I think most Americans have a lot of respect for truck drivers. Not, like, pickup trucks. Big rigs. Eighteen-wheelers. Semi-tractor trailers.
We should also be grateful for the work they do. It's not just about motoring along in convoys and talking about Smokey on the CB radio. There's a lot of labor involved, a lot of experience and expertise required, a lot of administrative BS to do, all while being separated (in most cases) from their families while they are out on the road, earning their household income.
One other thing that can be said about truckers, who come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, religions and acronyms: There aren't enough of them.
We are starting to understand this. If we don't figure it out by paying attention to the news, it will occur to us when there aren't enough food items on the shelves at the grocery store, and the items that are there have been marked up considerably. (The old supply-and-demand pincer movement.)
Because there are not enough truckers, the clogging of America's ports has become deleterious to the public. To be sure, there are other problems that bedevil the supply side, but the big rigs and their highway pilots are the last link in the chain - and so are the most important.
But if Christmas comes and goes without the desired number (or type) of presents under the tree, America won't be looking for the MVP of a losing game. There will be more talk of, and investment in, self-driving electric trucks with robots to do all the heavy lifting. Just as concerns about the environment will drive the diesel engine out of business, electronic drone workers are preferred to flesh and blood ones.
Because a robot never gets sick. A robot never has to sleep, or eat, or use the restroom. A robot never needs health care or benefits. A robot never has something else on its mind. It never observes holidays. It never wants to spend time with Mrs. or Mr. Robot. Or play with its robot kids.
We can avoid all this. The government could, y'know, call in the military to alleviate the bottlenecks at the ports. The military has lots of trucks. And people who know how to drive them. They're a little more straight-laced than the private sector folks, sure, but they'd do in a pinch...
And that's what we're in. Yeah, they could do that. They could save America as we know it, before everything and everyone is replaced by drones, resulting in us being relegated to drone status ourselves. They could do that.
If they wanted to.
- GG
