Really Love The Podcasts!!!!! They Are Right On.

Hello I have been away from the forums for awhile now. But the podcasts brought me back to the site. I must say they are right on. Especially episode 4. As I mentioned months ago. My son passed away and I was treated wrongly by a recruiter at Roehl. But they called and apologized for how I was treated. Really appreciated that.

But on to the present after everything was done with our son's funeral. My now fiancé (his mom) decided to go through trucking school with me. We decided on CRST. We loved the school and we now team together. We had to work very hard after we got off our trainer's truck to prove ourselves. We did it, but it was no easy task.

We had an awesome first DM. After we proved ourselves we would have loads on reserve and run coast to coast weekly averaging 5500 miles a week. We even got personal messages from the ops manager for our biggest customer. All our hard work has paid off. We now run a dedicated route from Fridley MN to Santa Fe Springs CA and are home for our resets weekly.

But like the podcast says you need to prove yourself or you will get passed over for the good loads, routes, and hometime. We have a few friends from school who didn't put the effort in and they are only getting small runs and sitting for days on end.

But also like the podcasts say, it wasn't all happy days. We have had our difficulties and run ins and people trying to have us run when we didn't feel it was safe. But as our old daytime DM would tell us, if we didn't feel safe on the road due to being sick or bad weather (rain, high winds, chain laws) he didn't feel safe either and if we didn't shut down when he knew we felt uneasy he shut us down.

The relationship you build not only with your DM/FM is important but so is the relationship you build at the customers (shippers/consignees). If you are nice pleasant and professional and on time they let your company know they like you.

So in conclusion this has been tough, not easy at all. But it was all worth it. We do this as a family. We are keeping our promise to our son. He is with us. And sees everything we do. If you work hard good things will happen.

If anyone sees a CRST truck with the number 4876 and a picture of a baby in the lower driver side of the windshield that is us. So stop and say hi. We are eager to learn and any advice is nice. Or even just a nice conversation is always welcome.

Take care everyone and drive safe.

So sorry to hear about your son. You have obviously been through a lot. I don't know if I would have been able to deal with that and remain sane. I have never had children, so I cannot say I can fully understand, but I know that would be heartbreaking.

I would agree with you the podcasts are great. Brett has as good a voice as any talk radio host and his ability to come up with content is just as good as well.

Good luck, B.T.S.

Thanks so much you guys!

Krungen, it's heartbreaking to hear about your son but it's amazing to hear the determination you guys have. Thanks so very much for sharing your story. It certainly sounds like you guys did exactly what I talked about doing in my podcast. You put in the time and effort to prove you are top tier drivers and you developed relationships with the right people. Now you're enjoying the rewards that come with it.

And I have to say, you're doing it at CRST which is a company that gets quite a bit of criticism from people. And yet we have several folks here in this forum that love it there and are doing great. Amazing how that works, isn't it? You ask one person and they'll say they're a terrible company. Ask the next person and they love it. That's true at every major carrier in the country.

The people who really get how this industry works and know how to make their way in it will do well anywhere they go. Krungen, you two are the perfect example of that. If you went to Prime or Swift or Werner or US Xpress you would almost certainly report back to us in a few months that things are rolling along beautifully and that you're very happy there.

Trucking companies all make money the same way - they have to keep those wheels turning. They must use their trucks efficiently and provide excellent service to their customers. If you're the type of driver that knows how to make that happen then you'll be welcomed with open arms anywhere you go.

But make no mistake about it - you have to prove yourself as a driver first and you have to maintain that effort indefinitely. Even if someone has 20 years behind the wheel they're only as good as the results they're getting right now. A driver with three months experience who is highly motivated and cares deeply about being the best driver they can be is far more valuable to most companies than a 20 year veteran who isn't putting in the effort or getting the job done the way he should.

Safety, Productivity, and Professionalism....the three P's of trucking.....(except one is an S and there's only two P's)