Trucks at Work Blog

“I’m uncomfortable when I’m comfortable. I have to start something new — in the agency or in my personal life – every two years or so. Taking risks gives me energy. I can’t help it; it’s my personality. I’d like to think it’s not really a compulsion toward high risks, but the spirit of an entrepreneur.” –Jay Chiat

Trucking is a tough business, even in the best of times – and now is certainly about as far from the “best of times” as one can get.

Yet, despite even the enormous challenges facing owner-operators and fleets today, it’s still possible to eke out a good living by operating trucks – be it hauling freight, dirt and rock, refuse, you name it. The thing is, you’d better be fully committed – and have a business plan mapped out and thoroughly vetted – before you get behind the wheel and start shifting the gears.

Professor Jerry Osteryoung from the college of business at Florida State University offers some valuable insight on the whole issue of starting one’s own business – be it in trucking or otherwise – in today’s harsh economic climes. His bread and butter is the theory and practice of “entrepreneurship,” which is one of the big engines of business that drives the American way of life.

From Osteryoung’s perspective, even in these rough times, starting your own business might actually be less risky than you think – especially since so many “established” companies and the jobs they provide can be found on the shoals of fiscal trouble today.

“In today’s tough times, working for someone else is no longer considered secure,” he explains. “With an unemployment rate heading northwards of 10% and an economy that is not yet stabilized, now is the time to consider starting your own business.”

He freely admits that being in charge of your own destiny is both scary and rewarding. “It is scary as everything rests on you, yet it is rewarding for the very same reason,” Osteryoung says. “So many people say that entrepreneurs are born, but I am here to tell you that entrepreneurship is a learned discipline. Some people just learn faster than others. The best entrepreneurs that I have seen are those who are committed to learning continuously and really care about people.”

Osteryoung points out that starting a small business in a smart way significantly reduces the risk of such an undertaking. “Firstly, lack of adequate capital and lack of knowledge about the business are what kill small businesses,” he adds. “Both of these risks can be eliminated by approaching the task of starting a business with caution and knowledge.”

The best way to ensure that a start-up business obtains adequate capital, in Osteryoung’s view, is to start slowly and let the funds build up through operations.

“I frequently recommend that prospective entrepreneurs do not quit their jobs to start their businesses, but that they start in the evenings and on the weekends,” he says. “By starting on a part-time basis, the cost of start-up is much lower, and as an added benefit, you get the opportunity to see if it is really what you want to do before you go into it full time. Additionally, limiting how many dollars you want to put into the new venture reduces your risk and loss.”

A company driver, however, might find that almost impossible to do, since they function under set work day limits (and rightly so) set by federal hours of service regulations.

Yet while that means you can’t drive a truck during those off-duty hours, you sure can hone your business plan to a razor’s edge. Going over paperwork requirements, mapping out freight lanes, looking for potential customers, developing budgets and operating plans is all exceedingly important work – vital for anyone attempting to get a trucking business up, running, and thriving.

Timothy Brady, another one of my favorite trucking experts, offers a few insights those attempting to start – or expand – a trucking business in the current economic environment.

“First and foremost, you have to have a strategic growth plan,” Brady stresses. “This is a plan which lays out several things.” Those include:

• How much capital (money) is needed to sustain the operation in times of reduced business? This is called your Capitalization Point.

• How much money needs to be set back to acquire the needed trucks, trailers, other equipment and/or facilities to expand the business?

• What personnel will be needed, to bring the growth on-line and then to sustain it?

• What is the length of time from placing a new piece of equipment into service and when it will reach a sustainable positive cash flow?

Map those points out, and a trucker should find themselves better poised to make their business venture a success, says Brady – and, above all, never miss a chance to KEEP learning and fine tuning that business plan as time goes on.

That’s something Osteryoung also stresses. “In order to be successful, a potential entrepreneur has much to learn, but there are so many places to get help,” he explains. “The U.S. Small Business Administration has set up Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) in almost all medium to large cities – usually attached to a university. At these SBDCs, counselors will guide you through the process of getting needed licenses, legal documentation and so much more. SBDCs are wonderful sources of help and assistance. “

He adds that there’s also a wealth of other assistance available out there, potentially more valuable due to the experience attached to it. “Just about every successful entrepreneur, if approached correctly, will be willing to help a potential entrepreneur – assuming that they are not going to compete with them,” he says.

Osteryoung also believes testing the waters to see if you like what you’re about to embark on first is also pays a lot of dividends. “Not too long ago, we were helping a couple who wanted to go into the funeral home business. We encouraged them to go to work in the industry, even if on a part-time basis or for free, to ascertain if they really liked it,” he relates. “They were able to get low-level jobs at a funeral home and rapidly decided that it was not the right industry for them. They really saved a lot of time and energy by not just jumping in without adequate knowledge.”

In short, Osteryoung believes entrepreneurship is a wonderful profession as you get to be in charge of your own destiny and help others at the same time – but without adequate planning beforehand, your risk of failure increases. “In order to be successful, you need adequate funding and significant knowledge about your business,” he says. “You simply can’t overlook those.”

