Wouldn't make any difference. The truck driver shortage was with us long before Covid and was getting worse and worse long before Covid. Nobody wants to be away from home for weeks at a time for crappy pay.
Is there a statistic for actual truck miles driven in the US each year?
I ask because truck traffic on the Interstate highways in my region has been going up for many years, by my observation. (RV traffic & big campers, too, but that’s not relevant here.) It dipped in March - June 2020 due to Covid, but seemed back to normal by late summer, and has been very busy in 2021. Maybe that’s regional — it’d be interesting to see national numbers or numbers by state or region.
That said, Covid mandates affecting truck stops have to be particularly damaging. I can easily see such convincing drivers to hang it up.
“The truck driver shortage was with us long before Covid and was getting worse and worse long before Covid. Nobody wants to be away from home for weeks at a time for crappy pay.”
Change in the rules is what started the decline in capacity. Covid just made it worse with the increased demand.
Blame legal marijuana for the truck driver shortage…you can’t pass a drug test if you used pot.