Just so you don’t find yourself wondering who let the dogs out, this Friday, June 24th is National Take Your Dog To Work Day.
It’s a great idea for dogs and their owners…just not great for every workplace.
Images of dogs fighting, ripping up the boss’s sofa or relieving themselves in office lobbies everywhere come to mind. Certain workplaces not being exactly conducive to canines do as well. Bone clinics, ball factories, nuclear facilities and operating rooms should be avoided.
The worst workplaces to bring a dog to work could fuel an entire season of Seinfeld.
And the best ones, could quite possibly transform an industry. Trucking for starters.
In an industry defined by long hours, solitary work, depressive downtime and a need for healthy physical activity, bringing your dog to work is a big idea.
Dogs were made for truck driving.
As the commercial says, “Dogs love trucks.” They love being with their owners, too.
And the benefits are far, far from one-sided.
Over work, loneliness, stress, and an often-hostile work environment are downsides of trucking that dogs are uniquely qualified to alleviate by providing comfort and companionship.
The Big Benefits of Having a Dog as a Copilot
- If you drive with a dog, you’re not alone. (How’s that for alleviating loneliness?)
- Petting a dog or even gazing into a dog’s eyes releases oxytocin, a stress-reducing hormone.
- When you have a dog, you have to walk them. (A dog can make you exercise when no one else can.)
- Who needs an alarm when you have a security guard with hearing that’s four-times as sensitive as a human’s protecting your truck?
- When motorists see a trucker with a dog, it makes them feel good.
Key Considerations for Bringing a Dog to Work on the Road
So what do you need to know if you’re a trucker with dog or a trucking company that wants to bring the quality-of-work benefits of canine copilots to their workforce?
For starters, some lanes, states and regions are more dog-and-truck friendly than others. Good thing to know, because for all the big benefits of having a pup in your big rig, there are challenges.
Driving with a dog can be a drag when truck stops aren’t good for a walk and a pee—or when hotel owners are downright anti-dog. It can be hard enough finding a safe place to pull over and rest—and even harder to find a dog-friendly one.
We at Trucker Path crowdsourced our driver pool to find the sweetest spots in the country for drivers with dogs based on two simple criteria: the presence of pet-friendly truck stops and hotels. Here is what we found.
Connecticut is the most pet-friendly state for truck drivers.
Trucks may be banned from its beautiful parkways, but drivers still rank Connecticut the most pet-friendly state. Also, there appears to be no correlation between the quality of a state’s roadways and the attractiveness of its offerings for truck dogs. Connecticut ranks an abysmal 33rd overall according to the Reason Foundation’s 2021 ranking of states’ road quality.
According to Trucker Path data, the other pet-friendliest states for truckers are: 2) California, 3) Montana, 4) Virginia and 5) Oregon. No surprise that dogs favor California’s beaches and Montana’s big skies.
In a testament to dogs’ easy-going nature, they don’t seem to care that California and Oregon’s rough roads are ranked down there at 45th and 25th respectively in Reason Foundation’s rankings. The places to live the dog’s life for truckers who like good roads and canines who like good hotels and truck stops appears to be Virginia and Montana, ranked 2nd and 11th respectively in Reason Foundation’s findings.
Who would have thought the Northeast was the pet-friendliest region?
Long haul truckers don’t tend to limit themselves to single states, so looking at the regions by pet-friendliness, is significant…and surprising.
Congested, with a reputation for being a little prickly at times, the Northeast nevertheless warms to pets better than any other region in the U.S. Tri-state roadways are dog-eat-dog, but their hotels and rest stops make up for the traffic and trauma they bring on truckers through their pet-hospitality. Whether you have a layover while you search for a decent-paying backhaul, or want to take find out while you refuel, the Northeast is the North Star of pet-loving amenities and accommodations.
Other regions ranked in this order: 2) Southeast, 3) Midwest, 4) Southwest and 5) West. Why is the West so passive toward pets while the Northeast is so welcoming and attentive? Maybe the East just needs the calming influence of pets more than the laid-back West?
Experience life in the pet-friendly lane on I-95.
It sort of makes sense that the interstate that defines Northeast driving would also be the number one most pet-friendly lane. If there’s any interstate in America where truckers could benefit from the calming influence of a dog, it’s the I-95. Only the therapeutic gaze of a pup has the power to neutralize this interstate’s road-ragers and the corridor’s constant congestion. It’s a drive that man’s best friend was made for. And maybe not-so-coincidentally a roadway with truck stops and hotel accommodations that were made for trucker-dogs.
Trucker Path users ranked the second most pet-friendly lane being the I-10 spanning from sultry Florida to sunny California with miles and miles of desert landscape and pet-friendly accommodations in between. A furry companion has always been a welcome friend on this stretch going back to wagon train days. I-10’s truck stops and hotels seem to understand and open their dog doors wide for pet-owning truckers.
If you’re a driver who wants to take their dog to work every day, there are other pet-friendly lanes to consider. Coming in at #3 in pet-centricity is the I-15 (San Diego to Montana and the Canadian border). #4 is the I-90 (Massachusetts to Montana by way of Chicago and South Dakota). And #5 is the I-75 (North-South from Florida through the Great Lakes).
Appreciate drivers by appreciating their dogs.
They say you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat their dog. The same goes for the way states, trucking companies, communities and hotels treat their trucker dogs.
Companies and communities continue to look for ways to show appreciation to the heroes who move our goods. Showing love to truckers with dogs seems like a good way to reach the 40% of drivers who already bring their dogs to work—and the many more who would bark at the chance.