“I will be forever grateful for the courage and commitment you have shown as we have confronted the unprecedented challenges of the past few years. GM is a great company with a storied history. Ignore the doubters because I know it is also a company with a great future.” –From the resignation speech of Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of General Motors

So Rick Wagoner is out and little-known Fritz Henderson is in, taking the helm at General Motors at a time when many believe the global carmaker is in its death throes – a notion much of the mainstream media seems all to happy reinforce.

President Obama’s administration gave GM, along with its ailing competitor Chrysler, failing remarks for its turnaround efforts. To get access to more government funding to survive, the White House asked Wagoner for his resignation – and he acquiesced pretty fast. Whatever you think of GM and Wagoner (pictured at right), give the man credit – he could’ve created a protracted media spectacle out of his government-forced ouster but didn’t.

That being said, however, the wreckage Wagoner leaves behind is daunting. A 32-year veteran of GM, Wagoner served as president and CEO since June 2000, moving up to chairman and CEO on May 1, 2003. By 2005, however, GM already was drowning in red ink — racking up $11 billion in losses – and watched its market share crash from 45% in the mid 1980s to around 22% by the end of 2008.

Many of the reasons GM is in a major pickle right now are due squarely to the global carmaker’s own poor decision-making. Increasing global production capacity over the last decade to feed a projected annual worldwide market of 17 million units is probably going to be tagged as the big one, followed by the laughable decision back in the late 1990s to focus almost entirely on building big gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups, reducing car production to almost an afterthought, thinking that fuel prices would stay at $1 a gallon indefinitely. Talk about a bad bet!

Yet it goes deeper than all of that, because in the world of car and truck making, success really boils down – to my mind at least – into two very simple concepts: you must build good, reliable and durable products and you must support them through your dealers. Because automotive and truck buyers have long memories – and word of mouth between them trumps every single splashy advertising campaign in the known universe.

I know this because – like all of you out there – I’ve lived it. When I turned 16 a billion years ago, my parents bought a two-door four-cylinder Chevrolet Cavalier as a third car for me to shuttle my brother and sister (and myself) to school every day, to run errands to the grocery store, etc. I’ll sum my experience up with that car in two simple words: it sucked. (And it was WAY uglier than the model in this picture, to boot.)

From day one, it underperformed – just getting up to 55 mph to merge on the highway overtaxed the engine. Moderate braking would stall and then kill the engine – a problem two trips to the dealer failed to solve, despite costly maintenance work. And it came equipped only with an AM radio and weak, scratchy speakers. In some way, I think my parents jumped for joy over the crappiness of the Cavalier – I simply couldn’t get into any trouble with it.

Flash forward a few years: a design flaw in the motor caused the Cavalier’s engine cylinders to crack, forcing my family (thank the lord!) to unload this lemon. Its replacement was one of the ugliest cars I ever drove – a 1987 Honda Civic LX.

I called it a “trapezoid and wheels,” while my brother referred to it as the “Goofy-mobile.” But its four-cylinder motor cranked out the horsepower, it never gave me any trouble, and it shuttled me and my friends all over the eastern seaboard with reliable regularity. Oh, and it came standard with an AM/FM radio and cassette tape deck.

(End note: ye olde Civic bit the dust with my sister at the wheel in a serious crash, but did its duty, allowing her to walk away unscathed. Honda, we salute you.)

I didn’t abandon GM, though, and by the 1990s things were improving: my S-10 Tahoe pickup proved a rugged workhorse that lasted 16 years without major defects. Yet the company proved infuriating, to say the least. They nixed the S-10 and replaced it with the Sonoma – again, underpowered and not nearly as reliable in my estimation. My wife loved her Saturn four door sedan, which she drove for almost 10 years, but GM let that vaunted effort almost fade away to nothing by failing to invest in the brand. Though now revived, today Saturn is nothing more than a glorified “distribution channel” for rebadged GM products – its uniqueness is gone.

Of course, the old saw about GM’s costly union labor agreements comes into play, but again, it goes deeper than hourly wages, pensions, etc. For decades, many line workers simply didn’t believe in the products they were building. Longtime reader Steve Grantham starkly illustrated that with an example from his trucking days:

“In the early 80s I delivered loads to a Ford plant in California and I had an opportunity to break with some of the line workers,” Steve wrote in. “They were complaining of the closing of the plant and wondering why. Stupid me – I popped up and said, ‘look at all those Toyotas, Hondas and Chevys in the parking lot. Do ya think if at least the employees would buy their own product it would help?’ I wasn’t too welcome there after that.”

Part of the problem, too, is that the folks at the very top of GM for far too long have been finance guys, not product guys. Bringing Bob Lutz into the mix at GM proved to be a super but long overdue move – though he’s successfully revamped GM’s cars and trucks, all that effort may now be too late. Lutz himself is out of the picture anyways, and with the focus at GM now completely on dollars and cents, the gains he’s made in product quality may suffer. Time will only tell.

No matter what happens next, though, the fundamentals in the car and trucking making business aren’t going to change. It’s all about products and support. Build good products, support them well in the market, and you’ll be a success. Build so-so products and treat customers like so much cattle, and you’ll find yourself in a world of hurt. Let’s hope GM internalizes this lesson now for good.

