National Infrastructure Rollout with Parquery: Smart Truck Parking Across Slovenia

 

Nationwide real-time guidance for 52 truck rest areas on all Slovenian motorways

 

In a nutshell

Countrywide live truck guidance on all highways 

 

Slovenia’s motorway operator DARS has implemented its real-time truck parking guidance in collaboration with Parquery and our proven partners: Telekom Slovenije, A Koda Plus, and AXIS Communications. This nationwide solution, covering all Slovenian highways, addresses critical traffic safety and efficiency challenges that had previously arisen due to a lack of real-time parking data.

Covering all 52 national motorway service areas and over 1,500 truck parking spots, the system delivers accurate real-time availability to drivers via overhead Variable Message Signs (VMS), web platforms, apps, and the National Access Point (NAP). 

 

This first-of-its-kind nationwide smart truck parking infrastructure rollout, evolved from a successful pilot, is part of the European X4ITS initiative. It sets a new benchmark for large-scale Intelligent Transport Systems.

 

Speedily deployed & immediately ready

A standout success of the project was the unexpectedly rapid implementation and immediate operability, which far exceeded expectations for a complex, high-infrastructure deployment. In just 4 months 148 cameras were up and running in all 52 rest areas, monitoring over 1,500 parking spots.

 

The iconic Črni Kal Viaduct in Slovenia now part of the nationwide live truck guidance powered by Parquery

 

The Impact

Smart truck parking guidance exceeding all expectations
 

  • National real-time truck parking visibility via VMS, platforms, and apps
  • Safer roads by optimising use of motorway service areas, reducing illegal and high-risk parking
  • Misuse awareness with duration tracking and vehicle classification
  • Fully operational in just 4 months
  • Cost-effective and compatible with existing infrastructure
  • Future-ready platform enabling enforcement and advanced traffic management
  • Positions Slovenia as a leader in European ITS infrastructure

 

Safer roads and more efficient logistics

Real-time parking guidance allows drivers to plan their stops more effectively, reducing dangerous parking situations and improving overall traffic safety. By balancing usage across rest areas, the system significantly increases infrastructure efficiency.

Drivers benefit from less stress and an easier time complying with mandatory rest periods, which contributes to safer and healthier working conditions and noticeably safer highways for all road users. 

Drivers can now quickly find a vacant, authorized rest spot, preventing fatigue and stress - major safety hazards on highways.

 

Enabling enforcement and compliance

With per-spot monitoring and vehicle classification, the system enables advanced parking management capabilities:
 

  • Specialized monitoring and identification of misuse (e.g. cars occupying truck spaces) 
    The system can classify each parked vehicle (truck, car, van, bus), and can thus be used to reserve truck parking spots for HGV and could be leveraged to monitor specialized areas, such as e-charging spots.
     

A car wrongfully using a truck parking space detected by vehicle classification

  • Monitoring of parking duration (e.g. 25-hour limit for heavy vehicles) 
    In Slovenia, trucks over 3.5 tons and buses have a 25-hour parking limit at rest areas, after which they must leave. This is vital for driver safety and rest area turnover.
     

Arrival time, duration tracking and vehicle classification for each parking spot

Parking of heavy vehicles at motorway rest areas is limited to 25 hours.

[...] We want to provide bus and truck drivers with the rest they need to perform their jobs safely and healthily. The number of parking spaces at motorway rest areas is limited, so let's not occupy them unnecessarily.

DARS Media Center

DARS Media Center

A benchmark for European ITS infrastructure

As part of the X4ITS initiative, the deployment contributes to harmonized, cross-border traffic data exchange across Central Europe.
The system:

  • Provides source data that can be mapped to the DATEX II v3.1 framework, the European standard for traffic data exchange. 
  • Integrates into national and international data platforms
  • Aligns with EU regulations and GDPR requirements

 

Slovenia is thus positioning itself at the forefront of intelligent transportation infrastructure in Europe.

