Some time ago (years) I was asked. “Why do you drive a truck?”
My reply was “There’s no money in Beaver trapping any more and they haven’t worked the kinks out of asteroid mining”.
Needless to say that reply didn’t elucidate a reasoned response. Actually it confused.
Was true though. And I’m not the only one.
I used to say that “Trucking was for the Social misfits” I quit saying that because folks got all upset. I think it’s true though (not excluding myself). Trucking is an odd life. It attracts odd folks. It’s certainly not because of the money.
In my decade and a half of trucking I’ve met some strange ducks.
Like…
The Hound Lady.
Afghan Hound.
Waaaay back when I was a company driver …..I met her. She carried an Afghan Hound in her truck.
She had some weird notions. Among which she stated that Afghans had Leopard genes. (I didn’t comment) She claimed that trucking was just a “taxi service” for her. She claimed that her real income was from Stud Fee’s for her hound. She said that she used the truck to take her from place to place “standing her dawg at stud”.
Faaaaar be it for me to disagree.
Other interesting things that she did:
The way I met her was that we both had a load going to the same warehouse. Naturally it was “driver assist” unload (driver does all the work…some warehouse guy uses a pencil and a clipboard recording what comes off the truck). She claimed that she wouldn’t have to unload.
“How ?” I asked.
“Just wait” she said.
Well ,….we got there. Backed into the docks….and I went around to see what was up. Sure enough I was supposed to unload.
“Where’s the other driver” the dock foreman asked.
About that time she appeared.
Wearing next to nothing. High heels, a very, very, VERY short skirt. (the word “mini” just didn’t seem to do it justice” ) and a midrift T-shirt.
Havoc ensued. It was NOT a happy day on the dock. (I’ll leave it to your imagination )
The dock foreman was NOT a happy camper. He told her forthwith to vacate his dock. He’d see to it that her truck was unloaded. She smiled and left.
I unloaded my truck…..not smiling.
HipShot and Mack.
I met them at a truck stop near Salt Lake.
HipShot was about seventy five years old at the time. He’d be maybe ninety now? He got his name cause he could unlimber a hogleg pretty quick and was accurate. He used to be an armored car guard.
Mack was an English Bulldog. Hipshot had Mack in the truck with him. His companion.
Only problem was old slobber-jaws liked french poodles. Really, really , REALLY liked them. (think rape). He wasn’t discriminative though….(male, female….all the same to him). Hipshot said that it got really “interesting” sometimes when he was out walking Mack and some lady was walking her poodle.
And Others…
…. the extremely religious guy who tried to convert me. While driving ..over the CB ..in a snowstorm….in Utah.
And the guy who carried a snake in his truck.
And the guy…and his wife….who had six dogs…..in their truck.
And the truck driver who was out walking (swear to god) his pig.
And the family….(husband, wife and several kids) who LIVE in their truck.
And the occasional airline pilot, psychologist, accountant or security’s analyst.
And the mechanical engineer…..and the nuclear power plant engineer.
And my buddy…who used to be a PowerLifter and weighs maybe four-hundred pounds (if he’s lost some weight) ….who walks his cat….”socks”….on a leash.
And then there are the dozens (hundreds maybe?) of Navy Seals, Green Berets, Snipers and Force Recon that I’ve met. I didn’t have the vaguest idea that so many of them got out of the service and took up trucking. Apparently they did. By my reckoning about three hundred percent of the Seals are now truck drivers…..maybe more.
All driving trucks…..who would have thunk it?
Popularity: 26% [?]
I’m getting quite a bit of email asking me what I think about the current shutdown by owner operators throughout the U.S. As a former freight broker, trucking company owner, owning a national trucking newspaper and working as a freight consultant responsible for increasing freight sales, I have had the opportunity to talk with everybody across the spectrum of the freight business throughout the past 35 years.
My advice always migrates back to controlling your own destiny, and not relying on other companies for your core business. Everyone needs to rely on others in a pinch to find freight, trucks, etc., but the whole philosophy of how many new carriers do business, in many cases, is wrong.
