'We’re showing up to facilities and they’re checking our temperature': Truck Driver

Truck driver Josh Rickards highlights how the trucking industry is faring amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He joins the On the Move panel to discuss.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: And we were just talking about-- well, we've talked about a lot of themes throughout the show, both with the National Association of Manufacturers and also just now about Walmart and some of the safety precautions it's taking.

Supply chain a big issue that we have been talking about regularly, and we want to talk about how stuff is getting to you. For that, we are joined by trucker Josh Rickards, who is a truck driver. He's joining us from Arizona. We also have Aaron Terrazas of Convoy. I think we might have some issues with his mic, so we're trying to sort that out.

So Josh, I want to bring you in right now to talk about what you're experiencing. We've heard a lot about the challenges that truck drivers are facing right now. Talk to me about what you have been seeing when you're out on the road and how this has perhaps made your job more difficult.

JOSH RICKARDS: Yes, ma'am. Well, I was actually on the road for the past six weeks, and I just parked the truck the other-- the other day, yesterday. And I was out on the road as the news announcements were coming out. So you're seeing this-- everything just changed so [? "dratically" ?] where we're showing up to facilities and they're checking our temperature. We're showing up to facilities that wanted to limit their contact with us, so talking to intercoms, paperwork being left outside, no interaction with the shippers or the receivers, and also going to facilities where-- I even saw a facility-- I won't mention their name-- but they put up on a piece of paper a phone number to text, and you would text that phone number. And then they would text you what door to take the truck to, and then they would text you when you were done, and then they would text you where the paperwork was.

JULIE HYMAN: Speaking of technical difficulties, I think we're having some problems with some other folks who want to ask questions, but I think Melody Hahm is there and at the ready. Melody?

MELODY HAHM: Yes, Josh. Of course, I was kind of keeping a pulse of the trucking industry prepandemic, right, where there were huge shortages in certain markets and just thinking about the kind of pent-up demand for jobs now. Are you hearing from community members who perhaps got laid off, looking for work saying, hey, can you hook me up with a job in this industry just as you anticipate-- you know, truck driving is great for social distancing to a certain extent, right? You're alone on the road. You're not actually having to be surrounded by lots of people at once.

JOSH RICKARDS: Yes. I operate a small fleet. And, of course, I operate one of the trucks myself. I have three trucks.

And as this started to unfold and job losses were happening and people were becoming unemployed, even some friends and family of my own have been calling me and, you know, asking, hey, do you have any work? Is there any way we could jump on board? I'm unable to take on anyone on at this time. But yes, I have been being contacted by actually even friends and family in regards to that.

JULIE HYMAN: And, Josh, what's the demand been like? I mean, we keep hearing about, you know, that there's big demand for food, for example, but I don't know how much that accounts for the shipments that you're taking around the country. So what kind of stuff have you seen spikes in or decreases in, and, what does that mean overall for your business?

JOSH RICKARDS: I'd say that was the biggest, most noticeable thing I saw throughout this whole-- this pandemic. It was seemingly overnight. I've seen on the news people rushing to buy toilet paper. And in the area that I was in at the time, as I was watching that, I was watching load counts spike, and it was just, overnight, thousands and thousands and thousands of loads.

And I remember watching this nightly broadcast about, you know, the panic buying, essentially. And the next morning my phone was getting phone calls off the hook from brokers. Can you cover this load? Can you cover this load? Can you cover this load? And it was just out of nowhere. It was like chaos on our side of the fence.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, it's Adam. I was able to redial back in. Josh, I don't know if I missed it, but I'm curious because things seem to be pretty stocked here in a hot spot, which is New York City. What are your colleagues, other truck drivers saying about their willingness to come to New York and where they think their industry is going to be headed as we go through the next month or two with coronavirus and other parts of the country?

JOSH RICKARDS: Well, Adam, I have two drivers that are owner-operators that are leased under my authority, and both of them do not want to go to New York at this time. I was willing to go to New York. I actually got a phone call from a broker that was moving the tent hospitals that they're setting up out there. I just wasn't in place at the areas that they had to pick those up.

It's a broker that I work with on a lot of logistics types of loads, loads that require more straps, et cetera. And they gave me a call saying, hey, can you get to any one of these cities? I need to move these right now to get these up to New York.

I was willing to do that, but a lot of drivers right now, besides the two that work with me, the talk at the truck stops per se is-- I mean, no one really wants to go there. Everyone's afraid of going there and being in a position where they actually contract the virus themselves.

JULIE HYMAN: Makes sense. Josh Rickards, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for what you're doing, bringing stuff to people who need it, and we wish you well. Josh Rickards there, a truck driver, joining us from Arizona. Appreciate it.