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Shopping for Truckers? The Best Gifts for Truck Drivers
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Perhaps you are considering getting awesome gifts for truck drivers, but you seem to be running out of the ideas for gifts that will be truly worth the effort. Getting a gift for anyone can be a tasking activity as you never know what the person will appreciate, and it even becomes even more difficult when the individual is a truck driver who spends the better part of their time on the road. Whether the person is a dear friend, sibling, parent, or spouse, we have the perfect ideas for the best gifts you can get for truck drivers.
Tips For Getting The Perfect Gifts For Truck Drivers
Before heading to any stores or going online to shop for gifts for truckers, there are a few tips you should know. These tips will ensure that your efforts are not wasted as you will be able to get the best-personalized gifts for each person. These valuable tips for getting the perfect gifts for truck drivers include:
- Whatever gift/s you decide to get for truck drivers must be functional. In other words, the gifts must be helpful in their day-to-day movement from one place to another. The gifts must either ensure their safety or make their life easier.
- Take your time to know what they need or like. This should be done without letting them know that you are about to gift them whatever they like or need.
- Do not settle for the first deals you see when you finally know what you want to buy, check out different deals and get the ones that offer the best value. To get the perfect truck driver gifts with the best value, you should consider buying during special events or at the end of the season when the item is normally sold.
- Do not dispose of your receipt until you are confident that the recipient likes or needs the gifts. If they do not want or need the gifts, you may be able to exchange them if you still have the receipts.
Awesome Truck Driver Gifts
First Aid Kit For truck drivers who may be behind the wheel for several hours, safety should always come first, and this is why the first gift on this list is a first aid kit. Burns and minor cuts can occur in places where there is not quick access to a medical facility, so keeping a first aid kit in the truck can be a lifesaver. When getting a first aid kit, a few of the essential items that should be included inside the kit are: medical tape, bandages, antiseptic, burn ointment, gauze, aspirin and other essential medications.
GPS or App for Truck Route
Nowadays, there are a handful of apps and GPS models whose primary function is to provide information on height clearance, maps of various places, and routes that have been prohibited for trucks. By using a truck route app or GPS device, your truck driving loved one can always reach their destination quickly without encountering any avoidable obstacles. This is because the device would have provided all the critical information on their route.
Truck Atlas
Although truck route GPS and apps are useful gifts for truck drivers, their uses are sometimes limited. What would a truck driver do in remote areas with dead zones that are impossible for truck route app or GPS to recognize? In such cases, a truck atlas comes in handy as it can be readily consulted for directions in remote areas. So, getting a truck atlas as a gift for truck drivers is still ideal in this digital era although they will soon be irrelevant as technology gets better and better.
Tire Pressure Monitor
If you are looking to get something that will keep the driver safe and save them money, you should look into getting them a tire pressure monitor. A tire pressure monitor can prevent premature wear and tear of the tire, having your tires properly inflated will make the truck more fuel efficient (throughout the many miles that they spend on the road, this gift will more than pay for itself). Therefore, a tire pressure monitor should be one of the first gifts you should look at when buying a gift for your friend, spouse or sibling truck driver.
XM Satellite Radio
No matter how passionate a driver is about truck driving, there are times when boredom becomes inevitable. In such situations, truck drivers can find solace in using XM satellite radio. They can use the device to listen to news, music and other exciting programs that can keep them going for hours.
Truck Mattress
Though sleeping inside a truck can never be compared to sleeping in the comfort of a hotel and especially not your bed, a truck mattress can make the experience of sleeping inside a truck less painful. Truck mattresses are specially designed to offer comfort to truck drivers anywhere they have to spend the night. However, unless you know exactly what kind of mattress the truck driver likes, it will be more reasonable to provide a gift card from a reliable mattress manufacturer instead of going out and purchasing the mattress yourself. The truck driver can use the gift card to buy the specific mattress type they prefer.
