Much like many other service jobs in America, the trucking industry has not had a very positive image in American society for many years. More times than not, the truckers have been viewed as dirty, illiterate service workers who were unable to attend college. This however is no longer the case, as the image of the American trucker has improved greatly for a number of reasons. A recently published poll by the Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF) showed that the image of the trucking industry is at an all-time high.
The poll was based on September of 2022, and was released on November 3rd, showed a number of key findings from the TMAF poll. An astounding 87% of voters have a favorable impression of the trucking industry, and an even higher 97% feel the trucking industry plays a very important role in the country’s economy. This may come as no surprise as the nation has struggled with the stores having a limited inventory and the public understanding how vital the trucking industry is in keeping the inventories high. Further data showed that 85% of people consider truck drivers to be professionals, and 78% believe truck drivers have higher standards for safety when compared to other drivers. In times of crisis, truck drivers were ranked among the top three in essential workers, along with grocery store and healthcare workers.
The image of truck drivers today is turning to be more positive, but what exactly caused this change? Surprisingly, this is thanks to the Covid Pandemic in 2020, which had wreaked havoc on a number of areas in American society. While it was a devastating time for the entire world, the trucking industry saw their image in society go up. People were able to see how vital the trucking industry is in the American economy and to ensure the inventory throughout the American stores is up. Aside from the pandemic, which expedited the image reform, the TMAF also laid the groundwork for the boost in image for truckers. Being founded in 2015, its main objective was to help shift the public perception of the trucking industry.
This shift of a positive image for truck drivers cannot have happened without the TMAF. The TMAF has had a lot of success and accomplishments over the past few years including 200 donors, 3,410 subscribers, 240 trailer wraps on the road, more than 344 million advertising impressions, more than 200 earned media placements, many followers on social media, and a total of 24 blog posts.
Thankfully, the trucking industry has started to see a shift in how the American society views the industry. For quite some time the American people feel the truckers were more introverted and not as professionals. This negative image is not indicative of how important the trucking industry is for the American society. Over the past 10 years or so, the image for the truck drivers have become much more positive when compared to years before. This is thanks to the TMAF, and is based on actual data derived from polls.
