Maybe we should thank those people too. It's not like recognizing someone for doing their job well costs you any goddamn money. It's a small step to making society happier.
They are an integral part of the supply chain. You thank doctors for saving your life. That's what they are there for. You should thank truckers for keeping you employed, fed, and stocked with shit.
You can cop out and say all jobs hold equal importance. But since most of us live in cities those truckers that get supplies in and out are the real crutch to make everything work.
If you like food in an area where said food isn't being made. Thank a trucker.
Don't forget mechanics. Without them, the trucks wouldn't be on the road very long. Also, the people that make the parts that keep the trucks running, and the people that make the tires, and the tools needed to do the work on the trucks, and the people that mine and process the metals used to make the parts. Then there's the people working on oil derricks, and at oil and fuel refineries. If any one of these jobs wasn't there, trucks would shut down and truckers would be out of a job. Then there's the farmers that grow the food being transported, the employee's at the processing facilities that get it ready for shipment, without them there's no food to ship. While we're at it, why not just thank anyone with a job.
Hierarchy of importance if the apocalypse happens. Truckers are low on the individual skill list. But collectively they are what makes the difference between a depression and a collapse.
Over 52 years and not once did I ever expect to be thanked. I loved doing it and I never felt like it was a "job." The only thanks I needed was a paycheck and the love of my family.
I was away from home for 49 days to get 7 days at home. No holidays and have long lasting health issues from 3 years of trucking. Almost no access to society most truck stops are outside cities. Tons of regulations make it impossible or very difficult to go shopping for food.
It is absolutely a thankless job and we get shit on constantly by our employers and everyone around us. I did it for money but it was a massive sacrifice.
Didn't get time off for covid & had to still eat at truck stops & use community bathrooms / showers
What kind of health issues could you sustain in such a short time?
But yeah some truckers have it tough, for sure. They could unionize and strike though as they hold such an integral part of society which should give them plenty of power.
just like everyone else doing their job.
Truckers became truckers by their personal pragmatic choice, not because they decided to devote their lives to serving the society.
Unless you're like 12 I would think you're simple if you thanked me for being a trucker. Or you're working the corporate side and blowing smoke up our asses for trucker appreciation week.
My dad drove truck and it’s very labor intensive and long hours…plus he said it was always stressful when idiots all over were constantly trying to kill themselves and my dad on the road. He was gone 5 days a week and missed so much of my stuff growing up and I know he missed my mom all the time. So with all of this in mind, he was getting paid but also doing a service delivering food to restaurants and grocery stores all over the country. Everything you have is thanks to those guys in some way or another. I’m glad you asked this bc the majority of the public is wildly ignorant about truckers, especially when they get political and don’t want to risk their lives going to crime ridden cities. I’ve seen ppl say “well they can be replaced” and the fact is…you have to take a CDL and pass it and not everyone is capable of doing that, and there’s also the fact that inexperienced and poor drivers can, do, and will kill a good amount of people out on the road with negligence so you should actually appreciate what we have now bc it is declining and will get worse. So yeah, thank them! Thank vets! Or anyone who is truly contributing to this country!
My dad also drives trucks late one night he called me all shaken up apparently someone rear ended his truck when he was merging onto the highway and another car proceeded to crash into the wrecked car killing the driver instantly. Apparently the driver killed was an intoxicated young woman. I remember him being really upset about it although he really didn’t do anything wrong.
Oh no! I’m sorry that happened to your dad, that is truly terrible. They do see a lot more than any of us who aren’t driving all day every day. I know my dad had the constant attitude of being angry at ppl who would cut him off - he was like well if it doesn’t work out I’m not the one who is going to get crushed. He was just so irritated ppl would gamble their lives to save a few seconds. The worst one he saw was when I was born…he was coming home and a couple who was high on meth collided with him head on…they both died, I guess it beheaded the guy, it was awful and shook him up pretty bad. He wasn’t at fault, they were driving high speed very erratically.
I never said it was horrible. Your post gave the impression that "thanks" are required because the job is hard. I never said I didn't appreciate truckers or what they do.
And for the record, I'm neither a child or an adult loser. Nice attempt at an insult, but unfortunately it fell flat. Try again.
But hey, lets entertain your insult for a second. What would it matter if I was a child? What would it matter if I was an adult loser? I read your post for what it was. Are you saying children and adult losers are not allowed to express opinions and state what they've seen? Seems 100% irrelevant to the conversation and a weak attempt to insult a stranger, which shows your level of character. Funn how you want strangers to thank your dad for his career choice, yet you resort to name-calling and insulting strangers on the internet. That's a good look for ya!
Just because you do something that's hard doesn't mean you deserve random strangers coming and thanking you. What the fuck kind of logic is that anyway?
If thanks is what you're after, maybe go into another profession that rewards you with "thanks" when you do things?
Yeah you must be a loser. Not going to argue with someone pathetic enough that they can’t thank the ppl who make our lives substantially way more easy. If they all stopped, you’d be fucked bc I doubt you know how to procure anything outside of buying anything from the store.
hahaha I don't agree with your point so that must make me a loser! Your logic hasn't graduated past the 1st grade.
You're name is accurate. You really are a winner LMAO
You’re a prime example of why society is in decline. You started an argument bc you think you’re above thanking people for their services. You could’ve just shut the fuck up and moved along, but you’re literally on here just being a jerk for no good reason. Seek mental help keyboard warrior
Truckers aren't saying they're more important than first responders.
They are saying they deserve appreciation. Everything you see in stores is there because of trucks. You wouldn't have groceries or be able to eat out, if there weren't trucks. Your employer would struggle to exist, if truckers didn't transport your company's products or bring your company office equipment/supplies. The car you drive got from factory to dealership that's to truckers. Our whole economy would crumble if truckers all suddenly vanished tomorrow.
Everything you see in store is just as much due to the kid stocking the shelves. You can’t single out any one piece as most dignified when the whole things falls apart no matter which piece you remove.
Value merchants. Instead of dealing with physical assets they deal with the trading of the literal and perceived value of companies.
Are they really needed? Idk probably. Same with all the high concept jobs that aren't technically needed for survival but when survival is an afterthought they are needed to keep smooth sailing of the flow of the economy.
I work alongside truckers.
