Olivia Nichols, Southern Recipe team member

Truck Driver Appreciation Week is being celebrated to recognize the important contributions of truck drivers to the economy and society. Olivia Nichols from Southern Recipe discusses the significance of appreciating truck drivers and mentions the St. Christopher Truckers Relief Fund, which provides support to truck drivers. Truck drivers play a vital role in delivering goods, with billions of tons of commodities and trillions of dollars worth of goods being transported by them. They face challenges such as rising fuel costs and the potential threat of artificial intelligence replacing their jobs. The public is encouraged to show appreciation for truck drivers by using the hashtag #TruckDriverAppreciationWeek and supporting charities like the St. Christopher Truckers Relief Fund. Southern Recipe is donating to the fund and offering free products as part of the awareness campaign. Donations to the fund can be made at truckersfund.org. We are marking Truck Driver Appreciation Week and maybe we just don't really appreciate the significant contributions that over-the-road drivers make to our lives and to our economy and to our society really on a day-to-day basis. I have a special guest who's joining me here just to talk a little bit more about the importance of appreciating what truck driving is all about and also how you can help out a very special relief fund and the work that they're doing to help out truck drivers as they move on through their careers. And my guest who's joining me here at the program is Olivia Nichols and she is with Southern Recipe and she's joining me here at the program this morning. Olivia, hi it's Burt Barron WRNJ Radio in New Jersey. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on this morning. All my pleasure. Thank you. You know I had a, my mom's dad was very briefly a professional truck driver so I had a little bit of an appreciation for what goes into it and I've I've known a lot of people over the years that have been over-the-road drivers for their livings and what they, the stories that they can tell and the things that they've been through of course. And look at where we are here in New Jersey, Olivia. We're right on that Route 95 corridor. We have Route 78 which is the heaviest traveled freight corridor in the entire country. I mean more pounds per mile move on Route 78 than any other interstate highway in the entire country. We're a densely populated state. We have a lot of things that we need delivered and moved and shipped around but maybe truck drivers don't get the necessary appreciation here in New Jersey. Why is it such an important thing to just pause and thank truck drivers and think about their contributions for a moment? Yeah you know when you're celebrating Truck Driver Appreciation Week it began on the 10th it goes all the way till the 16th so you have some time here. It's important to kind of you know honor America's truck drivers for their hard work. I mean everything that you use has probably seen the inside of a truck including raw material or that final product really just being a vital part of the economy. And at last check it was 3.5 million truck drivers who work in the U.S. And it's just amazing like you said there's so much that goes through there. 12.5 billion tons of commodities in the U.S. you know and 13 trillion worth of goods. So there's a lot that moves through truck drivers and there's so many ways that you can say thank you. Yeah and the analogy that I always like to use Olivia is that if you eat it, drink it, hold it, buy it, sell it, chances are at some point in its life it was on the back of a truck delivered by a truck driver. That's right that's right it was and you know the thing is it's like you know for small businesses as truck drivers as well they actually move more than three million miles in their lifetime also even just for small businesses. So a lot of things that you can think about with the truck driving industry you know those truckers they spend more than 240 nights away from home each year so think about that when you see them driving on the road they may not have seen their family in a little while and they may be suffering some health conditions as well and that's where St. Christopher Truckers Relief Fund steps in and Southern Recipe wants to help. Yeah and there are so many challenges unfortunately as you know Olivia that face truck drivers you know rising fuel costs impact all of us. New Jersey we told if you drive on the parkway turnpike you know we told commercial traffic a heavy amount we really do around here and just for a truck driver especially that small mom and pop that independent little trucking firm that just wants to move goods and make a living there's so many different challenges that they face and they're certainly not getting any easier and then I think if you mix in the threat that comes along with artificial intelligence and people talk about well you know pretty soon trucks will drive themselves and you don't have to worry about that but there's something there's nothing at this point Olivia that is called artificial courtesy and artificial respect that you can't you know a machine will not stop and let a vehicle merge in front of it and you know these are things that that only come with having a flesh and blood driver who knows the rules of the road behind the wheel some things can just never be replaced. Well that's right and it takes I mean a truck needs more than 40 percent more time to stop than a car does so think about that when you're out and about you know and really just watching your mindset there's sometimes a negative connotation associated with truck drivers but they're really amazing essential workers that do amazing work for us every day so think about things like sharing the road and you know saying thank you on Facebook we found out that 63 percent of truck drivers use Facebook so use the hashtag truck driver appreciation week this week you know and then supportive charity like St. Christopher's truckers relief fund so with St. Christopher's you know they do programs such as rigs without cigs program diabetes prevent diabetes prevention and then also get preventative screening so they provide for these truck drivers when there isn't anybody to provide for them so it's really an amazing opportunity for truck drivers to you know get some help that they need and Southern Recipe is actually donating $7,500 to the St. Christopher's truckers relief fund in addition to $5,000 to those wellness programs but people at home can help too. Nice we'll give that information out as to how people can get involved my guest is Olivia Nichols with Southern Recipe and this program only goes until 10 o'clock Olivia but if I was to say well what role the truck drivers play during the pandemic there's not enough hours for me to tell you that how they kept literally put this country on its back and kept us moving through one of the most challenging periods that we've ever seen that I hope we never see again we have to remember that we had items in our grocery stores we had food and things that were delivered to our homes because we were locked down for all that period it simply does not happen without truck drivers so just think about the contributions that we were at our worst and keeping that truck drivers just kept going and kept going forward and knowing that the only way that was going to help us get out from under this is with their dedication and their abilities and their desire to keep our nation moving forward so let's never lose sight of that but getting back to this mission here in this relief fund that's set up talk about where can people get involved and what exactly do the contributions how does it help out truck drivers sure so there's a couple of ways that you know folks can get involved during this week so one way is fans are encouraged to share the tune-up challenge with your social media community so that builds awareness for those wellness programs we were talking about offered by St. Christopher's Truckers Relief Fund and then every time every share that you get counts for an entry for free products from Southern Recipe so Southern Recipe is the preferred pork rind brand in the U.S. and delicious bacon-y flavor gluten-free high protein really an amazing snack so it's a way that you can help out and also win a case of free pork rinds as well and then if you want to donate to the fund you can go directly to truckersfund.org they also have a facebook and twitter but that's the best place to go and right there on the front page there they make it nice and easy for you to help out truck drivers and you know what this goes through like I said these wellness programs but also assistance might be in the form of paying living expenses while recovering from illness or if they're out of work or providing information on you know negotiating price reductions with medical providers so there's a lot of different things that St. Christopher's does to help the truckers community and not a bad snack choice either for someone who's maybe taking a run from I don't know maybe Port Newark or Port Elizabeth and driving down to you know maybe a Charlotte or a Washington or a Harrisburg or maybe a Syracuse or Boston in the other direction not a bad snack choice that's for sure cracked black pepper that's that's my favorite one by the way that was very handy watching Aaron Rodgers play four downs for the Jets last night as I was munching on some pork rinds but certainly wasn't the pork rinds fault that's for sure where can where can someone get some more information about making a donation and also about Southern Recipe where can we learn more about that? Sure so you can find Southern Recipe at your local convenience store or on our online store if you head over to southernrecipe.com and then more on donating to the relief fund go to truckersfund.org Great stuff Olivia thank you so much for the time today Olivia Nichols with Southern Recipe and your work here as we mark Truck Drivers Appreciation Week at the RNJ morning program so thank you so much for the time and for the information. Thank you have a good day and thank the truck driver today.