Keeping your Trucker Dogs Safe, Happy, and Healthy
We personally know that the company of a trucker dog is completely unmatched! There is nothing like having your fur-ball to cuddle up with you when you go to bed, or keep you company while you’re sitting waiting for your next load. They help us get out of the truck and get fresh air in times where we likely wouldn’t bother stepping out of the sleeper, or let alone get out of bed. Then the bonus of added security when you’re laying down, and your dog alerts you to a noise outside that is too close and/or unfamiliar, is just priceless. We also can't forget to mention that adorable wiggle butt dance that commences as soon as they see you walking back to the truck.
Setting them up in a rig can be challenging at first, however. Most of us dog owners don’t mind sharing our beds or using a large portion of our storage for their food and floor space for their bowls, but that doesn’t even begin to cover the lengthy list that includes their health, cleanliness, or toys. So we’d like to highlight some of our favorite products and accessories for keeping our pups buttoned up out here over the road.
If you have rowdy dogs who love their toys as much as ours do, it’s essential to keep the dog toys in one place, where you can easily dump them, and move them around when and where you need. Especially for balls that can get lose and jump into the cab, causing a safety issue. To keep you from pulling your hair out after they have a zoomie session and leave their toys with scattered toy guts everywhere, we found these to be the most useful all around. These cotton bins are safe for them to reach in and out of and are flexible enough to get shoved into small areas when you need it out of the way.
We used to use this plastic squeeze bottle, though we have since moved onto this larger KONG stainless-steel version for full time use. Both have proven reliable over the years because they don’t have any mechanical features to fail and the unused water can easily be replaced back into the bottle. They also feature great portability for long walks, dog parks, and hiking or camping trips.
We use both manual and electric tools – manual clippers to cut back the length of their nails and then we finish off with the electric nail grinder to smooth out any sharp edges that can scratch our doors and dash, or damage the leather seats. We found this set from YABIFE that came with both the manual and electric version for a very reasonable price, and keep them both stored in the door for regular easy access.
The Vittles Vault storage bin has been our go-to solution since 2016 – so much so, that we have a set we keep at home in our garage, and another set for our truck. We utilize the 40lb version so we can easily buy food in bulk, minimizing down time and maximizing price savings. This bin features a silicone seal that really assures the food container is airtight, allowing us to keep it stored in the toolbox and safe from the constant changing elements outside.
There’s nothing worse than when you have to let the dogs out in the rain and mud while you’re on a run, leading to the time-consuming paw clean up. They come back trotting all over the cab or into the sleeper on your clean rugs, or even worse, jump in your sheets! We use this ridiculously handy silicone cleaning tool to get the bulk of the dirt and grime out of their toes, and then finish with this rinse-less cleaner and soft brush combo that we can easily dry off or let air day.
Our favorite, and our dogs favorite toys have come to be Chuck It brand everything. This Chuck It Frisbee is durable to heavy chewing, easy to throw, easy to clean, and so easy to store we have one in each door on the truck. You can say the same thing for the indestructible Chuck It ball, that comes in all sizes!
Cuddling up with your furbaby, and all of a sudden have a pit in your stomach because you didn’t notice your dog ate a nugget of poo on your walk? We found not only one, but two answers! Since incorporating Vetradent and Proden Plaqueoff into their bowls, both our girls have had scent free breath. Not to mention, both are backed by data and VOHC approved. We combine both the water additive that helps with bad breath and the powder sprinkled on their food to help remove the plaque along their gum-line and it has proved incredibly effective all while giving the added benefit of fresher breath. The combination of these two has turned out to be the secret sauce!
GPS Tracker + Activity Monitoring
We have been rescuing dogs since we were both kids, so we only deal with rescues, and since you don’t know what you’re going to get with a new rescue, or how long it will be till they respond to training, we incorporated a 4G GPS tracker on our youngest rescue a few years back. The Whistle 4G tracker uses AT&T service towers, and allows you to see their location on a satellite map. It’s incredibly affordable for all of the services offered, and we found the service even more useful to monitor their activity time and make sure they were hitting their daily exercise goals. As a small back up and in between charging their Whistles, we threw Tile Trackers onto their collars for good measure.
We found out about the Seresto collar when we first started trucking and had a lengthy discussion with our vet on how to keep them healthy while traveling throughout the states. We have had a total of 7 animals in the last 9 years using this collar and have never had to worry about fleas or ticks. We have been dedicated consumers of theirs since day one and have recommended this flea and tick collar to everyone we know.
Let us know how these products work for you and share some of your favorite products with us!
You can catch more of our girls in the truck on our TikTok!
Run Hard - Dream Big,
Finding Your Fleet (Part II)
A recent post shared by a fellow expediter made some great points when it came to finding a small fleet to work for. We’ve decided to highlight her post and add to it, from a former driver and now owner’s, perspective.
A recent post shared by a fellow expediter made some great points when it came to finding a small fleet to work for. We’ve decided to highlight her post and add to it, from a former driver and now owner’s, perspective.
“If you want to make $1500 each per driver, you have to accomplish that yourself. You are the maker of your paycheck. You have to learn how to make that happen and when you run percentage, trying for a set amount per week doesn’t always work. Sometimes it’s how the month ends.”
