Operators · Parker Towing
Parker Towing: 406 lockages at 22 federal locks
Fourteen boats moved 3,044 barges in 33 days, four lockages in five on the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers.
Parker Towing boats made 406 lockages between 1 September and 4 October 2026. Fourteen towboats moved 3,044 barges through 22 federal locks, an average of 7.5 barges per lockage. That ranks Parker Towing 19th of 436 operators by lockages in our archive. Half of the lockages were upbound, and 8% carried a hazardous-cargo flag.
Mostly the Black Warrior and Tombigbee
325 of the 406 lockages, 80%, were on the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers. Another 53 were on the Tennessee River, 25 on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and 3 on the Ohio River. Holt Lock and Dam was the busiest, with 77 lockages and 550 barges.
| Lock | Lockages | Barges | Hours waited |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holt Lock and Dam | 77 | 550 | 9 |
| William Bacon Oliver Lock and Dam | 56 | 372 | 0.3 |
| Coffeeville Lock | 49 | 354 | 21 |
| Demopolis Lock and Dam | 49 | 348 | 3 |
| Armistead I. Selden Lock and Dam | 49 | 353 | 0.1 |
| John Hollis Bankhead Lock and Dam | 45 | 283 | 0.4 |
On the Tennessee River, Pickwick Landing, Wilson and Wheeler locks each saw 12 Parker Towing lockages.
Waiting time
The median Parker Towing lockage began with no wait. Nine in ten began within 1.4 hours of arrival. Across all 406 lockages, the boats waited 788 hours, or 1.94 hours per lockage. The median operator in our archive waited 2.27 hours per lockage. Parker Towing ranks 24th of 436 operators by total hours waited.
Two thirds of those hours accrued at one lock. Five lockages at Kentucky Lock on the Tennessee River account for 530 hours, about 106 hours each. Waiting time reflects the queue at each lock, not the operator. Why tows wait at Kentucky Lock covers that queue. The next largest totals were 35 hours over 3 lockages at Olmsted Locks and Dam, and 34 hours over 2 lockages at each of the Brazos East and West gates on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
How boats are matched
Operators are matched from the Corps' 2022 vessel file and FCC licences, so a boat sold since may be listed under a previous operator.
Sources: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lock Performance Monitoring System, archived by Lock Wait; chamber dimensions and opening year from the BTS National Transportation Atlas; operators from the USACE Waterborne Transportation Lines (2022) and FCC ship licences. Wait is measured from arrival to start of lockage. How every number is defined.