"I Want Them to See Us": What Drivers Told Us During Appreciation Week

During National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (September 13–19), we wanted to do more than say thank you.

For every successful Shield authentication completed that week, E3 donated $1 to the St. Christopher Truckers Relief Fund, which supports over-the-road drivers who can't work because of illness or injury. We also used the moment to ask drivers one question:

"What's one thing you wish brokers, shippers, or the public understood about being a driver?"

Some answers were a few words long. Some were deeply personal. Drivers wrote about time, safety, family, cost, and the parts of life on the road that the rest of the freight industry rarely sees.

This isn't a survey or a list of complaints aimed at any one part of the industry. It's what drivers chose to tell us when we gave them an open line. Here's what we heard.

Time means something different from the driver's seat

If one idea tied the responses together, it was time: waiting, driving, resting, and being away from home. Time to safely move an 80,000-pound vehicle through traffic. Time lost to the unexpected things that happen between pickup and delivery.

"Sleep is currency."

"Honestly a driver's time and efforts."

Most of us see freight through appointments, milestones, and delivery windows. For a driver, time is personal. Several people described the pressure of delivering safely and on schedule while conditions change mid-trip. Others wrote about what time away from family actually costs.

Safety shapes every mile

Drivers kept returning to something most of us never think about: what it takes to operate a commercial vehicle alongside everyday traffic. Cars cutting in close. Fatigue. Governed speeds. The need to focus without interruption.

One response was just two words.

"Stopping distance."

Respecting a driver's time and safety isn't separate from building a better freight experience. It's the foundation of it. That means clear information, realistic expectations, and being deliberate about when we ask for a driver's attention.

The work is deeply human

Some of the most memorable responses had nothing to do with technology or operations. They were about family, about weeks away from home, missed moments with kids, and the exhaustion that comes with keeping the country supplied.

"It's not an easy job."

"Us drivers make it look easy because we are good at what we do."

One driver wrote at length. The heart of the message wasn't about money or rates:

"We left our family for days, for months, just so we can keep America moving… I want brokers, dispatchers, warehouses to see us."

Of everything we heard, that's the line we keep coming back to. Freight gets measured in loads, miles, and service levels. Behind every one of those numbers is a person doing the physical work. Efficiency matters, and so does remembering who's inside the workflow.

Trust has to run both ways

Drivers raised fair questions about sharing personal information digitally, and we take that seriously.

For a broker or shipper, authentication answers a critical question: is the person arriving for my freight who they say they are? For a driver, there's an equally reasonable one: who am I giving my information to, and why?

Both questions deserve answers. Good technology should give them. Security and driver trust should reinforce each other, through clear communication, careful handling of data, a simple process, and support that's easy to reach.

What we're carrying forward

Our customers are the brokers and shippers who move freight. Drivers are the people who make that movement happen. Six principles from this week will shape how we build:

1. Respect the driver's time. Be intentional about every step and request we put in front of someone moving a load.
2. Design for the realities of the road. Driver-facing tools should account for when and how a driver can safely engage.
3. Make clarity the default. The right information at the right moment prevents friction for drivers and the teams supporting them.
4. Build trust alongside security. Authentication works best when the people completing it understand why and feel confident in it.
5. Make support easy to reach. When something goes wrong, the path to help should be obvious.
6. Listen beyond the transaction. Driver feedback tells us things completion rates never will.

To every driver who completed an authentication, shared a thought, asked a question, or just kept freight moving this week: thank you. And thank you to Sage Freight, Direct Traffic Solutions, and VP Logistics for standing beside this campaign.

We heard you. We're going to keep listening.

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Driver quotes are reproduced as written from messages received September 13–21, 2026, and are not attributed to any broker or shipper account.