Success as a new Truck Driver… Start with Career Transitions
Here’s the truth about getting started as a new truck driver: You alone will determine whether or not you can be successful at this career.
Now, if that statement is true, then what should we be laboring over when we are trying to get this career started? Well, it certainly wouldn’t be which company to start with. It would be that we need to determine the answer to this one singularly important question:
“Do I have what it takes to be a successful truck driver?”
You can name any company you think is that golden nugget of choice for establishing your career at, and I can immediately find a host of bad reviews to talk you out of starting your career with that company. Or I could go to just about any truck stop and find one of that company’s current drivers who would warn you to stay away from that company.
What does that teach us?
It teaches us this:
If I am going to be successful at trucking, then I must be responsible for my own results.
Proving Yourself Is Vital At Any Company
When one driver does really well at one company, and then another driver does really poorly at that same company, where must we lay the blame? Often times you will find that one driver fails while another has great success and they were both with the same dispatcher! This is an individual problem, and it takes an individual to resolve it. When we focus all our energy on finding just the right company to start with, then we completely ignore the one thing that really matters for our success.
If you want to be successful at trucking you have got to take a good hard look in the mirror and determine that you will prove your worth to whomever takes you on as a new driver. The truth is that most of these companies are making an educated guess when they hire any new rookie driver. They have studied your application and are willing to give you a shot based on a few clues they have learned to recognize that might indicate you have the potential to survive. That is really all they have to go by. They are taking a chance on you, and it is all up to you to prove yourself worthy.
