They drive by night

Trucking has been a part of pop culture for over 70 years. The industry has been featured on the silver screen and in music many times over the course of decades. Not sure you could name any pop culture trucking references if put on the spot? Let’s change that, starting with films.

The 1940′s saw the introduction of films like They Drive By Night, starring none other than Humphrey Bogart. The trucking movies of yesterday portrayed truck drivers as a kind of new American pioneer. These were the people venturing out into the great wild to make sure the wheels of commerce remained greased.

Trucking wasn’t relegated to film only. In the 1960′s country western singer Dave Dudley released “Six Days on the Road,” a song that compellingly captured both the excitement and the boredom that sometimes accompanies long distance trucking.

Other big names that helped put trucking on the screen and speaker include Steven Spielberg, Garth Brooks, Burt Reynolds, and Alabama. With trucking being so ubiquitous in our lives, it’s no surprise that it will always hold a special place in Hollywood’s heart.

Truckers have even been portrayed as hard charging heroes, such as in 1977′s Breaker! Breaker!, an action film starring Chuck Norris that carried the tagline “…he’s got a CB radio and a hundred friends who might get mad!”

Over time, pop culture’s view of trucking and truck drivers hasn’t changed much. He or she is still characterized as a hard working American man or woman. The truck driver remains a symbol of adventure and independence, an ideal occupational match for the nomadic American spirit.