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Longtime readers of my meanderings may remember that I spent some 14 years roaming across the country in an 18 wheeler following my retirement from the military. The idea was to see the country for awhile and experience as much as I could of the place I helped defend. I travelled through 47 of the lower 48 states and developed a working list of places I did and did not wish to re-visit in the future.
So when I heard about truckers planning to decline deliveries into the New York City area following the $355 million fine levied against Donald Trump for a crime which has produced neither victims nor proceeds, I have to ask myself what I would do?
Let’s first stipulate that the boycott effort will be easier for some professional drivers than others. Those who own their own trucks can as a rule decide which locations they will travel to, so they will have an easier time avoiding NYC. Company drivers have no such option, particularly as larger companies who can deliver freight at a reduced cost will fill in the void left by owner operators. An owner operator can point his truck in another direction and survive, while a company driver who refuses a dispatch will be out of a job. So the boycott will not be air-tight.
And to be fair, I should also point out that I never missed an opportunity to miss driving into NYC. It’s the place where good attitudes and good driving records go to die. It would be the greatest embellishment to say that local drivers habitually changed their minds as they swerved from one direction to another, because they hadn’t any.
One time, I had a delivery at some place or other on Park Avenue and I had to parallel park. The mental image of an 80,000 pound, 80 ft. long truck negotiating downtown traffic should be enough to have the reader reaching for a glass of bourbon. Now imagine having to back that beast and parallel park the truck and trailer curbside in the midst of all that traffic with an obstacle course of vehicles careening all around and you’ll want the whole bottle. I saw so many middle fingers during the tribulation that I wondered if there was a proctology convention in town.
To be honest, I did all I could to boycott NYC before it was fashionable. From bridge clearances that were inaccurately marked, to downtown truck route signs that were removed by local gangs so they could rob lost truckers, to incomprehensibly rude drivers who suffered from acute cranial rectal inversion, any trip assignment to the Big Apple was like playing Russian Roulette. To borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, to avoid being persecuted in that place is to be, “…as happy as a martyr when the fire won’t burn.”
The question remains, if I were a professional driver, would I join with other truckers in an embargo of NYC? Would I abstain from a city where innocent people are routinely brutalized by roving gangs of moronic goons who are released from jail before the arresting officer’s shift is over? Would I refuse delivery to a city where the hard-earned money of taxpayers is diverted from services for New Yorkers and spent on those whose singular achievement in life was to break into the country illegally while the State Attorney General instead uses her resources to go after Donald Trump for utilizing a very common practice in real estate circles that, to date, hasn’t been prosecuted? As business investor Kevin O’Leary explained on CNN:
So in this case, what I’m trying to figure out — and I’m not pro or con and I don’t care about the politics — is who lost money? Nobody. The bank got paid back the construction finance loan and a new building was built. If you’re gonna sue this case and win, you’ve gotta sue every real estate developer everywhere because this is all they do. This is what they do all day long, every day! So I don’t think this thing will ever survive appeal regardless of what the fine is. This doesn’t even make sense! … If you’re a real estate developer and watching this, you’re saying, “What is this? This is ridiculous!”
So absolutely yes, I’d join in the current trucker boycott if I could (I came off the road in 2018). Would I advise other professional drivers to do the same? Yes. And if the boycott somehow imposes discomfort on the good people of that city, I would remind them that as Barack Obama famously observed, “Elections have consequences.” After all, we've been suffering the consequences of the 2020 election for nearly four years now.
Discussion (114)
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I had only one independent owner-operator as a client, but if he is any representative of the backbone of that hardy crowd, I'd bet on the boycott being effective.
What would be even more effective would be if the Teamsters took a stand in Solidarity. Company drivers are by and large Teamsters, I believe, so that would be YUGE.
It would tend towards Solidarity in Poland, Lech Walensa style, for the win.
(But the leadership might be a mite more timid than the members. 'Twas ever thus.)
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Most of my trips to NYC were cultural. They involved visiting Shea Stadium or the original Yankees Stadium. Both trips were by train from Connecticut. I haven't been back since the Dinkins Administration.
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I've never been a trucker. But my answer is, the Trump trial would not cause me to boycott NYC.
Some of the reasons Dave Carter gave would cause me to avoid NYC. I wouldn't call it a boycott though. It would be more of a business decision.
Actually NYC, specifically Manhattan, has recently initiated congestion pricing for cars and trucks. So all deliveries, not using a bicycle or walking, will get more expensive. That's going to affect every business in Manhattan.
I've driven in NYC, and it's not so much dangerous as just plain slow (I think Miami is more dangerous than NYC, though I'm being subjective in saying that). I think that truck drivers are paid by the mile. That's enough for me to make a business decision to avoid all five boroughs.
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I'll add that I think the verdict and award of that trial was politically motivated. The whole thing is outrageous.
But business is business and politics is politics. And anyway, the civil suit was brought by the New York state attorney general, who specifically said, when running for office she would "get Trump." That in itself is disqualifying in my opinion.
But anyway, that would mean that truckers who do boycott based on the trial results shouldn't limit that boycott to NYC, but should include all of New York state.
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I guess my question would be, “What’s the difference between the guy who won’t move his truck through the streets of NYC for politics and the people who block the streets in NYC for politics?”
Additional questions might be, “Is this load dependent?” I mean would you refuse to deliver supplies to Memorial Sloan Kettering or just shoes to Macy’s? Are you delivering food to Harlem or letting it rot in New Jersey?
Since Letitia James is the State Attorney General are you boycotting Buffalo, Binghamton and Jamestown, too? Or does one check the voting record of every city and town in the state first? Or is it counties? Chautauqua gets Chiquita but Onondaga does not?
I was never a trucker but I spent the bulk of my career as an independent contractor. Never saw much good in angering my client base, especially for political reasons or for the cause of real estate moguls. But that could just be me.
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