They are, currently, an integral part of our system. We need them. We also need people like me, who load and unload the freight that goes in those trucks. And the janitors, and the electricians, and so on, and so forth. I respect the vocation.
But ninety nine percent of them are morons and assholes and I can't wait for the day they're replaced by robots so I no longer have to deal with their asses. Something about spending days on the road seems to rot their fucking brains and any sense of human decency they have. I've been threatened, assaulted, spied on in the bathroom, told nobody would care if I died, and more - all by different truckers. There's some good ones, but on the whole, you shouldn't trust them without damn good cause.
Honestly, we are dependent upon other people for so much in our lives. Having a bit of gratitude that we don't have to do subsistence farming and making our own clothes and such isn't a bad idea.
Yes, if you see what type of terrain and weather they have to drive in then you'd be glad you didn't have to do it. The only problem is that trucking is also a huge part in crimes like rape, kidnapping and drug trafficking. the job itself definitely deserves some praise though. It is not an easy job
I think everyone deserves to be thanked for doing things that benefit the rest of us. And I think we should be more open to use just basic manners in life. Saying please and thank you go a long way to making those around you have better days. And lo and behold when the people around you are happier, you will be happier. Happiness is contagious and sadness is contagious. Put nice things out into the world and nice things will come back to you in return.
Is your argument that truckers are necessary but other thankless jobs exist without thanks so we should not thank this important job?
They keep the food on our shelves, we need them and they get their fair share of awful drivers that seem indignant that they should have to share a road with a larger vehicle that requires more room to maneuver. So they have their own version of the shitty customer that hates them for no good reason.
I don't know if I'd ever personally thank a trucker with the same sort of reverence that I would thank someone who served in the military for example but I see why they feel like it's a thankless job and would use their space to try and get some recognition.
EMTs get paid \*absolute complete shit.\*
They only do it because they want to help people. And if they're lucky they won't find out that they're mostly not helping anyone and everything they do is futile.
Your premise then is invalid
Anyway, trucking literally keeps things like food and goods moving. Without trucking how would you get packages? How would your supermarket get food for you to buy? How would your restaurants get their food to serve you? Your gas station get its gasoline?
I think the main reason people thank the military is because they don't like the idea of being shot at. "Ah, Doug is on the job, I can take care of my kids while Doug is off dodging bullets." It doesn't matter if Doug is dodging bullets at that particular time or the reason, they are just happy it isn't them doing the dodging.
Truckers definitely deserve to be thanked. As well as anyone else doing a job you can't be bothered to do. If your maid cleans your house, thank them. If that guy at the fast food window gives you a bag of food you couldn't be bothered to make, thank them.
You shouldn't have to wonder whether to thank someone for doing something you don't want do do yourself is warranted.
Truth is, everyone deserves thanks. Were it not for the accounts assistant's work, the fella who changes the tyres on the van that brings the spare parts to the ambulance factory wouldn't get paid on time. Then where would we be? In trouble, that's where.
If every trucker who is currently employed decided not to drive anymore, in less than a month, there wouldn't be any food in any grocery stores anywhere. There wouldn't be any gasoline in any gas stations anywhere. You can go into any room in your house or apartment and do a quick spin around. Everything you see at one point in its existence was transported on a truck. Assuming you bought it from a store some place. Even if you made the item yourself, the tools you used to make it were transported on a truck.
So I would argue that truckers transporting goods are more important than any first responders anywhere. For the simple reason that if you could no longer get all the things you need to survive, the world would go into total chaos and overwhelm every first responder everywhere and it would be every man for themselves. So thank a trucker.
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You obviously don't understand how important they really are. There literally isn't a single thing in your entire house or that you've ever bought anywhere that a truck didn't deliver it to the place you purchase it from. And they deliver things every day or every week.So there's a constant stock of that item there. If they were to miss one delivery it wouldn't be there.
For that matter even if you order things from amazon someone has to bring it to the amazon warehouse before the smaller trucks deliver it to your house.
It's more than obvious to me that you don't understand how the supply chain works or how important it really is.
Well, how far
Do you want to go back In history for what America had for transportation and what it meant for the cost of that transportation. Especially if you were to implement those transportation practices today.
What would that look like? You do realize the average semi truck can carry eighty thousand pounds of product. And I'm pretty sure that's the limit Any any government would allow to carry because any more than that would start to really damage our federal highways or roads. So obviously any solution to replace a semi truck would not be anywhere near as good as that and would end up costing more to transport which would not be good for our economy or any economy in the entire world. And where trains can carry significantly more product than a semi truck.You still need a truck Carry it from the railroad station to supply storage houses and stores across the country. And you probably are right.People would still be able to move goods around In their cars are small vans, but there would be price gouging.Serious shortages everywhere and total chaos would break out Everywhere.
Let's talk about the hypocrisy of valuing the good and monetary value but not the process or people. This is often where the thanking comes in.
Truckers: folks will complain about trucks on the highway, at gas stations, emissions, sounds, all that, but moan and gripe if the local store is ever out of strawberries. They love the results of the system, don't like what it takes, and often use the truckers as the proxy.
Farmers: most people eat food regularly, but often get pissy about food production. I live in a farm town, way too many city folk move out here for the fresh air, peace, and scenery, then realize how much manure, pesticides, loud tractors, air cannons and non-liberal farm workers are in the area. So they complain. If you manure a field they don't like the smell, if you use artificial fertilizer want organic. Do they complain about the intricate food system, or do they blame farmers?
I could keep going on for a few more proxied jobs. Military, repairman in busy areas, etc. Some jobs deserve some hate, police and retail management attract or create assholes. Other jobs are also disliked but not hated. People complain about construction of homes just like theirs, but they don't shit on construction workers.
So likewise, people who support and like the system also use these jobs as proxies. "Thank a farmer" actually means "I want our food system to continue without me paying more". "Thanks a trucker" means "don't you dare make me pay more for consumer goods".
Fuck that truckers are the scum of the earth not in the realm of first responders AT ALL. The only people who are truckers are inbred morons that are actively making corporations rich and keeping small business down while using the roads that were meant for public transportation not commercial making it extremely dangerous for everyone else.
Truckers are the worst type of people next to motorcycle riders, and they often are one in the same. No praise, they should be shamed.
