Our First Weekly *Ask Me Anything Friday*

Ok folks, today is the first edition of Ask Me Anything Friday where you guys can ask me anything you like about trucking and I'll do my best to answer it. Normally we only focus on topics that help new drivers to get started in trucking. For Ask Me Anything Friday you can ask my opinion on anything at all related to the trucking industry:

• Rules & Regulations
• Electronic Logs & Logbook Rules
• Company Policies
• Life On The Road
• Politics (related to trucking)
• Driving Tactics
• The Image Of The Trucking Industry
• The History Of The Trucking Industry
• Questions About My Career
• Driver Shortage
• Large Vs Small Companies

Anything you like. Any random question you may have related to trucking, throw it out there and I'll give you my best.

So let's have it.....what have you been wondering about?

If you're on Twitter or Facebook you can also use #AskTTAnything and I'll answer it there.

Brett, If you ever decided to go back into to Trucking, what kinda freight would you haul? What areas would you run? Last but not least, what companies would be on your short list to choose from?

Brett, If you ever decided to go back into to Trucking, what kinda freight would you haul? What areas would you run? Last but not least, what companies would be on your short list to choose from?

Ya know, I only did some local flatbed work for a while so I've been curious to see if I would like OTR flatbed. It's something I would consider for sure. I also pulled a food grade tanker for about a year one time OTR and I loved that. That would also be a consideration for sure.

If I did go back on the road I might run regional so I could be home on the weekends. I love hiking and snowboarding and football so it would be great to be back home on weekends to do some of that fun stuff. Of course you can do a lot of that stuff if you're running OTR, also, but when and where you get to do those things is pretty unpredictable. So that would be a tough choice. I certainly would not want to run local where I'm home every night. I've done that and it's really super boring. It's the driving equivalent of having a factory job. I don't have a wife or children so I have no need to be home every night. So it would be regional or OTR.

Without a doubt I would want to work for one of the major carriers, one of the biggies. Honestly I don't care that much which company it is. I would decide what type of freight I wanted to haul, what regions of the country I wanted to run, and how often I wanted to be home and that would certainly narrow it down to a handful of companies. At that point I would look at who has the best variety of options to choose from as far as different types of freight and specialized divisions.

So I would have to say Prime would be on my short list if I was going to run OTR so I could choose from the different types of freight they haul. That's a really appealing quality to me. Schneider would be another consideration for the same reason. I know there are other large carriers that have a variety of freight to choose from so that would probably be one of the deciding factors right there.

If I did go back on the road I might run regional so I could be home on the weekends.

Would you run a dedicated regional or just a general regional? and why?

Why do you not promote OS to 'Super Moderator' when he's clearly the next TruckerMike?

Would you run a dedicated regional or just a general regional? and why?

I think part of that would depend on my goals out there. A dedicated account can be great because you really get to know the customers and their locations. You can learn over time how to squeeze the maximum amount of miles into the minimum amount of time. You also have less to worry about because you know the locations and company policies of the customers you're dealing with so you're not always struggling to find places or trying to manage your clock in an environment where you never really know where you're going next or how long it will take to get loaded or unloaded.

The downside to dedicated accounts is that they can become super boring. It's not too exciting hauling the same freight to the same places all the time and I'm the type that gets bored quite easily. That would be my main concern with a dedicated account.

If I could find a dedicated account that I thought would stay interesting and allow me maximize my pay at the same time I would go for that. But if it was an account with a limited variety of freight and customers I would be afraid of it getting too boring. I'd rather have an unpredictable week with unpredictable but solid pay, rather than a highly predictable schedule with a little better pay.

Why do you not promote OS to 'Super Moderator' when he's clearly the next TruckerMike?

Cuz there's no such thing as Super Moderator.

As good as TruckerMike was, Old School is even better because he not only has more trucking experience but he has 30 years of business experience and he's a family man. So Old School has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is both incredibly deep and wide.

I guess I could update his title if you guys think I should. We wouldn't use "Super" though. It would have to be a more professional title.

Why do you not promote OS to 'Super Moderator' when he's clearly the next TruckerMike?

Cuz there's no such thing as Super Moderator.

As good as TruckerMike was, Old School is even better because he not only has more trucking experience but he has 30 years of business experience and he's a family man. So Old School has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is both incredibly deep and wide.

I guess I could update his title if you guys think I should. We wouldn't use "Super" though. It would have to be a more professional title.

I can work with that.

Top-Notch Moderator

A+ Moderator

Best Advisor

Hall of Famer

Top-Tier Moderator

Lets make him happy and put a smile on his face while he's bored driving to the same places he goes to every few days!

Please... No more titles for me.

I do what I do in here for the sole pleasure of helping and teaching others about an industry that I've found to be very rewarding in so many ways. If I was into self-promotion I could have found a completely different way to do what I do in here.

I just think this business is so completely misunderstood that it needs a few people with some clarity of thought to lay it out so that maybe a few people won't have to get started off with the terrible misconceptions that most rookie truckers are burdened with.

Sorry Daniel B, there's no title that could make me any happier than when I realize that I just helped someone have one of those "light bulb" moments concerning what it takes to be successful at this.

Please... No more titles for me.

I do what I do in here for the sole pleasure of helping and teaching others about an industry that I've found to be very rewarding in so many ways. If I was into self-promotion I could have found a completely different way to do what I do in here.

I just think this business is so completely misunderstood that it needs a few people with some clarity of thought to lay it out so that maybe a few people won't have to get started off with the terrible misconceptions that most rookie truckers are burdened with.

Sorry Daniel B, there's no title that could make me any happier than when I realize that I just helped someone have one of those "light bulb" moments concerning what it takes to be successful at this.

Dang it. I was hoping to get this resolved and finished while you were sleeping. Haha!