We are the voice of trucking. Welcome to Key Up New York TANI's podcast. I'm Kendra Hems, president with the Trucking Association of New York, and I'm joined by... I'm Zach Miller, the director of Metro Region Operations for the Trucking Association of New York. Well, hello Zach, how are you today? I'm doing well, thanks. Excellent. Nice day out here today, finally. It's not raining. Exactly. It's not raining. So we're here today.
We are gearing up for National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, so we thought we would dedicate this month's segment to our professional drivers. And you know, it's actually interesting the timing of all this, because as we sit here recording, it just came out that Taylor Swift gave rather significant bonuses to the truck drivers on her tour.
She gave each driver $100,000 bonus to thank them for the hard work that they do to make that tour possible, which is not necessarily something you think about when you think truck drivers and everything that they do, also including live entertainment, which is fascinating. And of course now I feel compelled to play a little bit of Taylor Swift at my wedding, you know, to thank her for thanking our truck drivers. Yeah, it is pretty incredible, and it has been all over the new circuit this week.
And you're right, we often see the trucks and we talk about the food on ourselves and water and clothing, but we don't think about some of those other things they do such as supporting entertainment, concerts, baseball games, all of those things we wouldn't have the supplies or the equipment needed if we didn't have our truck drivers delivering them.
No, it's incredible, and that's really where when you look at the numbers, I think it's just like what 97% of freight is transported via truck, I know New York is heavily reliant on truck freight, and you know, it's easy to think about the packages and maybe some specialty loads, but it really is everything. I mean, it just everything relies on a truck. If you've got it, hey, truck brought it, right? We've heard that saying, and it's so true.
And in New York, 90% of our communities rely exclusively on trucks. So if you're going to the grocery store, all those groceries and water and beverages and everything else that you buy there, they were on a truck. So without question, essential to everything that we do, essential to our economy,
but it's not the truck, right? It's the truck driver. It's that professional that's sitting behind the wheel and driving down our roads and our highways every day, delivering those things so that we can do what we do and can do it well. Yeah, and it's amazing where I think anybody who lived through the worst of COVID, you have to remember what the stores look like
before the drivers were able to get in there. And then the very beginning, I remember the first six weeks of COVID, in my apartment in New York City, only vehicles on the road were the trucks making those essential deliveries to make sure that even though we were in this horrific crisis, we were still able to survive and manage and tip the cap to the truck drivers who put themselves at risk to make sure everybody kept moving.
During that time, there was a reporter out in New York City that had reached out to me about what the truck industry was doing because she had traveled from Albany to New York City to Albany. And same thing, the only thing she saw around the roads was really our trucks because they were out there doing what needed to be done to keep our state and our country running during that time. Truly heroes, right?
We always hear that not all heroes wear capes and normally it's about our medical professionals, but certainly our truck drivers, not just during the pandemic, before the pandemic, after the pandemic. They've always been the heroes of the highways. But it was really great during that time to see them get that recognition for the job that they were doing for us.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that it also showed people not just how hard they work and how heroic they are, but this is a career that is accessible to you. It's hard work. You have to be trained. You have to be skilled, but it's there. It's very viable. And you see how important a career it is. And I think that got a lot of people to view the profession differently in a light that says, hey, maybe I want to do this.
Yeah. And the opportunities are there, right? We are like many industries suffering from labor shortages coming out of the pandemic, but we had a shortage of truck drivers even before the pandemic. I think it was around 60,000 or so prior to the pandemic hitting and then post pandemic, we were 80,000. It has lessened a little bit since then, but still significant. And in New York State in 2021, we had about 63,000 tractor trailer drivers, heavy and tractor trailer drivers in the state.
So we're in need of those jobs and those jobs are really, really important and they're accessible. You know, and these are careers we say all the time like driving a truck isn't just a job. It is a career and there are a lot of career opportunities that go beyond just driving the truck. So it's a great industry to get into. And I think it's an important industry to get into and those truck drivers are critical, which is why we desperately want to fill those jobs.
It is. And there's also really good word of mouth too. And this true story on the train up here today, the woman I was sitting next to, both of her sons are truck drivers and the younger one got into it because the older one got into it. And he really liked it. And he saw he was making good money, family supporting money. And the younger son was looking for direction in life, looked up to his older brother and became a truck driver.
And now they've both been over 10 years professional truck drivers here in New York State. Yeah, yeah, they're great jobs. And I think that's kind of a great segue into some of the workforce development initiatives that we're undertaking because we are trying to educate our young people. We're trying to educate our youth about the the careers that are available in the trucking industry and how important it is to be a truck driver.