“We are the backbone of this nation. Without us, nothing would move. Nothing would move.” –Truck driver Steven “Stingray” Donaldson, from the movie “Drive and Deliver”

Fortune smiled on me at the Mid America Trucking Show in a lot of ways – sunny weather being one of its graces – but by far best came from a chance encounter with Steven “Stingray” Donaldson and Chris “Discount” LeCount, two of the truck drivers portrayed in a 48-minute film financed by Navistar Corp. called “Drive and Deliver” that I wrote about last year.

Ostensibly, “Drive and Deliver” is nothing but a long commercial for Navistar’s LoneStar Class 8 truck. Yet instead, the OEM decided to do something very unusual – and hugely commendable – with this film. It “cast” three truck drivers in this film – owner-operators Donaldson and LeCount, along with company driver Tim “Shoestring” Young – hired acclaimed filmmaker Brett Morgan, and turned what could have been just another glitzy marketing project into one hell of a documentary about the lives of truck drivers.

Whatever you think of Navistar and its LoneStar product, the insight you gain from watching these three drivers talk about the highs and lows of their chosen careers, the challenges they face, and ultimately why they love what they do is just powerful stuff. The most interesting thing is, when you meet these drivers in person, they are the exact same people you see up on the big screen – personable and exceedingly passionate about trucking.

[Donaldson, a driver for nearly 40 years, wants to use whatever fame might come from being in this movie to help forge better connections between both the older and younger generations of truck drivers.]

Donaldson told me that, at the beginning, he didn’t even know what Navistar was really up to. He’d sat down for a casting interview almost by chance at Mid America last year, got several follow up calls, and all of the sudden got offered a chance to drive a new truck for 10 days.

“I thought they were looking for a stunt driver,” he explained to me. “Even after filming started, I wasn’t sure what was going on. Then I overheard a waitress at a truck stop saying, ‘they are making a movie about a truck driver’s life.’ That’s when I knew what the real story was.”

During filming, each driver thought – and were told nothing different – that the movie was just about them. When they came to find the lives of other truckers were being filmed as well, they reacted in typical driver fashion – they got in touch with each other, told stories, and became friends.

That was really evident when I talked with Steve and Chris. They laughed, joked, and shared their thoughts on trucking with me equally – more than glad to share the big stage they find themselves on these days. That Tim Young couldn’t be there with them that day proved to be their only regret.

“We try to keep in touch frequently, though we’re all working hard out there,” LeCount told me. “The wives do a lot better job.”

One of the interesting things I discovered is that neither Steve nor Chris views their growing fame from being in this movie as a way for themselves, as individuals, to profit. They are far more interested in using whatever stature this film gives them to help their fellow drivers, while trying to turn the public’s view of who they are and what they do around.

[LeCount in particular believes the truck driver’s image in the minds of the general public really needs a serious makeover.]

After the screenings of “Drive and Deliver” at Mid America this year, they took the time to sign autographs but, more importantly, talked to their fellow drivers and especially any kids that were present.

Steve, who’s been coming to Mid America for over 30 years, believes that is the mission they are really on. They’ve become larger than life ambassadors, in a way, to make trucking a better place to live and work.

“For a while there, I almost quit – we had all these people jammed in the cab filming; it was really tight,” Steve told me. “But then I thought to myself, ‘This is a chance to make a difference.’ And I have to give Navistar credit – they never gave us a script, never told us what to say. Everything up there is us.”

“We would love to do another movie,” added LeCount. “It’s great making our fellow drivers proud of what we do out here, to make them proud of our profession.”

[Here’s a little snapshot of what the movie captures in terms of rolling vistas and perspectives on the industry from all three drivers.]

“Trucking is not a job; you must be able to live it. You must have the jazz to live and work out here on the road.” –Jerry Kissinger, owner, Independent Operator Inc., Cottage Grove, WI

A lot of people would look at Jerry Kissinger next to his superbly dressed up 1991 Mack and think he’s just a show truck guy, out looking for prize money and maybe a trophy or four.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

A driver and small fleet owner, Jerry’s first and foremost passion is charity work – specifically supporting both the Special Olympics and the Make-A-Wish foundation. And he’s extremely blunt as to why those two organizations are, in his words, “the priorities in my life.”

“Look, obviously, truckers today have a lot of problems. Just look around and see how many are going out of business,” he told me at the 2009 Mid America Trucking Show. “But at least we’re standing on two feet, able to work and do and chase opportunities in our lives. Most of the kids I work with at Make-A-Wish have nothing to look forward to but needles and pain.”

He also recognized long ago that kids of all ages – sick and well alike – love trucks, but especially show trucks. That enabled Jerry to bring his own two passions together, as his show truck hobby became a centerpiece for his charity work.

“I lean on my suppliers for donations and I put up a lot of my own money to get the ‘lead position’ in convoys that support those charities,” he told me.

[Jerry explains his philosophy about charity work and show trucks in the clip below.]

But he never lets his enthusiasm for chrome trump his charity work. “One year I skipped the Shell Super Rigs Calendar contest because the Special Olympics needed me,” he said. “I didn’t even think twice.”

