Alabama Trucking Sings the Praises of America's 3.6 Million Truck Drivers this Appreciation Week

From the Alabama Trucking Association

September 14

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For the second consecutive year, the Alabama Trucking Association is celebrating National Truck Driver Appreciation Week by collaborating with the Alabama-based band, Heroes of the Highway, to produce a new anthem. The new single, "Get Miles," hits all streaming platforms this week, honoring the millions of professional drivers who keep America's freight — and its highways — moving. The corresponding music video can be streamed directly from getmilessong.com.

America has long had a love affair with the open road. For more than a century, one American hero stands tall among those who’ve made their mark on the nation's highways and byways.

The great American truck driver symbolizes grit and determination in delivering the American Dream to everyone. Professional drivers spend days and weeks on end moving the goods and supplies that sustain our way of life, earning their living in service to others and the country and communities they love.

This week is when we show gratitude and build support for the 3.6 million professional men and women who not only deliver our goods safely, securely, and on time, but also keep our highways safe. It’s often a thankless job. That’s why our industry sets aside one week every year to remind the world (and ourselves), to thank the lifeblood of our industry and our economy.

But for Alabama Trucking, we believe gratitude must be matched with action.

Celebrating our drivers one week a year means little if we're not also doing real work, every other week, to protect their profession — their safety, their earning power, and the public trust they've earned through decades of showing up and doing the job at a higher level.

That's why we're fighting to eliminate the bad actors who make our jobs tougher, less lucrative, and who erode public confidence in our professionalism, training and experience.

We’re also celebrating with art and music. Our new song, “Get Miles,” is a stylistic departure from last year’s “Highway Dreaming,” and leans more toward early-2000s post-grunge, fueled by driving guitars, soaring vocals, and splashy drums that deliver more edge and power.

This time around, the narrative follows the former career-changing new truck driver hero described in the verses of “Highway Dreaming” to their transition into a seasoned pro trucker, totally locked in, hitting the road, and finally getting the miles and money they deserve – while loving every minute of it, “mile after mile.”

The band behind it is the same one that built “Highway Dreaming” from scratch: Will Stewart on lead vocals and guitar, Les Nuby handling lead guitar, bass and drums (and engineering and mixing the whole thing), and Ford Boswell on backing vocals, credited alongside Stewart as co-songwriter.

The song leans into the open road as therapy, “southern hills to western skies,” a “Pilot sign shining bright” on a lonely stretch, the particular kind of peace a driver finds once the wheels are turning and the miles start stacking up.

We're not just thanking truckers this week in song, printing T-shirts and swag, or buying their lunch – of course, all of that is an important way to show gratitude. We're thinking of the long game with real results for real heroes. We work every day to build an industry that protects, supports and celebrates professional truck drivers all year long.

When you see a truck driver this week, or any week, take a moment to say “thanks.” And know that behind that "thank you," an entire industry is working to make sure it's well deserved and sustainable.

"Get Miles" is now streaming on all platforms, right in step with the start of this year's Truck Driver Appreciation Week.

Alabama is one of America’s top states for the trucking industry, which is made up of 34,000 trucking companies and 125,000 working Alabamians representing 1 in 13 jobs in the state. Since 1938, the Alabama Trucking Association has served the needs and promoted Alabama’s trucking industry through advocacy, training, and the successful implementation of programs including the ATA Comp Fund, Safety & Maintenance Management Council, TRUK PAC, and the Alabama Trucking Foundation. Alabama Trucking is a proud member of the 50-state Federation of the American Trucking Associations, the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. For more information, visit https://www.alabamatrucking.org