It's a Team's Life

It all started by attending Truck Shows

By Linda Caffee
Posted Jun 9th 2019 7:25AM

Truck Shows – Truck Shows -Truck Shows

A long, long time ago, one of the trucks Bob worked on was entered into a truck show in Louisville, KY and the owner asked Bob to go along and help.  The truck was entered into another truck show in Las Vegas, and this time both of us attended.  After meeting many of the teams showing their trucks we decided to consider over the road trucking as soon as our youngest daughter left for college.  We then attended the truck show in Dallas, Texas, to present our resume’s. 

In time we wanted to become owner-operators, and after much reading, we decided that Expediting was for us.  We attended the Expedite Expo in 2004 to learn everything we could before flying back home. That was our entry into expediting. We have attended every Expedite Expo since the first and have gone from only seeking knowledge to sharing knowledge and networking.

While attending the Louisville truck show, I met Ellen Voie, who was just starting the Women in Trucking organization.  I became one of the first members and went on in time to being elected to the Board of Directors.

While attending the Louisville trucking show, we meant Miguel who introduced us to what was then called Freightliner Slice of Trucker Life.  This led to us applying to become a Freightliner “Pro” when the program was reorganized.  Our application was accepted in 2014, and we became one of the Freightliner Team Run Smart Pros. Now we get to attend truck shows with Freightliner, give feedback to engineers, and are much more involved in working with other drivers.

At a truck show, we learned about Trucker Buddy International and were paired with a teacher from France.  After several years of working with our teacher Stephanie, we decided it was time to go visit.  We had the trip of a lifetime as our teacher, and her three grades of students took us around each day showing us their town and school.  How amazing to see France through the eyes of our Trucker Buddy students.

During on Expedite Expo, I met what I thought was a truck driver that did not know anything about trucks.  Later that night, I learned his name and realized he had been overseas with an IndyCar team, and his grandfather started a sleeper company, and that is what he knew a lot about.  We stayed good friends, and after he went back to IndyCar, he asked if we would help move race car transporters from track to track when a team is needed.  

There are many examples of how attending truck shows has helped our core business to become more profitable and us to become more knowledgeable about trucking. 

What do you think?  Are Truck Shows worth your time?  If your answer is no, do you remember the load that you took instead of attending a show?  As you can see over and over, I can trace back the question “How did you get to do that?” to a truck show we attended.

See you at the Expedite Expo July 19th and 20th in Fort Wayne Indiana

Bob & Linda Caffee

TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO

Expediters since January 2005

[email protected]

 

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.