It's a Team's Life
Quality of Life
From Wikipedia - Quality of life (QOL), according to Britannica, is the degree to which an individual is healthy, comfortable, and able to participate in or enjoy life events.
Is your lifestyle waking up each morning wishing it was the weekend, wishing the day would end quickly, or it was time for your next vacation? That, to me, is not quality of life. As a truck driver out on the road wishing every day they were back home or dreading when it becomes time to leave again is not the quality of life. This is not to say looking forward to going home, or your next vacation is not good. What I am talking about is not enjoying your day-to-day life and wishing your life away.
When we first got into trucking full time, it was not long before we became frustrated with the lifestyle and the way we were treated. Bob was a driver with a large trucking company, and we felt that there was zero respect for the driver, our time, or how we were treated by the companies customers. It did not take long for us to start researching what we needed to change to have our quality of life back again. We knew what we liked and disliked about trucking, and we started researching where we might fit in.
Expediting opened a lot of doors for us, and immediately, we embraced the lifestyle of expediting. Is it perfect? NO, we end up missing some events. Those events we might have missed anyway with a 9 - 5 job and no vacation time. It is hard when we get a phone call from a family member, and we wish we could be there with them. Still, we might have missed being there for them if we had a 9 - 5 job.
We have been expediters for over sixteen years, and the fun has not worn off. There have been many ups and downs in our income as the market has tanked and soared to unbelievable heights. Our business model has been to be able to take advantage of either situation, and we have weathered both the ups and the downs. Over the years, we have fine-tuned our business strategy and learned what stresses us and that is usually an area of the country. Before we say yes to a load into those areas we discuss with each other and make a mutual decision. There is a line around the northeast, and we do not cross that line unless we both agree. This decision made years ago took a lot of stress out of our lives.
In the past 21 years of trucking, we have seen the most amazing things, carried the coolest loads, and met the most amazing people. We have been in situations that have frightened us, and we have had experiences where we look at each other and say how lucky are we.
The question asked about our lifestyle the most is “What do we do all day?” which makes sense since we live in a tiny house with no TV. Our days are busy every day, from driving to keeping up the paperwork as well as the truck. There is always something that needs to be done or we can relax, play a game, read, or work on our hobbies. There is also always our dog Texas willing to go for a walk or to go play ball. Our days are busy and satisfying, and we think we have a great quality of life.
Over the years, we have learned to make the most out of any situation that crosses our path. I hope you have the quality of life.
Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters since January 2005
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.