Finally - My Book Is Available!

After much work, I have finished my first book about the trucking career. I worked hard on it, and had a lot of help from people who were beta readers and editors.  In the end I still wasn't satisfied with it. I took a rest from it for almost a year. I didn't look at it or hardly even thought about it during that break. Then I went back and read it through, making careful notes about parts of it that just didn't seem right. Maybe they seemed hurried, or just didn't seem to flow right, or feel right, as I was reading it. I made changes and I can say that I am happy with the whole project now. I did not resort to using AI while writing this book. It is all hammered out using my own thoughts.

I am sure there is room for improvement, but I finally decided that it would never get published if I waited until I thought it was perfect. Writing is tough for me. I want to make sure the material is interesting, informative, and compelling. I want to be helpful. I want to teach things in a way that people understand and enjoy learning. That is a tall order! Sometimes it is easy to think we are clear and entertaining. We tend to think our own work is good and pleasant. That is not true when writing. What appeals to some may not be so appealing to another.

I want to thank my beta readers for their great suggestions. Also, my editor was extremely helpful with so many things. I can never thank my wife enough for her willingness to let me wander all across this great country doing what I do. She prefers being at home, and probably prefers me being there too. Her forbearance is invaluable in our relationship.

The process is over for now. As of now the book is available as an e-book at the Kindle Store on Amazon. I will soon have a print copy available, but am not sure when that will be finalized. For now, if anyone is interested, you can find it by clicking this link. Happy reading!

Hit The Road

RISK VERSUS REWARD - THE ART OF PRIORITIZING

I was waiting on some repairs to my truck in our Olive Branch, MS terminal recently when I heard a very distressed driver raising his voice with his dispatcher on the phone. He was based out of another terminal, but was picking up an MT trailer in Olive Branch. This was his problem...

He had a hard deadline to be at the shipper in Memphis, TN. He was literally twenty minutes away from the shipper and he had to be there in one hour. He found an MT, but it had a flat tire that he wanted to get repaired before going to get loaded. He took it to the shop and they informed him it would be about two hours before they could get to it. They were busy, and that is understandable. They had tried to be kind and gentle with the driver, but he wasn't having it. He insisted that he needed priority over whatever it was they were doing - he had a hard appointment to meet. The first lesson here is...

As drivers, we cannot let our ego make us think we are more important than everyone else out here trying to get things accomplished on the road. We are all doing the same job with the same stress. We have to chill and figure out how to manage our careers without putting ourselves into cardiac arrest every time something seems to be hindering us. We have to be adaptive, flexible, and creative. In a nutshell, we have to be adults who can deal with our own problems while working within the parameters of this sometimes challenging career.

He was quite animated and loud on the phone. Occasionally he gave me an almost pleading look, as if he wanted me to help him convince his DM to make a phone call on his behalf. He was convinced it would only help his cause if the DM would call the shop manager and explain how his driver was under a tremendous amount of pressure, and needed them to drop everything and fix his tire. I swear, he would get off the phone with the DM, let out a deep sigh, and then call him right back again. (Three times in a row) All he was doing was repeating himself with heavy moans and groans. He sounded like a spoiled child demanding his way. He wasn't even trying to come up with a solution. He was just making ridiculous demands.

I hate to say this, but I was not sympathetic. I have never called my DM about a flat tire. What can he do about it? Nothing. Besides, he has a lot of drivers like this one, keeping him on the phone unnecessarily. Okay, he finally got me into a conversation, and here is what I found out. His tire wasn't even flat. It just had a nail in it. He didn't like that and wanted it changed before he went over to get loaded twenty minutes away. The second lesson here is...

Learn to evaluate risk and reward. We have a ton of grey areas in trucking. We have to make our own choices and decisions everyday. Many of those decisions affect our results. Those results affect our pay. We get paid for what we accomplish. Therefore, we need to make decisions that help us be efficient.

This driver was insistent that everyone drop what they are doing to serve his needs. That is very inefficient. First off, each of them is trying to do his job efficiently. Constant interruptions by a demanding driver breaks up their efficiency. The driver trying to force everyone to change to his plan is very inefficient for the driver too. If he doesn't realize by now that this approach doesn't work, he still has a lot to learn about how to succeed in this career.

I tried to explain to him what I would do in this situation. I would take the trailer and go get loaded. I've driven fully loaded trailers with nails in the tires before. I've done it a lot of times. I have pulled a lot of nails out of tires only to find they weren't even causing any air to leak out. I still remember finding a screw in a tire that I decided to back out with a nut driver. As I backed the screw out, I began to hear the familiar hiss of air leaking. I just screwed it back in, made my delivery, and then contacted "break down." They told me where to go to get the tire fixed. It was all very efficient, and I was not stranded somewhere stressing myself out.

His tire was holding pressure. He admitted that to me. Still, he seemed to have a need for the drama he was creating with the shop people and his DM. It is all so silly, but it made him feel important. I see a lot of us truck drivers behaving this way. It is so counter productive, but many of us will even brag about this type of behavior. Why are we like that?

We need to be problem solvers. This situation could have been easily resolved. Go get loaded and bring the trailer back to the terminal. The customer was twenty minutes away. I was bewildered as I returned to my truck. I couldn't help this driver see a simple solution. I get so frustrated witnessing cringe worthy episodes like this. Unfortunately they are all too common in this career.

Take charge of your careers my friends - prioritize safety and productivity.

CAN I MAKE MORE MONEY BY LEASING A TRUCK?

 This question finds its way into most new truck driver’s minds at one point or another. It's no wonder why it does. We work hard at this job. We make considerable sacrifices unheard of in most careers. When it comes to rookies just getting started, many of us seem a little disappointed with our pay. This lifestyle of being alone most of the time tends to limit our conversation to that of other truck drivers. We may end up parked at a terminal for a few days and hear our fellow road warriors complaining about their situation, or in some cases telling us how they have figured out some super secret way to beat the odds at trucking. That is typically when we hear these outlandish claims of making big money. I have actually heard guys claiming to make as much as eight thousand dollars per week!

Now that will get your attention! You just got a paycheck for $1,200.00. Here’s a guy, not particularly appearing as anything special, yet he just got a paycheck for $8,000.00. There’s something wrong with this picture! Yes there certainly is, so let’s talk a little about what is actually wrong. Hopefully I can help you out.

Lease operators don’t actually get a paycheck. That’s right. They are not even on the payroll of the company. Anybody leasing a truck who tells you how much his paycheck came to is “looney tunes.” The company never cuts him a paycheck. That is a very important fact for you to realize. A lease operator is a contractor. They get paid a contract price on each load. They do not receive a paycheck.

So, what are these big fat checks we hear about? You have to realize the propensity of these new lease operators to be unrealistically enamored with their new found way of making money. At first everything seems all shiny and new, much like a freshly minted penny. They have yet to get into the real give and take of the business. The checks they get are revenue checks. Their lease lays out all the parameters of how they get paid. It spells out their responsibilities and how they will be compensated. They are responsible for the expenses of running and maintaining the truck. It usually takes less than a year before those expenses take the shine off that new penny.

All that big money they brag about is to cover their expenses. They are now running a one truck operation. The dollars coming in to a lease operator are simply their share of the revenues they produce with the truck. It’s not even closely related to a paycheck. That’s how I knew the guy who foolishly thought I would believe he was making eight thousand dollars a week had no clue about what he was doing. Any driver claiming he is making that kind of money is not only lying to you, but sadly they are also lying to themselves.

The whole reason trucking companies lease their trucks is because it is profitable. In fact it is often more profitable than a company truck with a paid employee in the driver’s seat. So think about that for a minute. How does the driver make more money when it is likely the company is turning a better profit by leasing the truck to the driver? Can you conceive of any reason a business would encourage its employees to become private contractors just so they could pay them a lot more money? That goes against every common sense business principle there is. The whole ploy of leasing trucks to unsuspecting drivers is a gimmick. It's a way to lure people into a trap that seems to offer some really great bait. Those big numbers on those checks are the bait.

Businesses make decisions and choices to produce outcomes that are more profitable for them. Forcing the wildly unpredictable expense of running and maintaining their trucks onto private contractors gives them control over their costs. If they can control their expenses, they can accurately forecast their profits.  The lease operator sees some big checks coming his way, but he also has to maintain those big expenses he agreed to in his lease. Otherwise he won’t have a truck to run loads with. Those big checks are countered and consumed by big expenses. What’s left over becomes the driver’s pay.  He has no predictable paycheck and no employee benefits. Look at the things he gives up for this long shot chance of making a little extra money.

• No health insurance.

• No social security account being built up.

• No access to a company retirement account.

• No income tax payments withheld.

• No paid vacation.

• No seniority with load planners or dispatchers.

• No help with layover or breakdown pay.

• No bonus money that company drivers get.

Typically those things the driver gives up for this hope of getting ahead in the game far outweigh any difference he could possibly make by leasing the truck. I did a little calculation based on my last twelve months of driving as a company driver.  Here’s some real numbers that I would give up so I could lease a truck.

• $3,500 - that’s what the company contributed to my 401K

• $6,800 - that was the total of my bonus money

• $2,875 - that was my total extra pay for various things like layover

• $5,478 - that is my three weeks paid time off

Let’s see… that totals $18,653.00 and that doesn’t even take into account the lack of deposits in my social security account, or the funds they contributed toward my family’s health insurance. That’s how much I am going to throw into the trash just so I can risk taking a long shot at making maybe about 3% more by leasing a truck.  You can’t make that math work in your favor. Numbers don’t lie.

Most trucking companies operate near a 97% operating ratio. That means their profits are somewhere in the 3% - 5%  range. That’s not impressive, but it sure tells us something. It tells us by leasing the truck you only have a small percentage range you could increase your actual take home money. If there is only a 3% - 5% profit, then where do you think you are going to find all this extra money? I just did the math on my last twelve months pay. If I could make another five percent by leasing a truck I would increase my total pay by $4,750.00. Why in the world would I give up almost $20,000.00 so that I could get $4,750.00?  That makes no sense. That is what I call Owner/Operator math. It has never made sense to me.

In my situation as a competent company driver, I honestly think I would be cutting my pay by around $16,000.00 were I leasing a truck. I could be proud of the fact that I am “my own boss,” and I could run around bragging about the big checks I am getting. I have heard and seen these lease/operators strutting around like peacocks among common barnyard animals while mingling with the lowly company drivers. I just have to laugh inside. I know the truth.

I think the challenges of being a trucker really push people to try figuring out a better way to increase their income from this job. I empathize with each of you who thinks he is putting in more effort than expected. We’d all like to see more income when we consider the sacrifices we make. The problem with this is the way we fall prey to these foolish gimmicks. Leasing really is a gimmick.

You aren’t going to make more money by leasing a truck. It may feel good when you see several thousand dollars on a check, but you have to realize it’s not a paycheck. It’s basically a way to keep you pushing and trying to figure out how to make those big dollars actually end up in your wallet. There is that bait hanging right there in front of your face each week. Life would be really grand if you could just figure out how to keep the bait and not get caught in the trap!

Truckers are experts at keeping myths alive. This decades old myth that claims some trucking companies are out to squeeze every little drop of blood out of their company drivers, and then throw them under the bus, is still alive and well. It’s dead wrong, and goes against every business principle of success. Unfortunately every new driver entering the business is convinced of it from his internet research. This myth claiming we can make a lot more money by leasing a truck from one of these big trucking companies is just as bogus as it is ridiculous. The whole concept of leasing trucks to drivers was a profit driven incentive for the corporations who started this practice. Don't be bamboozled by such nonsense!

Will Autonomous Trucks Be Taking Our Jobs Away?

 I am seeing a lot of people concerned about starting a trucking career lately because they think driver-less trucks will soon be taking over our interstates and consequently killing the job market. I’ve been hearing these same reports for twenty years now. I guess we will still be hearing them for the next 40 years. We are nowhere nearer today than we were 20 years ago.

