Editorial: Truck Driver Appreciation

This Editorial appears in the Aug. 25 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

A good rule of thumb is that you cannot appreciate truck drivers too much. Considering how long the hours, how hard the work, how demanding the enormous responsibility of safely piloting a large vehicle through every imaginable condition imposed by traffic, weather and customer, the job of truck driving rarely earns a full and just reward. But we’re convinced that expression of admiration for what America’s 3.5 million professional drivers accomplish on a daily basis carries a certain value.

That’s what National Truck Driver Appreciation Week is all about — a big community hug, a many-handed pat on the back from all of us who depend on what drivers do.

“Without Trucks America Stops” is a venerable industry slogan. But it wouldn’t be much more than a clever bunch of words, should we fail to honor an even more fundamental truth (also worthy of slogan status): “If Not for Drivers, There’d Be No Trucking Industry.”

National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, sponsored by American Trucking Associations, was set aside in 1998 as a time to recognize the men and women who move the freight. Appreciation is expressed in many ways. For example, trucking companies FFE Transportation Services, American Eagle and Lisa Motor Lines are setting out lunch all week, with the menu ranging from barbeque to Italian cuisine. The South Carolina Trucking Association will host a Truck Driver Appreciation Break at an interstate rest area.

And Navistar’s International Truck brand will premier a documentary film, “Drive and Deliver,” which takes viewers onto the open road and into the lives of three truck drivers at different stages of their careers.

Also, many state governors have issued proclamations, such as Gov. Bob Riley’s admonition to honor those who deliver 90% of Alabama’s goods safely, diligently and without fanfare.

The week started with a fanfare: crowning of the grand champion of the National Truck Driving Championships, just concluded in Houston.

There is probably no more appropriate way to acknowledge the importance of the profession than to stage a contest that not only matches individual skills in the arena but also recognizes lifetime commitments to safety.

In a sense, then, the week and the championships are the embodiment of the respect owed to America’s truck drivers, who drove 400 billion miles last year to deliver the materials of our lives.

The drivers richly deserve any reward we can offer.