Budget Trucks in Union

[dicketydee.livejournal.com]

This is a bit farther afield of Davis (Union Square) but I'm hoping someone will have some information. Since late August, when Lazybones Laundry & Storage moved into a space on Somerville Ave., the neighborhood has been swarming with Budget moving trucks.

At first I thought these were for students moving on September 1st, but they seem to actually be a fleet of trucks operated for/by Lazybones. They keep 8-9 of the trucks in the Kiley Barrel lot 24/7, and two to three other trucks idling in front of their location on Somerville Ave, double-parked on the street for loading and unloading.

Besides making it difficult to get past them to McGrath or Target, the trucks are taking up the visitor half of the Kiley Barrel lot, preventing patrons of local restaurants from using it. September 1st has come and gone, but the trucks remain, and appear to be a permanent addition to the neighborhood.

Does anyone know how they're being permitted to operate like this, whether they have some sort of parking/idling permit, and if the trucks will ever leave so visitors can park near the square again?

Edit: Here's a typical day, there were eight trucks in the lot, but some got cut out of the shot.

Comments

[ron_newman]

For starters, I suggest dropping a line to Mimi Graney over at Union Square Main Streets.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Massachusetts has, statewide, an anti-idling law limiting idling motor vehicles to five minutes in most circumstances:

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section16a

The law lists exceptions, but it doesn't sound from your description like any of them apply.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

It is, as near as I can tell, absolutely impossible to get any officer to enforce the idling rule under any circumstance. I used to work in a space with one window and I was reduced to taking cash out to truck and bus drivers and offering them money to please shut off their engine when sitting outside my only window.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

I get the sense that naming their company LazyBones may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy - did you see this (http://somerville.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/exemployee-sleeps-in-moving-companys-office-raids-fridge-says-report?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001&evar4=picks-3-post&newsRef=true) yesterday?

Anyone would think this is from The Onion, but after seeing your post, I sadly believe it!

[thesoxgap]

I don't know what they're doing, but they also park on side streets (I especially loved the day they were ALL parked on my street). And the double-parking. And swarming. It's honestly giving me anxiety to see them. It's making it harder for me to cross Somerville Ave because I can't see around them.

[dicketydee.livejournal.com]

After our landlords complained to the city that the trucks were blocking our building, they pretty much instantly vanished.