That’s “pure Jerry” as his childhood friend Tim McNulty told me – on hand to help polish up Kissinger’s Mack for the National Association of Show Truck’s (NAST) annual championship event.

“On the outside, Jerry is as rough and tough as any trucker you’ll meet – but he’s got a big heart,” McNulty (on the right in the photo below) told me. “Seeing the joy in a kid’s eyes when they climb into his rig means the world to him. He really wants to give something back to these sick kids and Special Olympics athletes – and that’s a rare commodity in this world now.”

McNulty also told me something else I found interesting, because it dovetails with my own interactions with countless drivers. “People don’t think of truck drivers as ‘intellectuals,’ but that’s exactly what Jerry is,” Tim explained. “He knows this entire business – both as a driver and truck owner, but also in terms of the products he carries, the lanes he runs. To him, truck driving is more than a profession; it’s a craft.”

Jerry is a third generation trucker, too, and first started driving for a living back in 1981. His father started what eventually became Independent Operator Inc. – a small fleet of seven trucks with 14 other owner-operators leased on to the company. In the winter, Jerry is home managing the company, alongside his wife and step daughter, but in the summer he gets “turned loose” to run as hard as he’d like.

Though he owns a mix of trucks, he is a Mack-brand man through and through. “I’ve always driven Mack’s, I grew up around them, but it’s not just a product thing,” he told me. “Look everyone has bad years with equipment and products; it’s what you do to take care of a problem that counts. It’s that personal relationship. That’s what I get from the Madison Mack dealership (part of the Kriete Group). They’ve been good to me.”

That “customer relationship” philosophy carries over into how he does business as well. “You’ve got to be able to work all the angles in trucking – not just the driving part,” he explained to me. “You’ve got to know how to load a trailer, how to fix something or at least diagnose it if it goes wrong, and you need to know people. You’ve to be able to sense the mood of the supervisor and crew at the shipping or receiving docks. You’ve got to have the finesse to ‘read’ the customer.”

Jerry’s also found his ‘91 Mack has a role to play in “customer relations” as well. He bought it back in 1997 and spent the last 12 years totally rebuilding it, while adding a tricked out reefer trailer – all to the tune of $350,000.

“I did it little by little over many years – I didn’t go out and spend all that at once,” he said. “It’s a work of art in progress. I see other trucks and that gives me new ideas. Some things I tried didn’t work out, so I went back and changed them. You also can’t go and order parts for this truck – it’s all got to be handmade.”

Yet he gets benefits from that show truck investment on the business side of his operation.

“About 90% of what we haul is cheese from Schreiber’s Food,” he said. “Sometimes they need something special – maybe they are shipping some new samples somewhere, or serving a new customer. They’ll call me to handle that load, knowing that my rig will make a big impression when I pull up to the dock.”

Jerry said it all gets back to truck drivers respecting themselves and their profession. “Listen, you pull up late to a dock in a ratty truck leaking oil with a three-day stink on, things are going to go downhill fast,” he explained. “You call ahead to tell them you’re running late, pull up in good equipment with a professional demeanor, and a lot more is possible.”

“Here’s the point: when there are no stable, verifiable credit benchmarks, all bets are off.” –Edward Testa, vice president of sales, Greystone Equipment Finance Corp., Burlington, MA

Time used to be in trucking – much less the broader American economy – that handshakes and honesty were the only things needed to cement a deal, be it hauling freight, selling homes, buying cars, or extending lines of credit.

If those days weren’t dead and gone already, a stake has truly been driven through their heart by our shared experiences over the last 12 months or so.

Of course, this should NOT come as a surprise to anyone. Remember the “Dot.bomb” bust at the end of the Clinton era? All the pundits waxed rhapsodic about the “new economy,” efficiency gains, and whatnot (and that included President Clinton and VEEP Gore, I might add). A lot of folks lost their savings in that mess.

Then we had the widespread corporate book-cooking scheme as the 21st century began – MCI and Enron the leading villains. Enron went so far as to destabilize California’s energy market before collapsing under its own ill-gotten weight – taking down the once proud accounting firm Arthur Anderson with it (and justly so).

Did we learn from either of those messes? Nope. Greed has a habit of clouding one’s vision it seems. So we binged on mortgage back securities and over-priced homes. And what do you know – a global recession resulted!

More importantly, though, the current tale of corporate and individual fiscal malfeasance we’re living through comes with a huge, scary footnote. The credit rating agencies and accounting firms everyone in business relied upon for decades to separate the good companies from the bad proved themselves to be charlatans of the highest order. In effect, they did a lot of Wall Street’s dirty work, because their word was golden. If they said a company was solvent, it must be true, right? Apparently, no – and we’re all left to deal with the wreckage such blind faith left behind in its wake.

“No matter how accurate a rating or a credit score seems to be or how many promises a product seems to make, there is no single silver bullet that determines creditworthiness,” explained Ben Boylan, a vice president at Coface and head of the company’s rating service in North America in a recent article in the Columbia, MD-based National Association of Credit Management’s (NACM) Business Credit in-house magazine.