But we're also working very closely with our Department of Corrections and Community Services and launching a Jailster Jobs program. We have put simulators, truck driving simulators and six of their facilities across the state and they're starting to train some of the folks that are incarcerated on when they come out providing themselves a second chance, right?
And truck driving can without question give them that chance and we have a lot of member companies that are interested in working with us and continuing their training once they're released. So we're really excited about that program. Yeah, absolutely. And how cool must that be for a person to go through this to be in, you know, one of the worst situations people don't even imagine that they find themselves in these situations.
And then, you know, after going through that to deliver some of these life saving goods that let truck drivers deliver, I mean, what an incredible redemption story. Yeah, it is. And there's success with it. So when we were getting ready to launch with Department of Corrections, I was looking up like other areas that had done that.
And other states that have done this type of program. And there's more than you would think, even beyond like the program we're doing with the simulators and Department of Corrections taking that step. There's programs all over the country where a local prison has partnered with local trucking companies and they work together and the trucking companies have found it to be incredibly successful.
They say that these are some of their most dedicated workers. And it really is. It's been great. It's been a win-win around. So we're really excited about that program and introducing the industry to those individuals and letting them kind of get a fresh start when they come out. Exactly. There's a story behind every truck driver and every truck driver does important work.
Absolutely, without question. So we were talking, this has come up in other things that we do, our truck driving championships, for example. So one of our favorite events, because it's really the one thing we do for our truck drivers and these drivers are the true professionals. Many of them come back year after year after year. So it becomes a family and we sell shirts at the championships.
And one of the most popular shirts that we sell is that it says, the trucks deliver everything except babies. But that actually prompted a conversation for two reasons. First of all, some of our truck drivers are also EMTs and have had the occasion where they've had to deliver a baby. So there was some comment about, well, actually, yes, we do also deliver babies. And then the other side of that is the ambulance. Technically, an ambulance is a truck.
And we've had occasions, obviously, where births have been given an ambulance is. So you actually could say trucks literally deliver everything and our truck drivers make sure that that happens efficiently and safely. Incredible. Every September, we take some time to recognize our nation's professional truck drivers for the job that they do.
So as we are leading up to National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, we thought it would be great to talk to some of the younger generation and see what they think about our drivers and their jobs. So we're just going to start by asking, what's your name and your age? My name is Andrew. I'm 16 years old. I'm Evan and I'm 14 years old. My name is Alex and I'm 12. My name is Vinny and I'm 10. Francesca. And how old are you? Five. My name is Grady and I'm nine years old.
My name is Ellen. And I am 13 years old. I am Allie and I'm 13. My name is Alina and I'm five years old. Great. So you are a little familiar with the trucking industry, right? A little bit. You want to tell me a little bit about kind of what your experience is or how you know about it? My great uncle, he used to drive trucks around. I'm pretty sure he did that part time and he was also a firefighter. What is the first thing you think of when you see a truck driving down the road?
It's a giant vehicle. Toys. Long hours. Long hours. Yeah, they have a tough job. They definitely have a tough job. Normally I wonder what they're carrying depending on how big it is and what symbol is normally on the side of it? Giving food to people, transferring it. Yep, excellent. They do that. Obviously our grocery stores would not have any food on the shelves if we didn't have truck drivers.
In fact, we saw that during COVID when we were short supply on a lot of things and it was our drivers that were saving the day, bringing all our food and water back to the grocery stores. This is a hard question. What's your favorite thing to get? When you go to a store and you get to pick something out that you want to get, what do you get? Stuffies. Yes. How do you think all those stuffies got to the store? Yes.
And also, what is the license plate? Because I'm very interested in finding out what the state is. They're very hard working because they bring food and furniture and all the stuff that we need to store so we can have stuff for our house and stuff so we can live. That's great. Absolutely. You're not wrong. We would not be able to eat our food or drink our water. Or what's your favorite sport? Hockey. How do you think all the hockey supplies get there? By trucks. By trucks.
Mostly what's it carrying? Because you never really know what's inside of it. I always think that's going to be in a store. Or they are basically the backbone of mostly society. That is true. Very true. I think of the people that drive the trucks because they can go through many states delivering stuff to Walmart, Target, stuff like that. If you were able to drive a truck, what do you think would be the most fun part about that? Driving all around, getting to see different parts of the world.
I feel like that would be all scenery. Going through all the states. I think maybe you have this feeling that all the stuff in the back of your truck is there going to be in someone's house at some point. Delivering the stuff. Delivering it. Yeah. How come? Because I like doing stuff like that. Like helping people. Yeah. Yeah. That's really important. And driving a truck, looking down, being so high up on the truck because they're way bigger than cars.
