“Thank God For Truckers!” they said…
“Thank God for truckers. American truckers are the foot soldiers who are really carrying us to victory. They’ve done an incredible job. We’ve had no problems. It’s been just – it’s been just great.”
President Donald Trump April 16, 2020
During a White House event in the spring of 2020, Former President Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao - flanked by trucks and commercial drivers - celebrated truckers. Trump praised truckers for their tireless, essential work to deliver much-needed supplies to people managing the early COVID-19 crisis.
Secretary Chao declared, “You’re America’s heroes”, and noted recent DOT orders to temporarily suspend HOS requirements.
In attendance was American Trucking Association (ATA) President Chris Spear. Spear expressed his immense pride for truckers,
“…[the industry] is filled with some of the hardest working patriotic people in the U.S. Those drivers are moms, dads. They’re husbands, wives. They’re involved in their communities. They’re very charitable. They are the essence of the American spirit and to see it recognized like this in a time of crisis.”
Spear also spotlighted Trump’s generosity:
“I have to say, I think that is really an extraordinarily important thing for a leader of our country to do.”
It was a great moment for truckers. But it didn’t last long. Election year politics, the port crisis, and the Freedom Convoy humbled America’s heroes.
Election year politics
The year 2020 was an election year; an extraordinarily divisive one. Perhaps truckers were simply props in a much larger play for power and control. After all, they were an ideal occupation to aggrandize for a calculated effort to re-start the economy. The White House event showcased truckers as an important group for Trump’s reelection campaign. They represented hard-working men and women across the nation. They were gutsy, free-spirited cowboys of the highways, willing to sacrifice for the country and keep the economy moving.
However, standing with Trump, truckers risked being ensnared by partisan polarization – the strongest force in American politics. They would be typecast as loyal Trump supporters, which encouraged the stereotypes of truckers as conservative zealots, foul-mouthed, road-hogging, hard-headed red-necks that fancied the MAGA hat.[1]
No longer anonymous essential workers, toiling on long stretches of highway, alone, every day. Trump elevated them to heroes. By doing so, he politicized them. Democrats now eyed truckers with suspicion.
Port crisis
As COVID evolved from Beta variant to Omicron, supply chain pressures mounted. The California ports experienced historical bottlenecks, which slowed deliveries of goods across the nation. The disruptions also exerted upward pressure on prices, threatening widespread inflation and the prospect of late-arriving presents for the holidays.
All of this captured the attention of the new president.
Aware of the adverse economic and political consequences of inflation, President Joe Biden quickly stepped into broker a deal between port authorities, local municipal officials, and labor unions. Biden hoped the agreement would unlock persistent chokepoints, reduce shipping delays, and generally accelerate the distribution of goods.
For most consumers, the holidays proceeded normally. But retailers and wholesalers reported continuing supply chain problems. Rising demand for inventories and raw materials pushed prices still higher.
Blame then expanded from the ports to the highways. Many pointed to tight trucking capacity amid long-standing driver shortage problems. Carriers were simply unable to increase the supply of drivers to match rising demand. Consequently, truckers and the freight industry came under intense scrutiny.
Americans asked, why was there a driver shortage? What can be done to remedy the problem?
The White House focused attention on the Infrastructure Bill that allocated millions in new spending toward upgrading and expanding the nation’s roadways. In addition, DOT launched a Trucking Action Plan to recruit more truck drivers and improve the quality of existing jobs. It also started a Registered Apprenticeship Program for drivers between 18 and 21 years of age. Finally, the federal government allocated over $30 million in funding to help States expedite the licensing of commercial drivers.
Trucking firms and associations generally welcomed government efforts – though there is a lively debate about whether a driver shortage exists. However, President Biden then imposed a vaccine mandate – which did not exempt truckers.
Trucking companies warned that the mandate would quickly lead to dropped shipments and delivery delays, and eventually to elevated freight costs. At the time, motor carriers estimated that approximately 50% of their drivers were unvaccinated. If truckers refused the mandates, which seemed likely, it could be very costly. Labor shortages were already a major cause of supply-chain disruptions.
The mandate contradicted the administration’s plans to expand trucking capacity. It also undermined attempts to repair the nation’s supply chain. Yes, carriers benefited from the massive infrastructure bill. But enforcement of the mandate – without exempting truckers, demonstrated the trucking industry’s flagging influence in Washington.
Public support faded. No more White House celebrations. The news media stopped referring to truckers as heroes. Many Americans, frustrated, asked why won’t truckers just agree to be vaccinated? Instead, truckers were battling the new administration in court over mandates. Truckers were now political outsiders, stigmatized as an unvaccinated minority that helped prolong the pandemic and hurt the economic recovery.
Freedom Convoy
Truckers are subject to a multitude of laws and regulations. And the pandemic amplified that burden. Rules changed by the day, varied by state, and across countries. Cross-border truckers were especially impacted. For example, Canada and the United States required truckers crossing the border to prove they had been vaccinated. However, Canada also required the quarantine of unvaccinated truckers returning from the United States.
