Why Do Some Trucks Have Stuffed Animals On The Front?

One man's trash is a trucker's new hood ornament. It can be quite jarring to see a fuzzy little guy on the grille of a massive, dirty, powerful truck, but the reasons behind a teddy bear or retro figurine being on the front of a large semi-truck (which the trucker may or may not own) are more deep and meaningful than you'd expect. 

The New York Times talked to six truck drivers for a story about the reasons truckers have stuffed animals as hood ornaments. One said that the stuffed animals are meant to represent the driver and their character. This can be as simple as an old plushie that highlights a trucker's personality or a stuffed animal that represents their children. Or it can be more complex: According to Mashable, some cultures believe that hanging toys from a truck can ward off ghosts. 

Sometimes, however, it really isn't that deep. One trucker told the Times that he chose a doll to put on his vehicle because she was pretty, while another said he liked to collect defective figurines that caught his attention. 

These truckers are often doing tough, laborious jobs and just need something cute to latch onto. Kelly Horn, a truck-company owner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, told the newspaper LNP: "It's hard, it's dirty, and they're outside in the elements. It's not like they have a desk where you can put pictures of your family. They are just trying to personalize things and have some fun."

While the responses from truckers across the internet have been pretty straightforward — and some didn't even really know why they did it — some art historians and anthropologists weighed in on some deep meanings behind the plushies. Art-history lecturer Monroe Denton told the New York Times that he feels the practice of plushies on truck grilles comes from putting figures on the bows of ships back in ancient Egypt, a way to humanize the machine (like car hood ornaments of the past). An artist at New York City's Department of Sanitation, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, told the Times that the plushies may represent the workers, who often feel their work is dangerous and use the plushies as a stand-in. 

Some truckers claimed to have rescued the plushies from the dump or similar fates. But Ukeles said that these truckers could be subconsciously ashamed of this softer side of themselves, tying the cute creatures to the grille as a form of punishment. Or could it even be a symbol of the truckers feeling like outsiders — similar to a cute plushie being tied to a powerful truck in a tough environment? Next time you see a trucker with a plushie on the grille, maybe wave and say hello in case they secretly have some feelings of not belonging.