Nobody ever likes waiting around, waiting in line, waiting for an important phone call, waiting for a load. It’s frustrating, and doubly so if you don’t know how long the wait will last. In the expedited freight business, many drivers are rightly concerned about long wait times for the next load. And especially at this time of the year (January and February), when freight is soft, the periods of time a driver spends sitting can be extra frustrating.

But even when freight is strong, expedited freight drivers will rarely run from load to load. The industry is dependent upon capacity, which means trucks are available in key locations, ready to run loads as they come up. Expedited freight, by nature, is time sensitive. When a shipper says, “I need this repair kit or production part to get there asap,” we have to be ready. The need for capacity can put us, and our drivers, at odds with our carrier: we want miles; they want capacity. But it’s also a critical part of our jobs and the way we keep our country running.

The approach we teach our drivers is that four good days make a good week. As an established Class B driver, you will make $1,000 per week based on four good days. It’s up to you to learn how to budget your time to do what needs to be done during your downtime—laundry, personal business, etc. We’ve heard expediting called a part-time job with a full-time commitment and full-time pay. If you learn how to manage your time, you can fit in a lot of new and fun experiences by using your downtime to visit the area where you’re waiting. One benefit of driving a straight truck is that you don’t have as many restrictions when you go into commercial areas.

Here are a few of our favorite things to do during downtime:

• Ontario, CA: Ontario Mills Shopping Center.  Leave your truck at the Petro. Take a short walk across the bridge over I10, it’s a cool view of the highway from there. See a movie at your choice between two cinemas, have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, or play games at Dave and Busters. This is a great place to get away from the truck for a few hours.
• Fort Worth, TX: Historical Fort Worth Stockyards. They say everything’s bigger in Texas and nowhere is that more apparent than The Stockyards. Longhorn cattle, horses, cowboys, it’s all here. You’ll find plenty of space to put your truck down nearby—remember, you’re in Texas.  While you’re there, don’t miss Billy Bob’s Landmark Country Music and Rodeo.
• Hamar, SC: South of the Border. Situated on the southern side of the border between North and South Carolina, this little stop is a traveler’s oasis. It’s also home to the largest reptile exhibit in the US. You’ll have no problem parking your truck as Porky’s Truck Stop is part of the attraction.

What separates our drivers from other fleets is that we work as a team. We share information about loads, traffic, weather, and other factors that have an impact on load availability and deliverability. This is why, when freight is strong, it’s not unusual to see each driver on our Elite Teams earn $1,800 in one week.

The expedite industry is made up of averages, and we coach our teams to consistently exceed those averages. The good drivers consistently do!