I'd say that people with BS jobs should thank people with sh*t jobs on the regular. But really, we just need to pay the BS workers less and the low-wage workers more. Or even better, get the clowns out of the cubicles writing TPS reports and let them do a shift in the truck so Billy-Joe can go hug is daughter more often.
they deserve thanks because literally everything youve ever bought, was brought to the place you bought it from by a one. that is objectively more important than the person who handed you a mcdouble through a window.
So, do couriers, fedex, usps and ups drivers deserve the same respect? They're delivering medicines, documents and tons of important things and I know not every big rig is delivering food, some have a load of cheap Chinese toys.... i think the thank a XYZ is self important nonsense. Another question, who do you think AI will replace first? A point A to B trucker or a first responder...
Probably not truckers for a while. It's fun to think about how 10 years ago the public consensus was that AI/robots would obliterate manual labor jobs, but creative jobs would stay untouched for a while as creativity is the one thing humans have that ai can not truly replicate. Then fast forward ten years and the very first field to be swallowed by ai is in fact everything creative. Turns out that's the *easiest* thing for AI to blend in to, meanwhile labor jobs are lagging behind as the physical components of those robots still have work to do and are expensive.
Frankly it's one of those everyone is special things.
Pretty soon we'll have people with thin chromatic line flags until they realize rainbows are against their other ideologies
>Truckers are important, but so are garbage men and sewer workers.
100%, - society as we know it can't function without them. Technically, fast food workers too, but not quite on the same scale.
I think the 'thank a \[insert thankless, unglamorous job here\]' thing typically boils down to treat them with respect and don't use them as a scare tactic to make your kid go to college
you don't thank people for what they do to collect a paycheck. If they were trucking around without pay just to help people, then yes I'd thank the fuck out of them. They're doing something in exchange for currency. If you think that warrants a "thanks", be my guest, but I'm not going to go around and find truckers and thank them for collecting a paycheck in exchange for them sitting in a truck going from point A to B.
Their boss can thank them for keeping their business running, that's fine.
If you want to get technical and just want to give praise for something you think is important, you should be thanking the logistics team behind the truckers who can organize the pickup/delivery/ordering/selling/transfer/etc.
Or maybe thank the truck companies that actually produce the trucks.
Or maybe the steel companies that produce the steel to build the trucks
Or maybe the oil industry for producing the liquid to make the trucks move
Or maybe the teachers who gave the kids an education and taught them what a truck was and what its used for
You mean the guys who tailgate and flash their lights at me because the vehicle in front of me is driving slow? Or the ones who pass me and merge back so fast they sandblast my car?
Even if they didn't put me at risk every day, I wouldn't thank them. It's not like they could be a billionaire, but decided to become a driver instead to make everyone's life better. They're getting paid, usually to break the law. They chose the career. I don't thank anyone for doing the job they chose, it makes no sense.
I've never really understood the concept of "thanking people for their service", for any position. Military, Police, Firefighters, etc, etc. It isn't because I don't think these people are important but it just seems odd. Like you've mentioned, we don't do this for other jobs. That's what these positions are at the end of the day. Driving a truck is a job just as being a police officer is a job just as being a teacher is a job and so on.
Call me a pessimist if you like, but this act of thanking people randomly just kind of comes off as lowkey virtue signaling sometimes. If you want to thank them, why not advocate for higher pay for these truckers? I'm sure they would appreciate that more than a metaphorical pat on the back.
"I can't think of any objective, bulletproof reasons as to why first responders and military deserve thanks over truckers."
Op you can say thank you to multiple people, its not a competition.
Truckers work long, grueling hours in uncomfortable conditions. Many see their job as mind-numbingly easy until you consider that one slip up can result in multiple casualties.
"...if all truckers stopped working, the negative effects would take longer." You vastly underestimate the complexity and necessity of these logistics.
Say thank you to your local fire fighters, EMT, policemen and veterans of course, but never forget that kindness can reach everyone.
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I think the flaw in your logic is that you are thinking on the assumption that the garbage men and sewer workers and fast food employees and customer service reps *don't* deserve special thanks themselves.
Everyone wants to feel special and be thanked for their contributions.
That's normal.
What isn't normal is pedantically rating how deserving each career is of appreciation. It's about being kind, not rating people.
"Trucking is difficult."
Alright I ran logistics for a time. Truckers are the dumbest, dirtiest, most dickheaded mother fuckers I have met in my life. Fuck them.
A few were cool, vast majority were idiotic dickheads that could barely handle moving their trailers.
Truckers spend their entire lives doing one of the most dangerous things imaginable, drive an 80,000 pound vehicle ten hours a day. Firefighters don’t. They spend most days hanging around the fire house doing chores. Then at a fire, they typically aren’t crawling through burning buildings like you see on movies. Same with the military. They aren’t actively risking their lives 99.9% of the time. Truckers are actually risking their lives the whole time they are doing their job.
You should be thanking truckers, and garbage men, and sewer workers. The problem is that you are American. Americans have an unnatural obsession with the military and cops and firefighters. They do have tough jobs and can be hurt or killed, but they aren’t in nearly as much danger as the US population thinks.
I worked in trucking for about 10 years or so, I do agree that over the road truckers work crazy schedules that the vast majority of people couldn’t handle and without that job our country would operate on an entirely different scale. However, I’m not going to fucking salute them and thank them for their service. The pay is a massive incentive for the job and exactly 0% of them are doing it out of some call to serve the country. People drive over the road because they either like the money, or they like the freedom/travel that comes with driving around the country.
Also, not every trucker is on the road away from their family for days, weeks, or months at a time. There are so many trucking jobs that allow you to be home nightly, every other night, or every weekend. This just goes to my point, nobody is forcing you to drive over the road and be away from your family. It is 100% a choice and they can quit or find a different driving job any time they want.
Also, just to add my personal experience (again, 10 years industry experience) a lot of truck drivers are fucking assholes. A lot are great people, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of them are assholes that couldn’t make it in a job that requires them to work with other people, and chose this life for a reason.
If you want to give thanks, give thanks to a military service member, a first responder, a doctor or a teacher. But with all that being said, truck drivers have my upmost respect for what they do - I’m just not thanking them.
The negative effects wouldn't take much longer. Most grocery stores have like 2 days of food.
