Driver Lifestyles

Expedite Trucking Lessons I've learned

Our career in the expedited freight business began a little over 12 years ago driving a "D" unit for an owner.  It was my first foray into the world of professional driving and it's become such a way of life for my wife and me that it will be hard to leave it behind when retirement time comes.
 
Along the way, we've met some great people in this business and we've seen some places that we might never have seen.   And, I've learned some lessons about this business, and I suppose, about life itself that I thought I would pass along.

When I fell victim to corporate downsizing in my previous, it was a real eye-opener to discover that at age 55, and even with all my training and experience, I was too qualified, too expensive and too "old".
 
I was still too young to sit around the house and our modest savings wouldn't last us for too many years, so I had to find some way of making a living.   I met an owner/operator who was looking for a driver for his straight truck.

I had never considered driving professionally before, but I got my CDL, and began my career in the expedited trucking business.
 
After six months with the owner, I purchased the truck I had been driving, and after convincing my wife to hit the road with me, she got her CDL, qualified with the company and we began running team.
 
Over the years, we've changed companies a few times, bought and sold a few trucks, and I learned those lessons I mentioned earlier.
 
In our time together, my wife has always been the more reasonable of the two of us; she's blessed with the ability to usually see both sides of a story and many times, when I was ready to pick up the phone and scream at the company, she was the calming influence.
 
As a matter of fact, I used to be quite a hothead in my dealings with the carriers we were leased with.  I felt that the companies were always crossing the line and trying to tell me how to run my truck and business and I wasn't going to let that happen!
 
During our first few years in expedite, I had a number of run-in's with dispatch, safety, contractor relations and even recruiters. I had heated discussions with people from those departments during which I would share with them my philosophy about the expedited industry and point out to them the many ways in which they were wrong.
 
After listening to some of my phone conversations with company personnel, my wife wondered aloud whether we would ever get another load from the dispatcher I had just talked to, or should we start looking for another company because we were sure to get a termination of lease notice very soon.
 
I have to admit that I was often caught up in the righteous fervor that one experiences when he KNOWS he is absolutely right.  I ran roughshod over some people there at the company and I'm embarrassed now to admit that I was the typical "nasty driver" at times.
 
I carried that attitude with me from the first company we were signed with into our second company.  It didn't take long after we signed on with Company #2 before I noticed that they were guilty of the same attitudes and policies of Company #1, committing the very offenses that had caused us to seek "greener pastures".
 
With Company #2 however, I had encounters with a couple of folks from the corporate side; meetings which, luckily for me, happened before my temper had given me a reputation as a "nasty driver" with the new company.

It was during a chance meeting with our recruiter from the new company that I went into my usual list of complaints. He listened quietly and when I was done, he said that he agreed with me on about half of the problems I had mentioned, and as for the other half, he might not agree, but he could see my point.
 
He said that the company had no problems with our job performance, in fact, in the short time we'd been with them, we were one of their top teams.  The only problem he saw was my tendency to give the dispatchers and others a hard time, and he told me that's definitely a losing proposition.

He told me to contact one of the dispatchers (I'll call her Rose) and see if we could stop in one afternoon for a talk. It was several weeks later that we happened to be at the company's office, and we paid Rose a visit.

Rose had a reputation among drivers as being driver-friendly and she was a good listener as I poured out my frustrations to her.

After indulging me for fifteen minutes or so, she told me to try to see it from the "other side".

She then related a few stories of loads lost because she couldn't get trucks to cover them, tales of drivers getting lost, stories of drivers taking naps while under load and waking up hours later, etc.  She summed up her anecdotes by telling us that the loads have to be covered and dispatch can't always be thinking of the drivers' needs. 
 
I can't say that I came away from those meetings with a brand-new appreciation about the business and the company.  It was more of a gradual thing, thinking about some of the points that the recruiter and Rose had made and I began to ease up a little in my dealings with company personnel.
 
My wife commented on the change one day when I took a load that a couple of months before would have had me screaming on the phone.  She mentioned that I hadn't chewed out a dispatcher in some time and that I seemed a little calmer now.
 
I guess she was right, I don't get as upset as easily now, and I don't agonize over every load the way I did just before.  I take a longer view of this business now and I'm happier for it.
 
I suppose that I've come to the realization that the companies aren't really going to change their way of doing business and that modifying my method of dealing with them was the only way to continue in this business that's gotten into my blood.
 
My wife and I are now signed with Company #3 because of the package they offered and things have been going very well indeed.  We left Company #2 on good terms with the invitation to return whenever we want, so I guess the new, mellower me has been a good change after all.