Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Sometimes in life, you think that you just don’t want to play anymore. You are tired, you are frustrated and no matter what you do, things aren’t getting better. Does this sound familiar? Well, know that you aren’t alone; we’ve all gone through it.

In trucking it can often seem that you are alone in your struggles. You are the only one in the truck driving for hours on end. It is difficult, any truck driver will admit that. Being away from your friends and family for weeks on end is hard, but stick through it and remember; there is always light behind the clouds.

If you are just starting your truck driving job, know that the first few months are always the hardest. It’s a definite lifestyle change and you have to give yourself time to get used to it. There will probably be times when you think to yourself, is this worth it? But don’t answer that yet. Wait until you’ve got about six or more months under your belt and then think about it.

Life on the road really is rewarding and has many great aspects to it. For example, you get paid to travel across this great nation where each and every state is different. Just watch, soon enough you’ll be able to proudly say you’ve been in every state. While those with an office job, however, can name a few they’ve been to, but they probably weren’t paid to go to all of them.

It helps if you have someone you can call, maybe a family member or a friend who you could talk to while you’re on your break. If you don’t have someone you can call then there are plenty of trucking forums where you can go to talk to people in the exact same situation you are, as well as people who have been there, done that and came out on the other side. You can also get out of your truck and talk to the other drivers at the truck stop. Many of them are feeling the same way you are and would love the opportunity to talk to someone besides themselves.

I know times can get hard, but don’t give up. Honestly, it is what you make of it. Allow yourself a moment of despair if you need to, but then pull yourself back up, roll your shoulders and get back in the game. Enjoy the road and look for the good things in each and every day, if you look hard enough I’m sure you can find at least one good thing. Hey, you’ve got a job right? Even if you can only think of one positive thing, it’s worth holding on to.

You can make it. Just live each day the best you can and you will soon find yourself loving the lifestyle of a truck driver. Life goes on, make sure you go with it.

Trucking on Time

In the trucking industry, being on time is vital to your success. If you’re late it can cause a big problem because when you’re late, others will have to wait for you and they will then be late. Deadlines may be missed and shipments may not get picked up and the list goes on. It’s a bit like a domino effect.

So, knowing how important it is to be on time, what can you do to make sure you are? Well, I would suggest sitting down and getting out a good trip plan. Know exactly where you’re going, how you’re going to get there and how long it’s going to take. On top of that time add intervals for stops such as bathroom breaks, food breaks and traffic. A good trip plan can make or break you.

For me being on time is difficult, I find that for some reason I am exactly five minutes late. So, easy solution, just leave five minutes earlier, right? If only it were that easy. Through my conflicts with time, I’ve noticed that I have to tell myself, and more importantly make myself believe, that I need to be somewhere five minutes earlier than I actually do. If I plan on leaving with the perfect amount of time to get to there, I’ll be five minutes late.

So, now I have a schedule. I know that I have to be going out my door at 6. I have to be getting on the freeway at 6:20 and getting on the highway to my work at 6:35 in order to be to work at 7.  Knowing ahead of time how long certain things will take will help you plan for them and it will help you be on time.

One thing that you should keep in mind is that it’s always better to be early than late. Think about it, how often do you hear employers complain about an employee always being a few minutes early? Never.

With this in mind, why not give yourself about ten extra minutes just in case something happens? You can never predict when an accident will occur and set you behind on your schedule. Plan ahead, stay safe and remember; if you are running late don’t drive dangerously to get there on time. A late load is better than no load.

Ten Tips to Fall Asleep

We’ve all had nights when no matter what we do, sleep eludes us. Whether it’s because our minds are going a million miles per hour or we’re simply not tired, it seems that no matter what we cannot fall asleep. So, what do you do when you must sleep because you have a long day of driving ahead of you and you can’t afford to be tired?

In this article, you will find ten tips that will give you what you need to fall asleep and get a good night’s rest.

1: Turn off your TV and computer.

Both your TV and computer are stimulating devices. They encourage your mind to be alert by a consistent wave of information. By turning off these devices, you will be able to relax your mind will not have anything to keep your mind occupied. Once your mind is relaxed it is easier to drift into the sweet oblivion of sleep.

2: Make your room dark.

Light is another stimulator for the mind. Light tells you that it is time to be awake and active. This does not include only lamps or sun light, bright clocks or cell phone lights can also make it harder for you to sleep. Besides telling you that you need to be awake, light can encourage your eyes to look around, which will in turn stimulate your mind.

3: Don’t play video games right before bed.

Playing video games is yet another way to… can you guess it... stimulate your mind. The fast movement or interesting story line of a video game wakes your mind up and gets the juices going. For instance, playing a game like Modern Warfare gets your thinking about strategic places to hide, ways to invade the enemy territory and better your ratios. Now that’s a lot for your brain to go over and will wake you up, not put you to sleep. Have you ever wondered why when you started playing the game you were getting tired then the next thing you know it’s hours past your bedtime?

After these first three tips, are you starting to see a pattern? In most cases, too much brain stimulation before bed equals staying awake. Now that you know a few things you shouldn’t do, here are a few that you should.

4: Drink a relaxing beverage.

Drinking something like warm milk or warm herbal tea is a great way to relax your muscles and get you in the perfect mindset for bed. This works because heat relaxes muscles while cold makes them tighter, so drinking a warm beverage is a great way to let go of the stresses of the day.

Herbal tea, particularly chamomile tea, also has a soft fragrance to help you relax and a smooth taste that is not too strong, but rather light to help you sink into your sleep.

5: Make yourself comfortable

Being in a comfortable position is vital to getting a good night’s sleep. By making sure your body is inline and your neck isn’t scrunched one way or the other, you are able to relax and let yourself go to sleep.

6: Find a white noise.

For some people, noise is very distracting while they are trying to sleep. A dog barking next store, a loud car passing the house and a train barreling down the tracks can make falling asleep seem impossible. So, try drowning out these noised with a soft and consistent noise. There are machines or CDs that replicate noises such as a steady heartbeat, soft waves against a sandy beach, a light rainfall and many other sounds. One of the key elements to good background noise is constancy. You don’t want something that will suddenly change tone and wake you up right as you were falling asleep, we all know how annoying that is.

7: Healthy habits during the day.

The things you do during your day have a very big impact on how well you are able to fall asleep. If you had a stressful day, you may find yourself staying awake thinking of what you should have said or what you will do tomorrow. It’s a fact of life that we are all going to have stressful days here and there, but there are things we can do to make sure it doesn’t have such a big impact. One of these things is exercise. Exercise is one of the best stress releases, even better than chocolate. It is also proven that good daily exercise actually improves sleep. It both helps you fall asleep faster and have a deeper, more restful sleep.

8: Relaxing techniques.

Before going to bed, try a few techniques to relax your body and mind. These can include stretching, but not a strenuous stretch, just one that will help you rid your body of tension. While you are stretching, try playing soft music. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and move slowly, focusing on your actions, letting both your mind and body relax.

9: Read a boring book.

I know that at the beginning of this article it was clear mind stimulation is bad, but a boring book definitely not stimulating. Who hasn’t had the experience when you are reading a text book and for the life of you, you just can’t stay awake? Try getting out a text book at bed time, read a few boring pages then easily fall asleep. Besides helping you sleep, reading a text book at night will help you learn.

10: Daydream.

How often during the day do you look out the window and get lost in dreams? Then you look at your clock and get surprised by how much time has gone by. Daydreaming is a great way to relax both your body and your mind. While you lay in bed, imagine yourself flying through the starry sky, nothing around you but a gentle summer breeze. Your body is weightless and you can fly forever… Soon you will find yourself flying straight into dream land.

The question of how to fall asleep faster is a life-long question, one that billions of people have been asking for years. There have been studies on it and doctors who have dedicated their entire career to finding an answer. There are plenty of methods out there and not all of them work for everybody. Sleep is a vital part of our daily lives. It affects everything we do and not getting enough of it can be very damaging. Don’t sell yourself short, use these helpful tips to make sure you get the sleep you need. Pleasant dreams. 

Managing your mile per gallon

Did you know that 25 percent of all operating costs for a fleet of trucks come from the cost of fuel? Think for a second how much 25 percent really is… Say you make $100 per day. 25% of that is 25. This means that every day you are paying $25 for gas, meaning that you are really only making $75 per day.

To some people, this may not seem like too much, but $25 a day really adds up. In fact, in one week $25 per day adds up to $175, in one month it is $5,425. Imagine having the expense of $5,425 a month for fuel. Just looking at that number hurts.

Knowing how the price of fuel adds up, you might now be asking what can you do about it? Fuel is a necessary part of any truck driving job, unless you can find a truck that can run on electricity. So, since fuel is a must-have part of your job what you need to do is figure out how you can get the most out of each and every drop. Remember that even a two or three percent difference can make a big impact.

Trucking’s Hottest State

Imagine driving down a long road on a hot summer day. Nothing surrounds you but dry, hot, barren desert. You can feel the midday sun beating through your windows and even though your air conditioning is on full blast, you still feel like it’s 100 degrees.

Most truck drivers know this feeling, especially those drivers that drive from one hot state to another. Oftentimes when you are driving from state to state in the summer heat, it seems as though the state you are currently in is the hottest, but how true is that? Which state is truly the hottest in the continental U.S.? The answer might surprise you.

The hottest state in the continental U.S. is Florida with an average year-round temperature of 70.73. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How can Florida be the hottest state when places like Texas have reached temperatures of 120? The key words here are year-round. Florida’s combined temperatures for the year average 70 degrees. Because Florida doesn’t get much colder than 65 in many places and not much hotter than 90, the average temperature and the temperature that occurs most often is about 70. The average temperature of Texas is 64.83.

Now, that’s all good for a year-round temperature, but what about the heat that really makes a difference? What about the summer heat, which state has the hottest summers? This answer might surprise you too.

The state with the hottest summer ever recorded is actually Oklahoma. In the year 2011 Oklahoma had an average temperature of 86.9 degrees, while Texas averaged 86.7 degrees. So, Oklahoma only beat Texas by .2 degrees, but hotter is hotter.

Like with Florida, these temperatures are an average of summer temperatures. Throughout the course of the summer, both states reached temperatures well above 86 degrees, even crossing beyond 100 on multiple occasions.

Honestly, most of the states in the south-central region and southeastern corner of the country are considered to be the “hottest.” With temperatures that most often don’t get too cold, the average temperatures of these states are pretty steady. However, when you find yourself crossing places such as the Mojave Desert, be prepared for scorching heat. The highest temperature recorded in the Mojave Desert is 125. That’s hot!

When you find one of these places on your truck driving route, be prepared for some real summer heat. Make sure you have plenty of water and a working air conditioner. As a truck driver, you will experience some hot roads, all you can do is make sure you are ready for it.

Truckers Against Trafficking: Take a Stand

Each year there are over 17,500 people trafficked into the United States. They are transported by boat, plane, train, bus and truck. This is a staggering number, and the information only gets worse. Human trafficking is a billion dollar industry, second only to drug trafficking. It is prevalent in all areas of the world, including the United States.

Currently, there are more than 300,000 American children in the human trafficking industry. These children are forced into a lifestyle they have no control over and literally become slaves. These children are taken from their homes at a young age and sold repeatedly for many purposes including manual labor and prostitution. The average age for children in the trafficking world is thirteen to fifteen years old, with a life expectancy of seven to nine years beyond that.

Human trafficking is a real and ever-present danger and it has to stop. Now, you may be reading this thinking what can I do? The truth is, you can do a lot. You don’t even have to put yourself out there, you don’t have to do a single thing except make a phone call. When you are at a truck stop or anywhere else and you notice something strange, call it in.

There is an organization called Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) that specializes in providing help to those children who find themselves caught in the world of human trafficking. TAT was founded because the trucking industry has been targeted by traffickers as a premium industry for their business. The constant movement of truck drivers provides traffickers with the ultimate climate to sell and transport their “cargo”, which in this case is young boys and girls.

Realizing this, TAT has implemented a program to educate truck drivers across the nation that this problem is there and that they can do something about it, all you need is a phone. There is a hotline (1-888-373-7888) implemented by TAT for drivers to call when they see suspicious activity. When calling this hotline you do not need to give any personal information, just tell them what you see.

If you see young women walking around the truck stop, don’t just roll your eyes at the “lot lizards” and go to sleep. Pick up your phone and call the police or the Truckers Against Trafficking hotline. You may think that you can’t make a difference, but you can. Mark, a truck driver for more than 30 years, remembers a time when he had the chance to make a call:

“I’ve been in the transportation industry since 1971 and I remember one time about 31 years ago I pulled into a truck stop, it was night and I was doing some paperwork. I noticed some girls going from truck to truck. Then a little bit later, I heard a knock on my door. I looked out the window and saw a girl standing there, so I got out and she asked me if I wanted a date. She was probably about thirteen or fourteen, really young. I said no, but let me ask you, why are you doing this? and she said, “See that Cadillac down there? That’s why.” I knew what she meant. I got back in my truck and I thought, why don’t I just walk across the parking lot and call the police? It would be easy, just walk across and call. Well… I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it and it’s been bothering me for 31 years. I feel that if people were aware, if they would just get involved… it’s just a simple phone call. Don’t let it bother you the rest of your life. It’s just a phone call, but it can make a big difference.”

Mark’s story is one where there was not a call made. However, there is also a story where the call was made and it made all the difference in the world. Shari was fifteen when she and her cousin, age 14, were kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Every day was full of abuse and fear with no hope of escape. Then, one day Shari was rescued. She was back at home and her life was given back to her. The reason she was freed is because a truck driver made a call.

“I have a life now.” Shari said.  “I’m married to a great guy and have a daughter with a son on the way. I’m sitting here next to my mom and all this could have been taken away if it weren’t for a trucker who made the call.”

You may think that you alone could never make a difference, but that is not true. From this one call from one truck driver, seven other children were rescued, 31 offenders were convicted and a 13-state prostitution ring was shut down. You can make a big difference.

To learn more about how you can be an everyday hero, visit www.truckersagainsttrafficking.com. As a truck driver, you are the eyes and ears of this nation’s highways, you can see things on one else can. This also means you can help in a way that no one else can.

Overcoming the Challenges of Trucking

In the trucking industry, there are many great perks to life on the road. The ability to drive across the country and meet new people from all over the world is great. However, as with any industry, there are also challenges to a truck driving job.

According to the annual King of the Road Survey, the top challenge met by truck drivers is eating right. This is followed closely by coping with hours-of-service regulations and exercising. Each of these challenges provide a different level of difficulty to a truck driver’s life, affecting both their personal and professional lives.

To help truckers overcome or at least lessen these challenges, we have provided some tips concerning each topic. It is our hope that by reading these tips you will learn something that can help you improve your life as a truck driver.

Challenge number one, eating right. Practicing healthy eating habits are hard enough for most people without adding the difficulties of a trucking job onto it. As a truck driver you are constantly on the road with a strict schedule. This means that you do not always have the time to go to the grocery store and purchase healthy foods and even if you do find the time, it is rather difficult to cook in a truck…

One thing you may try is just making weekly or even bi-weekly shopping trips when you can purchase fruits and vegetables and perhaps lunch meats for light lunch sandwiches. To do this, you would need a refrigerated storage unit so your food will not spoil. You can also try some healthy dinners that can be fixed in a microwave.

In the King of the Road Survey the top snack foods were fresh fruit, nuts, M&M’s and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The first snack, fruit, is a great choice. The second, mixed nuts, is also a good choice if eaten in moderation. Nuts are high in protein and if you eat too many you may find them adding to your weight problems. The last two snacks, M&M’s and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, are not quite the best choices for a mid-day snack.  If eaten sparingly, like once a week or less, these foods are okay but when eaten daily they can become a real problem.

Eating healthy with a truck driving job is not impossible. It does, however, take both time and dedication. It’s not easy, you need to exercise self-control but once you do start to eat healthy you will quickly find that the pros literally outweigh the cons.

Now for the next challenge, coping with the hours-of-service regulations. It is difficult to plan out your trip to the degree that you have every hour scheduled out, especially when there are so many variances like unplanned traffic congestion. The best way to be sure you are in accordance with your hours-of-service regulations is simply to do your best to plan ahead. To make a better trip plan, take into account the time of day, will you be driving during rush hour? The hours-of-service is meant to help drivers be safer on the road. If you are working against it, you will have a harder time with it.

The last trial that many truck drivers deal with is the challenge of exercising. After a long day of driving, most people are tired and one of the last things you want to do is get up and move about. If you do, however, you will find that you aren’t tired so easily and you will have many, many other benefits as well.

Exercise is a vital part of life. Not only does it keep your weight down, but it also has been proven to increase your lung capacity, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, help you sleep better and even improve your mood. If you are having trouble encouraging yourself to get up and exercise, think of all the things you can gain from it. Then, weigh this against what you will gain from not exercising…

Convincing yourself that you do indeed want to exercise is only half of the battle. Now you have to find a way to do it. Most people would simply go to the gym or exercise in their living room, but as a truck driver you don’t have that luxury. Know though that this does not mean exercise is impossible.

There are some exercises you can do right in your trailer during your break. These include sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, leg rises, or certain yoga moves. If you don’t have the room to do all of this or are simply unable to exercise in your cab, there are other alternatives. Some truck drivers take their bicycles with them on the road, taking it out when they stop and finding a trail or simply riding around the truck stop. This is a great idea to help you lose weight and improve your health. You can also simply run around you truck.

Some truck stops have gyms available for their driver to use. This is a great option, but if there is no gym don’t let yourself use that as an excuse. Like eating healthy, exercising is difficult and takes a level of dedication and self-control but is definitely worth it.

Your truck driving job should enable you to live a better life. Don’t let your career stop you from a healthy and happy life. Combine your truck driving job with these few tips and you will see that overcoming your challenges is not impossible and that it really can help you live life to the fullest.

Audio Books on the Road

Having a truck driving job is a very rewarding experience. You get paid to travel the country, meet a wide variety of people and drive a really big truck. However, a truck driving job can get lonely. Driving hour after hour with nothing but the roar of your engine to keep you company can get wearing after a while. Even the musical talents of your radio can become monotonous and the longing to actually hear someone talking makes you realize how alone you really are. 

At times like this, when you feel like you are going crazy, the solution is simple: listen to a book. Really, listen to a book. You’ll be surprised at the difference it makes. When listening to a book, not only are you hearing the calming sound of a human voice speaking to you, but you are also being delightfully distracted by a story. Even as adults, most people enjoy being told a good story. The stimulation of your mind to create the scenes told in a story can also help you wake up a bit of you are feeling drowsy.

As a story unfolds, the characters will join you in the cab of your truck and you will likewise join them in their adventures. They can become your friends on the road, your companions through the long stretches of nothing but deserts or open fields. You may be surprised at how quickly you get involved with the story.

For those drivers who do not like story books, but prefer something a little more academic, there are plenty of text books or self-help books that have been recorded as well. Listening to one of these books can relieve your feeling of solitude by turning your thoughts inward, or toward the noble pursuit of knowledge. Having a truck driving job doesn’t have to mean being lonely anymore. You can have company on the road with you whenever you want, all you need to do is listen.

To learn more about truck driving and how you can begin your career as a successful truck driver, visit www.crengland.com.