America Keeps on Truckin’

Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation closed its public rest areas but reopened most of them after a backlash from trucking groups. Other states made the same mistake, closing rest areas then reopening them—apparently realizing the folly of forcing truckers and other travelers to seek more public places for sustenance and thus make themselves and others more vulnerable to infection. New Hampshire’s public rest areas remain open, although the restroom buildings are locked, leaving truckers to use nearby portable toilets. We’re not sure what problem that solves.

Finding decent sustenance and relief is no easy thing for truckers on the nation’s highways, particularly when so many facilities have been forced to close. Public officials owe it to the people delivering food and medical supplies to make their jobs easier.

Credit Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao for easing the restrictions governing the number of successive hours logged by truckers transporting food and other vital materials, and waiving penalties for expired commercial driver’s licenses. And the federal government has waived regulations prohibiting food trucks from servicing public rest areas, giving truckers at least some variety in hot meals.

President Trump gave truckers a shout out on Thursday at the White House, and why not. As a truckers’ industry group slogan has it, without trucks, America stops. Honk if you agree.