“In fact, multiple well-intentioned policies and programs weighed negatively on the economy, as did widespread financial illiteracy, greed and sins of both commission and omission,” he said. “It is important to remember that many businesses and risk managers gave up on the idea of due diligence throughout the downfall – and were willing to accept certain securities and financing setups that, with a little more investigation, would’ve been promptly rejected by any reasonable financial manager.”

“It’s not necessary to look very deep to figure out why this is happening,” added Edward Testa, vice president of sales, Greystone Equipment Finance Corp., Burlington, MA.

“Bankers see conditions changing so rapidly they are simply reducing their risk as close to zero as possible,” he noted. “While we may find it difficult to justify the strangling impact such policies have on business, the message is clear: In this business environment, there are not enough reliable ways to gauge when disaster will strike.”

But Testa stressed, however, that recognizing the lack of truth-telling in business out there doesn’t mean the capitalist system is irretrievably broke – far from it, actually. What it means is that companies large and small need to harness a positive, upbeat attitude to new, more rigorous forms of due diligence to see their way through what others shy away from. “Hard work conquers all; there are no barriers, just opportunities,” he noted.

“As the foundation of our economic system, this attitude attacks problems and solves them,” said Testa. “As entrepreneur Will Pike says in William Martin’s historical novel, The Lost Constitution, ‘We might be dreamers, but we have to be doers, too. So we get up in the morning, we go to work, and we solve our problems.’ And the problem we need to solve now is figuring out how to be neither too conservative nor too aggressive when it comes to credit.”

Since all bets are off, in Testa’s view, there is one primary, essential guideline for avoiding trouble, one strategy to keep us from alienating customers on the one hand and finding ourselves faced with high receivables and uncollectible accounts on the other. The solution is both simple and demanding: stay closer than ever to every customer. Testa believes there’s a step-by-step process for doing this:

* Never assume you know what’s happening in the customer’s business and never think you know enough.

* Never assume that what the owner or manager tells you is accurate. They aren’t liars; they are optimists and want to put on a good face when it comes to business.

* Check credit reports frequently, but don’t assume that a “good” report is an accurate measure of financial health.

* If you’re not satisfied with your level of knowledge, make discreet inquiries. Who do you know that knows the customer?

* Make a point of visiting customers regularly and keep your eyes and ears open while you’re there. Talk to employees and ask them how it’s going.

* If you depend on salespeople or reps to obtain information, spell out exactly what you want them to look for, including making regular (define this) visits to the business and what they should look for. Indicate that you expect written reports. This also places responsibility on them to see clients more often and to strengthen relationships.

“Managing credit issues today is a serious intelligence-gathering function,” said Testa. “Even small pieces of information are part of the overall picture and you need to obtain everything you can so you can act before a serious problem arises.”

Besides avoiding financial trouble, there’s another enormous upside to staying very close to the customer., he stressed: “It can lead to more business, for – with the accumulated information – you’re better prepared to meet their expectations.”

Not a bad way to approach business in this tough economic climate, if you ask me.

“I saw a lack of skills increasing among all the drivers I met – drivers that could not back into a loading dock, who couldn’t shift well. And I thought, ‘They are just not getting good preparation.’ That’s when I realized I needed to do something about it.” –Richard Milam, owner and chief instructor, RoadRunner Driving Academy LLC, Sharon, TN

I’d heard about Richard Milam and his unique approach to teaching people to become truck driver for a while, and finally got to meet him in person at the Mid America Trucking Show last week. He’s not at all what I expected.

A former driver himself with 23 years of experience on the road, Milam is trying to systematically dismantle how truck drivers are typically schooled before being turned loose on the road.

He breaks his philosophy down into four critical points – some that many in the industry should agree with whole heartedly, with others leaving more than a few perplexed I suspect.

His first and most important rule of thumb: Be safety oriented, right off the bat. “Safety, safety, safety: I drum that into my student’s heads right from the get-go,” he explained to me in his slow Tennessee drawl. “There is absolutely no substitute for safety when you are pulling heavy loads on roads in all kinds of poor conditions.”

Milam’s second rule: Be neat in appearance. “People form impressions of you based on how you look,” he explained. “It may not be right, but that’s what happens. So I tell students they need to be clean and dressed neatly. Truck driving is a serious profession; you need to dress and act appropriately to reflect that.”

This is no joke to Milam: He lives it every day. When he drove for a living, he always carried an iron in his cab to make sure his clothes were crisp and creased to perfection – and he continues to live that maxim every day as an instructor.

The third rule on Milam’s list might surprise some people: Drivers must maintain a good attitude. “You must have a positive attitude, because attitude is 90% of anything you do in life,” he told me. “If you’ve got a foul mouth, if you sit around and complain while sitting at the dock and then complain while you’re under load, you’re going to hate your profession and not do a good job.”

And that locks firmly into Milam’s fourth and most important rule: Have fun. “You’ve got to enjoy driving a truck,” he explained. “Yes, it’s a business, but you are going to be in that truck 11 to 14 hours a day working. You’ve got to love what you do or it’s not worth doing.”

He also encourages students to have hobbies outside of trucking – hobbies they can focus on when they are on the road and not under load. “One of my students became a geologist – actually collecting and analyzing stones he found in the gravel parking lots he loaded and unload in,” Milam said.

