Professional Truck Driver Appreciation week
 
November 10-16
 
Professional Truck Driver Appreciation week was created to commemorate and support the industry professionals who work daily to deliver road passengers and goods. Truck & Coach drivers are hardworking men and women who make personal and social sacrifices to ensure that their consignments are delivered safely and on time regardless of the time of day or weather conditions. These drivers improve our overall quality of life by making personal commitments to ensure that our critical goods like, food, medicine, construction materials, refuse collections, fuel for fuel stations and power plants and supplies for our manufacturing industries.
 
Professional Truck drivers take care in ensuring the safety of all road users. Their role is a very pressuring one having to mix their profession with vulnerable and inexperienced road users. The anti-social nature of the job requires that professional drivers pay particular attention to rest, which sometimes means missing out on those special family occasions, to ensure that the country has its fresh bread, milk and newspapers delivered.     
 
Professional HGV Driver Appreciation Week, November 10-16, provides the road transport industry an opportunity to highlight the efforts of professional truck drivers. Communities across the Island of Ireland rely exclusively on truck drivers to deliver their goods and commodities, including the most remote towns and locations that are unreachable by other modes of transportation. 
 
Many truck drivers have lost their lives in carrying their work, already in 2017, we have lost four drivers on the job. Our lost friends in road transport will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers.
 
The EPDA is asking the road transport industry to engage their communities during Truck Driver Appreciation week as a celebration of the role that truck drivers play. Government officials, community leaders, members of the media and local businesses can all play a role in helping to better understand the important work that truck drivers do in safely moving our economy each day. Road safety is dramatically improved when motorists understand and acknowledge the difficulties of driving a truck and the limitations of large commercial vehicles, on the roads of our cities towns and villages.