I don’t want to sound like a “Monday morning quarterback”, one who gives advice after the fact, but if you don’t have your own accounts, then you are destined to fail.
When I speak with people who are considering getting in the business, I always go back to “prospect the accounts” and the rest will follow. Instead, many Owner Operators get operating authority, and start working the load boards really hard. After about three years, most are burnt out, broke, and their trucks are a bucket of bolts. They have little to none of their own accounts, so they subject themselves to whatever someone else throws their way.
Freight Brokers and other third parties should only be used in a pinch, or as a last resort. Most brokers accept this role as a ‘fill in” for carriers. Brokers want carriers to have their own accounts where they make the bulk of their profit margin, and don’t want carriers to depend on them as a primary source of profit generation.
In other words, freight brokers are not the enemy. In fact, after de-regulation in 1980, if it wasn’t for freight brokers, selling trucking services to shippers, the rail and intermodal industries would have most of the freight by now. The railroads are watering at the mouth as you read this, hoping for a long shutdown, ready to pick up the pieces, and assist shippers during the crisis. One man’s crisis is another’s opportunity, cut and dry, no drama, no happy movie endings.
There are many things you can do to get back on the right track, and in the end, that’s what matters. I actually had a carrier with authority and insurance who thought it was illegal to do business directly with factories, and you HAD to go through a broker. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
If you have authority and insurance, and are a contract carrier, you can sign a short agreement with ANY manufacturer to haul their freight; your agreement is your contract. As a “for hire” common carrier, any shipper can do business with you, without a contract, but you must publish a tariff.
Taking you through the whole gamut of where to start, or how to turn things around, will make this about a 30 page article, so I’ll try to keep this short.
ANYBODY can get freight, you don’t have to be a salesperson, and it’s not that hard. If you can carry a box of donuts, with your business card taped to the top, to a shipping dock, to find out who really makes the freight decisions, or bring a pizza to a shipping office during lunch, you’re going to hit on something, just don’t whine about fuel or truck costs, it’s boring to them, and you’re competitors aren’t doing it. Bad feeds on bad, and some people will complain in the best of times too, so don’t let others make you cynical, this is your livelihood!
Wouldn’t it be nice, to sit up in bed Monday morning, and say “well, I’ve got 2 steady loads from this customer, and three steady loads from that customer, and all I have to do is fill in a few blanks” , it’s a lot easier than to wake up from a horrid nightmare with no plan, hoping the freight boards will be kind to you this week, after the rates are chopped down to nothing.
Freight matching services basically force you to “wholesale” your services, your business, and should only be used in furtherance of supporting a profitable and sound business plan. They’re counting on you, NOT having a plan, so you pay them fees for the next 30 years.
The “triangle” plan is the one that most owner operators have success with, and the one I recommend. It involves picking 3 metropolitan areas, based on supply and demand (we’ll need to talk about that), and working those 3 areas as hard as possible.
Once a regular run can be established, then it’s time to heavily market every shipper in between those three points. Between the truckloads and large LTL moving between those areas, there’s more money to be made then you can shake a stick at. You’re never going to get a foothold by running everywhere for everybody and being anonymous.
One Owner Operator I know, that runs hotshots from Tennessee to Maine to Virginia and anywhere in between, picks up loads in Tennessee going to Maine for $1,800.00, the load takes up about half of the truck.
His goal is to get to Maine with $3,000.00 to $4,000.00 worth of freight on the truck. The day before he leaves, he starts calling everybody he knows between Tennessee and Maine…”I’ve got a truck on the way to the northeast, I can deliver any freight you have by tomorrow, and save you a bundle”. Is that so hard to do, help people save time and money? The shipper saves money, the freight is normally delivered the next day, unlike standard LTL service, where freight travels from terminal to terminal and takes 5 days to deliver, everybody’s happy and he’s making money.
The moment the truck is full and ready to make deliveries, he starts working on the next freight movement, just working the relationships he has established in his triangle. This requires preparation and investing a little of your time, but if you follow the basic plan, as many owner operators have done, and who have gone from owner operators, to small fleet owners in just a few years, you should be there too. Half the industry is QUIET, AND MAKING MONEY, while the other half suffers…back to what I said earlier…one man’s crisis is another’s opportunity. If everybody was going broke, there would nobody in the business.
