12 Year Anniversary
September 26 marks 12 years since I got my CDL. It's a proud moment for me. I've learned a lot over the years and I've compiled 12 life lessons, compliments of my trucking experience.
Perseverance. There are times in life when you have to keep going when you know quitting would be worse. I was under a load and the truck broke down. It was not drivable and I had to find a place where I could take the load, like a cross-dock, so someone else could deliver it. I needed a repair shop that could fix everything and a tow truck that could take me to both. I was in West Virginia and there was no cross dock, no suitable repair shop and no tow truck that would "cross state lines." The only option I had was to order a tow truck 200 miles away in North Carolina close to where I picked up the load so I could tow it back to the shipper. I found a shop in NC that could fix everything. I was exhausted trying to coordinate all of this, but I had to keep going. I was faced with the task of finding a decent pet-friendly hotel, finding a taxi ride there, and getting a rental car. There was no Uber or Lyft. By the grace of God I found a taxi company that could transport me and my dog and it was cash only. That 2 weeks I spent in the hotel was a transformative time for me; I turned something "bad" into something good. I ended up missing a Hank concert but I was able to resell the ticket online. I had been losing weight for several months then and I bought some new clothes, including a few bathing suits. I spent time at the pool getting sun. It was fun driving the rental car around and going to places I normally couldn't access in the truck. I took care of myself, taking bubble baths in the evening. My truck left the repair shop better than ever; those guys even got to fix a few things that were already not working great like the air conditioning. Just because circumstances seem dire does not mean they have to stay that way... make it work for you and you will come out on top.
2. See beyond the surface; don't take things at face value; remain curious. What you see is not always reality. This applies to what the broker tells me about a load. A load was recently posted on the load board and it was requesting 24' of space, and/or a lift gate. My box is 22' without a lift gate. I called on it anyway to see if it really needed 24’. The broker said, "well, the customer is requesting 24', but we don't know the actual dimensions, but I'll call you if it's something that would fit on your truck.' Then an hour later they reposted it saying it's 20' long, so I called them and was able to book it. I get to the shipper, and the freight ended up being 2 standard size 4' pallets, lol. You can miss out on opportunities if you believe what you see is written in stone and 100% truth.
There are also so many times when my truck is in the dock to load or unload and I walk into the door while passing numerous signs that say "Safety vest required beyond this point" or "Safety glasses and earplugs required" or "No drivers allowed on the dock" and the pleasant people there will invite me in to the dock on their floor without abiding by all of the posted "requirements." There are times when the signs mean what they say, but many times employees don’t seem to enforce them.
3. You can’t be everything to everybody. I meet a lot of people who insist I should spend $10,000 on a lift gate, or spend however much money on a second axle so I can “haul more weight” and “get more loads.” I’ve driven a straight truck with a lift gate, tag axle, and reefer box- as spec’d out as you can get- but it had one huge drawback. The inside width of the box was too narrow to have 2 standard size pallets side-by-side. So I was limited on the number of pallets I could haul. Even with a 53’ dry van trailer, you still cannot haul anything requiring refrigeration. Even if you do have a reefer trailer, you can’t haul anything that requires a flatbed. It doesn’t matter how much weight you can haul or the dimensions of your trailer, you will never be everything to everybody. So maximize what you have with the customers that can use you the most.
4. Resourcefulness. This includes shopping at truck-friendly Walmarts and stocking up on groceries and gallons of water that don't cost $4+ like they do at the truck stops. It’s repurposing old clothes into rags. It means washing clothes before my hamper looks like Santa’s pack. It’s fun cooking in the truck, and convenient when it would take too much time to stop and buy something. I can pull into a rest area to take my federally-mandated 30 minute break and cook a couple eggs and sausage links in my microwave and have time to do other things.
5. It's not really a load until it's on the truck. The only sure thing is what is currently happening. Trucking can be very in-the-moment. In my corner of trucking, most loads happen without much notice. I’ve booked a load and the broker calls back and says it canceled or the customer changed their mind and wanted a team. It doesn't happen often, but it may be hours later after I've started planning out the load and said no to anything else that came my way. I may have even already started driving in that direction. There's really nothing I can do about those situations except control my attitude. I say to myself, "That's ok, something better will come along."
6. Taking care of my equipment. I've driven for many people who bought a truck, but they had very little interest in maintaining the truck or repairing what was wrong or what was about to go wrong. You either pay now or you pay later. If you want your truck to slowly look like crap, just stop fixing the little things. Pretty soon they will compile into one huge expense of time and money. Your truck will tell you when something is not right. It may be subtle, but it's up to you to notice it and to do something about it.
7. Have an open mind regarding the things that “seem impossible/probably cost too much/are too difficult/would take too much time.” Some things in life, or on the truck, haven't worked in a long time or ever, but I’ve given up on them because my belief is they are gonna be so dramatic and complicated to repair. Once I get out of my own head and allow someone smart, knowledgeable, and with the right “can-do” attitude to look at it, and it doesn’t take years or all my money to fix, I feel silly about how much stress it caused me.
One time my truck had a cold coolant leak. It was only leaking coolant when the engine was shut off, like overnight. It was coming from the back of the engine. A mechanically-knowledgable friend advised me that the engine would have to be taken out for them to get back there, which would be really costly. This fear-mongering was coming from someone I trusted. I believed him, and for months I would continue to add coolant every morning. I made sure to stock up on plenty of coolant when I went to Walmart. However, after some nudging from another friend, I finally took it in to my trusted shop and it ended up needing 2 new quick connect fittings and cost just over $300. All that worry for nothing!
8. No deal is better than a bad deal. Do you feel like you are taking yourself hostage because you don’t believe there will be anything better? If you say yes to a bad deal, you say no to everything else you could have had. The perception of loss stings twice as much as an equivalent gain. If you aren't going to make a profit, you will resent yourself. Never be so sure of what you want that you wouldn't take something better.
9. It's a good deal if you think it's a good deal. Price isn't the only factor that goes into a deal. It's important to think about the long-term relationship with that broker and how much we can collaborate in the future. There may be money left on the table, but if the other side feels like I beat them up in order to get every last penny, they aren't gonna want to work with me again. Location is important; if the load keeps me in a good freight lane, that is valuable. If I like the rate, the freight, the area where it’s going, and I know I can get a load out of there, then it’s a good deal.
10. Believe in your potential and your value. I only want to work with people who see the value in what I offer. There are brokers who get excellent rates and brokers who get very low rates. Not everyone believes you should run at the rate you want. It is all dependent on their beliefs and experiences. I don't need to explain my rate. Ronald Reagan said "If you're explaining, you're losing."
11. Have a calm confidence. When I’m driving, I have a certain confidence and assertiveness about me. I don’t get upset easily if people are driving offensively. I’m able to stay calm regardless of what is happening around me. Because of the truck’s size and slow acceleration, people often get impatient and want to pass. I don’t ever let myself feel like I need to hurry up for the people behind me, especially on 2-lane roads where I may have to go slower than the posted speed limit.
12. Anything can happen; success is closer than you think. That next load or opportunity is right around the corner. Sometimes my phone is quiet and the load board doesn't have anything good. Freight can seem slow because nothing is popping. It can be easy to feel down as a result. But then something good will hit and it turns everything around. I prepare myself with the belief that I'm gonna get that call and it's going to happen. And if I’m in an area for a few days and don’t wanna end up there all weekend, I will just drive to a better location. You can’t always wait around, you gotta set yourself up to be successful.














