have driven a truck at some point, so they know how how tight of a space they can fit through. They know what that should actually look like to make sure that they're not you know interfering with the property and. That the driver is gonna be safe as well. So they look at it, they determine if it's suitable. Once suitability has been determined, it's like, hey, so this is what we can do with the property. This is where we can park vehicles. So, and this is roughly what we think that, you know, you're gonna be seeing with that. We'll go over rates on that daily, weekly, monthly basis, just given, you know, kind of what the market's seeing, pulling anyone else that may be close by that offers truck parking club plus their amenities. And that way we can give you a clear picture as to if it's gonna make sense for that property or not.

What do you see more often, daily, weekly, or monthly?

I think that that's kind of a very seasonal question because obviously when it comes to the holidays, you're gonna see people that are there a little bit longer term, but you also have people that can't find a place to park close to home. So they, they do rent on that monthly basis, whether they're there all month long or not. They wanna know that they have that safe place to go back to. And really, I mean, daily, daily and weekly really work and benefit for self-storage owners the most, in my opinion. And from what I've seen, because that's allowing them to turn over a space multiple times and they're able to see revenue in a different way than they would just your normal monthly rental.

Do I need to be fenced and gated?

You do not have to be fenced and gated. However, that is a really nice amenity that speaks very loudly. And gives a little extra protection to the truckers.

And do I see a benefit in, um, in rate because of that?

It's not gonna be a noticeable rate increase or rate change, which I know isn't what you love to see. But if you think about it as this wasn't making you any money before and now it's making you money, that's gonna be where you see the change.

That's incredible. Well, wish you the best. And I hope a significant number of those spots are at my facilities. Folks, remember the next dollar you put in your pocket isn't always going to be in your next acquisition. Sometimes it's just sitting on the land you already own. And with cap rates below financing costs right now, growing income without new debt is worth a lot more than usual. Thanks for joining us today on the Storage Moguls Podcast, please like, subscribe, and share. If you're not already a member of storagemuggles.ai, you should go there. It's free. Just join. There's a ton of free information there, and then you're in the community. So folks, there's a seller out there right now who's ready to sell. So stop watching, start moving. Go drive for dollars. Don't forget to send the LOI. We'll see you next week.