 

X4ITS (Cross for ITS) is a Central European initiative that harmonizes traffic data across borders in Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia. It links national road network data and provides drivers with high-quality, real-time traffic information.

The project aims to improve road safety, reduce accidents (Vision Zero), and support the EU’s decarbonization goals through synchronized Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

Positioning of the national NAPs within the NAPCORE project based on 8 different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Slovenia is ahead. Source

 

The Need

 

A national highway truck parking management. Challenges:

  • Lack of real-time visibility of truck parking availability on motorways
  • Uneven utilisation of rest areas across the network: overcrowded vs underused
  • Potential hazards due to illegal or makeshift parking along on- and off-ramps
  • High pressure on drivers from strict EU driving time regulations
  • A scalable, compatible system integrating with existing and future ITS platforms

 

 

Truck drivers across Europe operate under strict driving time regulations, requiring them to take regularl breaks. 

Yet without reliable real-time information finding a parking spot becomes a guessing game for drivers.

The consequences: 

  • Increased stress and fatigue among drivers
  • Dangerous parking situations on on- and off-ramps, access roads, and hard shoulders
  • Greater traffic risks for everyone, not just truck drivers
  • Demand is distributed unevenly, so some rest stops are overcrowded while others remain practically empty.

Truck drivers must find a parking spot as fast as possible at the end of their workday

 

Prior to implementation, truckers, logistics companies, and the Slovenian motorway operator DARS lacked real-time information on truck parking availability. 

DARS needed a precise, reliable, economical, scalable and future-proof solution to

  • guide drivers with live data,
  • improve safety, and
  • enable better management of rest area usage.

A core requirement was the seamless integration and compatibility with existing roadside and digital infrastructure like the promet.si platform, VMS signage and national traffic platforms.

The solution also had to comply with rigorous requirements and standards for critical national infrastructure and the mandate to exchange data via the European standard DATEX II for wider ITS integration.

As the main infrastructure provider, we required a hardware-agnostic and highly scalable software solution that could seamlessly integrate with our robust 4G network and Tier 3 data centers without necessitating disruptive and costly roadside civil works.

Parquery’s flexible, distributed architecture perfectly matched our technical needs, enabling us to securely deploy this complex nationwide system.

Telekom Slovenije (general contractor, infrastructure)

 

The Solution 

A nationwide real-time truck parking system 

  • Live visibility of occupancy across all motorway rest areas
  • guides truckers with VMS, apps, web
  • monitors each parking spot using a scalable camera-based system
  • classifies vehicles and enables advanced parking management
  • integrates seamlessly with existing roadside infrastructure, ITS, National Data Exchange (NAP)

 

DARS implemented a nationwide, camera-based smart truck parking system powered by Parquery’s software, AXIS cameras, Telekom Slovenije's infrastructure and  AKoda's integration.

Across all motorway rest areas, the solution provides:

  • Real-time, per-spot occupancy detection
  • Vehicle classification (truck, car, van, bus)
  • Live availability data distributed via:

The system integrates seamlessly into the existing ITS ecosystem and supports European data standards such as DATEX II, enabling cross-border data exchange.
 

Promet.si, DARS’s web platform with live truck parking availability

 

Technology and architecture

The nationwide system is powered by a flexible and scalable architecture designed for large-scale infrastructure deployments.

Key characteristics include:

  • Camera-based monitoring with AXIS cameras and Parquery AI (no roadwork required)

  • Distributed computing architecture across multiple data centers

  • Centralized data aggregation and dashboarding

  • Secure mobile connectivity (4G) for roadside equipment

Parquery’s software adapts to a wide range of camera types and installation conditions, enabling reliable detection across diverse environments and perspectives.

 

Parquery’s Dashboard branded for Telekom Slovenije: Occupancy rates for all rest areas on Slovenian highways

 

Nationwide rollout in just 4 months instead of 9

Following a successful pilot phase, the project scaled to full national deployment in an exceptionally short timeframe.