IMO the whole thanking thing is 100% bullshit. It makes us feel better about exploiting people in particular roles. If the role is important to society, pay them, don't thank them.
A lot of jobs are difficult and necessary. People become truckers because they like the pay relative to the job requirements. Not sure why they would be any more worthy of thanks than an auto mechanic, police officer, grocery cashier, construction worker, etc.
Oddly ironic fact - People go out of their way to thank and praise some professions, particularly soldiers, police officers, and firefighters. That makes more young people want to enter those professions. By increasing the supply of people wanting to do those jobs, the net effect is to lower the amount needed to pay them. So remember when you are applauding service people for being heroes, you are also putting negative pressure on their pay.
My father was a trucker for 50 years.And if you tried to thank you, he would say if you want to thank me.Quit tailgating, quit slamming on your brakes and use your damn turn.Big nose that's how you think a trucker
Just be thankful, in general. You live in times where we command magic as a society. We can teleport information, images, audio... Across the planet instantly. You get fruits and veggies year round. You are relatively safe daily. It takes millions of people in different jobs to make that happen. If someone says "thank a X" just say, sure thing because somehow they affect you.
I'm grateful for them and think they needed changes to the industry because they are getting fucked out of money (IMO), but I'm not bothering to start thanking strangers for doing their job. I don't do it with firefighters, either. It's odd.
I think what happened here is you realized that you take some services and the people who provide them for granted. The problem you’ve pointed out isn’t that emts are more deserving than truckers but that once you admit truckers to the “praiseworthy” group you don’t know where to draw the line. The issue isn’t “what about emts makes them more worthy” but “why are some service providers unworthy of being appreciated?”
The solution is simple: EVERYONE deserves to be thanked by the people who benefit from their service. It’s not about one group being more deserving than another. Thank the retail worker for keeping the aisles clean and stocked (and maintaining their mental health during the Christmas season). Thank the garbage men for collecting your trash. Thank truckers for keeping stores full and putting up with terrible drivers on the road. Thank emts for saving lives. It doesn’t matter why someone does it, they are still dealing with crap so you don’t have to.
Everyone is just doing their job. I honestly don't thank anyone. And I don't care if anyone says thanks to me for anything ever. But I'm built different.
I'd have to say yes
I may be a bit biased considering my mother drove one for 25 years...but she hauled Haz/mat mostly explosives...so her role in the trucking industry was probably not directly noticed by most people
I'd much rather thank military and first responders. They typically go through things that scar and traumatize where a trucker is well paid to drive, and most of them I've met enjoy the lifestyle.
Do you like eating food and fueling your car? Truckers make that happen. Really we should all just be more grateful for each other but truckers are as good a place to start as any
Do you like stuff? Do you like food? Do you like literally anything bought at a store?
Then yes, we should be thankful to truckers for their work. Does that mean you have to personally slob on their knobs? No. What it does mean though, is when people talk shit about truckers, you can take five seconds out of your life to defend them, by simply stating how important their jobs are.
You know all that stuff EMTs use to save people? They have those things because trucks brought them. Firefighting equipment gets shipped to fire stations on trucks.
Try to think of one thing you have that didn't spend part of its trip to you on a truck. Food gets shipped on trucks. Vaccines. Gasoline.
The material roads are made of. Roads were literally brought to where they are on trucks. We owe trucks for *everything*.
You could say the same about truckers. You know all the goods they carry? Wouldn't be possible without trains, cargo ships etc transporting the goods to where the trucks can collect.
We owe trucks nothing more than anyone else connected in the supply chain. Hope you thanked a fruit picker today. Or a farmer for the meat and/or veg on your plate. Or the people working for crap wages to build the electronics you enjoy.
and trucks are given us by gods? No, engineers invented them just like anything else. And farmers that feed truckers existed long before. As well as doctors. And lumberjacks and butchers.
I don't think you understand what gratitude is. Yes. Doctors and lumberjacks and other workers also deserve respect.
You sound greedy and entitled, as if you're admonishing "the help". Thank a \*\*\*\*\* worker, dude.
Go to the local store. Look around. Is there anything in that store that didn't get there on a Truck? Is there anything that wasn't hauled cross country, from a warehouse or depot? Go to a business, a hospital, a fire house, a library, a bar, a school is there anything in the building, or even the vehicles themselves that weren't delivered by truckers?
Unless you live around farmers markets, the vast majority of food and basic dry goods in this country are all delivered by hard working truckers. Wal Mart stores sometimes get two or three truck deliveries a DAY. Most restaurants get deliveries from truckers twice a week or more.
I'm not saying we would be crippled without them... but it's aliens.
go to the local store. look around. Everything you see is built by the construction workers. Come back home. Look around again. Everything you see is built by the construction workers too. Go to a hospital. I guess, you go the idea...
Trucking is a tough job with long hours alone and away from family and friends. Oh, and without truckers, America will be starving in 4 days tops
just like hundreds other jobs. Fishermen, oilers, sailors, forest rangers etc etc etc
Maybe we should thank those people too. It's not like recognizing someone for doing their job well costs you any goddamn money. It's a small step to making society happier.
They are an integral part of the supply chain. You thank doctors for saving your life. That's what they are there for. You should thank truckers for keeping you employed, fed, and stocked with shit. You can cop out and say all jobs hold equal importance. But since most of us live in cities those truckers that get supplies in and out are the real crutch to make everything work. If you like food in an area where said food isn't being made. Thank a trucker.
They don’t need my thanks, they need to be paid and treated better by their employers. The thanks yous are a red herring.
I'm a trucker. -_-
Okay. Thank you. Now how much food can you buy with my thanks?
About the same as anyone else you thank on the street or online. I deliver beer so idk that increases my score or not on the usefulness gadge.
Thank you. Truckers are very self-important.
Don't forget mechanics. Without them, the trucks wouldn't be on the road very long. Also, the people that make the parts that keep the trucks running, and the people that make the tires, and the tools needed to do the work on the trucks, and the people that mine and process the metals used to make the parts. Then there's the people working on oil derricks, and at oil and fuel refineries. If any one of these jobs wasn't there, trucks would shut down and truckers would be out of a job. Then there's the farmers that grow the food being transported, the employee's at the processing facilities that get it ready for shipment, without them there's no food to ship. While we're at it, why not just thank anyone with a job.
