Truck drivers continue to work during COVID-19 pandemic

FOX 29's Hank Flynn spoke with truck drivers.

PHILADELPHIA - Truck drivers are being affected along their routes across the region after a shutdown of PA Turnpike rest stops due to the coronavirus concerns. FOX 29’s Hank Flynn caught up with some of the truck drivers at Bethlehem Service Plaza.

The service station was shut down along with other PA Turnpike rest stops, which has been impacting truck drivers nationally.

Andre, a truck driver, said not to take it personally that some of the drivers wouldn’t be in the mood to talk to him, that they were probably hungry.

“Anytime you can get a good hot meal – that’s what you want – and it’s impossible to find out right now," Andre explained.

The Turnpike Authority said in a statement that the inside bathrooms of PA Turnpike rest stops would be shuttered and replaced with regularly cleaned Port-a-Potties.

The convenience stores would stay open, but there would be no Starbucks, no pizza and no Roy Rogers.

Jeremy, who is one of the people in charge of resupplying the food for truckers, was also struggling.

“Just I don’t know where it’s going to go if it’s going to get worse than this – I don’t know – where the truck drivers that are keeping the food going and everything – what we’re going to do," Jeremy told Hank.

There is a silver lining though, and drivers are seeing it. Currently, there’s no traffic on the roads. Veteran big rig drivers know that means miles per hour, distance traveled and money earned.

Jermaine, another truck driver, said he was hungry but that it was copasetic. The rates are up for loads delivered and sometimes by fifty percent. Might as well get some work done.

“I would skip a meal, gladly, I don’t mind these rest areas being closed. I gladly keep on running just to make this money," he stated.

The American Trucking Association is calling for rest stops to stay open, for other restrictions creeping in on drivers to be lifted and calling for a clearer federal policy, saying these drivers are essential.

The truth is that they have always been essential, and they’ll grow more so as the days go by – and that’s Hank’s take.

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