Thankful for Truck Drivers This Thanksgiving

After the last year, we are all especially grateful to be able to spend time with our families this year for Thanksgiving. While we are sitting down and thinking about what we are thankful for, we really have one group of people to especially thank – truck drivers. Did you know that your Thanksgiving dinner would not be possible without a truck driver?

According to the National Turkey Federation, approximately 46 million turkeys will be eaten in the United States for Thanksgiving. And how do these millions of turkeys get to your grocery stores? On a truck! Truck drivers will deliver an estimated 16,600 truckloads of turkeys to the United States for Thanksgiving alone (and if you’re a Christmas dinner turkey person too, that’s even more turkey not too long afterwards!).

You also can’t forget all the sides. Almost 94% of American households have cranberries for Thanksgiving, which adds up to about 80 million pounds of cranberries. Add in the 3 billion pounds of sweet potatoes produced every year, and that’s a lot of side dishes to haul. The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving are hectic for a truck driver, especially since a lot of the food items are perishable.

Right on the heels of Thanksgiving comes the one of the busiest shopping days of the year – Black Friday. Almost 134 million people shop on Black Friday alone. Not only do truck drivers need to transport all these items to the store on time, but they also need to transport all the items that consumers purchase on Cyber Monday. Last year, 100 million consumers shopped online. All this commerce is made possible because of truck drivers.

This Thanksgiving, while you’re enjoying your meal and waiting for the Black Friday sales to launch, just remember that none of this would be possible without the trucking industry. Give extra thanks to all the truck drivers out there, because if you bought it, they probably brought it. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at U.S. Truck Driver Training School!