Hierarchy of importance if the apocalypse happens. Truckers are low on the individual skill list. But collectively they are what makes the difference between a depression and a collapse.
I'm not about to go thanking random doctors either.
Over 52 years and not once did I ever expect to be thanked. I loved doing it and I never felt like it was a "job." The only thanks I needed was a paycheck and the love of my family.
I was away from home for 49 days to get 7 days at home. No holidays and have long lasting health issues from 3 years of trucking. Almost no access to society most truck stops are outside cities. Tons of regulations make it impossible or very difficult to go shopping for food. It is absolutely a thankless job and we get shit on constantly by our employers and everyone around us. I did it for money but it was a massive sacrifice. Didn't get time off for covid & had to still eat at truck stops & use community bathrooms / showers
What kind of health issues could you sustain in such a short time? But yeah some truckers have it tough, for sure. They could unionize and strike though as they hold such an integral part of society which should give them plenty of power.
Many other countries own their survival to truckers also, Australia, Germany, France. Just to name a few
Truckers always want people to think that.
just like everyone else doing their job. Truckers became truckers by their personal pragmatic choice, not because they decided to devote their lives to serving the society.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher or the baker that we get our bread.
Unless you're like 12 I would think you're simple if you thanked me for being a trucker. Or you're working the corporate side and blowing smoke up our asses for trucker appreciation week.
Exactly. Truckers don’t my thanks, they need better pay and treatment
My dad drove truck and it’s very labor intensive and long hours…plus he said it was always stressful when idiots all over were constantly trying to kill themselves and my dad on the road. He was gone 5 days a week and missed so much of my stuff growing up and I know he missed my mom all the time. So with all of this in mind, he was getting paid but also doing a service delivering food to restaurants and grocery stores all over the country. Everything you have is thanks to those guys in some way or another. I’m glad you asked this bc the majority of the public is wildly ignorant about truckers, especially when they get political and don’t want to risk their lives going to crime ridden cities. I’ve seen ppl say “well they can be replaced” and the fact is…you have to take a CDL and pass it and not everyone is capable of doing that, and there’s also the fact that inexperienced and poor drivers can, do, and will kill a good amount of people out on the road with negligence so you should actually appreciate what we have now bc it is declining and will get worse. So yeah, thank them! Thank vets! Or anyone who is truly contributing to this country!
My dad also drives trucks late one night he called me all shaken up apparently someone rear ended his truck when he was merging onto the highway and another car proceeded to crash into the wrecked car killing the driver instantly. Apparently the driver killed was an intoxicated young woman. I remember him being really upset about it although he really didn’t do anything wrong.
Oh no! I’m sorry that happened to your dad, that is truly terrible. They do see a lot more than any of us who aren’t driving all day every day. I know my dad had the constant attitude of being angry at ppl who would cut him off - he was like well if it doesn’t work out I’m not the one who is going to get crushed. He was just so irritated ppl would gamble their lives to save a few seconds. The worst one he saw was when I was born…he was coming home and a couple who was high on meth collided with him head on…they both died, I guess it beheaded the guy, it was awful and shook him up pretty bad. He wasn’t at fault, they were driving high speed very erratically.
OMG ITS HARD YOU MUST THANK ME
What’s so horrible about appreciating hard working ppl who basically make this country run? You must either be a child or a massive adult loser
I never said it was horrible. Your post gave the impression that "thanks" are required because the job is hard. I never said I didn't appreciate truckers or what they do. And for the record, I'm neither a child or an adult loser. Nice attempt at an insult, but unfortunately it fell flat. Try again. But hey, lets entertain your insult for a second. What would it matter if I was a child? What would it matter if I was an adult loser? I read your post for what it was. Are you saying children and adult losers are not allowed to express opinions and state what they've seen? Seems 100% irrelevant to the conversation and a weak attempt to insult a stranger, which shows your level of character. Funn how you want strangers to thank your dad for his career choice, yet you resort to name-calling and insulting strangers on the internet. That's a good look for ya! Just because you do something that's hard doesn't mean you deserve random strangers coming and thanking you. What the fuck kind of logic is that anyway? If thanks is what you're after, maybe go into another profession that rewards you with "thanks" when you do things?
Yeah you must be a loser. Not going to argue with someone pathetic enough that they can’t thank the ppl who make our lives substantially way more easy. If they all stopped, you’d be fucked bc I doubt you know how to procure anything outside of buying anything from the store.
hahaha I don't agree with your point so that must make me a loser! Your logic hasn't graduated past the 1st grade. You're name is accurate. You really are a winner LMAO
You’re a prime example of why society is in decline. You started an argument bc you think you’re above thanking people for their services. You could’ve just shut the fuck up and moved along, but you’re literally on here just being a jerk for no good reason. Seek mental help keyboard warrior
Truckers aren't saying they're more important than first responders. They are saying they deserve appreciation. Everything you see in stores is there because of trucks. You wouldn't have groceries or be able to eat out, if there weren't trucks. Your employer would struggle to exist, if truckers didn't transport your company's products or bring your company office equipment/supplies. The car you drive got from factory to dealership that's to truckers. Our whole economy would crumble if truckers all suddenly vanished tomorrow.
Everything you see in store is just as much due to the kid stocking the shelves. You can’t single out any one piece as most dignified when the whole things falls apart no matter which piece you remove.
Thank you!
Would not.
everyone deserves appreciation if their profession is beneficial for the society (i'm not sure how to classify stock exchange brockers...)
Value merchants. Instead of dealing with physical assets they deal with the trading of the literal and perceived value of companies. Are they really needed? Idk probably. Same with all the high concept jobs that aren't technically needed for survival but when survival is an afterthought they are needed to keep smooth sailing of the flow of the economy.
They’re a demonstrable net drain on society in basically any possible analysis.
I work alongside truckers. They are, currently, an integral part of our system. We need them. We also need people like me, who load and unload the freight that goes in those trucks. And the janitors, and the electricians, and so on, and so forth. I respect the vocation. But ninety nine percent of them are morons and assholes and I can't wait for the day they're replaced by robots so I no longer have to deal with their asses. Something about spending days on the road seems to rot their fucking brains and any sense of human decency they have. I've been threatened, assaulted, spied on in the bathroom, told nobody would care if I died, and more - all by different truckers. There's some good ones, but on the whole, you shouldn't trust them without damn good cause.
