The T-shirt you're wearing, the soda you're drinking and the textbooks in your bookbag have one commonality: semitrailers.
In all likelihood, each of those items, along with many other products you come in contact with daily, arrived at the store by truck. Even on campus, trucks are frequently found dropping off supplies for Dining Service and making other deliveries that are vital to the operation of the university.
Despite that, trucks and those who drive them tend to be overlooked as people become more cut off from the process of turning raw materials into products on store shelves.
However, if the current truck shortage reported by the American Trucking Association does not reverse, everyone could start noticing truckers a lot more - because those products might never make it to the shelves.
According to the American Trucker's Association, job turnover and a lack of people entering the profession have led to a current shortage of 20,000 drivers. And the shortage is expected to increase by more than five times by 2014.
This is a problem not just for the truckers but for those of us who rely - even if we don't realize it - on truckers to bring us the things we need.
Even in this era of technological advancements, products have to get from Point A to Point B somehow, and currently trucks are the best way to make that happen. In fact, the trucking industry hauled about 9.8 billion tons of freight in 2004, and the projected number for a decade from now is 13 billion tons.
But without enough drivers to move that freight, you don't get the goods you need when you want them - or when you need them.
Of course, Congress and business leaders are the people with the power to change this system and help improve conditions so the industry can recover from the shortage. There's not much students can do at the moment. However, there is one thing.
Students can appreciate the products that arrive in Muncie every day for their consumption. They can consider the international network of businesses, jobs, services - and people - that makes their lives possible. They can realize that even the smallest ripple on one end of the production chain can cause tidal waves in terms of the convenience with which they live their lives.
It's all connected, and situations like the trucker shortage affect each of us.
So, the next time you pass a trucker on your drive home, take a second to consider how he's making your life easier - and maybe try not to cut him off.
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