While most of the world are quarantined at home to avoid getting ill from COVID-19, these drivers are out on the highways driving as they travel from coast to coast carrying goods to ensure, bluntly, that we survive.

Those people are approximately 1.8 million women and men who drive trucks across nation’s highways.

Truck drivers in the USA and around the world are playing a critical role delivering essential goods like food and medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the world’s economy has slowed to a halt, the trucking industry is, in many cases, running full steam ahead.

Truck drivers are delivering to the hospitals, getting the doctors and nurses the equipment they need during pandemic. Drivers are on the front line as grocery stores struggle to fill shelves emptied by panic buying. Bare supermarket shelves were one of the first signs of how the virus was upending the normal social order. The job of keeping them stocked has been a jolt to the trucking industry, which had been showing some signs of sluggishness before the outbreak began.The importance of the $800 billion trucking sector is difficult to overstate. Two-thirds of America’s consumer goods are transported to market by truck, leading to the common refrain that “if trucking stops, the world stops”.“If we didn’t have truck drivers right now, we would be looking at empty store shelves permanently,” said Joe Sculley, a spokesperson for the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut, which represents thousands of trucking industry workers in this state.

Add to that, since the federal government last week lifted the restriction that truckers are limited to only driving 11 hours a day if they are hauling critical medical goods, food supplies, and other materials, it means many of them are now driving well over 12 hours a day to do just that.The trucking industry will keep on truckin even in the midst of this pandemic. If you are a trucker reading this, thank you. Thank you for keeping our shelves stocked with supplies. And in the name of Navigation Global LLC thank you for your dedication to the road and the economy.

Many users on social media are using the hashtag #ThankATrucker to send their message.