PTP Celebrates 2024 National Truck Driver Appreciation Week
PTP Celebrates 2024 National Truck Driver Appreciation Week
National Truck Driver Appreciation Week is scheduled for September 15-21, 2024. This event, organized by the American Trucking Association (ATA) in 1988, recognized the men and women who keep our nation moving. This week celebrates professional truck drivers’ hard work, commitment and the crucial role they play in our economy.
Economic Impact and Safety
The American Trucking Association is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. When it started in 1933, there were only around a million employed truck drivers. According to TruckInfo, there are now 3.5 million truck drivers in the US; 130,000 of those drivers are in PTP Transport’s home state of Alabama. These drivers are moving roughly 72.6% of the nation’s freight by weight.
Truck drivers facilitate the movement of goods from coast to coast. Whether these goods be food, clothing or medicine, the Alabama Trucking Association estimates that 86.1% of Alabama communities depend exclusively on trucks to move their goods. In 2023, the nation’s domestic truck tonnage shipped totaled 11.18 billion tons of freight transported.
In 2023, there were 156,553 crashes involving large trucks, although this number may seem high, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), this is a 7% decrease from the previous year. There are many rules and regulations put in place by the FMCSA for truck drivers to follow to increase their safety and continue to decrease the number of crashes involving large trucks. At PTP, our culture of safety includes our employees whose job is to deliver each load safely and efficiently and care for our customers’ freight. No matter how many years of experience our drivers have on the road when they join the PTP team, each driver undergoes a comprehensive training program to review company policy, procedures, common safety issues and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules.
How We Show Appreciation
At PTP Transport, we understand that being a truck driver has its unique set of challenges and difficulties. Considering the hours, and days spent away from family and the commitment to ensure goods arrive at their destination on time, truck drivers deserve our utmost gratitude. Although we take measures year-round to show appreciation to our drivers, this week provides us with an opportunity to acknowledge their contribution to our success as a company and emphasize that we could not be more grateful for each of them.