A majority of truckers are vowing to halt deliveries to cities that defund or disband their police departments, according to a recent poll.
Seventy-nine percent of truck drivers said they felt their safety would be at risk if they had to deliver to a city with a disbanded police department, according to CDL News, a website for the commercial trucking industry.
Long-haul truck drivers have been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic for the past year due to stay-at-home orders requiring most Americans to buy their goods online, and have had to deal with protests.
Now many truckers are worried about going to places such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, where their city council president reportedly planned to dismantle their police department following the death of George Floyd.
CDL News asked drivers on its app to explain their reasoning for not delivering to these cities.
“I will not deliver to an area with a disbanded police department. My life matter and I do this for my family. We are already at the mercy of these towns and cities with laws and hate against us for parking, getting a meal or even using a restroom,” one driver responded.
“Simple. We may not like it all the time, but laws and order is necessary,” another driver said.
Truck driving has historically been ranked as one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S.
In 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked it as the most dangerous job in the country with construction workers coming in second, farmers and ranchers taking third, groundskeepers taking the fourth slot, and miscellaneous agricultural employees rounding out the list as the fifth most dangerous job.