About five years ago there were television programs declaring that driver-less trucks would be taking over truck driving jobs within two years. There is a big scam going on within the tech industries that is driven by greed. If you can convince people you are on the cusp of something really big, then you can get them to open their bank accounts and invest lots of money with you. That’s the scam. Everything about the autonomous truck craze is designed to raise money now for something nobody has a clue how to accomplish.

We actually have driver-less trucks already. They can work fairly well within a confined environment where we control the elements and factors they will be dealing with. That is the problem. We can’t control their environment nationwide. We could accomplish this task if we could afford an entirely new nationwide infrastructure designed solely for big trucks. It seems we can’t even come up with enough money to properly maintain the infamous pothole riddled George Washington Bridge. Everyone is focused on creating self driving trucks to work within our existing infrastructure. That approach will never work. It will always yield a vehicle that still needs a driver on board.

We currently have all kinds of crash mitigation technology in the trucks we are driving. Most of it is total garbage. It is so unreliable that it causes more problems than it does solutions. I’ve had my truck slam on the brakes because I passed under an overpass. Just a shadow in the road will sometimes trigger the forward crash mitigation system to activate the brakes as if there were an emergency. Sensors are only sensing possible dangers, they do not process thoughts and make judgments. Those are uniquely human qualities. Sensors covered in ice and snow basically shut down and stop working. I wish you could see some of the incredibly risky road conditions I have successfully navigated. We sometimes face nightmarish conditions. Humans can handle it, and actually do it safely. 

We have had self flying planes for years now. Even under the power of auto-pilot we still have two pilots on board our commercial airliners. We have trains that run on tracks and could not possibly get off course, yet they still have engineers on board. We can put a rover on far away planets like Mars, and have it operating a mission there without a human being present. The reason that’s possible is because it is a far easier task than what we are attempting with autonomous trucks.

The transportation industry is not confined to its own separate environment. We are side by side with minivans full of small children. We are facing ever changing conditions moment by moment. It is much easier to fly an aircraft on auto-pilot than it is to drive an 80,000 pound vehicle under similar technology. There are so many difficulties when on the ground surrounded by other vehicles and variables. It becomes exponentially more complicated.

I have been brief here, but I wanted to address this. Do not concern yourself over self-driving trucks taking your career away from you. It is not happening now, and will not be happening in any near future I can see. The complexities of the trucking world are proving to be a great challenge to technology. Even the autonomous trucks going through various levels of beta testing generally have two drivers on board, and a convoy of other vehicles escorting them. Ease your mind of this concern. You are still needed out here. That demand will continue on into days of incredible technology advances.

NEVER GIVE UP!

 With those three immortal words, Winston Churchill rallied his nation to a wartime victory during a time when their crushing demise seemed alarmingly imminent. What is it that causes one man to face his fears with bravery and ferocity while another caves into submission? Fear causes some of us to retreat to a fetal position of defeat before we’ve even entered the fray. Others seem to rise to conquer a challenge solely motivated by fear itself. Some people are amazingly resilient in the face of overwhelming odds and difficulty. Those folks who have this amazing resilience go on to do great things. They are our heroes. They aren’t necessarily known to the masses as national heroes, but somebody knows them as a hero.

I had a friend when I was growing up who considered his own mom to be a hero. Their family was very poor and his mom had to figure out how to make do with what she had. He would tell me his mom was the greatest cook in the world. He’d say, “My mom can make the most delicious soup using only a gallon of water and a single bean,” My point is she rose to the challenges before her. My young friend viewed her as his hero because of her resilience. Her bravery in adversity made her shine in his estimation. She could have collapsed in despair and said, “I just can’t handle this - we are going to starve.” Her resilience kept her in the game, and she accomplished things that kept her moving forward.

