According to PA news agency analysis of a Government-commissioned report, designated sites such as truck stops and motorway service areas do not have space for more than a fifth of the HGVs which park overnight near major roads in England. The Government pledged to the haulage industry in July last year that it would drive efforts to "improve the quantity and quality of overnight facilities".
Each night thousands of lorry drivers are still being forced to park in laybys and industrial estates due to a severe shortage of purpose-built facilities, an investigation has found.
Research conducted in March recorded an average of 21,234 parked lorries each night, which is 4,473 more than the capacity of secure car parks (16,761).
Demand for spaces has grown faster than supply over the past five years, with Aecom's report describing the situation as "nearly at critical level".
Some 100 purpose-built parking sites fill up every night, compared with 65 in 2017.
The regions with the highest proportion of designated lorry parking spaces filled each night are the East of England (95%), the South East (94%) and the East Midlands (92%).
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation and president of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, said:
"Inadequate provision of facilities for lorry drivers has been an intractable issue for years, and the findings of multiple surveys paint the same picture: not enough locations, poor facilities, dodgy security - the list goes on."
A DfT spokeswoman said:
"We've taken unprecedented action to tackle the global HGV driver shortage, including investing over £52 million to improve roadside facilities and lorry parking."