As with anything in life, there are always going to be ups and downs. Many folks resort to the notion of rising and falling tides, you know, life’s ebb and flow. Personally, and as I’ve learned through years of my own rising and falling, I now have a better understanding of what this mindset means. As we experience the highs in our lives, we also should be preparing for the moment when the bottom inevitably drops out from underneath us. Likewise, when we are in the midst ...

Safety in trucking should always be taken seriously. As a recruiter, I’ve spent years pouring over the driving backgrounds and Motor Vehicle Records (MVRs) of many a commercial driver. This also includes the all-powerful Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP), which details a driver’s Out-of-Service (OOS) records among many other things. One of the easiest ways to determine if a driver would qualify to drive for a specific company is to dissect the PSP in an attempt to un...

The transportation industry, including expedite, was a front row witness to a rather quick infusion of renewed interest in driving opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Something that materialized from this world-changing event was a glaring light that shined on the roles of truckers and their importance to the daily American landscape. This sudden interest in expedite and commercial driving could be attributed to pay raises across the transportation spectrum, including...

Whether you’re the owner/operator of your own truck or cargo van, or perhaps you’re simply wanting to drive as an independent contractor, here are some general rules to follow for both the novice and the seasoned vet. The following are suggestions to help jumpstart your business either as a beginning expediter or as a longtime logistics professional. Owner Operators The first thing to keep in mind is that you are the master of your own truck, so you decide what you do and...

Is there a way, and can, the trucking industry appeal to the youth of today? As older drivers are aging out of the driver pool, and companies and carriers continue to struggle with filling empty trucks, might there be a way to reach a younger generation of commercial and expedite truck drivers? The trucking industry currently possesses a prime opportunity to revamp its image and brand itself to a whole new generation of drivers. Upon exiting the pandemic, truckers and deliver...

Something we should all be better attuned to is our body and how it tries to communicate with us. Like listening when it’s telling us to stop eating so much, or to stop what we’re doing when exhaustion sets in and get some much-needed rest. The idea of listening to one’s body and responding appropriately isn’t a novel one, not by any means. But how many people out there actually pause long enough to give their body what it needs? In terms of a transportation career, s...

Even before the driver-dreaded ELD mandate and enforcement of electronic logs, there was already an uneasy period of time in which drivers were either scared to death of what was the unknown world of satellite tracking and monitoring, or just brazenly naïve as to how damaging an unkempt HOS (Hours of Service) logbook could be in terms of determining their next trucking employer. How It Used To Be It used to be quite common that commercial drivers were once considered the rul...

LET FREEDOM RING! The Fourth of July gives us the opportunity to celebrate the freedoms that we all enjoy. While there are many inside and outside of our country that are trying to take our freedoms away, the truck drivers that I have met believe in the freedoms that our country affords us all. As independent contractors we can appreciate the freedom to have a business and work in that business in a legal and safe manner. Lately, there are some who are trying to take away our...

Why do we feel it’s worth an announcement to dedicate one week a year to safe driving habits? Seriously, why isn’t this a daily thing? This year, Operation: Safe Driver Week is scheduled for July 7th through the 13th. During Safe Driver Week, law enforcement personnel will be on the lookout for commercial motor vehicle drivers and passenger vehicle drivers engaging in risky driving practices. This program focuses specifically on drivers, because a driver’s actions are ...

Of course, most drivers would indeed prefer the solitude of the open road. Who wouldn’t? You get to take your work with you and make money wherever you go. No boss or supervisors to answer to (other than perhaps dispatch and the Department of Transportation), and you’re touring the countryside over the wide-open road. What’s not to like about that? As appealing as driving solo can be, it’s often accompanied by the risk of losing out on extra cash by limiting oneself i...