As a character trait, resilience is a person’s ability to recover quickly from unfortunate circumstances. It’s an admiral characteristic, and worthy of our aspirations. So, what does all this have to do with trucking? I think it has a lot to do with our career. Especially those of us who are just getting started. I was sorely disappointed once when I saw a discussion online where a new driver was claiming, “My career in trucking is over before it even started!” This poor fellow had been sent home from orientation, and was already retreating in defeat. Here’s one of his statements I pulled from his post.

“For now I'm done. There is no point in applying for other jobs and wasting time and money to just run into the same issues.”

I’m dumbfounded at this response. I’m wanting to encourage and motivate this fellow and say, “Come on man! Are you giving up this easily?” The phrase that really got me was when he stated, “There is no point in applying for other jobs.”

Getting started in a trucking career is challenging. I know that well. Trucking is not an ordinary job. It is an extraordinary career that requires extraordinary people. It is as much a lifestyle change as it is a career change. The training is hurried, and requires a person to process a lot of information in a short time. It requires learning new skills quickly and efficiently. It’s no walk in the park. It’s a big challenge. How we respond to those challenges helps formulate our future in this career. Truckers bear a lot of responsibility. Some people consider them heroes.

One of the biggest challenges facing new truckers is the disturbing reality that truck driving school’s don’t magically transform us into real truckers. They allow us to obtain a CDL, but getting that CDL in our pocket is really just a single step in the process of becoming a trucker. The process requires resilience. There are seemingly insurmountable challenges that upset many a newbie’s efforts. Those tenacious spirited folks who conquer the various challenges go on to become some of the most critical players in our nation's economic machine.

The gentleman who inspired these thoughts failed his backing test and got sent home from his very first orientation. That’s no reason to declare, “There is no point in applying for other jobs.” Plenty of new truckers get sent home from orientation. I got sent home from three different orientations. I never gave up. When you start this process of becoming a trucker you need to want it badly. You need to persevere.

My dad used to tell me, “Quitters never win.” Some may think that’s a trite little saying, but it’s something that stuck with me all my life. I don’t quit. In high school I was a competitive tennis player. There were times when I’d find myself in a match with someone who was sure to beat me. That didn’t change my game or my approach. I’d hang in there and give it one hundred twenty percent no matter how badly they were humiliating me. I did the same thing as an adult in competitive skeet shooting. Anybody competing with me knew I was going to bring my “A” game. I wasn’t going to cave in to despair if I missed a target. The next 100 targets were sure to be crushed to dust - I’d make sure of it. In sport’s you have to be resilient. You aren’t going to win every game every season. It’s a contest. It’s a competition. Victory ebbs and flows, but resilience remains firm no matter the outcome.

Many folks don’t realize trucking is a competition. We compete against each other for loads and miles. As rookies we have the odds against us. We have to prove ourselves daily. We are going to have problems. We are going to struggle at times. Some of us are going to fall short and get sent home. It’s not the end of the world. We are going to feel very challenged. Resilience will be required.

I attended four orientations when trying to land my first trucking job. On that fourth attempt I finally made it to becoming an employee. I never looked back from that point. I always looked forward during those difficult times of being sent home. Determined to have my photo put in the dictionary, right there next to that word “resilience,” I never gave up.

Getting invited to an orientation does not guarantee rookie drivers a job. These orientations are basically like a job interview. If we get sent home it’s not the end of our careers. We failed an interview - that’s what it amounts to. We move on. We show our resilience. Never give up! That’s a trucker’s mantra. We face challenges daily. We rise to those challenges and conquer them.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO MAKING A GOOD START AS A TRUCKER

 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!

Mediocrity Reaps No Rewards

 I have observed a lot of truck drivers during my trucking career.  With both empathy and agony, I have listened to their tales of woe at the truck stops, lunch counters, and driver lounges all across this great country.  Can I speak plainly with you?  Most truck drivers are unhappy.  They feel maligned, mistreated, and just plain dis-respected.  For most of them, the rewards received are simply not worth the sacrifices and risks required to execute the job.  I have never fallen into that camp, and I am convinced there’s a reason why.

