I was having a very interesting conversation with a friend who owns a local trucking Tacoma, WA company and was amazed by some of the things he was telling me.
The average person has no idea how much his or her life depends on trucking and this industry as a whole is far more important than people think.
You may or may not realize it but trucking is the backbone of our economy, from a national level to a local city level. Without it our whole way of life would come to a screeching halt.
We take trucking companies for granted, not giving them much thought unless we are annoyed that they are clogging up the highway, and never fully stop and think how almost everything we buy is transported via them.
Think about everything you have in your pantry, cabinets, refrigerator.
Where did you get those items?
You purchased them from a supermarket, store, mall, or retail establishment of some sort.
Now, take a moment and think about how all those hundreds of goods got to those places.
It’s because of national and local trucking companies that you are so easily able to buy any goods you want and can afford.
Most items, from food to clothes, are produced at manufacturing plant (or field).
A trucking company takes the following goods and transports them to ships or rail to be transported to various distribution centers around the US.
If there is urgent need to get a certain good to a location they may go by air (like fresh seafood) though usually this is the most expensive route to take.
It is from the local city or regional distribution centers that stores can these items they would like to sell to the public. Once they do a trucking company is contracted to transport them from the distributions centers to the local stores (from Kroger and Fred Myer to Banana Republic and Nordstorms).
You are able to easily obtain any food, clothing, electronics, entertainment, movies, and various other gadgets because a trucking company brought them to you. They enable you not to have to fly all over the US to get various wants and needs.
In the past people only usually have available to them items that could be produced in our area. People in Washington state could not be pineapples or mangoes. People in Texas would not have access to Granny Smith apples. Everyone would have to be the produce other regions and purchase items that could be locally made. This whole idea of us being able to buy goods being produced all over the world is relatively new. And one of the major components in us being able to do it is trucking.
Truckers braiding the open roads, putting their life in danger, and sitting behind the wheel for hours at a time are the reason why we are able to have such a standard of living.
You should thank a trucker for what he does the next time you see him. While the trucking industry is well compensated, though diesel prices have ate into their profits the last five years at an alarming rate, is not a glorious one to be in.
Trucking as a whole is thought as a dirty business and not something many people want to attain to. It is a shame because many people make an above average living driving trucks.
There are many owner operators making over $100,000 working 40 hours a week in the trucking business. One can easily clear $60-$80,000 working for a national trucking company with good benefits.
The industry as a whole has a shortage of qualified drivers with valid CDL’s so there is never a shortage of employment opportunities here.
So hopefully I have given you some food for thought. Its amazing how we think little so about this particular industry and yet rely on it so much.
The next time you hear the trucking industry complaining about rising diesel costs and labor shortages give them a listening ear. Their problems affect you in ways you probably do not realize.
This is one industry where all of its problems trickle down to the public. If their costs go up your costs will go up.
Hopefully you see the industry as a whole in a new light.