[Milam talks about his four rules and why they are improtant in the clip below.]

Milam got started in trucking for that very reason – he wanted to have fun. Graduating from college in 1985 with a degree in electronics, he realized there was no way in creation he could work behind a desk for the rest of his life. “I didn’t want to be in one spot; I wanted to see America,” he told me. “So when an opportunity arose to drive a truck for a living, I took it.”

He spent the first five years of his career running LTL loads from Tennessee to New York City and back. Then he got hooked up with his “dream job” hauling trade show exhibits for Murray brand lawn care products all over the country – loads worth upwards of $50 million. As part of that truck driving job, he helped run the trade show exhibit, running equipment demonstrations in the booth – an experience he credits with helping him polish his abilities as a public speaker and teacher.

But when competitor Briggs & Stratton bought Murray in 2006, Milam found himself out of a job – a victim, he said, of corporate downsizing. Yet that also provided him the opportunity to open a truck driving school and become a teacher. After plowing through all the paperwork required by Tennessee to establish a vocational school, Milam opened the doors to the RoadRunner Driving Academy in July 2007 and quickly got to work.

With four Freightliner Century class trucks equipped with 10-speed transmissions, Milam and one other full-time instructor have trained 130 truck drivers to date – and his school has been so successful he’s planning to open another location in Jackson, TN, on Aug. 1 with two extra training trucks.

Despite stressing the need to make driving a truck “fun,” Milam puts his students through some serious paces. The first week is spent solely in the classroom, boning up on a plethora or trucking knowledge – only getting into the trucks for a brief hour or two on Friday. “That whet’s their appetite so they are eager to get back in on Monday,” he explains.

He builds up each student’s truck time quickly until they are in the vehicles 10 hours a day. He starts out slowly, making each student spend their first full day doing nothing but backing up and pulling forward. “That’s the toughest thing to do and we make sure it gets into their bones how to do it,” he said.

After several weeks of on-the-road training, Milam takes them through ‘The Gauntlet’ as he calls it. “I’ve set up a route with a lot of really tough driving – tight curves, steep grades, etc. – and if I think they’re ready I take them through it. Only, I don’t tell them it’s ‘The Gauntlet.’ Only afterwards do I explain to them what they’ve accomplished.”

All of the on-the-road training is complimented by class work, but not just on trucking rules and regulations. Experts come in to teach the students how to pick the right trucking company for their individual tastes, how to calculate good freight rates, budgeting, etc. – all the skills any driver will need to make a good living behind the wheel. “It’s the ‘building block’ approach – we keep adding layers of knowledge as we go along,” Milam said.

Yet none of it is taught “military style” Milam stressed to me. He tries to get is students to relax behind the wheel, as he feels you retain what you learn better the more relaxed you are. Lunch usually is grilled outside, picnic style, with Milam relating stories from his trucking past. “The stories are important, as they impart lessons,” he said.

For example, he related a time he got trapped in a blizzard for several days on the road in snow up to his knees. “If I hadn’t had food in my truck, I would’ve been in trouble,” he said. “But that’s the point. I carried food with me, as well as blankets and other gear. That’s the lesson they should take away from that story.”

Another example reinforces how his students should view their careers. One company he worked with part time before his school fully opened had trouble finding someone to haul a load into Canada over the Ambassador Bridge. The other drivers rejected it as they believed it required too much work and wait time. Milam leapt at the chance. “They’ve got the best chocolate in the world on the other side of that bridge,” he explained. “Sometimes, that’s how you have to approach your work as a driver, trying to find the good in what can be a very demanding profession.”

In terms of sheer size, nothing tops the Mid America Trucking Show when it comes to such events.

It’s almost too much for one person to try and experience everything going on at Mid America over the course of three days – even for reporters like myself that get to that spend a day BEFORE the show doors officially open attending press conferences and walking the floor for a sneak peak at what’s going on.

But after trekking all over the hard concrete and asphalt in and around Louisville’s famous Expo center for four days (functioning on more coffee and less sleep than ever before) I think we can safely say I got a fair glimpse of a goodly part of this (at least for now) annual ritual.

For those of you that couldn’t make it this year (and with the economy in the dumps the way it is, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if you skipped it) or if you just want to relieve some of Mid America’s more interesting moments, I’ve compiled a short “musical review” of this year’s event.

[And we tip our hat to long time blog reader Steve Myers for the musical score on this one. He requested a “country music” theme for a change … and we were more than happy to oblige.]

Of course, one of the things I look forward to most at Mid America every year is the chance to peruse the many show trucks on display – and boy were there some exceptional vehicles for me to see. I’ve complied a short video showing off three of what I thought were the most interesting rigs; see what you think of them.

I’ll note in closing here that these represent just the first of many different stories coming out of Mid America this year. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy reading (and seeing) them unfold in this space in the days (and weeks) ahead.

“Trailer aerodynamic devices have gone from being fringe products to accepted, mainstream components all due to the dramatic fluctuations in fuel prices we’ve experienced lately.” –Andrew Smith, CEO, ATDynamics

Spent some time with ATDynamics here at the Mid America Trucking Show talking about the almost 180 degree shift in thinking that’s occurred over the last few months in the trucking industry about the aerodynamic footprint of freight trailers.

