Page 30 - ATR 2 2020 digital

you need to hold your family together.
It’s not overstating where we are “MY HEART IS ALWAYS WITH THE DRIVERS, AND I
right now to say that the routine prod- HAVE SO MUCH RESPECT FOR THEM. BUT I HOPE
ucts being delivered on time may help
us avoid social unrest. WHEN THIS IS OVER, WE STILL LOOK AT THE DRIVERS
We have Good Roads members who AS WE DO TODAY. THEY ARE JUST ESSENTIAL. IF THE
design roads, build roads, manufacture TRUCKS EVER STOPPED, WE WOULD HAVE NOTHING.”
food and products that are moved on
roads, and members who are mayors
and county judges trying to repair —LESLIE STOUT, DIRECTOR OF SAFETY,
roads. As COVID-19 forces all of us into CALARK INTERNATIONAL
our homes, closes our schools, threatens
small business and crowds our hospi-
tals, we really need some fundamental
things to work as they were designed. meeting this month as I watched neigh- desperately need things like that to
Those truckers, and that supply chain, bors rush to get groceries. I thought hang on to right now.
are helping us all get through this. that we are lucky to still have people And make no mistake that truck
Last fall, the Arkansas Trucking like truck drivers in this country. Men drivers are at the core of that supply
Association asked me to sit on a panel and women who just get the job done. chain. It’s not an easy job anytime,
as they picked drivers for the Arkansas but it’s especially hard to be out on the
Road Team to tell the trucking story in SUPPLY CHAIN IS A LIFELINE road alone and sick. Stout says, “Drivers
different venues. Listening to the driv- I have no idea what comes next, can’t self-quarantine unless it’s in the
ers made me understand it takes time to or how bad this could all get, but I small truck cabin with no bathroom.
stop a big rig in a way the average driver know when I walk in a store these They don’t have an option to work at
doesn’t think about while looking for a days and see all those products, I know home. If they get sick in a distant state,
new radio station. I thought about that the supply chain is working. We all we have to be their lifeline. We have to

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30 Issue 2 2020 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT