4 Ways Truck Drivers Make the Holiday Season Possible

We’ve talked about what would happen without truck drivers, but when someone tells you to thank a truck driver, do you really know what you are thanking them for? All year long truck drivers miss countless family dinners and holidays, drive through horrendous weather and sit in hours of traffic to deliver the goods, oil and supplies we depend on as a country. Every holiday season we travel to see our loved ones, enjoy large meals and unwrap presents- none of which would be possible without the 3.5 million truck drivers who work throughout the holiday season. Check out the statistics below to find out exactly how truck drivers make the holiday season possible.

Food

This Thanksgiving, be thankful for truck drivers. Truck drivers carry the nearly 52 million turkeys that will be consumed this year to your local grocery store. They also carry the 841 million pounds of cranberries, 1.3 billion pounds of green beans, 2.4 billion pounds of sweet potatoes and 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins you enjoy annually. We’d all have empty tables without truck drivers!

Traveling

The holidays are a time for family. In 2014 nearly 100 million people traveled during the year-end holiday season. This year, 46.9 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving. Together, that’s close to one-half of the entire United States population. Without truck drivers, there would be no gasoline to fuel these trips, dampening holiday cheer across the country.

Gifts

In 2014 Americans spent $620 billion on holiday shopping between November 1 and December 16. Considering that 100% of consumer goods are transported by trucks, it’s realistic to say that they worked overtime to make sure stores had everything you needed for your holiday shopping list. On top of delivering goods to store shelves, they also transport a majority of packages. Those are both the packages you order online, and the packages grandma sends. It’s predicted that the U.S. Postal Service will deliver 15 billion piece of mail and packages during the 2015 holiday season.

Everything Else

It’s no secret that truck drivers are responsible for delivering most everything you buy to get in the holiday spirit. Not only do they stock the shelves, they bring holiday cheer in other ways. For example, did you know trucks deliver the helium used to fill the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons? Or that each year Americans buy 33 million real Christmas trees? At any given time there are over 350 million Christmas trees growing on farms around the country. How are these millions of trees delivered from farm to consumer? Truck drivers, of course.

Truck Drivers Make the Holiday Season

It’s pretty clear that we owe a lot to truck drivers. They make our holiday season something to look forward to all year long. Loadsmart would like to thank the millions of truck drivers that keep our economy going not only during the holidays, but all year long.