Driver Lifestyles

Second Gear: Second Career

By Jeff Jensen, Editor
Posted Aug 30th 2006 12:17PM

Typically, no one starts out in their working life with a goal of becoming an expediter.

Or least, that's the way it seems to work. Expedited trucking is a vocation that draws its drivers and owner-operators from a wide range of occupations and careers, many of which are completely unrelated to professional driving.

Bob and Linda Caffee are straight truck owner-operators who found their way to expedited trucking after careers in maintenance, computers, landscaping and general trucking.

Linda Caffee says of the couple's expedited trucking careers, "We love it!"

Even after 27 years of marriage, Linda says this lifestyle can present a real challenge to a relationship.

"You're together 24/7 and there's no privacy. We wondered if we could really stand being together all the time and would we mess up our marriage."

"Another difference from our past life is that this business is round-the-clock, there's basically no night and day."

Linda says that she worked in an office environment for 14 years and really doesn't miss that part of her life:

"Bob and I both liked our jobs, but when we quit the 9-5, we quit."

"We realized that there were things we would have to give up, like bowling leagues and our favorite pastime - trapshooting. You give up a social life when you take to the road and the only ones who understand that are other drivers."

"Some of our family members don't understand just what we do in our business, but now that we've done it for awhile, they see that we're very happy. They're very supportive."

David and Patty Jo Jaynes are FedEx Custom Critical White Glove contractors.

David spent thirty years with the Philip Morris Corporation and Patty Jo retired after a career as a registered nurse. They entered expediting close to 5 years ago

Patty Jo notes differences between her former profession and expediter trucking: Structure. In nursing, Patty Jo was accustomed to a structured environment - "things were more precise and rigidly controlled."

"Things are somewhat nebulous in expedite. Sometimes it depends on your translation of the laws and regulations. You're not always sure how much leeway you get."

"Plus," she says, "When you're in business for yourself, you don't get paid vacations, paid holidays or health insurance unless you bring it with you from a previous career.

"In this business, you can live and die by your decisions. If you make a bad one, you can just suck it up and go down the road. In a 'profession', when you're working for the man, and you make a wrong decision, it can cost you that job."

Ray Phillips had a long career in sales in the kitchen and bath design area and wife Joyce was a sales representative for Southern Bell and GTE. When Ray's company closed, the couple started their own cleaning company, serving an upscale residential clientele as well as commercial accounts.

"We eventually sold the cleaning business and because I'm kind of an adventurous person, we went to truck driving school and got our Class A licenses," says Joyce. "We worked in truckload trucking for around nine years as company drivers with Covenant and Landspan."

"You know, when we were learning to drive the tractors, it was an adventure because neither one of us had done anything like that - it was just fun!"

"In truckload, we averaged between 4,000-5,000 miles a week with a lot of coast to coast runs. We'd run from California to Miami, for example, then back again."

Introduction to fast freight

Ray picks up the story: "We had been reading about expediting and we would stop and talk to expediters at truck stops. We also had a friend who had gone into expediting and it seemed like the kind of business we would enjoy, so we went with FedEx Custom Critical. We stayed with them for two and a half years, before moving to Landstar Express America."

Joyce says, "Expediting is easier on you than driving general freight. I like the way I can make my own decisions and decide what loads are going to be profitable. I can decide to take a load that's not going to be profitable but it might take me where I want to go."

Commenting on the transition from big trucks to 6-wheelers, Joyce says, "It was wonderful - expediting gives you a lot of freedom!. And, a straight truck is a whole lot easier to back up than a trailer!"

Ray tells us, "We're not quite at retirement age yet and we're having too much fun! We'll put five years on this new truck and go from there."

Frank Rickman is a cargo van owner-operator leased with Express-1 who is now celebrating five years in the business. He says that he finds it interesting that the people in expediting come from such varied backgrounds. Actually, this expediter from Northern Indiana has a background totally unrelated to trucking. Frank spent much of his early working life as a Certified Public Accountant.

After Business College, he specialized in the accounting field, even spending time in Vietnam during the late '60's as a civilian contractor. He performed accounting duties for companies doing business with the US military forces.

"When I returned to the US," says Frank, "I entered the public accounting field and became a CPA. After learning the ropes in an accounting firm, I went on my own and established an accounting and tax practice."

He opened his own business in 1988, and by the time he sold the business to another CPA, he had built a base of 700 tax clients. Frank says that the tax business was very stressful and demanding, and that's one of the similarities or his previous occupation and expediting.

"In expedite, you're under tight time constraints and weather, traffic and other road conditions can really increase the anxiety level of driving. There's two common factors in both of my careers - stress and deadlines."

"In expedited trucking, you're dealing with so many different people on a regular basis and people of various levels of responsibility, from forklift drivers to supervisors. I find there's a similarity to my accounting career, in that you have to deal with many different clients at different levels."

"As for the differences - in expedite, you never know when you're going to get that call and you don't know what your day will consist of. In the professional life, you go to the same office daily and sleep in your own bed at night."

"Because of expedited trucking's slow and busy seasonality, your income will vary, but for a salaried white collar worker, you know exactly how much you'll take home each week. Because of this, you have to watch your finances so much closer."

He continues, "However, I worked in tax preparation, so I had busy months of the year just as in expediting, which was good training for this business."

"What helped me in the transition to expediting was that I was accustomed to working for a percentage with the particular firm I was with and that helped me prepare for the up and down income of this business."

"I find that there is an elevated degree of professionalism in expedited over that of general trucking."

David and Patty Jo Jaynes are FedEx Custom Critical White Glove contractors with over five years in the business. David spent thirty years with the Philip Morris Corporation and Patty Jo retired after a career as a registered nurse.

Patty Jo notes differences between her former profession and expedited trucking: Structure. In nursing, Patty Jo was accustomed to a structured environment - "things were more precise and rigidly controlled.

"Things are somewhat nebulous in expediting. Sometimes it depends on your translation of the laws and regulations. You're not always sure how much leeway you get."

"Plus," she says, "When you're in business for yourself, you don't get paid vacations, paid holidays or health insurance unless you bring it with you from a previous career."

"However, in expediting, if you're dealing with haz-mat or explosives, and you don't keep up with those guidelines, it can cost you your life."

She adds, "An expediting career depends on how committed you are to the investment and how organized you are. Your money depends on it."