It's a Team's Life

Thank You

Thank you

Thank you to the invisible army that keeps America’s millions of trucks and the billions of dollars in freight economy rolling 24/7/365.

Start with the dispatchers, the air-traffic controllers of asphalt. They are there to help find a route that can avoid an ice storm, balance driver hours-of-service, fuel stops, and a customer who “needs it yesterday.” They are there to help drivers do their job efficiently and safely. 

Then the mechanics, elbow-deep in grease in the below zero temperatures to the desert heat. They diagnose a Check-Engine light with nothing but a laptop, a crescent wrench, and muscle memory earned from thousands of oil changes. When a turbo fails hundreds of miles from the nearest dealership, they MacGyver it with parts from a junkyard so the driver can limp to the consignee before the 14-hour clock expires.

Warehouse workers—the human conveyor belts—hustle boxes onto pallets, scanning, shrink-wrapping, and bracing so nothing shifts when the truck moves down the highway. As drivers, we may not show our appreciation as we should because we are in such a hurry to get to our next load. 

Scale-house operators and DOT inspectors stand in rain, snow, or wildfire smoke, clipboard in hand, ensuring axles aren’t overloaded by a single pound. Their vigilance makes sure that we are doing our job of operating safe equipment. While we as truck drivers would rather not deal with them, we need to show our appreciation for keeping the entire motoring public safe.

Fuel-desk clerks at any one of the truck stops who process hundred of trucks an hour, smiling while drivers argue over shower credits.

Safety trainers ride shotgun with rookies, teaching them to chain up on snow-covered roads or jackknife-recovery in a parking lot.

Permit clerks wrestle state DMVs for oversize-load banners so a wide load can snake from one location to another without scraping a single overpass.

Brokerage load planners who cold-call carriers to cover a last-minute drop in a dead zone, haggling rates while watching produce auctions on one screen and diesel futures on another.

Accounting teams chasing 30-day invoices from shippers who “lost” the paperwork, making sure drivers see their pay on Friday instead of “pending.”

To the IT crews—the wizards keeping ELDs, TMS platforms, and 4G hotspots alive when a cell tower fries. One downed server and hundreds of idling trucks equals so much in lost revenue.

Finally, a personal thank you to my co-driver, life and business partner and my best friend. I don’t say it nearly enough. Thank you. I love you.

To every dispatcher on their tenth cup of coffee, every mechanic with diesel in their veins, every dock worker whose back will ache tomorrow, and to all the co-drivers out there —thank you. The road sees the driver; America runs on you.

Here’s to millions of safe, profitable and THANKFUL miles.

Kelly Plumb