You’re getting way off target from the original premise.
The fact is…Truckers are one of the more isolated jobs in the US. Yes they will contact people throughout the day, but far fewer then most, and that makes it a lot easier for them to take precautions. Washing hands after each contact. Keep distancing. Even when I was on my business trips I probably had contact with 100 times more people then a trucker…(Meetings, seminars, Dinners…etc…etc.) It’s far easier for a trucker to keep social distancing then it is for the vast majority of jobs.
I’d much rather be an office worker who, with the help of grocery deliveries, a home computer, and a forwarded work phone, has zero contact with the outside world. A long haul truck driver will make contact with a lot more people than I will in a given week, and touch a lot more fuel pumps than I will.
Plus, when you pay with a company account, they don’t let you pay at the pump, so you have to go inside the truck stop where you might have to pass within 6 feet of other customers in order to get to one of their filthy bathrooms.
That’s a whole other thing I haven’t even mentioned. Their main access to indoor plumbing is exclusively at rest areas and truck stops, neither of which are very sanitary.
I can work at home and am doing so. But there are still many workers who can’t. And those workers are far more at risk then any trucker. We had an Amazon warehouse here in New England with over 10% of their workforce out because of the virus.
So why can’t factory workers do the same…why can’t health care workers do the same…why can’t mailmen do the same. You should read ALL the thread before you make an off-the-wall comment.
As a trucker, i have been jammed into a 10X10 waiting room waiting for my turn to get unloaded for up to 6 hours with a dozen other drivers, Or try sitting in a truck stop for a day and a ha,flooking for loads or running to freight brokers trying to find a load to get you home or as a freight driver reporting to work two hours after your call and finding out your load is not ready and being forced to wait in the break room with all the dock men and city drivers on lunch or break?
As a long doubles driver on the NY Thruway and Mass Pike you can’t get off to eat without breaking up two trailers and a dolly and they don’t even have doubles compounds at every exit. You eat in the service areas or not at all.
You just have no idea what a truckers life is really like.
…and he thinks GPS and Siri make it possible to get groceries delivered to a truck while parked overnight, during a major pandemic when everyone is trying to get groceries delivered to their homes.
There is a lot the average Mike doesn’t know about life as an over-the-road truck driver.
May I add a somewhat late response to the comments on wal marts inventory and ordering process?
My oldest son works in the office at a Walmart distribution center. It’s mainly for food but they do carry things like paper towels, toilet paper and similar.
2 weeks ago Walmart told the employees they were free to stay home without pay if they were concerned about getting sick. They would not be penalized for their absence. Well since a majority of the people there are young and many live with their parents, they stayed home.
My son said there is plenty of products in the warehouse. But there’s not enough people to pull orders and load trucks. Orders have roughly doubled over “normal” but they’ve only been able to increase shipments by about 20%.
As a result Walmart will take your application and put you to work the same day. If your drug test fails or your background check comes back bad, they’ll fire you later.