Andrew Smith’s quote above really says it all I think – no longer are trailer “boat tails,” side skirts, even wheel covers considered “fringe” components anymore, right up there with cow magnets and other snake oil goodies.

After the volatile price swings in oil and diesel prices over the last year, fleets understand that improving fuel efficiency – no matter how small the increments – helps save them a ton of money.

“The one thing we know about fuel prices know is, while we don’t know whether they will go up or down, they will definitely change – and change dramatically,” Smith told me here at the show during a press conference his company put on to unveil some new trailer aerodynamic devices.

[Smith and Jeff Grossmann, director of customer fulfillment for ATDynamics, talk about the company’s new trailer side skirts and this new awareness regarding the importance of fuel savings in the clip below.]

“What fleets need to do now is get to the point where they are not so negatively impacted when fuel prices are high, yet also benefit when fuel prices are low,” Smith explained to me. “The point is the U.S. trucking industry and U.S. consumers as a whole cannot continue to transfer huge amounts of wealth to the oil suppliers of the Middle East. That can only come from better approaches to minimizing fuel consumption.”

In 2008 at Mid America, the company introduced its patented rear-mounted “TrailerTail” – foldable panels that fit over the rear doors of a trailer to reduce drag – can improve fuel efficiency by 5.1% at 62 mph based on SAE J1321 testing.

Now ATDynamics is bringing a new “side skirt” design to the trailer market, built with a durable yet flexible thermoplastic composite material so it “bends” rather than dents or breaks. These new side skirts – manufactured in a partnership with Montreal-based Transtex Composite Inc. – demonstrated a 7.4% fuel-efficiency improvement at 62 mph, based on SAE J1321 testing validated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program, said Smith.

Jeff Grossmann, director of customer fulfillment for ATDynamics, noted that these new side skirts are designed to withstand extreme temperatures and uneven terrain and should last 10 years. The company is confident enough in the design and the material to offer a five year warranty on them.

“Performance means nothing without durability,” said Grossmann. “We looked at the landscape of side skirts that are on or almost on the market. Over the long term, the panels used in the Transtex design should provide the lowest cost operation to fleets.”

ATDynamics even offers special “wheel covers” that help improve fuel economy, though only by a measly 0.2% when covering the back wheels of a tractor and 0.5% on the trailer’s wheels. Yet when diesel surged over $5 per gallon in many parts of the country last summer, such incremental improvements would’ve saved a lot of money.

The company also brought another interesting new product to the market – the “SuperSpare” tire mount, designed so fleets that use wide-base tires can mount a spare unit on either the trailer or tractor while not affecting the under-chassis airflow, which would increase drag and thus impact fuel economy.

Developed in partnership with Mesilla Valley Transportation of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the SuperSpare is compatible with any tractor with 43 inches of clear frame rail between its fuel tank and drive wheels. On trailers, it fits between cross members on the underside of a trailer and allows unobstructed access to a spare tire on a trailer equipped with side skirts, said Grossman.

But none of this stuff comes cheap – and that fact needs to factored into a fleet’s fuel savings calculation. Retail pricing for the company’s TrailerTail, for starters, starts at $2,800 per unit. One set of the new side skirts (which weigh 175 pounds combined and requires two people three hours to install) runs around $2,200 for a 53-foot trailer. The SuperSpare costs $385 per unit, whether used on a tractor or trailer, and a set of four “wind shield” wheel covers will set you back $295.

Still, it’s wise to look at the “big picture,” said Smith. If a fleet installed all of the company’s aerodynamic products on a big rig – wheel covers, side skirts, and boat tail – the total fuel economy improvement for the vehicle would improve 12% when running down the road at 62 miles per hour. “The savings really come down to how many miles a tractor-trailer drives every year at highway speed,” he explained to me. “The more miles you log, the more you save.”

For fleets in California, however, none of this is academic, he stressed, as new regulations promulgated by the “Golden State” are going to mandate trailer aerodynamic improvements in the very near future.

Under first-of-their-kind standards for trailer aerodynamics approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), effective in phases beginning in 2010, most 53-foot dry vans operating in the state must be equipped with aerodynamic devices that improve fuel efficiency by at least 5%, while for refrigerated trailers the benchmark is 4%.

That’s yet another example of why trailer aerodynamic devices are getting a lot more attention these days.

One of the big treats that comes with attending the Mid America Trucking Show is the opportunity to view a lot of dazzling show trucks gathered from around the country.

This year is no exception, with the National Association of Show Trucks (NAST) hosting its annual championship here on the asphalt surrounding the big Expo center just outside of the city of Louisville, Kentucky.

The flurry of activity as the contestants is a sight to see as they buff, polish, and touch up paint every square inch of their rides as they vie for the bragging rights that come with owning a championship show truck.

[The video clip below details how much elbow grease comes into play getting these rigs ready for judging.]

A personal favorite of mine, of course, is the entrant from the Hitchcock family from Webberville, MI.

