Trucker finds the bright side of transportation during the coronavirus pandemic

If anything will be ascertained from the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic of 2020, it will be that transportation, namely truck drivers, has and always will keep this country moving; just ask anyone who rejoiced at the sight of newly stocked toilet paper on grocery store shelves. Everyone has been affected in some ways by COVID-19—for truck drivers, maintaining the lifeblood of food and essentials, coronavirus has brought both good and bad.

Keenan Lewis, of Stillwater, Oklahoma, is an independent driver who owns his own truck and trailer. He says he negotiates carrier agreements with broker firms and hauls agricultural feed commodities like rice bran, cotton seed meal and phosphorous for chicken feed for companies like ADM.

Lewis said work has been steady through the coronavirus pandemic, and in many ways his work has been unaffected, however he has noticed positives to the situation.

“One bright side of things is our costs are coming down significantly,” he said. “I found some diesel in Mississippi a few weeks ago for $1.69 a gallon and it really helps when you’re used to paying $3.69 a gallon. Plus we’re still getting paid the same rate.”

Additionally, Lewis said drivers are getting to their destinations sooner with less people on the road.

“It is a lot less stressful because people are driving with a sense of purpose,” Lewis explained. “If you’re on the road, you’re going somewhere instead of just meandering along the highway. We have to drive with a sense of purpose all the time, in and around people that are on their phone and not paying attention. It has been really nice that everyone on the road is paying attention to the road. I’ve seen some of the most courteous driving out of everybody thus far in my driving career. It’s pretty inspiring because you know that everyone can do it now.”

Lewis said the biggest issue during the pandemic is not knowing if you are coming in contact with infected people or material.

“Trucking is such a transient type industry with people going coast to coast and you don’t know who people have been around or been exposed to,” he said. We live on the road, so we take out meals on the road and we have to bathe in truck stops.”

Fortunately Lewis said he has noticed the extra steps truck stops have made to their cleaning regimens and it has made him feel comfortable when he has to make a pit stop. Although the closing of indoor eating areas for restaurants has impacted a large number of Americans, Lewis said most of those eating establishments do not have enough truck accessibility anyway.

“As long as places like Love’s, Flying J and the big chain truck stops are open and clean, everything is pretty smooth sailing,” he said. “The biggest drawback is you don’t get a break from the truck and you have to eat your meal in the cab as opposed to sitting down in a restaurant and feeling like a human again.”

Another blessing has been the relaxing of regulations that often hold truck drivers up. Lewis said during his most recent trips to Florida, Gov. DeSantis started screening ports of entry for out of state vehicles, but trucks were allowed to pass without inspection.

“That was something I thought I would never see in my life,” he said. “Trucks were allowed to bypass the weigh stations at ports of entry and passenger cars were being stopped for questioning when usually it’s the other way around. For a truck driver, every state line you come to is almost like entering a new country. It was kind of relaxing for a change. Hopefully people will start to understand all the hoops we’ve got to go through all the time. If motorists feel discomfort from that, it’s an everyday deal for us.”

Lewis said it has become the Wild West for truck drivers during the pandemic, however deliveries are getting to their destinations without issue for the most part. He has hopes officials will see the improvements this situation has made for the trucking industry and rescind some regulations that only serve to hamper trucking companies.

 “I would say we have a pretty hard time with all the regulations that are imposed on us and all the rules we have to follow with a total disregard for common sense on behalf of a lot of the rules we deal with,” Lewis explained. “You’ve about got to be a Philadelphia lawyer anyway to decipher the rules that the (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association) has in place. We spend tons of money trying to become compliant with every rule and it’s just a runaway train with the administrative rule system up there. You’ve got to work really smart or you’re not going to have a sustainable business.

Additionally, Lewis said he expects a great deal of statistical data to come out of the coronavirus shutdown as far as truck crashes and other vehicular accident numbers.

“Is it the cars driving in and around us that cause us to be unsafe and to justify all this regulatory expansion on the trucking industry or is it just a tax collection effort? I would like to see some ease up on the regulations because there’s going to be some good data that comes out of this for a debate.”

While essential employees like health care workers, mail carriers, retail workers, news outlets, government officials and farmers and ranchers among others keep this country turning during a time of unrest, truckers are putting the petal to the metal to deliver the necessities that keep essential workers going and for that they deserve an arm pump and a thank you. Roll on eighteen-wheeler, roll on.

“Transportation accounts for almost 8.9% of the gross domestic product for the country, so we’re a significant part and a couple of spokes in the wheel here and hopefully people will begin to see our worth.”

Lacey Newlin can be reached at 580-748-1892 or [email protected].