Mindset in trucking will make you or break you in trucking.
Mindset in life will determine everything else about every area of your life and your ultimate success or failure too. That is why developing, maintaining, and continuously working to improve your mindset is so important.
Truck drivers are not like other employees and trucking is not like any other business in so many different ways. I know you have heard that trucking is a lifestyle and it is – but you should also know that driving a big rig as a CDL holder and professional trucker is so much more than even that. It is a business of your own.
You may be confused – or assume that I am – but let me explain what I mean.
When you get your Commercial Drivers License and become a truck driver – chances are that your compensation is based on your own productivity. That is true for the vast majority of truckers.
Most are paid by the miles they run.
Others are paid by stops. pieces unloaded, and or other accessorial pay of various types. Beyond all that, there are additional income production opportunities as a trainer/instructor, for doing referrals/recruiting, and various bonuses that can be obtained.
Often the total compensation is some combination of various elements. For example, you may get a base rate per load, say $73 as soon as you pick it up, then another amount per stop. Maybe $31 or so and you may have 2 to 4 stops on each load. Then on top of that, you get mileage pay for all pay miles run (maybe HHMG or Hub or another basis) and when added up it all becomes significant on a daily basis.
On top of that you may have an option to become an instructor/road trainer and make another $60 to $100 per day for each day you are training – and have someone to help you drive and unload – if you are good enough at what you do and smart enough to do that effectively you will be able to do far more loads, miles, and pieces each week. If you are good that is – otherwise, it will slow you down and you will do less, which depends on your own level of preparedness and drive.
The way you communicate with your dispatchers and planners and others determines the loads you get – and that impacts your profit.
That’s what I mean by saying you are already in business as a professional truck driver whether you are a company driver or an owner operator or lease driver… at the core, it doesn’t matter as much what your method of affiliation is as does your own internal representation to yourself as to whether you choose to see yourself as a trucking business owner and go for trucking business success – or whether you see what you do in trucking as just another job and wait for other people to tell you what to do and make all of your decisions for you.
Which way do you want to handle your trucking business?
Think about that. Let it really sink in – and then Choose Your Own Course.
That’s why I like to say “Choose Your Own Course, Build a Better Life” – because in the end my friend that is what it all comes back to – YOU – and the choices you make.
Until next time, be safe.
Best regards,
L.D. Sewell