Electric Blanket
Sleeping inside a truck on those chilly days in the winter can be very uncomfortable especially if it's freezing out, but an electric blanket can be helpful to warm up the bed and provide heat. There are two different options for an electric blanket in the truck. You can either go for a battery-operated blanket or one with 12 volts that can be charged seamlessly with the battery of the truck.
Daily Organizer and Planner
Fuel consumption, miles by state, interstate fuel tax, and other elements are some of the many basic things truck drivers keep track of during their journey on a daily basis. Daily organizers encourage tracking of these items and provide a useful place for everything to be jotted down, so they are great gifts for truckers.
Portable Safe
From cash to money orders, phones and checks, there are various valuables that truck drivers usually need to travel with. Nonetheless, without proper and safe storage, these valuables will be at the mercy of thieves whenever the driver leaves the truck. This being the case, giving them a portable safe as a gift will save them from losing any of his valuables.
Customized Mud Flaps
What better way for a truck driver to add some personality to his/her truck than to get their very own customized mud flaps. While these don't necessarily have the same utility as some of the other gifts listed here, they are still a great gift for a truck driver; not to mention that you hardly ever see other trucks sporting their own original mud flap designs. Based on your knowledge of the trucker, you can select colors, logos, and phrases to be displayed on the mud flaps. Whatever customization you do, you should ensure that it suits the taste of the driver.
Audio Book Subscription
The best way to alleviate boredom on the road (without being a distracted driver that is) would be to listen to an audiobook. By getting a truck driver an audiobook subscription, they can enjoy hours of listening to books of their choosing. Many audiobook services offer hundreds of thousands of options for them to pick from meaning that they'll have endless amounts of things to listen to. They may even learn a thing or two from the audiobooks.
USB Converter or Power Inverter
Staying connected to family and friends through phones, tablets, and other devices even when behind the wheels is important, but charging on the go is sometimes very difficult for many truck drivers. In such difficult situations, USB converters or power inverters can be practical truck driver gifts. Before gifting a trucker a USB converter or power inverter, you should check whether their truck has devices for charging mobile devices or not.
Fast Food Gift Cards
There are times when the only thing truckers have at their disposal to eat are a few quick bites from a fast food chain. Hence, giving them fast food gift cards can be really useful too. All you need here is to be certain of which fast food chain they enjoy the most so that they can appreciate your well-thought-out gift.
Toiletries
If your truck driver already has many of the previously mentioned gifts for truck drivers, you may want to buy them toiletries to make sure that they stay clean and fresh while on the road. A few of the items you should consider include soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, shaving razors, shaving cream, shampoo, brush, comb, laundry bag, towel, washcloth, deodorant, bathrobe, and shower shoes.
Portable Refrigerator
Various models of portable refrigerators can fit into a truck and allow a trucker to eat healthy foods whenever they want. Not only will a portable fridge save the time of truckers, but it will also make their life easier. Therefore, it is one of the ideal gifts for truckers.
Other wonderful truck driver gifts include a personalized coffee mug, compact microwave, customized keychain, recipe booklet, or a slow cooker.
Do You Have Other Ideas for Trucker Gifts?
Like the popular adage says “what is worth doing is worth doing well”, your well thought out gifts for truck drivers will be worth the time, money and effort spent if you can get them something they will truly appreciate. Take your time to check out the gifts listed above and think about the specific needs and tastes of the drivers before buying any of them.
Noel Ballon
Noel Ballon is a skilled personal finance writer passionate about helping people to succeed financially.
As a guest writer for CASH 1, Noel has shared his knowledge on a variety of financial issues, including budgeting, saving, investing, and retirement planning
Noel has a background in economics and finance with over five years of experience writing in the financial sector.
He works to simplify complicated financial ideas so that people from every area of society may understand them.
When Noel isn't writing, he likes keeping current on the latest financial sector changes and looking for fresh approaches to assisting people in choosing wise financial decisions.