At the height of “panic shopping,” most Americans left grocery stores with essentials feeling lucky. At the same time, many of the drivers who arrived with them were down on their luck. So, we cooked up a fun way to have an immediate impact on one of our drivers by holding a #ThankATrucker Selfie #CarrierContest with a $500 prize.
The events of the last few months have allowed us here at Loadsmart to evaluate our commitment to connecting the trucking industry. We soon came to the consensus that our responsibility doesn’t stop at connecting shipments with carriers and vice versa.
To truly have a more transparent industry, we need to give shippers more visibility of their freight, but also give the industry more visibility of the drivers that are struggling to make ends meet while helping so many people do just that.
We’ve done several things to live up to this commitment already, including launching On the Road with Loadsmart, an interview series meant to connect the industry to the stories that matter, inspire, and are essential for giving credit to the unsung heroes of the road. In our first episode we interviewed one of our carriers, Joe Burks from American Citizens Transport, on his experience hauling freight through the pandemic. Catch the full episode here.
We also wanted to do something that could have an immediate impact on one of our drivers. From May 15 – June 15 we promoted our #ThankATrucker Selfie #CarrierContest across social media and via email. Drivers who sent a picture of themselves and their truck were entered to win $500 courtesy of Loadsmart.
The outpouring of responses into our inbox showed just how eager many drivers are to share their stories. We plan on using our growing platform to highlight as many of these as we can. Through them all, one thing was clear: drivers were truly pushed to the limit during all of this. While most of America shut down, they were put in overdrive.
Rushan left home during the pandemic and started living in his truck. He’s been doing it for three months and is an incredibly hard worker. When we spoke to Nick at Dispatch 42, he said “Man, Rushan was feeling really unlucky…maybe his luck’s changed.”
Catch all the episodes of On the Road on our YouTube channel and keep your eye out for more contests just like this one in the coming months as we double down on our commitment to connecting the trucking industry.