Trucking is one of the most misunderstood careers I know of. It’s our own fault. For the most part, we truckers are to blame. We continually post very misleading information all over the internet. How is it that so many of us don’t really understand the vital dynamics of our own industry?
I really enjoy helping people understand the path to success as a trucker. I find it really disturbing when I see people, genuinely interested in a trucking career, only confusing themselves further when trying to research making a start in our career. It’s part of my nature to want to help others succeed. I find that natural tendency of mine to be in high demand almost daily.
Let me give you an example…
Recently while doing some shopping at a Wal-Mart, I noticed the young couple, with two small children, waiting in line behind me as I was checking out. They had this look on their faces as though they wanted to speak to me. I was wearing one of the many shirts I’ve been given by my employer, Knight Transportation. Of course, it was emblazoned with their logo, and apparently it had caught their attention.
This young wife was curious enough to ask me if I drove for Knight. Once I had confirmed their suspicions, she confided in me their concerns about her husband’s recent entrance into trucking. He was struggling, and they were convinced it was because of the company that he started with. They were feeling like they were being taken advantage of, being treated unfairly, and not getting paid enough. Does that sound familiar? I can’t escape this stuff. It searches me out, even at my local Wal-Mart!
I gladly spoke with them for a few minutes, but I could tell I hadn’t convinced them they could do better right where they were. They had started with Schneider, a well established company with many successful drivers. They were focused on the fact that they weren’t getting enough miles. For them that was the company’s fault. They mostly wanted to know, “How many miles is Knight giving you?” It’s just a complete misunderstanding about this career. It’s not that one company can or will give you the miles you need while the others can’t or simply just refuse to.
Trucking is a performance based business. That is a long and well established fact, yet very few people seem to understand the ramifications of that. When discussing the problems with this career the current trend is to lay the blame at “big trucking companies” and their evil plans to take advantage of young ignorant rookies. The predominant theory is that they do this with low wages and restricting their ability to turn the big miles. Any serious minded person contemplating these issues would have to see the error of this idea. It makes no sense. The whole idea is based on the false notion that these companies don’t want to pay out a lot of wages to their employees.
The truth is that they want their drivers making good money. What better way is there to keep great employees on board? They understand that completely. Trust me, they need to keep great people moving freight in those trucks. Of course no business can afford to pay its employees more than they produce. That brings us right back to this whole idea of the trucking business being “performance based.” Drivers get paid based on how much they produce. That’s why we get “paid by the mile.” Trucking companies make money by how much freight they can move - the more the better! This all flies in the face of these claims saying these trucking companies are keeping their driver’s miles low so they can keep their wages low. Actually they want us turning all the miles we legally can. That’s how they make money.
Almost daily I see people struggling with decisions on how and where to make their start in a new trucking career. Some of them have been doing research for months. They organize spreadsheets and lists of priorities that they keep changing and adjusting based on whatever random complaints or unique compliments they just happened to read online that week. They don’t have a clue whether any of these people actually know what they are talking about, but they take their words with authority and make vain adjustments to their spreadsheets accordingly.
I recently watched a person show us his latest list of companies that he wanted to apply to. He had them categorized as his “top choices” and then two other subcategories that indicated the less desirable choices that he might have to consider if the “best ones” didn’t work out for some reason. It wasn’t long into the conversation before he decided to reshuffle his list because he heard how well someone in our forum was doing at one of his less desirable choices. One simple comment gave him reason to analyze things again and make needful adjustments to his list of prioritized considerations. That is tiring, wearisome, and confusing. That’s no way to make a good start at this.
Would you allow me to offer you a better way to make a great start at your new trucking career? I have actual experience at this struggle, and you might be able to consider me an expert when I tell you how I know this incredibly positive way to achieve success as a rookie truck driver. I made all the same mistakes when I wanted to get into trucking. I covered all the trucking forums and read all the nonsense. I took in and digested all the trucking commentary as best I could.
I took all that worthless information and formulated my top choices of companies. I was confident they could set me up for success. Lo and behold, none of them would have me. They all “had better applicants to choose from.” What? That’s right. Me, an ideal candidate in my own mind, rejected by all the top companies I had researched for months. What was wrong with these corporate nut jobs? I was sure I was destined to be the perfect trucker.
I ended up starting my very successful trucking career at Western Express. Everywhere I looked on the internet said, “Don’t just walk away from this company - you need to run!” That just goes to show you how much bogus information we truckers put out. It’s like a non-stop river that can’t be dammed up. It is out of control. I fight an information war almost daily. That’s why you can just wear yourself out trying to gather helpful information on this career. Most of it just doesn’t make sense. Truckers succeed based on their own performance. There’s that nagging word again - “performance.” It will dog you for your entire trucking career. You might as well embrace it.
I determined that I would be the most productive driver Western Express had ever seen. I did that by being committed to the actions that would serve their needs for revenues, and making sure I was proactive in giving my support staff in the office the communication they needed to keep me consistently planned with loads. How do you do those things?
Make sure you are willing to run whatever loads they give you.
Make sure you are easy to work with.
Don’t argue and complain with your dispatcher.
Figure out how to always be on time, or better yet be early.
Don’t hit anything.
Master the H.O.S rules and manage your clock efficiently.
Provide accurate ETA’s (estimated time of arrival) and PTA’s (projected time of availability) to your dispatcher so they have plenty of time to get your next load scheduled.
There you have it. That was my strategy, and it works at every trucking company out there. It won’t matter what name is on the doors of your truck. Any rookie driver who can master that list will come out on top, There’s no ambiguity and no confusion when you attack the challenges in this career with that approach. Throw your spreadsheet in the trash. You don’t have to re-prioritize any lists again. This is a master list that will see you through the conflict. Each item on that list is on the driver. There’s no reason to try and make sure you are at the “right company” to set yourself up for success. It’s all “performance based.” There’s that phrase again, you might as well get used to it!
