Truck drivers on the road during coronavirus pandemic find fewer cars, but more risks
Chris Mueller
The coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of people across the country to stay at home. Carmen Anderson doesn't have that option.
Anderson, a 60-year-old from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, works as a truck driver for a Green Bay-based beef processing company that ships more than 6.5 million pounds of beef every day.
Her work takes her to places all over the country, but no matter where she goes lately, the impact of the virus has been impossible to miss.
Traffic is much lighter, even in major cities. The dining rooms of restaurants, one of the few places truck drivers can escape their vehicles for a break, have closed. And inside her truck, Anderson carries masks, wipes and hand sanitizer to protect herself from the virus.
The isolation of the job can be a challenge, especially now, but Anderson has more companionship than most — she travels with her two small dogs, Rodney and Otis. But even they've been feeling cooped up.
"They're wondering too why we sit in the truck as much as we do," Anderson said.
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When shoppers rushed to stores to buy essential supplies in the early days of the pandemic, truck drivers were busy trying to keep up with demand, said Kim Conradt, safety programs coordinator for the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association.
Many regulations, including those that say how long drivers can work and how much weight they can carry in their trucks, have been relaxed as a result of the pandemic, Conradt said.
The amount of work has tapered off for some, but truck drivers hauling certain items — medicine, food or toilet paper, for instance — will almost certainly stay busy, Conradt said.
"They're keeping your household going, while being away from their home," she said.
The stay-at-home orders in place across most of the country have had another impact that truck drivers have been quick to notice: traffic, even in notoriously busy places, has noticeably declined.
Anderson has been able to drive through big cities, including Milwaukee, Chicago and Atlanta, without a problem.
"You just drive," she said. "You don't even have to slow down."
A study released last week by the Wisconsin Policy Forum found traffic on Wisconsin highways went down by 40 percent from 2.5 million vehicles on March 3 to 1.5 million vehicles on April 7.
The decline coincided with Gov. Tony Evers' decision to close schools across the state on March 13, the study says. By the time Evers' stay-at-home order was introduced on March 24, traffic had already gone down.
Henry Frautschy, a 62-year-old from Oshkosh who works as a truck driver for Schneider, has seen another, slightly more troubling trend.
"I've noticed that with a lot less car traffic out there, some people are really behaving badly with automobiles," he said.
His truck has adaptive cruise control, which means he can see the speeds of other vehicles around him on the highway. He has clocked multiple drivers at more than 100 mph.
Frautschy said those drivers are still in the minority on the roads.
"By far, the majority of people are helpful," he said.
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Truck drivers are isolated when they're behind the wheel, but that doesn't mean they aren't taking precautions when making deliveries. Frautschy, who typically drives long distances to support a Green Bay-based paper manufacturer, keeps masks in his truck in case he has to get out of his truck at his destination, or anywhere else.
"I can take those precautions and feel reasonably certain that I've done what I could and that I probably haven't been exposed," he said.
Frautschy said it's difficult not to be concerned with whether other drivers are taking the proper precautions, though he hasn't heard of many others getting sick.
Carl Marks, a 38-year-old from Racine, drives a truck for FedEx, but isn't a delivery driver. Instead, Marks drives between sites where packages are sorted and eventually sent on their way.
The pace of work seems to have slowed with so many businesses closed as a result of the pandemic, Marks said.
Marks has started taking precautions too, putting on a mask and gloves whenever he gets out of his truck, and washes his hands any time he touches anything. But Marks still gets nervous when others don't appear to be taking the pandemic seriously.
"You see people not wearing a mask or you see them not washing their hands, or it seems like they're just ignoring the situation," he said.
Despite his concern, Marks has found some habits more difficult to give up than others.
"The hardest thing is not to give somebody a handshake," he said. "That's always a sign of respect. That's something that's hard not to do."
Contact Chris Mueller at 920-996-7267 or cmueller@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AtChrisMueller.