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The need for sleep is particularly strong between 2 and 6 o'clock in the morning. Drivers who regularly drive at night can become sleep deprived even though they may not exhibit sleep-deprived-performance problems.

Dandruff, the excessive flaking of dead skin cells from the scalp, can be a problem in its own right or a symptom of seborrheic dermatitis, a fungal infection, or even head lice. If the white flakes on the shoulders of your clothing do not disappear after using a special shampoo like Head and Shoulders, you may need to reevaluate the problem.

To treat dandruff, one shampoo may not be enough. Buy a shampoo with antifungal and antibacterial ingredients, one with zinc and one with salicylic acid. Use one shampoo for a few days and then switch. If the flakes haven’t disappeared in a couple of months, see a dermatologist for a prescription shampoo.

Gilbert says that one of the major changes in the expedite business is the amount of competition today: "There are a lot of expedited companies out there. There's also competition within a company, but because I run a tractor, I don't notice it as much. There's only 300 of us in the big trucks at FedEx."

"I've thought about owning a straight truck,"says Gilbert, "but with a tractor-trailer, there's nothing I can't haul. I've even hauled "A"-sized freight."

Expediter Carroll Bean, Jr. of Vermont has some issues on his mind and he wants to share his thoughts with his fellow drivers.

This long-time professional driver has pulled tankers to flatbeds to lowboys to vans and has hauled "everything except livestock." He's been there and done that, and is concerned about the state of the expediting and trucking industry.

"Within our network of friends, sometimes we'll be out of contact with someone for a long stretch of time and suddenly, one of us will call the other or run into each other on the road."

"I think it would make for a pretty dismal life out here if we kept to ourselves and never met anyone."

If you're always fatigued, it can be tempting to turn to herbs and other natural products to boost your energy. This tiredness should be diagnosed and treated by a medical professional, not with home remedies.

If you have replaced coffee or soft drinks with energy beverages that contain caffeine and a slew of vitamins and herbs, be careful. Not enough is known at this time about the combined effects of these ingredients.

Medical experts tell us the primary reason for the elevated incidence of back pain amongst truck drivers is the endless hours of sitting combined with the low frequency vibrations and jostling of the road.

Add to this a poor diet, the strenuous work of pulling on chains, tarps and cranking landing gear, jumping up and down from trailers and cabs along with fingerprinting all types of loads.

Today’s options for storing medical information range from simple wallet cards and medical jewelry to a tiny USB drive that plugs into most computers.

You can even get a radio frequency identification microchip placed under your skin, which is used to access your medical information in a database.

A U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam era, John was aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown during the recovery of the Apollo 8 spacecraft. He spent 29 years as a police officer (badge #11) with the Brick,NJ police department and was honored with numerous commendations for his service with the department.

He states, "A business plan is very important to show what your expectations are and what your goals are. It's critical to prove to a lender that you can make a go of it - after all, why would anyone invest many thousands of dollars in you without a likely return?"

"When I've put together business plans in the past, I've based my numbers on what other owner-operators have been doing and my own experience."