A Roundup of the Highlights of Driver Appreciation Week 2024

As the curtains draw on this year’s Driver Appreciation Week, here is a round up of some of the highlights of different initiatives around it. 

The roundup features some of the most intriguing and impactful initiatives amongst the many events from America during the week. 

1. Events & Celebrations 
2. Recognition Programmes 
3. Social Media Campaigns 
4. Safety Awareness 
5. Events focussing on women in trucking 

ATA - American Truckers Association started this initiative in 1998 to celebrate truck drivers who are critical to keeping supply chains alive. They are essential workers who we owe a great deal of gratitude as they impact every aspect of our lives. 

This year’s celebration started early this week and one of the key highlights is the kickoff address to the nation by Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation, United States:

Here's a link to watch the video

Another highlight this year is the launch of the Driver Appreciation Week store by the ATA. 

The store would sell branded merchandise that includes T-shirts, baseball caps, banners and more that carry the 2024 National Truck Driver Appreciation week logo. It is a place where friends and supporters of the industry can purchase merchandise and show their support for the nation’s movers of essentials and other goods. 

While there were many driver recognition programs that were kicked off during the week, the following two stood out. 

The first one is the initiative by Pilot where they recognize truckers in their commercials, billboards, store signage and digital content. In addition, they gave out vouchers and coupons for truck drivers to redeem at their outlets. 

A key highlight of their initiative is the Road Warrior Contest that recognizes individuals who weather storms and long hours a grand prize of $25,000. More details about this can be found here. 

While a lot of companies did a lot on social media, one campaign stood out for the monetary benefits it offered to the drivers. 

This was launched by CH Robinson and consisted of:

A thank-you campaign: C.H. Robinson invites the world to #ThankATruckDriver. For each social media post using that hashtag during the week of Sept. 15-21, the C.H. Robinson Foundation will donate $10 –up to a total of $50,000 – to the St. Christopher Truckers Relief Fund, which provides essential support to truck drivers in need.

In addition, there was a host of In-person celebration in 13 cities across the U.S. and Mexico to thank truck drivers in person. At these company, customer and carrier locations, employees shared food, care packages and other tokens of appreciation. 

Considering the value of goods and the risks involved, safety is a key aspect to focus on. There isn’t a better time than Driver Appreciation Week to emphasize the importance of safety and providing them tips and measures to ensure the same. 

PennDOT deserves a special mention in this category for picking Driver Safety as a key theme of this week. Some of the tips that drivers were given were:

“You want to be sure that you’re not tailgating because if they come to a sudden stop or slow down that’s how an accident can happen. You also want to make sure that you’re trying not to pass unless it's absolutely needed because trucks can have different blind spots and visuals, so it’s something you want to avoid that way everyone stays safe on the road,” Elizabeth Fabri, the PennDOT District 4 safety press officer, said.

A lot in this context celebrates Trucking heroes, but what about sheroes? 

With women accounting for 8% of all truck drivers in the US, it is a great time to celebrate women in trucking. 

In her address, Jennifer Hendrick, President of Women in Trucking, took the example of two women who are going the extra mile - Jodi Edwards and Nichol Boyd for their respective contributions in training other professionals and emphasizing on safety. To learn more, read the full article. 

The contribution of truck drivers to our everyday lives is so immense and their work needs to be celebrated in more ways than one. We at FarEye, share this spirit and here is a glimpse of what we sent to our delivery heroes: