Know The Trucking Business
Not quite. Truck Suds A truckin’ soap opera Miles here. We had some reg’lar readers send emails an such, wondrin’ what-all was goin’ on with my blog. Kinda missed it, they said. Thank you kindly for sayin’ that. This’ll be the last blog edition of TruckSuds, though, as Nadine says…
TruckSuds : a truckin’ soap opera Hey, everbody, Miles here. I’m gonna let T-Dawg ramble with one of his stories while the rest of us try to figure out just what-all to tell you ‘bout the last few months here at Mamie’s. Been a hell of a ride, all I…
“Hey, Miles, since your better half isn’t here, how about tellin’ us a Nadine story?”
TruckSuds: a truckin’ soap opera Mamie’s was kinda in a bit of a fuss yesterday. Seems a trucker hadn’t been payin’ enough attention an’ when he backed out beside another rig in a really tight space – he took off the mirrors on the driver’s side. Luckily the mirrors gave…
TruckSuds: a truckin’ soap opera Hey, everbody. Short of time today, but wanted to share somethin’ that happened last Monday. You know my wife, Nadine, is a mite feisty at times. If she suddenly got reincarnatated, she’d be the chihuahua challenging a St. Bernard. That’s jus’ her nature. Remember when…
TruckSuds – a truckin’ soap opera It got a little lively around here last week. Clarissa had gotten herself kinda settled in lookin’ after my sister, Flora, and her lil’ cat that had a broken wrist too. She refused to let my sis pay her for the help, though, ’cause…
TruckSuds: a truckin’ soap opera Miles here. Last time, we left a bunch of truckers listenin’ to T-Dawg’s description of yet another of B.A.’s adventures in trucking. Trooper Snakes had just offered B.A. a deal on how much over the speed limit he’d been drivin’, an’ in spite of the…
TruckSuds: a truckin’ soap opera Hey, everbody, let’s kinda catch up with what’s been goin’ on at Mamie’s. You’ll recall Clarissa fainted onto the floor in a heap when she saw Trooper Snakes waitin’ to talk to her. B.A. set down his coffee mug an’ said, “Well, now, that’s the…
TruckSuds: a truckin’ soap opera Hey, everbody – I’m sorry that I’m runnin’ a mite behind, but there’s really been a lot goin’ on around here. You remember last week, a mean-to-the-bone trucker had slapped his girlfriend an’ then run off an’ left her here at Mamie’s. The grungy driver…
Nadine here. Wasn’t that a nice Google Doodle to salute health care workers, first responders and farmers? Now they need to salute another group that’s often overlooked even though they’re on the front lines too. You know who ol’ Nadine’s talkin’ about – yep, truckers. You-all.
Hey, everbody. Pull up a chair an’ let’s let T-Dawg tell the rest of his story ‘bout B.A. an’ his close encounter with a driverless truck. Kinda reminds me of Nadine, when she gets started back-seat drivin’, but you didn’t hear me say that.
Seems Flora recently had kind of a rough time of it, her and the five cats. Some mouse snuck into her little RV last week and the cats just went crazy. The RV was rockin’ back and forth and jumpin’ up and down, leanin’ first one way and then the other until Flora thought for sure they were all going to be capsized like that fishin’ boat in “A Perfect Storm.
Taking a vacation is something many micro-motor carriers place on the back burner. The trucker either thinks he can’t afford it or his business will go down the tubes if he takes time off. On the contrary. As far-fetched as this may seem, a vacation is possible with a bit of planning and foresight.
TruckSuds: a truckin’ soap opera Howdy from Miles, everbody. Hope your highway’s straight and your EOBR is too. A few days ago, some of the long-time truckers decided to ‘help’ a new trucker out with all kinds of advice. Well, naturally, I just had to listen in on that –…
How is your trucking company differentiated from all the other small and micro-carriers?
In simple terms, this is the basic premise of company branding. So how do you increase your trucking operation’s name recognition?
Do you have the facts and figures which support what you’re doing according to your plan? This is how you determine if it’s working. Should you stay the course? If it’s not working, to what extent do you adjust the plan? Do you scrap the portion that isn’t achieving your goals, or make small changes? How do you know the best course of action?
This here’s one of my favorite B.A. stories. Nadine says she doesn’t believe it, but I do – an’ T-Dawg wouldn’t tell a whopper, unless you catch him in it.
Many small fleets run on ‘day-to-day’ load planning. It’s like a pilot flying by the seat of his pants; it may get him to where he needs to be but–after a nail-biting, really bumpy ride–it won’t be a flight he wants to repeat.
Knowledge creates strength; hence, it gives you the power to succeed. There are two different ways in which a person can gain knowledge. One is from experience, being there and doing it, making mistakes and working in the trenches. The other way is through studying and research until you know your subject inside and out.
Hello everbody, hope you’re under a real good load an’ headin’ home after delivery. Let me tell you about another local character, our Super Trooper, ‘Rattle’ Snake, Snakes, or a lot of other names. Depends on how long it’s been since you got a ticket as to what you call this epitome of trooperhood. I remember one tale specially, from Lucas Briscoe.
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” You shouldn’t let a single customer represent any more than 20% to 25% of your total revenue or accounts receivable.
A Customer Service Action Plan is a series of activities assigned to each driver and employee which must take place consistently with every customer…
Hello truckers and right seat covers – this is Nadine Wheeler, who’s been the oldest Right Seat Cover in the eighteen-wheeled world known as truckin’ … and if you don’t know what a Right Seat Cover is, well, then, young’uns, you’re reading the wrong blog!
You need to reassess where you’re hauling, who you’re hauling for, and what you’re hauling. Many hauling sectors declined in the last year, but not all. A hauling sector can be anything from the lane you haul in, to the products or industry you’re concentrating on, to the individual companies for which you haul.
You have a wheelbarrow filled with dirt at the top of a hill, or you have the same wheelbarrow at the bottom of a hill. Obviously getting that dirt-filled wheelbarrow to the bottom of a hill would be a lot less work than trying to push it to the top. Now think of this wheelbarrow as your freight rate:
All right, everbody, Miles here, listenin’ to T-Dawg McCall tell about a really terrible situation he rescued his friend, B.A. Grouseman from not too long ago. “Hey, Miles, can you get the hood latch on your side? Thanks. An’ Ernie-Earl, it’s your turn to go get some pie from Mamie’s.…
Listen to this story of how I turned cheap freight from vinegar into fine wine for one small carrier, using nothing more than industry experience, resourcefulness and dedication to finding a solution.
The snow, which had been no more than just spitting began coming down in furious earnest, quickly coating the roadway in an inch or more of snow. We continued on, as we were now fully committed to the climb and descent.
As we’re crossing a long bridge, a fire truck frame (just the cab with nothing but frame rails and rear axle) does a 360-degree spin about 200 yards ahead of us on the bridge we’re crossing. I know that if it’s that slick I must maintain momentum
Well, I kinda promised to tell you folks some stories of Mamie’s an’ the characters therein, an’ the trouble they got into too. I got to know ‘em all while me an’ Nadine was OTR for so many years, an’ onct in a while some of ‘em drop by here…
With a scarcity of people wanting to drive a semi, with freight availability increasing almost daily, many trucking companies’ thoughts are turning to add more drivers. However, with recruiting, training and being sure new hires are ready to follow the constant barrage of new regulations from the FMCSA, the investment of both time and dollars bringing on new truckers has increased.
When any two units of the team are in conflict, the entire team suffers. If each team member is only interested in his or her own benefit without regard to the effect on the other members, the entire team’s efforts will fail. It’s important for all the units which make up the team to work together.
Miles here. Of course, Mamie’s hasn’t always been the “Gas Up and Go Truckstop, Café or not.” When it was a stagecoach stop, it didn’t even have a sign. Back when Mamie 4 or 5, I disremember, was lookin’ fer somethin’ new, she tried “Mamie’s Diesel Up” for the hippie…
Trucking is by its nature, an unpredictable business. But at the same time, no matter what unexpected event occurs, a load either needs to get there or you need to find another one. This brings us to the # 1 Murphy’s Law of Trucking:
Well, everbody, seems I’ve been picked by Mamie herself to kinda write a memwire of how her lil’ place got famous. I’m Miles Wheeler, an’ up until a short while ago, I held the title of the Oldest Truck Driver in the world, still fillin’ out a log book at 110.
The thought of riding a roller coaster leaves me with memories of the stomach in the throat, white knuckles, sweaty palms, and sheer fear of what’s over the next rise or around the next corner. Kinda sounds like trucking, available freight scraping bottom and freight rates leaving our stomachs in knots—well, like a roller coaster.
It’s not just a question of survival during these times of low freight volumes and freight rates. It’s time to take advantage of the many opportunities coming down the road. The last year was one the hardest on small motor carriers since the Great Recession of 2009 and 2010. But…
Becoming bankable needs to be the goal of every small business owner, and that includes trucking company owners.
What if you become as efficient in the business of trucking as you’re at getting loads from point “A” to point “B”? Let’s start by planning your finances the same way we plan the route to pick up and deliver loads.
TruckSuds: a truckin’ soap opera Miles here. Strange happenin’s at Mamie’s this week. I’d just finished fillin’ the paper towel dispensers and windshield washer containers at the fuel islands when a kinda battered, older rig pulled into the far island. Wouldn’t have noticed except there seemed to be a real…