Survey: Owner-Operators Consider Taking Pets to Work a Key Benefit

In honor of National Take Your Pet to Work Week, Truckstop.com surveyed independent owner-operators that use the company’s load board about their pets and found that taking their pet on the road was a key benefit of their profession.

In a survey, Truckstop.com found that 56% travel with their pets on the road more often than not, with 66% of those respondents saying it’s for companionship and 19% saying it’s for emotional support.  

Additional findings show that most truck drivers surveyed that take their pets on the road (54%) said they would reconsider their profession if they could not take their pet with them on the road. Truck drivers who bring their pet on the road for emotional support are most likely to reconsider their profession if they couldn’t travel with their pets (64%).

Mary and Johnny Gaskins’ Yellow Labrador, Oscar, was recused from the trash outside of a breakfast restaurant in Vanceboro, North Carolina, when he was six-weeks old. 

“It was love at first sight, and I couldn’t believe someone could do such a thing to an innocent puppy,” said Mary Gaskins. “We take him everywhere – he has improved our way of life. When you’re on the road, it’s stressful and you’re sitting for hours on end. Oscar forces me to get out of the truck while at rest stops and walk and helps ease the stress brought on by what can be a very stressful job. We may have saved him, but it turns out he saved us.”

Pet-friendly Areas for Truck Drivers

Trucker Path crowdsourced their driver pool of over 1 million active users 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.

Below is a list of states, lanes and regions that are more dog-and-truck friendly than others:

Most Pet-Friendly Regions for Truck Drivers

1.      Northeast
2.      Southeast
3.      Midwest
4.      Southwest
5.      West

Most Pet-Friendly States for Truck Drivers

1.      Connecticut
2.      California
3.      Montana
4.      Virginia
5.      Oregon

Most Pet-Friendly Trucking Lanes

1.      I-95
2.      I-10
3.      I-15
4.      I-90
5.      I-75