An Observation About TT Members.

This is something that has been floating around my head for some time.

I look at the regular members here that are actively involved with the community and have been for significant portions of their career and I notice patterns. One overriding thing that comes to mind is that we are all high performing drivers. Now that is not to brag or state that being involved here and following the suggestions will turn one into a higher caliber driver, but it seems to accompany it.

It would also be fair to say that there are personality traits and work ethics that are necessary to succeed, and those are underlying in successful drivers, but I think it is the general atmosphere of the community here and the tools provided that create higher level drivers. It's the peer to peer networking that creates an atmosphere of professionalism.

If you think about it in daily practice, we consult with top performers on our decisions and performance here, we discuss, in general how to better ourselves and engage in best practices. The inverse of this would be groups that communicate about how bad everything is, like terminal rats, rather than concentrating on how to improve their performance and careers.

Some of us, perhaps many of us were basically raised by this community as a driver. Our career paths have been guided by the members here from the initial decision to get into the industry to our present day. I know in my case, the entire progression of my career has been on here, with little filters.

I find it interesting. From what I've gathered, there are not that many top teir drivers, yet there seems to be a collection here, and I think we gravitate towards other drivers of the same caliber. One of the traits that is prevalent here is self honesty and self assessment, I think that is a cornerstone of success.

I think this is something that we need to not take for granted and carry into the industry. I think to some degree, while it may be unspoken, we hold ourselves to a higher standard as we should.

Maybe a touch too philosophical, but it's just something to think about.

This site is a huge part of my success. It made the learning curve less steep and still does to this day. This weekend being a perfect example.

We had a winter storm coming and an empty cmv ban going into effect. Dispatch had me set to drive from Providence to the Poconos with a loaded and an empty. I instantly thought about Rob and his recent experiences. I called dispatch and politely asked that they remove the empty and send me back with just the loaded trailer. She refused and said that equipment balancing was very important. I informed her of the ban in effect and she asked me if I had chains. This is where I got aggravated and asked "what do chains have to do with an empty trailer ban? This is a safety and legal concern." She put me on hold and came back to tell me that if I don't feel safe driving back with doubles , I can't drive back with a single. This is when I was about to lose it and explained that I wasn't calling to ask permission, I was calling as a courtesy and I woukd be taking back one trailer. She could update it now while it's simple or later when it'd be a more complicated issue and we can have a conversation with safety while it's getting fixed. She put me on hold and then updated the trip. I have Rob to thank for that because he gave me something to think about. If he didn't push back the way he did, there's a possibility I wouldn't have either which could've lead to a series of bad events.

When I first started on this career path, I felt like I knew everything I needed to know because I watched some YouTube videos. Brett and G Town set me straight real quick and this was before empathetic Brett 😂... Dude was vicious and didn't care about feelings. Fortunately, I grew up in Brooklyn and words don't hurt my feelings so I was able to receive the message despite the delivery. I'm thankful for that too. It was a humbling experience and I still look back on it and laugh.

I think the biggest key here is accountability. I feel like I owe this community something because I'm a part of it and a lot of people have invested their time and effort into my success. I don't want to disappoint them. I'm very grateful for everything I've learned here and the time invested others have invested in my success

Brett and G Town set me straight real quick and this was before empathetic Brett 😂... Dude was vicious and didn't care about feelings. Fortunately, I grew up in Brooklyn and words don't hurt my feelings so I was able to receive the message despite the delivery. I'm thankful for that too. It was a humbling experience and I still look back on it and laugh.

Yeah, I'm an Italian from Upstate New York, and we really don't have filters. You're from Brooklyn, so you get it. I had to build a filter over the years to keep from making life tougher on myself by not speaking to people in a more productive manner. I'm thrilled you stuck it out, Banks because it's been great having you around all these years!

Tony Robbins said he had to learn to talk with people instead of just giving them "the cold, hard truth" and forcing them to deal with it. He said, "I blamed others for being weak and soft, instead of blaming myself for being too harsh."

I realized then I needed to improve how I talk with people, and I'm glad I did.

Davy, you bring up an excellent topic. I started this website after looking around the web back in late 2006. I realized the advice was almost entirely complaining, blaming, and criticizing. No one was giving out the type of advice that would help people understand this industry and build a successful career.

Trucking will never be perfect, but I've always loved it, and my career has been a massive success. Not only did I enjoy it tremendously, but I learned a lot and made enough money to buy nice things and build a great life for myself. I wanted to bring that to others who would take the same approach I did, which was to do my best to outwork and outperform everyone else. I wanted to get all I could out of trucking, and now I love to help others who feel the same way.

Nick Saban, the Alabama football coach and the greatest college coach of all time, said, "Mediocre people hate high achievers, and high achievers hate mediocre people." That always stuck with me. If you want to perform at a high level, the last thing you want is people dragging you down. You must surround yourself with people who will at least encourage you to work hard and stick with it, and hopefully help you out from time to time.

People who live at a low level have no interest in seeing others succeed because it's not their approach to life, and it reflects badly on them. They will sabotage you, intentionally or not. Those who complain, blame, and criticize all the time do not focus on success and will drag the rest of us down.

So we've always set out to help those who really want to make the most out of their trucking career, and that starts with taking personal responsibility for the outcome of your endeavors, staying humble, and outworking most others. When you build a community of people like that, it attracts more like-minded people and keeps away the rest.

For years, we've had a tight community of high-achievers and a steady inflow of people who recognize us for who we are and want our help. They're normally the type who likes to help others, so they stick around.