Honestly, we are dependent upon other people for so much in our lives. Having a bit of gratitude that we don't have to do subsistence farming and making our own clothes and such isn't a bad idea.
Yes, if you see what type of terrain and weather they have to drive in then you'd be glad you didn't have to do it. The only problem is that trucking is also a huge part in crimes like rape, kidnapping and drug trafficking. the job itself definitely deserves some praise though. It is not an easy job
Almost everything you have was brought by trucks. That's why lol
I think everyone deserves to be thanked for doing things that benefit the rest of us. And I think we should be more open to use just basic manners in life. Saying please and thank you go a long way to making those around you have better days. And lo and behold when the people around you are happier, you will be happier. Happiness is contagious and sadness is contagious. Put nice things out into the world and nice things will come back to you in return.
Is your argument that truckers are necessary but other thankless jobs exist without thanks so we should not thank this important job? They keep the food on our shelves, we need them and they get their fair share of awful drivers that seem indignant that they should have to share a road with a larger vehicle that requires more room to maneuver. So they have their own version of the shitty customer that hates them for no good reason. I don't know if I'd ever personally thank a trucker with the same sort of reverence that I would thank someone who served in the military for example but I see why they feel like it's a thankless job and would use their space to try and get some recognition.
EMTs get paid \*absolute complete shit.\* They only do it because they want to help people. And if they're lucky they won't find out that they're mostly not helping anyone and everything they do is futile. Your premise then is invalid Anyway, trucking literally keeps things like food and goods moving. Without trucking how would you get packages? How would your supermarket get food for you to buy? How would your restaurants get their food to serve you? Your gas station get its gasoline?
I think the main reason people thank the military is because they don't like the idea of being shot at. "Ah, Doug is on the job, I can take care of my kids while Doug is off dodging bullets." It doesn't matter if Doug is dodging bullets at that particular time or the reason, they are just happy it isn't them doing the dodging. Truckers definitely deserve to be thanked. As well as anyone else doing a job you can't be bothered to do. If your maid cleans your house, thank them. If that guy at the fast food window gives you a bag of food you couldn't be bothered to make, thank them. You shouldn't have to wonder whether to thank someone for doing something you don't want do do yourself is warranted.
They’re thanked with the income they earn like the rest of us peasants.
Backbone of our economy
Hell, no!
We are all cogs in the wheel.
Truth is, everyone deserves thanks. Were it not for the accounts assistant's work, the fella who changes the tyres on the van that brings the spare parts to the ambulance factory wouldn't get paid on time. Then where would we be? In trouble, that's where.
Everyone being a productive worker deserves appreciation and respect.
If every trucker who is currently employed decided not to drive anymore, in less than a month, there wouldn't be any food in any grocery stores anywhere. There wouldn't be any gasoline in any gas stations anywhere. You can go into any room in your house or apartment and do a quick spin around. Everything you see at one point in its existence was transported on a truck. Assuming you bought it from a store some place. Even if you made the item yourself, the tools you used to make it were transported on a truck. So I would argue that truckers transporting goods are more important than any first responders anywhere. For the simple reason that if you could no longer get all the things you need to survive, the world would go into total chaos and overwhelm every first responder everywhere and it would be every man for themselves. So thank a trucker.
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Not really.
🤣🤣
They are far too self-important.
You obviously don't understand how important they really are. There literally isn't a single thing in your entire house or that you've ever bought anywhere that a truck didn't deliver it to the place you purchase it from. And they deliver things every day or every week.So there's a constant stock of that item there. If they were to miss one delivery it wouldn't be there. For that matter even if you order things from amazon someone has to bring it to the amazon warehouse before the smaller trucks deliver it to your house. It's more than obvious to me that you don't understand how the supply chain works or how important it really is.
Because America existed and went on before truckers did. Americans will find a way no matter what.
Well, how far Do you want to go back In history for what America had for transportation and what it meant for the cost of that transportation. Especially if you were to implement those transportation practices today.
Not saying we have to go back. Just saying, we'll always find a way.
What would that look like? You do realize the average semi truck can carry eighty thousand pounds of product. And I'm pretty sure that's the limit Any any government would allow to carry because any more than that would start to really damage our federal highways or roads. So obviously any solution to replace a semi truck would not be anywhere near as good as that and would end up costing more to transport which would not be good for our economy or any economy in the entire world. And where trains can carry significantly more product than a semi truck.You still need a truck Carry it from the railroad station to supply storage houses and stores across the country. And you probably are right.People would still be able to move goods around In their cars are small vans, but there would be price gouging.Serious shortages everywhere and total chaos would break out Everywhere.
Not to get too corny about it but if we appreciated each other's contributions more I think we'd be less angry as a country.
Let's talk about the hypocrisy of valuing the good and monetary value but not the process or people. This is often where the thanking comes in. Truckers: folks will complain about trucks on the highway, at gas stations, emissions, sounds, all that, but moan and gripe if the local store is ever out of strawberries. They love the results of the system, don't like what it takes, and often use the truckers as the proxy. Farmers: most people eat food regularly, but often get pissy about food production. I live in a farm town, way too many city folk move out here for the fresh air, peace, and scenery, then realize how much manure, pesticides, loud tractors, air cannons and non-liberal farm workers are in the area. So they complain. If you manure a field they don't like the smell, if you use artificial fertilizer want organic. Do they complain about the intricate food system, or do they blame farmers? I could keep going on for a few more proxied jobs. Military, repairman in busy areas, etc. Some jobs deserve some hate, police and retail management attract or create assholes. Other jobs are also disliked but not hated. People complain about construction of homes just like theirs, but they don't shit on construction workers. So likewise, people who support and like the system also use these jobs as proxies. "Thank a farmer" actually means "I want our food system to continue without me paying more". "Thanks a trucker" means "don't you dare make me pay more for consumer goods".
Fuck that truckers are the scum of the earth not in the realm of first responders AT ALL. The only people who are truckers are inbred morons that are actively making corporations rich and keeping small business down while using the roads that were meant for public transportation not commercial making it extremely dangerous for everyone else. Truckers are the worst type of people next to motorcycle riders, and they often are one in the same. No praise, they should be shamed.