The family’s trucking business – MBH Trucking – is dedicated to hauling gravel and other bulk commodities with some of the slickest trucks around.

The father, Matthew Brian Hitchcock (where the ‘MBH’ in the family’s trucking crest comes from) is a longtime show trucker, but now his sons are full into this as well. His eldest, Rick Hitchcock, brought a slick re-tooled 2005 Peterbilt to the show two years running, but came up empty in the championship round.

Now middle brother, Jordan Hitchcock, is trying his hand at it, rebuilding his dad’s 1996 Peterbilt 379 into a lean, mean riding machine (and I think he more than succeeded if you ask me).

Equipped with a 550 horsepower 3406E Caterpillar and 18-speed transmission, Jordan’s deep red 308-inch wheelbase Peterbilt glistens with obvious craftsmanship and pride.

But so do the other trucks gathered here to vie for NAST’s top prize.

Those competitors include: a 2007 379 extended hood “King Ranch” Peterbilt owned by Bobby Lindamond Demolition of Irving Texas; Hamilton, MI-based Rabbit River II Transport’s slick tractor and trailer combination; and a 1991 Mack redone a piece at a time by a Cottage Grove, WI-based owner-operator.

Not an easy bunch for sorting out winners and losers, as ALL their rigs rate about as high on the show truck quality meter as you can get. But then again that’s the fun of it, as often times a mere point or two separates the best from the rest (I should know — I served as a show truck judge one year — it ain’t easy!)

It is truly impressive stuff to look at, these hard-working freight hauling rigs redone into rolling works of art. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that so much work goes into cleaning and touching up these big machines.

“Good news is all around us. Just look around – it’s not hard to find.” –Jim Walton, president & CEO, Brand Acceleration, Inc.

As I get ready to fly down this morning to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend the 2009 Mid America Trucking Show, I paused to reflect that it’s hard to stay upbeat in trucking these days – much less in the U.S. as a whole – facing the steady drumbeat of bad news we do.

Take your pick: average unemployment rates in the U.S. rising to over 8.1%, spiking to to 13.2% if you include part time workers; AIG executives greedily scooping up over $100 million in “bonuses” after getting a $178 billion bailout courtesy of the taxpayer’s hard earned buck; or teams in the National Basketball Association lining up to try and get government bailout funds.

You could really get down after reading that litany – or you could dig around and find out that, hey, there IS actually some good news out there.

For example, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) for-hire truck tonnage index rose 3% in January 2009, marking only the second month-to-month increase in the last seven months, following a 7.8% contraction in December.

“We’re beginning to see non-durable goods starting to recover, and there has been an upturn in retail sales in some segments,” Chris Brady, president of Commercial Motor Vehicle Consulting (CMVC), told my colleague Justin Carretta in a recent news story. “We’re starting to see some positive signs within the supply chain.”

One of my “oracles of positive thinking” is longtime reader Steve Myers at Moser Motor Sales out in Berne, IN. While car and light truck sales are bad indeed, he’s seeing some “respectable numbers” of late in his small corner of the world – and that is news worth acknowledging.

“Sales are slower than I’d like but we are selling vehicles,” he told me the other day.

“I know light vehicles are still selling although no records are being set,” Steve said. “On the positive side, my December 2008 was better than my December 2007 and January 2009 was better than Jan 2008. I don’t have all my February numbers but at least what I do have are respectful.”

“Good news however, is all around us. All you have to do is pay attention,” noted Jim Walton, president & CEO, Brand Acceleration, Inc. , in one of recent missives.

“I’ve ranted a little about all of the negative news coming from the mainstream media and our elected officials. I often think they are trying to lower our expectations as we work our way through this economic downturn,” he said. “It’s common knowledge that bad news sells newspapers and attracts viewers. People seem to be attracted to it like moths are attracted to a flame. It’s completely up to us to tune out the gloom-and-doomers and seek positive input. “

Walton noted, for example, that after CitiGroup announced that it had two solid months of profit (imagine that), Wall Street traders reacted like a bunch of starving wolves. “The first glimmer of positive news sent the markets soaring,” he stated. “Unfortunately, the loud roar of negativity drowns out the good news. Well, the truth is that there is good news everywhere.”

For example, Walton (pictured at right) noted that Ford Motor Company called back workers to fill rising demand for the ever-popular F-150 pickup truck. “Another positive sign is that the average price of a used car has gone up $600 in the last three months. This could be an indicator that inventories are dropping and demand is on the rise,” he noted.

On another front, Walton found out that Haywood Vocational Opportunities, a North Carolina-based medical supply company which employs 315, announced it would open a new facility in Waynesville, adding 50 jobs. British banking firm Barclay’s is opening a new credit card processing facility in Wilmington, Delaware — initially employing 300 people but planning to grow that to 500 in five years.

Nestle, which recently opened a new facility in Anderson, Indiana, originally planned to employ just 300 people there – but, apparently the Nesquik and Coffee-Mate business is doing pretty good, because the company has already announced that it will expand and add another 100 jobs.

“This is just a small sample of the good news that is all around us if we just look,” Walton emphasized. “You may not see these on page one of your local paper or on the evening news, but with just a little effort you can infuse your life with positive daily input.”