[zumachase]

Yes, it would absolutely. Purchasing power is (roughly) the ratio of production divided by the money supply. If supply of money goes down, purchasing power goes up and vice versa.

In your example, these truckers have stopped producing goods (services in this case). That means that production has gone down. If the supply of money remains fixed, there is more money chasing fewer goods and services. This drives prices up.

Said another way: if those truckers had less money (or no money) then they wouldn’t be competing with other buyers for goods, and prices would fall (purchasing power increases).

This is an extremely simplistic analogy and ignores other forces such as velocity and trade balances, but illustrates the point.