I've worked on loading docks for years and now work in a streets dept and I can tell you from my personal experience over the last 15 years is today there are far too many shitty truck drivers on the road. Simply because companies can't keep up with hiring demands. Those good old boys from the 60s 70s and 80s are gone for the most part.
My grandfather was and my uncles are still trucking but there aren't many of them guys left.
For the last few years in the streets dept almost all the crash damage we're fixing and repairing is from truckers and drunk drivers. Truckers making sharp turns way to quick taking out poles, street signs, and just last week two 40 ft trees right in front of a high school.
Just because someone has a job doesn't mean they automatically earn respect, imo. Whether that job is a trucker, a cop or in the military. Jobs shouldn't equal respect. That being said we do depend on truckers for all of our consuming needs but one way or another corporations will find a way to make sure we all keep consuming.