Trucking industry in popular culture (United States)

The portrayal of the trucking industry in United States popular culture spans the depictions of trucks and truck drivers, as images of the masculine side of trucking are a common theme. The portrayal of drivers ranges from the heroes of the 1950s, living a life of freedom on the open road, to the depiction of troubled serial killers of the 1990s. Songs and movies about truck drivers were first popular in the 1940s, and mythologized their wandering lifestyle in the 1960s. Truck drivers were glorified as modern day cowboys, outlaws, and rebels during the peak of trucker culture in the 1970s.

During the latter portion of the 20th century, the trucking industry's image began to wane, and their reputation suffered. More recent portrayals of truckers have been as male chauvinists or serial killers. Portrayals of the actual semi-trailer trucks has largely concentrated on stories of the machines becoming sentient, or self-aware, usually with extraterrestrial assistance.

In the early days of trucking culture, truck drivers were more frequently portrayed as protagonists in the popular media. In Trucking country: The road to America's Wal-Mart economy, author Shane Hamilton explores the history of trucking and how developments in the trucking industry helped the so-called big-box stores dominate the U.S. marketplace.

The 1940 film They Drive by Night co-starred Humphrey Bogart as an independent truck driver struggling to become economically independent during the Great Depression.The Gang's All Here was a story about a trucking company targeted by saboteurs, released in 1941.

In the 1950s, truck drivers were considered the "Knights of the Road" for helping stranded travelers. Drivers were viewed as the antithesis of "The Organization Man" (the title of William H. Whyte's 1956 bestseller) or "the man in the gray flannel suit", who sat in an office every day or was watched over by managers. Popular trucking songs glorified the life of drivers as independent "wanderers", while attempts to bring factory-style efficiency (using tachographs) to trucking were met with little success. Drivers routinely sabotaged and discovered new ways to falsify the machine's records.

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