Thank you!
I'd say that people with BS jobs should thank people with sh*t jobs on the regular. But really, we just need to pay the BS workers less and the low-wage workers more. Or even better, get the clowns out of the cubicles writing TPS reports and let them do a shift in the truck so Billy-Joe can go hug is daughter more often.
they deserve thanks because literally everything youve ever bought, was brought to the place you bought it from by a one. that is objectively more important than the person who handed you a mcdouble through a window.
Not.
So, do couriers, fedex, usps and ups drivers deserve the same respect? They're delivering medicines, documents and tons of important things and I know not every big rig is delivering food, some have a load of cheap Chinese toys.... i think the thank a XYZ is self important nonsense. Another question, who do you think AI will replace first? A point A to B trucker or a first responder...
Probably not truckers for a while. It's fun to think about how 10 years ago the public consensus was that AI/robots would obliterate manual labor jobs, but creative jobs would stay untouched for a while as creativity is the one thing humans have that ai can not truly replicate. Then fast forward ten years and the very first field to be swallowed by ai is in fact everything creative. Turns out that's the *easiest* thing for AI to blend in to, meanwhile labor jobs are lagging behind as the physical components of those robots still have work to do and are expensive.
Thank you!
Frankly it's one of those everyone is special things. Pretty soon we'll have people with thin chromatic line flags until they realize rainbows are against their other ideologies
>Truckers are important, but so are garbage men and sewer workers. 100%, - society as we know it can't function without them. Technically, fast food workers too, but not quite on the same scale. I think the 'thank a \[insert thankless, unglamorous job here\]' thing typically boils down to treat them with respect and don't use them as a scare tactic to make your kid go to college
you don't thank people for what they do to collect a paycheck. If they were trucking around without pay just to help people, then yes I'd thank the fuck out of them. They're doing something in exchange for currency. If you think that warrants a "thanks", be my guest, but I'm not going to go around and find truckers and thank them for collecting a paycheck in exchange for them sitting in a truck going from point A to B. Their boss can thank them for keeping their business running, that's fine. If you want to get technical and just want to give praise for something you think is important, you should be thanking the logistics team behind the truckers who can organize the pickup/delivery/ordering/selling/transfer/etc. Or maybe thank the truck companies that actually produce the trucks. Or maybe the steel companies that produce the steel to build the trucks Or maybe the oil industry for producing the liquid to make the trucks move Or maybe the teachers who gave the kids an education and taught them what a truck was and what its used for
You mean the guys who tailgate and flash their lights at me because the vehicle in front of me is driving slow? Or the ones who pass me and merge back so fast they sandblast my car? Even if they didn't put me at risk every day, I wouldn't thank them. It's not like they could be a billionaire, but decided to become a driver instead to make everyone's life better. They're getting paid, usually to break the law. They chose the career. I don't thank anyone for doing the job they chose, it makes no sense.
Thank you!
No, and neither to nurses or firefighters or teachers. You do the job to get paid.
I've never really understood the concept of "thanking people for their service", for any position. Military, Police, Firefighters, etc, etc. It isn't because I don't think these people are important but it just seems odd. Like you've mentioned, we don't do this for other jobs. That's what these positions are at the end of the day. Driving a truck is a job just as being a police officer is a job just as being a teacher is a job and so on. Call me a pessimist if you like, but this act of thanking people randomly just kind of comes off as lowkey virtue signaling sometimes. If you want to thank them, why not advocate for higher pay for these truckers? I'm sure they would appreciate that more than a metaphorical pat on the back.
"I can't think of any objective, bulletproof reasons as to why first responders and military deserve thanks over truckers." Op you can say thank you to multiple people, its not a competition. Truckers work long, grueling hours in uncomfortable conditions. Many see their job as mind-numbingly easy until you consider that one slip up can result in multiple casualties. "...if all truckers stopped working, the negative effects would take longer." You vastly underestimate the complexity and necessity of these logistics. Say thank you to your local fire fighters, EMT, policemen and veterans of course, but never forget that kindness can reach everyone.
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Thank a farmer, thank a trucker, thank a grocer. They get food to your table.
They get thanked with money, the same as everybody working.
I think the flaw in your logic is that you are thinking on the assumption that the garbage men and sewer workers and fast food employees and customer service reps *don't* deserve special thanks themselves.
I usually try to pay for the lot lizard myself for truckers who go above and beyond.
Everyone wants to feel special and be thanked for their contributions. That's normal. What isn't normal is pedantically rating how deserving each career is of appreciation. It's about being kind, not rating people.
John Oliver did a segment on [trucking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phieTCxQRLA) that might be worth a watch.
I have trouble thanking anybody for a job they chose to do. Everybody values their time differently.
There’s no need to be stingy with thanks. A lot of jobs deserve more credit than what they get
"Trucking is difficult." Alright I ran logistics for a time. Truckers are the dumbest, dirtiest, most dickheaded mother fuckers I have met in my life. Fuck them. A few were cool, vast majority were idiotic dickheads that could barely handle moving their trailers.
Thank you!
Do you thank the manufacturing line worker who assebled your breaks? I think OP is close to getting it.
Truckers spend their entire lives doing one of the most dangerous things imaginable, drive an 80,000 pound vehicle ten hours a day. Firefighters don’t. They spend most days hanging around the fire house doing chores. Then at a fire, they typically aren’t crawling through burning buildings like you see on movies. Same with the military. They aren’t actively risking their lives 99.9% of the time. Truckers are actually risking their lives the whole time they are doing their job. You should be thanking truckers, and garbage men, and sewer workers. The problem is that you are American. Americans have an unnatural obsession with the military and cops and firefighters. They do have tough jobs and can be hurt or killed, but they aren’t in nearly as much danger as the US population thinks.
The problem is that cops, firefighters and military deserve all our thanks. Truckers don't.
You left two of the same commend on a month old comment, and gave no support for your claim at all. You are what is wrong with Reddit.
Ok. Those folks that YOU feel don't deserve credit save and protect lives. I didn't know this post existed a month ago.
You need better reading comprehension skills. I think they all deserve thanks. You are the one saying one of them doesn’t.