This is a fantastic community. I've enjoyed it for so many years. In fact, January 17th was the 17 year anniversary of my purchase of the domain truckingtruth.com. That's a long time!

Here's to 17 more!

Wow, this is a great post, Davy. I think that after the first five minutes of discovering this site and forum while researching the industry, prior to becoming a truck driver, I closed the tabs on the other trucking websites because none matched the honesty, information, objectiveness, and professionalism found amongst the contributors to this site. Without a doubt it left me well-prepared to begin and succeed in a career I'd known nothing about, and for that I'll always be grateful to Brett, the moderators, and many others who have appeared here throughout the years.

Count me in. Great topic and post Davy. I don’t have time now, but when I do I have some thoughts to add to this thread. Very glad to see this discussion.

It's the professionalism and honesty that kept me around. I, too, closed a few tabs when researching this career path.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

LOL @ Filters, now I'm a California native, as was my mother. Now SHE had NO filters ! She'd tell ya what's up, like it or not, how she told you. I am the same way, guess I took after her in that way. But I had to learn to use my choose/control my bluntness with the situation at hand....As a kid I had a NO fuse temper at times, which I had to learn to control as well ! I was kind of a rebel, especially when I felt like say a cop was BS's me for whatever. Had to "school" a few in my younger days, and call em out for their BS reason stopping me at different times. Even if it meant doing it in court (which I'd done a couple times=case dismissed)and having some pictures worked every time...

When I came here to TT years ago, when I wanted to explore getting my feet in the trucking door. I still remember some of Old Schools posts on "Terminal Rats" hahaha, I really hadn't visited many other sites, but a few, and what OS said rang LOTS of bells. What I had read at other sites, was just that, whiners and complainers blaming everyone else but, themselves!.....I've never blamed anyone other than myself, when I've screwed up in life. Wasn't raised that way, we were always taught and told, you do the crime, YOU do the time (Mom) Even that if we got arrested for anything "Don't call us, you handle it!"

My friends all know, and got used to my blunt sarcastic ways. But in trucking, you can't just always say what ya want without repercussions! I've always also had a "diplomatic" side when needed. But in the end after 9 & half years here, I learnt a lifetime worth of knowledge and read MANY topics, that gave me an "AHA!" moment too....Even though I am retired, I remain a member here because there's always a good topic or new learning moment here, how the rest of ya'lls doing what ya do best !

So I'd like to thank Brett, for creating this site, and everyone who has been here and sharing whatever knowledge jewels and advice over the years....^5's

Davy you are spot on man!! Iron sharpens Iron. The biggest take away from this site is it got my "mindset" toughened up to be equal to the task of starting a career in a field that is the 7th deadliest job in America, has the 4th highest occupational suicide rate, and is only behind law enforcement and military for highest divorce rate.

The support and the occasional frankly fraternal "b*itch slap" from other members early on were invaluable. I enjoy helping new drivers out on the road and in here when I can. My rookie year will be over in about 65 days. So far, so good....so much credit going to TT.

find it interesting. From what I've gathered, there are not that many top teir drivers, yet there seems to be a collection here, and I think we gravitate towards other drivers of the same caliber. One of the traits that is prevalent here is self honesty and self assessment, I think that is a cornerstone of success.

In life in general self honesty and assessment is a huge part of positive results. In addition to what Davy mentioned what separates this forum from others (like Reddit) is that for the most part we can agree there are no bad companies. Go elsewhere on the internet and you'll hear how Swift or any of the other large carriers are terrible, that to make good money you need to find a company with only a handful of trucks! Our members here have shown us that with the right attitude you can be successful at any company. Old School is a perfect example thriving at Western Express then Knight when he chose to move on. We've also had members that did quite well at other companies that are labeled bad elsewhere. Often times the "bad" company just isn't a right fit. We place higher value on certain things than the next driver does. Maybe I place a value of hometime higher than pay so I take a job at a company that is more flexible but pays less. The next guy may desire to live out of the truck taking minimal hometime so they value pay more than hometime schedule. The trick to being happy in this industry is finding the right company that has policies that match what you're seeking. Sometimes drivers will have vastly different results at the same company. It could be a variety of reasons like your dispatchers performance, or maybe the truck you're issued is a lemon so you're constantly in the shop.

What I love about this site is referrals are frowned upon. It helps ensures you're getting the best advice possible. You don't need to question if someone is misleading you so they can score a referral bonus even if the company doesn't seem to be a good fit.

We have a great group of drivers here and im very proud to be apart of it. I often times share mishaps or mistakes I've made to show newer drivers that 6 years in I still make mistakes and need to resolve it on the fly. It gives you an idea of what can happen, how I got myself into that situation, how I got out of it without an incident/accident or more importantly what I could have done to being in that situation in the first place.

Keep up the great work drivers!

My big thing is two words: Continuing Education

Continuing education is a requirement in most important professions. Medical, legal, construction, etc. As Zen Joker pointed out, driving is the #7 most dangerous job, so keeping up with new developments in trucking and safety is critical. TT is a main resource for me to pick up pointers and info that will help me be safer, more efficient and more courteous and professional.

On the other hand, knowing what a high professional standard is, can actually lead to some frustration when we see drivers who are unsafe, rude, discourteous and ignorant. For example, many drivers are either ignorant or just don’t care about truck stop and fuel lane etiquette. That’s their loss.

I appreciate this forum and all the commenters for all the great knowledge and info available here.