Let me also make it clear that when I was a rookie driver I listened to other drivers complaints and would often feel myself being lured into their unfortunate outlook on this career.  It seemed everything they said resonated with me in some form or fashion.  After all, who really wants to be away from their families for weeks at a time?  Is it really a nomadic dream life to sleep in a truck each night?  I knew the frustrations of just trying to find some place to park at ten o’clock at night, and yes, I found those things very frustrating myself.

I still remember this time I was tarping a load of steel at about midnight.  I noticed the driver next to me who had just picked up his load before me.  As he was tarping, he was dragging his feet and his shoulders hung low as though he were completely dejected.  I still remember him raising his voice to speak to me.  “This job sucks the life out of you,” he declared.  He said it with authority, as if I should certainly know and agree with his assessment.  The absurdity of his statement struck me hard.  I was quite happy to be there at midnight.  The coolness of the evening was refreshing to me while laboring at my chosen profession.  As I was stretching my tarps tight, I was excitedly running calculations in my head as to how I was going to use the split sleeper berth provision to enable me to get my load delivered early.  That way I would be available for a really nice load early on Friday.  I knew once all that came together I was going to put an additional 400 dollars on my paycheck that week.

Your outlook has a profound effect on your outcome.  The driver who is convinced “this job sucks the life out of you” will be plagued with poor results.  His paychecks will always seem insufficient, his efforts will invariably be extremely laborious, and his satisfaction with his job will be nonexistent.  I have always felt it very important that people should find satisfaction and fulfillment in their occupation.  It doesn’t matter to me if you are a simple laborer pushing a wheelbarrow through a muddy construction site.  If you are determined to be the best at commandeering a wheelbarrow, you will find yourself quite happy with your results.  There is simply no way to have a fulfilling career when you are miserable at it.  Your miserableness blinds you to the possibilities that lie waiting for you to capitalize on them.

Goals have a way of encouraging you to reach higher levels of performance and satisfaction.  I am very much a goal oriented person.  The truck driving career appealed to me because it followed a model that I had repeatedly taught to my employees during the years that I was a business operator.  That model is sometimes referred to as “performance based pay.”  Basically the employee gets to determine how much money he makes by producing effective results.  As a person reaches the initial goals they have set for themselves, they begin to see how much more potential they actually have.  I remember when I started to earn around a thousand dollars a week as a truck driver.  That seemed like pretty decent money for what I was doing.  Then it also opened my eyes to how much money I was leaving on the table through my own inefficiencies.

I had reached my goals, but there was still more that was almost begging to  be accomplished.  I could see it now.  There was no reason it had to stay beyond my reach.  It took me a few years, but soon enough I had almost doubled that income that I was content with before.  By reaching my goals, I could see the potential that was still out there.  I wasn’t bound by my own self declared delusions of how miserable this career was.  I was free to pursue excellence and prove I was capable of obtaining it.  There’s nothing so liberating as freeing yourself from “group think.”  

Truckers really limit their own satisfaction and income potential by commiserating with each other all the time.  When is the last time you heard a fellow driver tell you how he’s set a goal to increase his income this year by ten thousand dollars?  More than likely you heard something like, “I am looking for another company.  This one just doesn’t have the miles I need to make a living.  They treat me like I’m just a number, and they could care less whether I’m making it or not.”  Most truck drivers hamstring themselves with their own low aspirations.  They are mediocre performers who don’t recognize their own potential.  I can assure you that their employer has ample opportunity for them to succeed.  Very seldom is it actually the company’s fault when a driver is a low performer.  Does that bother you when I say that?  I am convinced that is a hard truth we all need to learn.  Mediocrity reaps no rewards.  Almost every truck driver I know has switched companies multiple times, only to switch again when they find they are still disillusioned.

You won’t catch me telling you how bad my company is.  They gave me  opportunity and I gave them results.  This is the formula for success at trucking.  The driver has to produce.  The burden is upon the driver, and it is a great opportunity for him to prove his mettle.  Drivers who settle for less get less.  Never settle on mediocrity.  Motivate yourself to excel.  I promise you, success at trucking is within your grasp.  Courage reaches out and takes hold of success.