Then looking down on this tiny little car right next to you. It, it, I've sat in a truck before and it looked cool from the top. Seeing how fast you can go. Honking the horn. It's cool. It's definitely different than a car, but it's, it's, it's different. Yeah. What do you think would happen if we didn't have truck drivers? We want to get that much supplies in our stores. Be a pro, a big problem. A big problem. Because they, I think a lot of trucks like bring goods into our country.
They bring it all around. I feel like that's a big part of our whole industry, I guess. Nope. You're absolutely right. In fact, in New York state, over 90% of our communities rely exclusively on trucks. So every time you order something offline, new sneakers, new shirts, some new game, some headphones, you wouldn't have it if we didn't have our truck drivers delivering it, especially in New York. We rely a lot on the job that they do.
It'd be a lot like nobody would have any like resources to go off of. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. We say if you got it, a truck brought it right. So everything we use every day. What we order, what we eat, what we wear, it all comes on a truck at some point. It would be hard to get food from places. Yep. Absolutely. Everything we got at some point was on a truck, right? So that would be pretty tough if we didn't have drivers bringing us everything we need.
There would be like, like if the food was, I mean, if the store was running out of food and furniture, there was no more truck drivers to deliver it. So it would be running out of stuff. That would be bad. Yep. Absolutely. We wouldn't have anything. That's right because trucks bring us everything we use every day, right? We wouldn't have the food. We wouldn't have the furniture. We wouldn't have the toys or anything that we have now. We wouldn't have like most of any of that. I don't know.
Shampoo. We need to clean our hair, at least if you have hair. Without trucks, our world wouldn't be the same. That's a good statement. I love it. Nobody would get the resources they need in time. Like, nobody would get the food they need on time, so there would be a lot of like starving people. And we wouldn't get like the specific things we need. We wouldn't have anything. Do you think it would be fun to drive a truck? Giving all the food to people and transpiring it?
Meeting new people and just if you like it, you get to do what you love. I do. I do think it would be really cool seeing all the like scenerines and whatnot, but I think like trying to maneuver it. I feel like that would be pretty scary to me. So we have a truck driving simulator here in the office. And once we get that up and running, you're more than welcome to come back and check it out because it would give you the feel of what drivers do every day.
Driving those large trucks, it's pretty cool. Do you think it would be fun to drive a truck? Yes. I'm always kind of scared of learning to drive when I'm older, but I think it would be fun because you get to go to all these different places. I think it would be fun, but I'd also be a little worried about driving an 1816-wheeler. Yeah, because it's big. Yeah. What do you think the most challenging part of being a truck driver is? Being on time and like bringing a little bit of places.
They have to make sure that they don't like take their hand off the steering wheel. That's true because they have to be really careful, right? Delivering place by place and getting all the stuff on time. Yep, that would be pretty hard. So it's a pretty tough job, huh? Yes. That's why we want to say thank you to our truck drivers. Mm-hmm. You have to be super careful with, oh, there's actually lots of things that you have to be super careful with and stuff.
The whole driving part, I think that's really hard, like maneuvering through traffic. I don't know, I feel like it's pretty hard. Big turns, like going into like a town or something. If you had one word to sum up a truck driver, what would you say? That's a good one. Like underrated, I think, I think that like most people just look over it and don't really see much into truck drivers. Yep, our truck drivers are definitely our unsung heroes for sure. Difficult. Difficult.
It is a difficult job for sure. That's why we are here to celebrate them for the job they do so that we can do what we do every day. Thank you. Nice, that is perfect. Very, like they have a very strong mind. They're very compassionate about what they do. They have to be like very mentally strong. I'd probably say amazing. Amazing, I like it very much so, especially knowing that you have it in your family, right? Yeah. That's great. Necessary. Perfect, I like it a lot. Helpful. Helpful.
All right, how about you, Oh? If you had one word to describe a truck driver, what would it be? Helpful. Helpful. Okay. Any final thoughts or words to thank our truck drivers? I just do want to say thank you for everything that you do. It is a privilege to be your advocate day in and day out. Great, I kind of echo that any better. We love what we do here at TNE primarily because we get to help those that help us.
It is really important and we recognize the job that you do every day to give us what we need to do what we do every day. So thank you very much for that. Okay kids, so what do we say to our professional truck drivers? Truck drivers are cool. Just thank you. I really appreciate those truck drivers. Thank you, drivers. Thank you, truck drivers. Thank you, drivers. Thank you, drivers. Thank you, truck drivers. Thank you, truck drivers for being the backbone of society.