What Does A Quarantine Due To Coronavirus Mean For Truckers?

It makes me wonder who is buying into the media's panic to grab up all the toilet paper and sanitizer.

Its more then just TP and soap. My friend just sent me this from the local supermarket.

She says no meat, chicken, eggs, milk/dairy, Bottled water, frozen veggies, pasta or jarred sauce.

People are in full panic mode in Delco!! They must think they are gonna be locked in there houses for a month.

Cracks me up!! Its a bad chest cold for christ sake

Seems like the road is more open for you during rush hours... at least in the mid atlantic.

The run on all foodstuffs is the most troubling aspect of this whole thing.

There are a virtually unlimited number of asshats that will hoard food items because the media has whipped up a fear frenzy. There are, however, a very limited number of men and women able to operate the CMV's that carry those foodstuffs from point a to point b, and ultimately to point c (for consumer). It is going to take quite some time to restore balance to the supply chain so that those in need are able to obtain.

I feel like I'm watching "The Last Ship" all over again. And it's not a good feeling. I worked a completely different job during the previous 30 yrs worth of outbreaks - swine flu, sars, bird flu, etc. Had to deal with the impact of those on everyday interactions with folks. Each of the outbreaks had about the same potential as this one, but lacked the media frenzy and doomsday predictions. IMO, there is a political component to this that rankles.

Wash your hands. Don't lick doorknobs or counter tops. If you start feeling crappy (CDC will give you the symptoms list) contact your MD and get checked. Universal Precautions. They're not sexy. Not the stuff of media darling Super Heroes. But they work, and have worked for decades.

Well, I was in Europe on a climbing and skiing trip and had to return early because they're shutting everything down.

My best guess about this situation is that it's a fire drill. We all know this isn't a serious virus and the reaction is way out of proportion to the threat. You can do five minutes of research and you'll see the numbers show that quite clearly. In fact, anyone who thinks this is an appropriate response to this threat should be quarantined and permanently prevented from making decisions that affect the lives of the public.

If this is a fire drill as a way of testing the world's ability to deal with a serious virus in the future, it's a painfully necessary step.

There's no way of knowing if the communication amongst governments and organizations around the world is up to the task if we don't run a real-world test. We won't know if the transportation infrastructure can handle the necessity of everyone getting home quickly. We also won't know how the public will react. Look at the frenzy for food and goods in the supermarkets. Now that we've witnessed it, they can be better prepared to deal with it in the future. We saw the stock markets around the world crash. That was predictable, but to what extent would it happen?

I had a unique situation. I had to get home from France quickly. I was able to change my flight schedule in five minutes online. I booked a shuttle that took me 75 miles to the airport with a notice of only a few hours. I had to use two different cooperating airlines to get home with three checked bags. When my plane landed there was a passenger that wasn't feeling well. They quarantined us on the plane while they treated and screened the passenger, then released us about 30 minutes later when everything checked out. I got home quickly on short notice from the other side of the world without a glitch.

There are many systems they must test, and this virus was the perfect one to use for a fire drill.

• For starters, this virus isn't a serious threat, so if they made mistakes that allowed it to spread the damage was minimal.
• If the public did go into an uncontrolled panic it would be easy for governments to release statements that downgraded the seriousness of the threat to calm people quickly.
• If stock markets around the world plummeted completely out of control it would be easy to release statements that would calm them quickly. You saw the fourth biggest crash in the history of our markets on Thursday, followed by the biggest rally in 12 years the very next day after a few calming statements by the government.
• This is an easy virus to detect and track. So they can easily follow the spread of it worldwide to see how well their measures are working to control it.

The reality is that someday a seriously deadly virus will work its way through our society. For untold years labs around the world have created highly potent viruses that if released publicly could kill many millions of people in a matter of weeks. Terrorists could potentially create a deadly virus, or a natural mutation could occur. We need to be prepared, and a test run would be the only way you could really know how effective we can be in stopping a serious threat.

If this is not a drill, then what happened is pretty scary; media organizations around the world created a self-serving panic that forced governments and organizations worldwide to react in a wildly inappropriate manner. Fortunately, the media can ultimately be controlled by governments and for-profit corporations who are not interested in a global meltdown every time someone sneezes or gets a paper cut, so I expect appropriate measures would be taken to prevent this in the future.

Store shelves are emptying out in western Illinois as well. What I dont understand is why people are buying the stuff without a long shelf life. If a massive outbreak would happen these people would be right back here because the quantities they're buying now will either be depleted or spoiled. I just talked to a pepsi driver at our Macomb Illinois store and he told me our store ordered 9 pallets of soda, Walmart took 17. Walmart will not need another pepsi load for a week and a half. Maybe the cure is Pepsi??

My main concern was that warehouses and distribution centers were going to start closing down causing a lack of freight. And that could potentially still happen I suppose. But at the moment with all the panic buying of toilet paper we actually have more freight than usual for this time of year.

Dave...

Delco now has same the restrictions as montco now. Which means you would need to goto chester county for permit and testing.

She says no meat, chicken, eggs, milk/dairy, Bottled water, frozen veggies, pasta or jarred sauce.

People are in full panic mode in Delco!! They must think they are gonna be locked in there houses for a month.

Cracks me up!! Its a bad chest cold for christ sake

And yes Dave that is exactly what happened.

At least for two weeks. Now your family needs to have food for the two weeks because your kids cant eat at school anymore. So yes thats why everyone is shopping. Ppl in Montco couldn't stock up for these 2 weeks so now they are venturing into other counties and then boom those counties are restricted.

In other words, it got real, time to find solutions. And how you are going to deal wtih this and your trucking future.

In other words, it got real, time to find solutions. And how you are going to deal wtih this and your trucking future.

Well, everything is on hold for at least another 2 weeks beyond my control. The PA DMV offices are closed until April so I cant take the permit tests. Plus, Still waiting on my accountant to officially shut my business down and get all my tax paperwork to prove employment. I’ll get out there eventually