It's a Team's Life
I wanna be a truck driver...
The reality of becoming a truck driver and staying a truck driver is not all about holding onto the steering wheel for eleven hours a day. It is not a mind-numbing job if we want to stay profitable and legal.
An article in The Trucker, November 15-30, 2012 caught my eye by writer Lyndon Finney. The title of the article is "And we wonder why Sam didn't want to be a truck driver" and while I do not think this is a true story I believe it could very easily be true or has happened to prospective drivers.
The article goes through a young man attending a truck show after seeing many trucks on the road and realizing that all of those trucks need drivers. In Sam's first seminar he learns there is a "Driver Shortage" and he thinks to himself a driver shortage that means good pay! He is ready to sign on the dotted line. Next he listens as a speaker talks about how in 1981 a truck driver made four times as much as a guy flipping hamburgers and now in 2012 the driver only makes 1.9 times as much. Now he is scratching his head wondering why.
Then Sam hears how the industry average is 106% turnover and that there is an industry retention problem. He hears about the image problem drivers and companies have with the public. The final straw was listening to the speakers talk about the "Perfect Storm" which includes the aging work force, poor driver retention programs, safety regulations, Hours of Service, and independent contractors leaving the business because they cannot afford to maintain their equipment. After hearing all of this Sam left the convention to look for a different career.
As I read the article I thought about what this industry must look like to a new driver. It sounds easy hold a steering wheel all day and get paid to see the country! It cannot get any better then that to make a living.
The rules and regulations that govern how we hold the steering wheel, how long we hold the steering wheel, how long we have to stay in the sleeper, and what roads we drive on can be overwhelming and frightening. Researching the industry and figuring out what area we want to fit into is the first key. We first tried the truckload carrier division in a tractor-trailer as a driver and figured out we did not fit in well. Next we researched Expediting and so far that is working for us. The key has been to read read read, ask questions, keep learning about every aspect of trucking and figure out where we fit. Form a network of support, as we cannot know it all. It is often not what we know it is whom we know.
While all of these regulations, pay, and retention issues can be mind boggling there are legal ways around them. We have to keep reinventing ourselves to stay in front of the ball and this requires us to keep learning and keep pushing the edges. We cannot be common we need to specialize and make ourselves a wanted commodity to our carriers or to our customers. As our friend Henry Albert likes to say, "Turn lemons into lemonade" and never look back only forward.
We have done both the 9 -5 job sitting at a desk for many years before we left the "secure" way of life to live a life on the road as independent contractors. These past eight years as Expediters has been the most rewarding and exhilarating time of our working lives and we plan to continue on in our chosen way to make a living.
Bob & Linda Caffee
Leased to: FedEx Custom Critical 

TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO
Expediters 7 years been out here on the road 12 years
Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle; 

Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;

Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;

Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.