Although the contract allocated nine months for rollout, the system was fully deployed and operational in just four months, covering:

  • 52 rest areas on all Slovenian highways
  • over 1,500 parking spaces
  • 148 AXIS cameras monitor the parking spots
  • AI-Software
    that learns the on-site conditions and detects occupancy, arrival and departure time, dwell time, vehicle type
  • Variable Message Signs 
    display real-time availability for each rest area and direct drivers step by step to vacant spaces.
     

The implementation stood out for its speed, smoothness, and immediate operational readiness. A rare achievement for a project of this scale and complexity.
 

148 high-quality AXIS fisheye and bullet cameras capture the rest areas day and night

The distributed infrastructure and integration into our data center environment allowed for a highly reliable and scalable system. The architecture ensures stable operation across the entire country.

Telekom Slovenije (general contractor, infrastructure)

Careful planning and close coordination on the ground made it possible to deploy all cameras and infrastructure efficiently across 52 locations. The collaboration between teams was key to the project’s success.

A KODA PLUS (integrator)

 

The Recipe for Success

The speed and smoothness of the successful rollout were driven by three core pillars: 

  • strong reliable partnerships, 

  • rigorous preparation, and 

  • a flexible software architecture.

 

Flexible Architecture

At the core of the rapid rollout is Parquery’s highly adaptable software architecture, which offers no-fuss interoperability. 

 

 

Rigorous preparation and field execution

Extensive preparation work ensured smooth execution from day one. Parquery provided detailed 3D site modelling of all rest areas, providing optimal camera selection for each site and server specifications.

AXIS supplied high-quality cameras, A KODA PLUS executed the field deployment, including hardware preparation and installation across all locations, while Telekom Slovenije ensured robust and scalable infrastructure through distributed computing and data center integration.

Together, this coordinated preparation and execution enabled a rapid and disruption-free rollout across the entire motorway network.

 

Strong partnerships enable execution at scale

The project brought together a proven consortium of partners, which, combined with clear responsibilities and tight coordination, was a key factor in achieving full national rollout ahead of schedule.

DARS d.d.

Project owner and national motorway operator 

The Motorway Company of the Republic of Slovenia, responsible for managing the nation’s motorways. DARS commissioned the project following the successful 2021 pilot and manages the resulting data for enforcement and public guidance.

Telekom Slovenije, d.d.

Infrastructure provider and main contractor

Served as the main contractor, providing the Tier 3-available data center infrastructure, managing the seven distributed servers, and supplying the 4G mobile connectivity for the roadside equipment.

A KODA PLUS d.o.o.

Strategic subcontractor, system integrator and deployment specialist

Responsible for all hardware work and deployment, including the supply and field installation of the AXIS video cameras and mounting equipment across the 52 rest areas. A KODA PLUS also supplied the licensed software solution.

AXIS

Provider of high-quality camera technology for reliable monitoring of the road network

Long-standing technology partner providing high-quality, reliable video surveillance hardware for deployments at any scale. Known for strong build quality and imaging performance, AXIS systems are widely used in Parquery projects. The partnership is built on long-term compatibility, including support for on-camera processing capabilities with ARTPEC-based devices, enabling advanced edge AI deployments where applicable.

Summary

 

This project represents a first-of-its-kind nationwide smart truck parking system, delivering real-time, high-accuracy parking data across Slovenia’s entire motorway network.

Completed in just four months, the deployment demonstrates that even complex, large-scale infrastructure projects can be implemented rapidly and reliably with the right technology and partnerships.

As part of the European ITS ecosystem, it sets a new benchmark for scalable, interoperable, and future-ready smart mobility solutions.

 

Get in touch

Would you like to use, resell our solution in your market or integrate it into your traffic or smart city platform? Call or email us and let's discuss the details. We work directly with end customers and via resellers.
 

Parquery is based in Zurich, Switzerland

Our main office is located in Geerenweg 2, CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland

   parking [at] parquery.com
   +41 44 501 39 19 (8:30am - 5:30pm CET)

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