There are many steps to making this transition, business stationery, possible freight bill factoring or setting up a credit service, making connections, paying commissions to people who can find you business. In other words, running your business, and not letting your business run you. These are the things you need to do to truly become an independent owner operator and eventually a small fleet owner.
NOW COME ON!… you can do this, start putting deals together, be a mover and a shaker in a sea of negativity, and you will immediately stand out. You’re doing all the work anyway, so why not stop playing “defense” and go on “offense”?
Everybody needs a pep talk now and then. It’s easy to get beat up when bills weigh heavy and you are the sole provider. But remember, your brain is nothing more than a piece of real estate, fill it with unproductive things, and there’s no room to let the good in. You know you are the MAN (OR WOMAN), and once you get rolling, nobody can stop you. “I WILL PUT DEALS TOGETHER; MY EYES ARE WIDE OPEN TO NEW OPPORTUNITY”. I know, all this sounds a little corny, but the business end of the trucking industry has always been 80% mental. Freight Brokers have a phone, a pen and a pad of paper when they start, little more. Attitude baby, ATTITUDE!
My passion is to see people make it in this business, and over the years, I have had the pleasure of taking a trip down memory lane, and laughing with fleet owners, formerly owner operators who have said to me…”remember when I had one truck”. Anything is possible.
I have ran into many of the same types of folks. It is very humorous and it sure breaks the monotony. I always wonder if there is a true story in there somewhere. If any of these outlandish stories were true, you would never know.
The military claims kind of annoy me. I was just a “leg” in the Army and I met and worked with some Rangers and Green Berets. Some older soldiers were Rangers who ended up in leg (legs are just plain infantryman with no Airborne or Ranger status) units, usually due to injury or family obligations. Green Berets were highly educated, professional soldiers and the only time I ran into them was when they were on training assignments. If these folks knew the requirements and rarity of a Green Beret, they would never lay claim to it. It would be a rare thing for them to go trucking with the abilities and talents they gain in the service. They were extraordinary folks and they did not need to advertise their profession. When I hear some rag bag laying claims to military greatness, it really takes alot away from these great folks.
The Hound Lady is hilarious. I could have humored myself for a long time with her! Leopard genes? Wow, who would have thought.
When I first started, I would argue these outrageous folks. Then, I learned it’s an argument that will have no end. I don’t think they do it to test your intelligence, I think that it’s just their fantasy world and that it helps them to make conversation. Once I started humoring myself with it, I learned how much fun it can be to hop into their fantasy and roll with it for a while, just not long enough to go crazy too.
I started taking some of these guys at their word, because, Why not? After hearing so many, you begin to wonder. During the DC Sniper incident, every truck stop had at least one if not more trained snipers.
Most SF guys are going to be low key about it and you’re not going to hear about their service in the first five minutes of conversation.
If you see me in a truckstop, I’m the one NOT at the coffee counter or the cherry machines minding my own business.
We had a guy in my platoon we were scared to death would snap and start shooting at us on the range. The Sergeant would only give him a few rounds just in case. He’d tell him that he was our “sniper” and with his skills, he would only need a few rounds. That may be the type of “sniper” these guys are referring to.
I also knew a guy who’s MOS(military occupational specialty) was a carpenter. I met him in Airborne school of all places. I still laugh at the thought of a carpenter tool belt flapping in the wind during a jump. He was at the school for promotion points. You never know when a carpenter will be needed behind enemy lines.
Yes, the accomplished military folks are generally humble people around civilians and some of the nicest folks you would want to meet. Consider their sacrifices they volunteered. They’re not interested in scaring you with tales of killing or the ability to kill you if you cross them.
Even Hillary Clinton has gotten in on some military action I hear!
