Driver breaks down the numbers on OTR trucker’s sacrifice

A truck driver recently went viral with an eye-opening Facebook post detailing just how much time OTR drivers spend away from their families in order to provide Americans with the goods they need to survive.

On January 11, owner-operator Chris Thomas published a Facebook post that has been shared more than 3000 times.

He wrote:

The average OTR driver is asked to stay out 14 days for 2 days off at home, with a couple weeks paid vacation added on to this number, a driver is expected to be out 311 days a year approximately. 24 hours a day in that truck working with a few hours maybe spent at a customer or in a truck stop. In ten years, this trucker will spend 74,640 hours at his or her job in the truck, some spend less and some spend more. A 40 hour week employee spends 2,080 hours on the job annually. In 10 years, the trucker has spent 35 years equivalent of working time away from family, away from home, living in one of the most heavily regulated industries in our country, and most recently listed the most deadly job in North America. Thanks to our hard working truckers, whose sacrifice makes everyone’s standard of living better.