In late January 2022, a convoy of truckers headed for Canada’s capital city to protest vaccine requirements – the requirements seemed to be the tipping point after years of growing frustrations with government regulations.
Truckers set up in downtown Ottawa and would not leave until COVID restrictions were repealed. They also spread out across Canada and blocked several trade routes into the United States. For 4 days truckers shut down the Ambassador Bridge, which is the main commercial gateway between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit.
Canadian and US officials expressed deep concerns about the economic impact of the blockades. On February 14, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, which authorized the Canadian government to take extraordinary measures. Canadian officers removed trucks used in blockades and towed others active in the protests. The government ordered banks to freeze the personal and corporate accounts of protesters. Insurance for trucks used in the protest was also suspended. These and other actions were effective and quickly ended the demonstrations.
Multiple Republican politicians and U.S. media personalities supported the truckers. They cheered the protestors’ actions and were outraged by Trudeau’s heavy-handed measures.
By contrast, Joe Biden met virtually with Trudeau to discuss the situation and coordinate responses. U.S. Ambassador to Canada criticized the protestors and their U.S. supporters. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged Canada to utilize federal powers to stop the blockades and extended DOT support. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer made clear her feelings about the convoy, “It’s hitting paychecks and production lines. That is unacceptable.”
Trucking organizations in Canada and U.S. also opposed the protests. Teamsters Canada - representing thousands of professional drivers, said the protest “serves to delegitimize the real concerns of most truck drivers today.” And “the despicable display of hate led by the political right and shamefully encouraged by elected conservative politicians do not reflect the values of Teamsters Canada.”
Similarly, the ATA denounced the protestors. President Spear stated, “ATA strongly opposes any protest activities that disrupt public safety and compromise the economic and national security of the United States.” The Teamsters Union called for an end to demonstrations and claimed “Our economy is growing under the Biden Administration, and any disruption in international trade threatens to derail the gains we have made. Our members are some of the hardest workers in the country and are being prevented from doing their jobs.”
Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of Owner-operators Independent Drivers Association, a group of more than 150,000 independent truckers in the U.S., echoed the sentiment, “I do not support any disturbance or destruction.” Pugh noted that dissent had cost truckers the public’s support and goodwill.
What a turn of events!
Two years ago, truckers were hailed as national heroes. They delivered during the darkest and most uncertain days of the pandemic. They did not complain. When nearly everyone else was locked down, truckers kept the nation’s economy afloat.
But after prolonged supply chain disruptions and strident protests, truckers’ public image has suffered. They are easy targets, mere drivers at the base of an impressive supply-chain hierarchy.
Indeed, the protests never had a chance. Governments that had once praised truckers acted forcefully to dismiss their grievances, destroy their collective efforts, and sever their political rights. Trucking organizations piled on quickly, abandoning fellow truckers for larger political and economic interests. While ATA officials basked in the glory of a White House celebration, they later condemned a truckers’ grass-roots movement.
Trucking interest groups refused to endorse the convoys – in both Canada and the United States. They evoked bedrock principles of public safety, national security, and the free and timely flow of goods to defend their opposition. In other words, truckers must continue to deliver vital food, supplies, equipment, medicine, and materials. Any activity that compromised that service would not be supported.
Consider what trucking groups are saying. They prioritized economic services. They did not express sympathy for the protestors nor acknowledge deep-rooted trucker frustrations with government regulations. They overlooked questionable government tactics and applauded new government programs. While the ATA boasted about stopping Biden’s mandates, they simultaneously dismissed the concerns of Canadian truckers.
I wonder how many of the 3.5 million truckers agree with the ATA’s priorities.
Trucker associations could have used the Convoy as an opportunity to express truckers’ long-standing grievances about costly and burdensome regulations. They could have focused attention on the acute shortage of overnight parking spots for drivers and taxing ELD requirements. These are the issues that drivers care about and the issues that directly influence their safety and well-being.
The aggressive government response to the convoys, and the patent disregard for driver grievances in the U.S., speaks to profound anxiety about power. Truckers have immense leverage. Organized and sustained blockades and peaceful protests could very well jeopardize the economy – as Canadian truckers demonstrated. Like longshoremen – the gatekeepers of the ports – truckers can quickly stop the flow of goods. If longshoremen are unhappy, shipping companies have few alternatives. There are good reasons longshoremen are called the “the royalty of labor”, and are paid handsomely.
But longshoremen act together, collectively. Truckers do not. Many truckers are independent businesses, unionization impulses are rare, and the trucking associations represent the trucking industry. Trucker’s pay is therefore modest; their hours and working conditions are difficult.
Though hailed as heroes, truckers’ collective efforts will be met with sharp criticism and industry disapproval. Their actions will be called shameful, self-serving, and an assault on the public’s health and welfare.
Arizona’s Trucking Association President and CEO sum it up well: “We will continue to fight injustice and overbearing government regulations when appropriate without disrupting the free flow of commerce that the people depend on.”
In other words, truckers… stay in your place, stick to driving.
[1] These are not harmless labels. Rather, such negative stereotypes likely play a role in excessive jury awards – nuclear verdicts—that now threaten the trucking industry.
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