When Disaster Strikes, Truckers Respond

No sooner had this year’s Truck Driver Appreciation Week concluded than Hurricane Florence began bearing down on the East Coast. Surely it would be impossible to encapsulate in a single week the innumerable deeds that America’s truckers carry out each and every day of the year. But Florence serves as a critical yet timely reminder that truckers’ heroism extends far beyond the essential role they play in our economy.

Indeed, when disasters strike, truckers are among the first to respond — delivering life-saving supplies such as food, water and medicine into the impacted areas. They haul away the debris and destruction so that afflicted communities can begin the difficult task of rebuilding.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao rightly highlighted this point in a NTDAW blog post last week:

Millions of people are going to be especially grateful in the coming days for the truck drivers who will be delivering food, fuel and other critical supplies. Many of the men and women driving these trucks will be braving adverse road and weather conditions to get their loads through to communities….

So we should all be even more appreciative than usual this week for their hard work and professionalism. And let’s wish these men and women safe travel and help them out by operating our own vehicles in a safer manner in proximity to large trucks.

Today, ATA’s Share the Road Truck was loaded in Atlanta with food, water, diapers, paper supplies and mattresses and is now headed to North Carolina for a relief drop — part of the Convoy of Care. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Henry County Sheriff’s Swat team assisted with the load, and America’s Road Team Captain Herschel Evans of Holland, Inc. is behind the wheel and organizing the delivery.

Many other examples are playing out in the news and across social media. Take Tony Alsup, a trucker from Tennessee who has gone viral with his relief work. He transformed an old school bus into what the Washington Post has dubbed a “Noah’s Ark” of sorts — a mobile animal rescue shelter. He was able to rescue 53 dogs and 11 cats on his first trip into South Carolina.

MORE TO COME…

We’ll continue monitoring relief efforts in the coming days and weeks. If you are a trucker or logistics provider who would like to donate your services to the Florence recovery efforts, you can visit https://www.alanaid.org/.