I always wonder why they tell the tales. If you were in at all, I respect your service. I scrubbed toilets, floors, picked up trash on the highway, and all sorts of mundane lesser chores at times. Seals, Special Forces, and Rangers also did alot of it on their way up the ladder. I LOVED KP, all you could eat, it was warm, and I didn’t have to carry a weapon for it. My proudest moment was getting taken out of my line unit for temporary work as a “Bus Commander” where I simply escorted people around Germany on a bus. It was all important service to the country. If you were not in, just being a hard working good citizen is honorable in itself. If you were in and you were a tank turret mechanic, recreational specialist, librarian, etc. people are going to enjoy stories about what REALLY did, much more than a fake story about how you almost took out the Canadian Prime Minister until it was called off to deploy on a more important mission to Tanzania for trouble down there.
Don’t get me wrong, there are MANY proud ex-military truckers out there. They fall into the job naturally as they are well-versed in time away from harm and less than luxurious lifestyles. I generally only tell the stories of the good times, no sense depressing folks. It’s not hard to tell the real Veterans. When I spot a fake, I like the quote from the old move “Stripes” when the drill Sergeant said, “Lighten up Francis”.
When I got back from Iraq in 2005, I bought a used 1998 Western Star 4964 and got my authority. I thought I had heard a lot of “ghost stories” in my time, but when I heard some of the stories I heard out there, it truly made me laugh. I’ve been around many of the SF folks, the Big Red One, and the 101st Airborne here. None of them talk, or brag, to just anyone. As a matter of fact, most of them don’t talk at all! You surely won’t find me talking about what I have done over here! I cringe when I think about it in my head. I would prefer to simply forget about most of what I have seen here.
I had to park my truck back in August of 2006 when I was sent back to Iraq. I’ve had one R&R in 2007 that was for 21 days. I guess in hindsight; having to come back here has probably saved me from going bankrupt. I still owe on my business loan, but it’s manageable. Diesel was running around 2.89 a gallon when I left and there wasn’t much margin for profit back then. I had the Western Star for about five months when the nut came off of one of the jakes and I pushed a piston through the side of the block outside of Gunnison, Colorado. That wound up costing me 25K, but I had a policy on the engine so it wound up costing me 12K out of pocket. Then there was the downtime while it was in the shop in Grand Junction having a swing engine put in the truck.
I am slated to hopefully end this tour in six months, and to be quite honest, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life now that our economy is in the tank. I get a chance to read the internet periodically, and to be honest, it scares the heck out of me! I have a new engine in my truck, but I doubt that I’ll be able to make the business turn a profit since I’ve been out of it for so long.
One thing I can say is that I’ve learned to have a world of respect for owner/operators and drivers in the business. It takes a special breed of folks to turn wheels and keep the left door shut. I thank the lord that I had a chance to experience the life of a driver! In August I’ll have been in Iraq a total of 36 months. All I want right now is to enjoy the simple things in life, like the smell of fresh air, and diesel smoke pouring out of the stack of a truck. I’ve missed two years with my kids and wife since I’ve been over here.
If you hear folks complaining about life, a week here will make anyone a believer that life in America is GRAND indeed! To all of the drivers out there, thank you for doing what you do. I know it’s hard on you and your families. A lot of Americans take for granted what you really do, when they should be thanking you.
Thanks for everything you’re doing over there John. I’m glad my days of it all are behind me and I really appreciate your sacrifices.
I haven’t heard ghost stories in a while. Last one I heard was a driver swore his wife who had passed would sit in the cab when he went down her favorite stretch of road. Funny part was he said it scared the hell out him! You’d think he’d be happy to see her.
36 months is way more than any person needs to put in over there. Really makes me mad how they will not reinstate the draft and the leave it all up to the volunteers. Says volumes out their commitment to the war. Our country would be in big trouble if it were not for those who volunteer. Thank God you guys have more commitment than our politicians and I hope all of you get a big piece of the American pie when you get home! You’ll find some use for that truck when you get home.
John, thanks for your service and trying to do both trucking and the service must be really tough.
Being an o/o with your own authority is tough even for those that have been doing it for awhile. There are truckers making money. Maybe not as much as last year, but they’re making money.
Maybe a little more research is needed and read some of the other posts we have. The general consensus among most of us is you might do better if you specialize in something besides bumping docks as fast as possible.