Yesterday, NR reported on an effort by some truck drivers to stop making deliveries in New York City to protest a judge’s ruling against Donald Trump. Here’s the substance of the protest:
A trucker and conservative social-media influencer, known as Chicago Ray on X, announced the move Friday night in a video that has garnered 6 million views and 56,000 likes at the time of this writing. In the viral clip, Ray claimed he and some of his colleagues who support Trump will stop delivering loads to New York City once the coming work week begins.
“I’ve been on the radio talking to drivers for about the past hour and I’ve talked to about ten drivers . . . and they’re going to start refusing loads to New York City starting on Monday,” he said in the video while driving his truck.
The sentiment is sincere, no doubt, and 6 million views are a lot. But let’s put this in perspective.
According to 2019 data from the New York City Department of Transportation:
- 365 million tons of cargo enter, leave, or pass through New York City each year.
- 89 percent of that is carried by truck.
- There are 125,621 truck crossings at Manhattan borders each day.
- There are 73,583 truck crossings at Brooklyn borders each day.
Most of those trucks are two-axle, single-unit box trucks, not semis. Most of the drivers are independent contractors or work for small businesses. If “about ten drivers” don’t want to make deliveries in response to the Trump civil fraud case, or even if this protest expands significantly to a hundred or a few hundred, there will be plenty of other drivers to pick up the slack. Freight finds a way.