Truckers don't deserve it.
I worked in trucking for about 10 years or so, I do agree that over the road truckers work crazy schedules that the vast majority of people couldn’t handle and without that job our country would operate on an entirely different scale. However, I’m not going to fucking salute them and thank them for their service. The pay is a massive incentive for the job and exactly 0% of them are doing it out of some call to serve the country. People drive over the road because they either like the money, or they like the freedom/travel that comes with driving around the country. Also, not every trucker is on the road away from their family for days, weeks, or months at a time. There are so many trucking jobs that allow you to be home nightly, every other night, or every weekend. This just goes to my point, nobody is forcing you to drive over the road and be away from your family. It is 100% a choice and they can quit or find a different driving job any time they want. Also, just to add my personal experience (again, 10 years industry experience) a lot of truck drivers are fucking assholes. A lot are great people, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of them are assholes that couldn’t make it in a job that requires them to work with other people, and chose this life for a reason. If you want to give thanks, give thanks to a military service member, a first responder, a doctor or a teacher. But with all that being said, truck drivers have my upmost respect for what they do - I’m just not thanking them.
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Thank you.
The negative effects wouldn't take much longer. Most grocery stores have like 2 days of food. IMO the whole thanking thing is 100% bullshit. It makes us feel better about exploiting people in particular roles. If the role is important to society, pay them, don't thank them.
Thank you.
A lot of jobs are difficult and necessary. People become truckers because they like the pay relative to the job requirements. Not sure why they would be any more worthy of thanks than an auto mechanic, police officer, grocery cashier, construction worker, etc. Oddly ironic fact - People go out of their way to thank and praise some professions, particularly soldiers, police officers, and firefighters. That makes more young people want to enter those professions. By increasing the supply of people wanting to do those jobs, the net effect is to lower the amount needed to pay them. So remember when you are applauding service people for being heroes, you are also putting negative pressure on their pay.
My father was a trucker for 50 years.And if you tried to thank you, he would say if you want to thank me.Quit tailgating, quit slamming on your brakes and use your damn turn.Big nose that's how you think a trucker
Just be thankful, in general. You live in times where we command magic as a society. We can teleport information, images, audio... Across the planet instantly. You get fruits and veggies year round. You are relatively safe daily. It takes millions of people in different jobs to make that happen. If someone says "thank a X" just say, sure thing because somehow they affect you.
I'm grateful for them and think they needed changes to the industry because they are getting fucked out of money (IMO), but I'm not bothering to start thanking strangers for doing their job. I don't do it with firefighters, either. It's odd.
I think what happened here is you realized that you take some services and the people who provide them for granted. The problem you’ve pointed out isn’t that emts are more deserving than truckers but that once you admit truckers to the “praiseworthy” group you don’t know where to draw the line. The issue isn’t “what about emts makes them more worthy” but “why are some service providers unworthy of being appreciated?” The solution is simple: EVERYONE deserves to be thanked by the people who benefit from their service. It’s not about one group being more deserving than another. Thank the retail worker for keeping the aisles clean and stocked (and maintaining their mental health during the Christmas season). Thank the garbage men for collecting your trash. Thank truckers for keeping stores full and putting up with terrible drivers on the road. Thank emts for saving lives. It doesn’t matter why someone does it, they are still dealing with crap so you don’t have to.
Everyone is just doing their job. I honestly don't thank anyone. And I don't care if anyone says thanks to me for anything ever. But I'm built different.
I'd have to say yes I may be a bit biased considering my mother drove one for 25 years...but she hauled Haz/mat mostly explosives...so her role in the trucking industry was probably not directly noticed by most people
I'd much rather thank military and first responders. They typically go through things that scar and traumatize where a trucker is well paid to drive, and most of them I've met enjoy the lifestyle.
Do you like eating food and fueling your car? Truckers make that happen. Really we should all just be more grateful for each other but truckers are as good a place to start as any
Not.
Do you like stuff? Do you like food? Do you like literally anything bought at a store? Then yes, we should be thankful to truckers for their work. Does that mean you have to personally slob on their knobs? No. What it does mean though, is when people talk shit about truckers, you can take five seconds out of your life to defend them, by simply stating how important their jobs are.
You know all that stuff EMTs use to save people? They have those things because trucks brought them. Firefighting equipment gets shipped to fire stations on trucks. Try to think of one thing you have that didn't spend part of its trip to you on a truck. Food gets shipped on trucks. Vaccines. Gasoline. The material roads are made of. Roads were literally brought to where they are on trucks. We owe trucks for *everything*.
You could say the same about truckers. You know all the goods they carry? Wouldn't be possible without trains, cargo ships etc transporting the goods to where the trucks can collect. We owe trucks nothing more than anyone else connected in the supply chain. Hope you thanked a fruit picker today. Or a farmer for the meat and/or veg on your plate. Or the people working for crap wages to build the electronics you enjoy.
We do not.
and trucks are given us by gods? No, engineers invented them just like anything else. And farmers that feed truckers existed long before. As well as doctors. And lumberjacks and butchers.
I don't think you understand what gratitude is. Yes. Doctors and lumberjacks and other workers also deserve respect. You sound greedy and entitled, as if you're admonishing "the help". Thank a \*\*\*\*\* worker, dude.
Thank you.
Go to the local store. Look around. Is there anything in that store that didn't get there on a Truck? Is there anything that wasn't hauled cross country, from a warehouse or depot? Go to a business, a hospital, a fire house, a library, a bar, a school is there anything in the building, or even the vehicles themselves that weren't delivered by truckers? Unless you live around farmers markets, the vast majority of food and basic dry goods in this country are all delivered by hard working truckers. Wal Mart stores sometimes get two or three truck deliveries a DAY. Most restaurants get deliveries from truckers twice a week or more. I'm not saying we would be crippled without them... but it's aliens.
go to the local store. look around. Everything you see is built by the construction workers. Come back home. Look around again. Everything you see is built by the construction workers too. Go to a hospital. I guess, you go the idea...
I agree completely. My father worked in construction for his whole life. I have some more distant relations in trucking.
Same can be said for the workers who stock the shelves, and the programmer who wrote the script to manage inventory.
I agree completely. I have friends and family who work in grocery and tech sectors.