As you drive down the freeway, a large portion of the traffic you’ll encounter will probably have 18 wheels.
Truckers drive across the country to deliver goods to locations throughout the nation. Though some might view these 10-ton rigs as a nuisance on the road, southern Utah takes a day out of the year to honor the men and women who travel thousands of miles to bring you every day essentials.
“These drivers spend months on the road and it can get extremely lonely,” James Andrus, the president of Andrus Trucking, told SUN News. “This is something we do so they know how much we care.”
Members of the Southern Utah Trucking Association put together special stations at the Utah/Arizona port of entry so they can give back to these hard workers who spend most of their days on the road. In the United States, drivers are allowed to work for only 70 hours within eight consecutive days. Many of the drivers max out on hours, and after dealing with road rage, impolite drivers and the occasional profanities, it can wear you down.
“They work as hard as anybody, if not harder,” Gurney Trucking Operations Manager Brock Morrison said. “It’s fun seeing these guys come through the port expecting another thing to hassle their day and then we tell them how grateful we are to have them with bags of food and snacks for the road.”
James Andrus asks drivers to remember that these vehicles are incredibly difficult to drive. “They don’t stop on a dime like our cars,” he said. “Respect the drivers and show them some appreciation for all that they do.”
