What if nothing changes? On to the next boss. Don't scream and yell. Don't threaten anyone. Be civil and be patient. Explain yourself and your situation thoroughly and if you're a good driver you'll likely soon find the problem and get it resolved. But understand something...if you are the type of driver that won't drive at night, you don't like the northeast, you're afraid of the snow, the glare from the rain bothers you, and so on and so on, then let me take the mystery out of your situation for you....you aren't getting the miles because you don't WANT the miles.

Here's some more plain truth for ya....trucking is a very tough job that takes a tremendous amount of dedication, determination, and long, hard hours of work. If you aren't willing to put in the effort and stick it out when things get tough, then the drivers who do will be getting all the miles. Unfortunately this is another common scenario related to a driver's expectations.

Driving, especially over the road and regional jobs, are definitely NOT 9 to 5 kind of jobs. They require an unbelievable amount of flexibility and dedication. Your job is to get the freight picked up and delivered on time, safely. The more miles you run the more money you make AND the more money the company makes. So if you won't run at night, in the wind, in the snow, on Thursdays, on partly cloudy days, wet roads, or on days when you don't feel like it well then I ask you, “HOW ARE YOU GONNA GET ANY WORK DONE????”

Generally speaking, if you won't do it then somebody else will. The load planners and dispatchers are responsible for getting the freight moved. If they have ten guys that run their butts off and ten lazy ones, then the ten hard workers are going to be very well taken care of. The ten lazy ones? Nobody is going to be too concerned with them. It all boils down to who is getting the job done.

Here's a scenario I've had happen to me about five hundred times: I'm walking into a truck stop and a driver asks me if I've been getting a lot of miles. At the time I was and so I tell em, “oh yeah I've been getting a ton” and they say, “geez, I don't get crap!” Well, I'll try to figure out why. I'll ask who their dispatcher is, what division they're in, how long they've been at the company, and how many miles they usually get.

At this point they spill their guts. 95% of the time they'll start telling stories about different loads they've been running and slowly but surely the truth comes out....they don't WANT the miles. Maybe they THINK they're a good driver and they just don't realize that they aren't getting the job done as well as they should be. They won't run hard enough, they complain about every other load for one reason or another, they're late half the time, and for one reason or another they just aren't getting it done.

Now sometimes this isn't true. Sometimes they may just have the wrong dispatcher, or they're in a slow division, or they're being accidentally overlooked. But generally speaking there is a rule you can go by....if you're not getting the miles then there's a reason for it. Maybe they aren't available, maybe you're in a slow division, maybe you're with the wrong dispatcher, OR maybe you just STINK as a driver!

However, let me present you with one more possibility (I'm loading my gun here....getting ready to fire a HUGE blast here in a moment...). What if you're running in all types of weather, during the day or at night, not complaining about the loads you're getting, and all in all you can't figure out why you aren't getting the miles you were hoping for?