Truckers boycotting New York City doesn’t target the judicial system in New York, and it doesn’t directly affect the politicians. Instead, the boycott targets New Yorkers. New Yorkers are the quintessential “F—k around and find out” people. You want to bring that type of energy to the table against New Yorkers? Fuhgeddaboutit. In their response to every threat, New Yorkers have shown themselves to be some of the toughest SOBs in the world. More importantly, September 11 showed how New Yorkers come together in the face of tragedy and hard times. They don’t have to fight to win; they can love in solidarity. In fact, that may be the city’s and its citizen’s greatest strength.

Supply Lines and COVID

During the COVID-19 lock-downs and their after effects, Americans learned more about supply lines than they ever wanted to know. While some businesses have already forgotten those lessons by returning to Just-in-Time inventory management, you can be sure New York has not. The lessons that the city and state learned during the pandemic will be put to use if a trucker boycott were to disrupt the supply chain. New York already has some powerful tools in its arsenal to combat a lack of distributive power.

The National Guard

One solution the governor may decide to use is the National Guard. The military organization can be called out in times of emergencies, and it has a lot of people who can drive large vehicles. The Guard can be sent to where the loads are left, pick them up, and bring them into the city. If the stores getting the shipments pay the same amount to the National Guard that they would pay to the ordinary delivery company, it may not even cost the state of New York much to put this plan into action.

Port of New York and New Jersey

New York, in partnership with New Jersey, has the largest port for importing oil and the third largest port for importing containers. In this case, boats could bring the needed supplies into the port. Even if there are no big rigs available to pick up those containers, New York has possible solutions. The port is already connected to a railway system. Load those trains up, boys.

If times got desperate, they could employ drivers in box trucks or even go with an UberEats-style delivery and pick up. It wouldn’t be efficient, but it would open jobs to more people. You don’t need a CDL to drive a box truck. Again, businesses receiving the deliveries could pay the drivers of the vehicles rather than their regular shipping companies.

Long Term Effects

Necessity is the mother of invention. If the boycott were to drag on, New Yorkers would innovate new ways and reinvent old ways of getting goods to where they need to be. This is the city that built the tallest building in the world at a time when it was dangerous to do so. New Yorkers know how to get creative. Railways may become more prevalent. Drones might become more proficient. Robots and artificial intelligence will be advanced into doing the heavy lifting and delivery. No one can predict the actual way New Yorkers will fill in the gaps. However, once New York lights the way, other states will follow. Whatever they do will get passed on to other areas where there is no trucking boycott. The demand for trucking services will decline, possibly on a worldwide scale.

Boycotting Vs. Striking

The average salary for driving a semi is about $120,000 a year. When a trucker, or a group of truckers boycott some place, they don’t get paid that money. A boycott is not a strike. The Teamsters may support a strike, but unions, typically labelled socialist, don’t generally support boycotts. Truckers would lose their income, which they likely can’t afford to do.

More importantly, trucking companies will simply adjust their schedules. Businesses do not want to lose the revenue that New York City generates for them. If a driver doesn’t want to go to the Big Apple, the trucking company could simply find another driver, one who doesn’t support the Big Orange, and send that trucker and the shipment. It a simple capitalist transaction.

Moreover, a trucking company could threaten workplace sanctions against truckers refusing to deliver loads. This could include fewer runs, resulting in less pay. If one trucking company boycotts New York, another will step in to take its place and the profits from those deliveries. Businesses are geared to short-term profits, and they don’t want to lose any revenue, especially not for political purposes.

A Successful Boycott

In order for the boycott to be successful, truckers would have to take a page from the French. They would need to drive their rigs to the outskirts of New York City and park them on the roads, besieging the city like an ancient army taking on a castle. They would need to cut off the ports and remove the river from the equation. They would then need to find a way to control the skies. Prices would skyrocket, and the people would rise up and demand Trump be allowed to work in the city and not be fined.

Unfortunately, as many protestors on the left find out, blocking a road for any reason is against the law and can result in police action that includes impounding of vehicles, getting hit with batons and/or pepper sprayed, possible use of fire engine water cannons, and being put in jail for an unspecified amount of time.

Other Unintended Consequences

Even if the boycott is likely to be unsuccessful, for numerous reasons mentioned above and also including an actually lack of commitment to the cause, taking big rigs off the road for any length of time would be a win for the environment. It would be an even bigger win if it results in a better way to deliver goods.