A new poll conducted by the ATA surveyed 800 average Americans regarding their stance on the truck drivers and the trucking industry in general — and the results were surprisingly positive.
Poll Shows Most Americans Like and Respect Truck Drivers
— 60% of Americans have a favorable opinion about the trucking industry. In fact, only 9% admitted to having an unfavorable opinion about trucking.
— Trucking has a higher favorability rating than either the railroad industry or the airline industry.
— 57% of those polled said that they have a positive opinion about safety in the trucking industry.
— 91% of Americans say that passenger cars are more likely than truck drivers to perform unsafe driving behaviors.
— 70% say that a passenger car is more likely to cause a crash than a commercial vehicle.
— 81% believe that truckers are safer highway drivers than passenger vehicle drivers.
How They Feel About Truck Drivers In Their Own Words
— When asked to provide a few words about the trucking industry, here are some of the unscripted responses:
1. “This country would crash and burn without the trucking industry.”
2. “Our country depends on it. We need to move the food around the country and we are doing it through the trucking industry. We depend on them and they keep things moving.”
3. “They are safe drivers. They get stuff to and from where it needs to be. They are pretty hard workers.”
4. “Every time I see a trucker down the road, I know they’re hard working Americans and not getting welfare or food stamps.”
5. “I do not like them on the freeway with me. They scare me. I do not know if they are tired. They literally scare me.”
6. “Don’t like the traffic. But I do like the majority of truckers out there. Just the traffic – I live in Jersey, so I think that speaks for itself.”
You can view the entire presentation containing the results of the poll in the document below.
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