A message from ICSA Executive Director Karen Rasmussen
After nearly 40 years working in and for the trucking industry, I’ve observed and even helped create a few slogans and campaigns to celebrate the importance of truckers to civilized life. Just a few of the more memorable ones are “Knights of the Road”, “If You’ve Got It, a Truck Brought It!” and “Without Trucks, America Stops!”
September 12-19 is National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. No doubt you will see ads and editorials praising truckers, BBQs and giveaways offered by some truck inspection facilities and special recognition at some of our nation’s largest truck stops and travel centers. But we want you to know that truck drivers are more than just a slogan to us in the Independent Carrier Safety Association. We believe you deserve to be appreciated all year long, not just one week in September!
We were thrilled to see truckers given much needed and long overdue recognition and respect during the darkest days of the pandemic. When neighborhood markets ran out of disposable diapers, toilet paper, baby formula, disinfectant products and other essential goods, consumers suddenly woke up to the fact that trucks brought those goods to store shelves as soon as shippers and manufacturers could produce them. One day I had the experience of standing in a line of perhaps 40 people waiting for newly delivered pallets of toilet paper to be broken down and delivered to a Walmart’s shelves. Despite the “one package per customer” restriction, the supply was gone before the end of the line was reached and customers were asking “When will the next truck get here?!”
It reminded me of 1985 when the City of Los Angeles decided to ban trucks from picking up or delivering freight during peak traffic hours. After all, this scheme worked so well during the 1984 Olympics in L.A., said Mayor Tom Bradley, “We should make the peak hour ban permanent!” Never mind that for the two weeks the Olympic games were being staged, shippers willingly loaded trucks and receivers took deliveries at night instead of during commute hours. But, to do that permanently? No way! Opposition to the plan ranged from the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, and major manufacturers to hundreds of small “mom and pop” businesses. Regardless, L.A. moved ahead with plans to restrict deliveries to off-peak hours, while exempting Christmas trees and watermelons (a story for another day). I was representing the California Trucking Association membership at the time and spent many weeks in L.A. fighting the proposed truck ban. For, while some of our member carriers liked the idea of nighttime deliveries, their shippers and consignees decidedly did not.
Talk began over CB radios of forming convoys to circle City Hall. Others talked of a general truck strike. One crusty old trucker friend of mine, who’d built a highly successful trucking fleet from his beginnings as an owner operator, proclaimed “We don’t need a truck strike. All we need to do is stop the trucks carrying Huggies and toilet paper for two days, and we’ll bring the City of L.A. to its knees!” Thinking of the events of the last year, something tells me he was right! And although deliveries of Huggies and toilet paper went ahead unabated, our shippers and receivers ultimately forced the L.A. City Council and Mayor Bradley to shelve the proposed peak hour truck ban.
I share this bit of trucking history to contrast the City of L.A.’s shortsighted view of trucking with the newly gained public acceptance and appreciation for the role of trucks and truckers in delivering everything from toilet paper to textbooks. Will the day come again when the public takes truckers for granted? Probably. But with the pandemic still raging and with dire needs for trucking services evolving out of weather events like Hurricane Ida, perhaps the new appreciation for truckers will outlive National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. For us at ICSA, every week is Truck Driver Appreciation Week.
On behalf of all of us, THANK YOU! We salute you for all you do, and we wish you a safe and productive week ahead!
Every year, TAT (formerly called Truckers Against Trafficking) honors a member of the trucking, bus or energy industry, whose direct actions help save or improve the lives of those exploited or prevent human trafficking from taking place, with the Harriet Tubman Award
Bob Costello has indicated that the freight market has improved – but very slowly – since January. It must be said that ATA’s indices are dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot rates.
Now, however, with Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House (and, some say, the Supreme Court) I am optimistic that trucking will get a fairer shake than it has during Biden’s term in office.