This is dedicated to the unsung heroes during our recent pandemic. How many of you stayed home in place and still got paid from your employers? How many of you got let go and still got paid from the government? Both my wife and I continued to go to work everyday. My wife is considered essential because she is in the healthcare industry. I am not. I am in the construction industry like many others all across the world. We did not complain, the roads were basically empty and the commute was easy with no traffic. We were uncertain, like everyone else, with how life was going to go but we persevered down this new road of life, at a very stressful time. This dedication is not about us.

What do you need to survive? The two main things we need are food and water. But apparently, toilet paper, paper towels and other human maintenance products are as equally needed. What would we do without toilet paper? How do we get these items? Water can be gotten through the tap, or it can be purchased. Food is not as simple as the delivery of water, but you can grow your own if you have the land and the ability to. The other items mentioned above are by purchase only. All these items can be easily purchased at your nearest store or online, but not always, especially during the pandemic. The question that I am asking is who should we really be thankful for?

I am thankful for the trucking industry, and everyone associated with it. The world would essentially stop without them. I don’t know how many times we went to one grocery store, then another, and then another to try and find these essential items for our survival. The stores were empty for the most part. For many of us, these large trucks and trailers with a gross weight of 80,000 lbs. +/-, are meant to be avoided or are seen as a nuisance. We try to avoid them while we travel beside them. That is smart thinking. The truck drivers know the risks and yet, they drive for hours, through towns, cities and states while navigating unkempt roads, other vehicles and difficult unloading areas. I have spoken to many of them for decades and I always ask why anyone would want to get up at 1 or 2 in the morning and travel hundreds of miles every day. These unheralded drivers are owner/operators, contracted, hourly or salaried. There answer is simple, they love it.

We can thank them in many ways. We can be considerate to them by giving them space, much more than we are thinking. We can let them in while they are backing up into the street. Often, they have to jack knife backwards and blindly into oncoming traffic in order to get to the next stop. We should be conscious of the fact that they cannot stop 80,000lbs in the same manner a car can stop. Truck drivers can’t see in their blind spots much like we can’t. Perhaps, we should brake for them instead of breaking hard in front of them or speeding up to get past them. Above all else, we should give them time and space to maneuver their vehicles so as to not stress their daily routine. We as a society cannot live without truck drivers so thank them and thank them often.