Running as a self-dispatching contractor like we do here, you create your own destiny because YOU are your dispatcher AND your engineer. You have to decide what load it worth what, what your minimums are, which areas are best, where to relocate, etc. Some teams will shoot for a weekly goal, or will run only a certain region of the states – it doesn’t matter how you get to your financial goals; all of these methods can work. You genuinely must figure out YOUR strengths and how you like to run as a team – what works for you both. We found that we can lose an entire week and still hit $30k+ in a month, but that comes with years of experience and being way beyond the “FOMO” phase. We run day to day, don’t plan too far out, and we love it that way because found that we hit our goals with minimal stress.
“As a team joining expediting, even if you have been team driving for 25 years - if you haven’t run percentage and expediting, it’s a different way of doing things. We ran 17 years in tractor trailer, by the mile, 20,000+ mile a month. Coming here was an adjustment. You don’t run constantly like when you’re running per mile as a team. It’s a ‘work smarter, not harder’ deal. Sure, you can run yourself to death running constantly in a big box company as a super team, making the same or less, (taking the quickest shower possible, eating only sandwiches or junk etc.) but that gets old, and that’s why most of you came here. Dispatching yourself is a game, it’s calculating trying to decide which load to take, and which load will put you where the ‘money load’ will be if it pops on the board. It’s aggravating and rewarding. You have to be open to learn new things and not be stuck in your ways.”
She’s right – coming from tractor trailer was a major adjustment. It was night and day to go from mileage-based pay to percentage. Switching that mentality took time but was so essential. If not, you will run your per mile rate down and work harder for less. You will no longer have to run 5,000+ miles a week as team to make a good paycheck, and instead you can work 3 days on 2 loads and make the same that you would on 2 cross country runs. You’re no longer booked out for the week, now you’re booking a load for today or tomorrow, never knowing where you’re going next after delivery, or how much you’ll make tomorrow. This can make transitioning tractor trailer teams very antsy, because they’re looking for miles, not at the end goal for the month. We like to say to give it at least 6 months before you give up on expediting, especially if you’re coming from tractor trailer.
“When you start out here, your company is not going to tell you how to pick loads, how to bid, or anything. Just that there is a load board, how to log in, and hit accept. If you try and do it on your own, without guidance, it will take a lot of trial and error. You will get frustrated. So, if the fleet you go to has mentors, or you meet a team that offers to help, take them up on it. Let them show you the ropes. There are rules that your company will follow to decide who wins a load, and you need to understand them. You need to understand when a mentor or fleet owners tells you certain areas are dead zones, that they are telling you to avoid headaches. There will be a time for you to go out west, but the first week you are out on the road is not one. Just remember, we are always learning new things, if you think you know everything already then you are one of the ones that has a lot to learn still.”
Coming out here with a know-it-all mentality will quickly humble you. We have been at this almost 8 years and still find some of our own ‘guidelines’ changing, because the landscape of our company is constantly changing, and we must change with it. That’s okay because the seasons don’t change – trucking overall has its busy and dead seasons, all of which we are already aware of and therefor plan for. However, it can be very hard for new teams without guidance to come out here and try to make it work. Not that it can’t be done however, you will learn what loads are worth their rates, and which aren’t. You will start to form a minimum to run into certain cities, due to the cost of tolls and/or relocating after delivery. You will learn which customers don’t care about detention, and will take their time to load you, putting your early morning delivery at risk, and therefore minimizing your chances for a next day load, so maybe you’ll charge double for that run. You will learn the seasons and you will start to be able to predict when the leaves are about to fall before they have even changed color. Be patient when you’re learning the landscape, absorb all that you can, and learn what works for YOU. We advise all of our new drivers to “Forget what you think you know, and don’t apply rules from a different side of the trucking industry to the world of expediting because you will only set yourself up for failure.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear. If someone tells you they make ‘this’ every week or month, ask for proof. If they don’t want to show you numbers, then it’s probably inflated. If an owner tells you to not talk to other drivers, then someone has something to hide. But also, not all drivers tell the truth, whether it’s to keep you from taking “their” loads, or to seem better than you. Take a lot of what you hear, especially on social media platforms, with a grain of salt. Some of us are honest and just want to help, while others don’t feel like they are anything unless they are making someone else feels small. You are not stupid for asking questions no matter how big or small, and if they tell you how stupid you are for not knowing they are just being bullies.”
This is a constant and sad reality of the world we live in – people lacking integrity and character. Expediting is a small industry; most of us know each other, and word spreads quickly, even the false rumors. Toxic fleet owners and lackluster dealerships are all well-known and constantly confirm the rumors. You can’t hide out here, and that’s the beauty of the double-edged sword that is expediting. This is why it’s important to get multiple opinions or outlooks in the industry, to weed out the nonsense. If someone gets intimated by you asking questions, walk away and move on, but don’t let it discourage you from continuing to ask questions. People who have been out here for a while think they know everything and become short sighted, forgetting that they were new at one point too. They are plenty of us out here willing to help and provide real guidance or give you our own opinions without being intimated. There is room for all of us to succeed and thrive in this industry.
