As the calendar continues through May, the country seems to be entering a crossroads. To open the states or not open the states? That is the question. On May 4, the state of Missouri’s stay-at-home order expired, allowing businesses to reopen their doors. That same day, the state reported its single-highest one day total of new COVID-19 cases, according to KMOV.
While the choices of the federal and local governments remain uncertain, the choices of the American people supporting the trucking industry during this pandemic remain strong. Here are five good things that happened in trucking this week.
Volvo Trucks feeds drivers through “Fueling our Heroes”
Truck driver and social media personality Brittney Richardson – with help from CDLLife, one of the nation’s largest online professional driver communities, and Volvo Trucks North America – has embarked on a seven-state road trip to provide free, nutritious meals to fellow drivers during COVID-19.
The “Fueling Our Heroes” campaign, which kicked off this week in Kansas City, Mo., is dedicated to distributing 2,500 meals to drivers in 15 locations across Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Richardson, who typically transports goods for a national big-box retail chain, is known for her pink 2019 Volvo VNL 860 and works closely with Sadie Church, CDLLife’s vice president of marketing, to promote diversity and healthy lifestyles within the trucking community.
“No driver should ever have to go hungry because he or she can’t find food, and there are also those who don’t have a microwave or room to cook in their trucks,” said Richardson, who came out of quarantine for the Fueling Our Heroes initiative. “This is our way to help those who are currently on the front lines of the pandemic, while also shining a light on the difficulties they are facing on the road, such as not having easy access to fresh and convenient meals.”
The program seeks to raise $250,000 to provide essential, nutritious meals for drivers. Richardson will continue the effort after the initial trip, planning more visits to more truck stops, keeping the initiative going.
Local upstate N.Y. boy creates refreshment stand for delivery workers
Jack Mahar, kindergartner at Hillside Elementary in Schenectady, N.Y., was inspired to do something to show appreciation for the essential workers he started seeing every day since the beginning of distance learning.
“We watch the FedEx, UPS and USPS trucks on our street every day, and I explained to Jack that delivery drivers were working extra hard during quarantine because people can’t go shopping as often,” said Jack’s mom, Amanda. “We decided to leave them a ‘thank you’ sign and some snacks outside our doorstep, but Jack took it a step further.
“While I was inside making dinner, Jack set up the ‘stand’ at the end of our driveway,” Amanda explained. “He brought the snacks down, his toy tractor and his folding chair. He put on his FedEx hat and sat himself down. I looked out the window and couldn’t believe it. He sat for a full hour waiting for our first stop – from UPS – who was making deliveries on our street.”
Over a week since he began, Jack has met drivers from UPS, Fedex, and USPS. The drivers let Jack and Amanda take a peek in the back of the truck and posed for pictures while following the proper protocol for the social distancing guidelines.
International Truck, Triumph Business Capital, TriumphPay to provide $75K of PPE to drivers
International Truck, Triumph Business Capital and TriumphPay, a carrier payments platform for freight brokers and shippers, have collaborated to purchase and distribute more than $75,000 of personal protective equipment (PPE) to drivers in need.
Each company has purchased $25,000 of critical PPE supplies to be distributed through select International Truck dealerships in the U.S. and Canada. Utilizing Navistar's North American commercial parts distribution network to ship the PPE, these dealerships are equipped with more than 6,500 masks and 6,000 eight oz. bottles of hand sanitizer to share with drivers as they come in for service while supplies last.
A truck driver for more than four decades and advocate for the millions of truck drivers on the road, Ingrid Brown has been sharing the realities of life on the road during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"While large fleets have a solid distribution network to provide protection to their drivers, many drivers for smaller fleets and independent drivers, like myself, are on our own," said Ingrid Brown, principal, Rollin' B LLC and company driver, Fleenor Brothers Enterprises. "Hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and masks are hard to come by these days. International Truck, Triumph Business Capital and TriumphPay doing this provides a great comfort. I can protect myself, assist in slowing the spread of this virus and still do my job."
More than 200 organizations have signed the #EndHumanTrafficking pledge
On January 28, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao challenged the trucking industry to combat human trafficking through workforce training and by raising awareness about the issue.
Enter: The Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking pledge, which calls on participants to educate employees on how to recognize signs of human trafficking, raise awareness about the issue through outreach campaigns and measure the industry’s impact on human trafficking by sharing data. Chao asked the transportation industry to commit to 100 pledges in 100 days.
The industry responded in kind. In less than 30 days, all 100 pledges had been acquired.
Since then, organizations in the trucking industry have doubled this goal, reaching 200 signatures.
Carrier Transcold, Thermo King support local food banks
Carrier Transicold is providing a Model 35X direct-drive refrigeration unit, through a national grant program with Feeding America, to Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan. The unit will be used to support the School Food Mobile program, which delivers nutritious food and milk to school-aged children who are not receiving meals at school due to coronavirus-related closures.
Separately, Carrier Transicold is donating a Supra 950 truck refrigeration unit for a new 28-foot box truck that will support Gleaners’ expanded emergency response efforts, including 66 new drive-up food distribution sites, modeled after Gleaners’ School Food Mobile program. The new distribution sites provide nutritious food to students and families in low-income areas. Each distribution site provides 300 families with up to 36 pounds of food, including fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and lean protein.
Named Feeding America’s Food Bank of the Year for 2019, Gleaners operates distribution centers in five Michigan counties and provides food to 519 partner soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and other agencies throughout southeastern Michigan. Last year, Gleaners distributed nearly 46 million pounds of food, averaging more than 100,000 meals each day, including providing nourishing food and nutrition education to nearly 430,000 people, 40% of whom are children.
“Carrier Transicold is proud to provide its industry-leading cold chain technology to aid food banks in delivering perishable food to communities most affected by the global pandemic,” said Jon Shaw, director of sustainability, Carrier Transicold & Refrigeration Systems.
Mid State Thermo King recently ensured that 100,000 more meals could be provided to those in need with a donation of $10,000 spread across four food banks. With $2,500 going to each food bank – one in Montgomery, Ala.; one in Birmingham, Ala.; one in the Atlanta area; and one in Greenville, S.C. – the support can do a lot of good to help local families struggling through the coronavirus pandemic.
Elizabeth Wix, director of partnerships at the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, a Feeding America affiliate and supplier of meals to 230 food pantries, shelters and children’s programs in 12 counties, wrote to the dealership team after receiving their support.
“Mid State Thermo King, you have provided urgently needed assistance to parents who suddenly lost their jobs and couldn’t afford to feed their families, to children who aren’t receiving school meals, and to seniors who are hungry, frightened and alone,” said Wix. “We have never seen an emergency of this scale – and I don’t know how long it will last. But your kindness has already helped provide food to people struggling with hunger in Central Alabama.”