Finding Your Fleet (Part I)
A recent post shared by a fellow expediter made some great points when it came to finding a small fleet to work for. We’ve decided to highlight her post and add to it, from a former driver and now owner’s, perspective.
A recent post shared by a fellow expediter made some great points when it came to finding a small fleet to work for. We’ve decided to highlight her post and add to it from a former driver and now owner’s, perspective. We're going to work through her post, point by point.
“When looking for a driving job - look at the different fleets (there are more than 3 or 4) and see what they each offer. Don’t just look at the one that has shower trucks… Look at how reliable they are; Do they pay every week? Do they give bonuses? Do they allow pets? Are there pet deposits or escrows? Do they have target amounts per month, per mile, etc.? Do they want you to only get maintenance at certain locations or can you get it done immediately?”
Choosing your fleet because they have eye catching ads or shower trucks might not make them the jewel out here – there are a lot of things to consider. Inquiring about pay and bonuses is important because newer fleets might not have bonuses whereas older fleets might have all of their equipment paid off and therefore might be able to afford larger pay percentages and/or bonuses. So not every fleet offers bonuses, just like not every fleet has an escrow or security deposits just because you have a pet. Some fleets require escrows without pets. There are also fleets who run equipment with very strict rules; using very specific shops because the equipment lacks service centers. Now, sometimes this isn’t intentional – dealers and/or fleets are constantly testing new equipment and the newer the equipment, the smaller the service center coverage you may have. Other times, it could be a smaller fleet who prefer to use small shops because they don’t have fleet accounts with the larger service centers to be able to get price breaks. See where your values are best met.
“When looking at the fleets you find that interest you; talk on the phone with a list of your questions you want to ask. Ask to talk to some of their drivers. Ask to see their contract. Write down what they tell you.”
Before we joined expediting, we spoke to the owner multiple times – sometimes just to clarify everything we asked, and we asked a LOT of questions. Writing down your questions so you don’t forget anything once you get on the phone with an owner can be a huge help, especially when you’re a team. Majority of fleets have a contract in place – asking to see it before qualifying with a carrier and moving too far forward can save you both a lot of time. Now, speaking to current drivers is great, but speaking to former drivers is even more important. Verify what you were told with current drivers, see why the former drivers left the fleet, and take both with a grain of salt, because at the end of the day - no fleet, nor driver, is perfect. Lastly, ask the owner to text or email a summary of your discussion with what their fleet offers, and follow your gut.
“Ad’s for drivers - if a fleet advertises a set amount you will earn a week, I would only believe that if it’s a dedicated run. Just because an ad says ‘shower trucks available’ doesn’t mean you will get one. Some fleets offer shower units as something you work up to. Non force dispatch is exactly that, but that doesn’t mean you can take a month off and not expect the owner to call and ask you whats up? If a fleet has 5% of their fleet doing YouTube, Tik Tok, etc. saying ‘Come see us and join our fleet’ it doesn’t mean that just because they have a presence on social media, they are the best. It means that is what they do to get the word out that they have openings for teams.”
Some job listings can be very misleading, especially in our industry. Units fitted with bathrooms are some of the most expensive upgrades our sleepers can get, so they are usually given to top earning teams, or the teams with the most seniority. Now if a job listing is guaranteeing you a certain pay weekly, they should either have a minimum weekly guarantee or you will be running a dedicated route. So, she’s right. Outside of those two circumstances, there is no guarantee of pay out here, because you are in control of your fate. How much money you make will depend on how you work, the loads you do or don’t take, the qualifications you have, and/or the kind of equipment the fleet operates. Not all fleets have refrigerated units or newer units that can even qualify to run controlled freight. Not all fleets will mentor you or give you the resources and knowledge to help make you successful, and these basic needs can make or break you in expedite. Every fleet advertises differently so again, don’t look for the most expensive or most eye-catching ads - stick with your gut.
“Every trucking company has their good and bad qualities... you talk to any one of their drivers, you will hear ‘they are great’ and ‘they are horrible’. It’s like that with any job, in any industry. It’s the individuals experience; how they act, how they treat others, and how well they do their job - that is the difference between “we love this company” or “we hate it.”
When speaking to drivers and/or owners, take everything with a grain of salt. Your experience can be very different. The driver you speak with might have trashed a truck but they only told you the owner deducted a cleaning fee out of their last settlement. On the flip side, the owner might tell you they offer bonuses, but when you speak to one of their drivers, you might find that the owner will find any reason not to pay it out, or they have to chase after it with multiple phone calls and emails. You will likely find a driver that has been disqualified from driving for a specific expedite company, but they won’t tell you that they were reported countless times for not wearing their uniforms at customers, or have multiple OOS violations. Sometimes, we can work and live with integrity and don’t receive it back. However, don’t let the bad owners ruin your outlook on the industry and if you find yourself in a rotten egg of a fleet, start asking around and find a fleet that will value you, and show you integrity still exists.
Don't forget that you can reach out to us with any questions, or if there's something we've covered that you would like us to expand on, let us know. You can even stay anonymous.
Run Hard - Dream Big,
- M.I.T.