Industry News & Tips for Truck Drivers
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- Written by: Kate Williams
Maintaining organization is one of the biggest challenges for truck drivers. With hectic schedules, a small cabin space, and all the equipment and accessories you need for life on the road, your rig can quickly go from a spotless area to a scattered mess.
So how can you keep your truck organized while on the road? Take a look at these simple tips to get started.
Organization Tips For Truck Drivers
Keep Your Tool Box Organized
You don’t want tools scattered all over your truck cab, and nothing is more frustrating than needing a tool, knowing it’s around here somewhere, and not being able to find it. Having a fully-stocked toolbox, and making sure all the tools get put back in the right place is very important and can save you time while on the road.
Folders, Envelopes, and a Place to Keep Them
You should keep a well-organized file folder in your rig. The thin plastic, expandable type, (you know, the ones that kind of resemble an accordion) are great for keeping your documents in the right place. You can find one for less than $10, depending on where you shop. You can use these items to organize invoices, receipts, and other important documents you will need come tax time.
Use Mini-Crates
Small crates are a great organization tool to keep miscellaneous items from getting tossed all over the cab. You can find small crates that are stackable, creating a vertical storage option for your cab. These crates can be used to store food, CDs, DVDs, clothing, books, or anything else that ends up in your cab.
Clean Trash at Every Stop
Instead of waiting a couple of days to purge your truck of all the trash and garbage that has been collected, take a few seconds to empty your trash whenever you get the chance. Filling up on fuel is one of the best opportunities to empty your waste basket, so make it a priority. You’ll have less trash, and you won’t have to worry about your trash bin getting too full.
Seat-Back Organizers
Organizers that hang from the back of your seat offer an excellent way to store items like cleaning supplies, flashlights, gloves, or even tools. These items are handy and take up very little space in your cab.
Visor CD Holders
While fewer and fewer people are actually listening to CDs, if you’re a truck driver who enjoys music and audio discs, you know that keeping these items organized can be a challenge. Visor CD holders give you easy access to your favorite discs, and they can also make your driving safer because you won’t be distracted reaching across the cab or behind your seat. You’ll have all your favorites, right where you can reach them.
Make Organization a Habit
In the end, organization all comes down to consistency. You have to think “stay organized” every day. You must make it a habit, but the comfort you will find in your cab is worth the effort. The best techniques and organizational tools won’t help at all if you don’t commit to staying organized.
Make Your Truck Driving Life More Organized
Ultimately, how your best organize your truck depends on what you take with you when driving over the road and what method best suits your needs. Experiment and find the best organization process for you.
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- Written by: Kate Williams
Let’s face it, truck drivers can be hard to shop for.
They often don’t have time to enjoy typical gifts, or the nature of their career simply doesn’t allow them to use items that other people use every day.
Truckers may be hard to shop for, but they’re not impossible. Take a look at some of our suggestions and you might discover the perfect gift for your favorite truck driver.
Gift Ideas for Truck Drivers
Travel Coffee Mugs
No matter what types of activities or hobbies your trucker enjoys, you can find the perfect travel coffee mug for a great gift. Maybe they enjoy the outdoors and would love a travel mug with a deer, pheasant, or fish. Do they have a favorite sports team? There are plenty of mugs with teams and sports figures from the NFL, NASCAR, MLB, and college sports. You can even find mugs from music, movies, television, and more, or you can personalize a travel mug with their name or a special message.
Seat Cushions and Seat Warmers
When you are on the road for hours upon hours, it helps to have a comfy seat. You can shop for a soft seat cushion or find a heated seat and back warmer to help them stay comfortable for thousands of miles. The back warmer could even be a great idea for a truck driver who has a sore back, as the heat can help relieve pain and tension.
Touchscreen Gloves
If your driver is using a smartphone to communicate with a warehouse or find directions, touchscreen gloves might be exactly what they want. When the weather gets colder, it can be a real struggle to remove gloves, use your phone or GPS system, and then put your gloves back on, only to receive a phone call right away. Make their lives easier by giving them handy touchscreen gloves this holiday season.
Tools, Tools, Tools
This might not seem as fun and exciting (at least to some people) as personalized coffee mugs and nifty gloves, but having all the right tools can make a big difference to a trucker. Wrench sets, screw drivers, sockets; if it’s in the tool section at your hardware store, there’s a good chance a truck driver will find a use for it. Even everyday tools like a reliable flashlight or pocket knife could be on your trucker’s wish list.
Audio Books
The trucker in your life doesn’t have to be an avid reader to enjoy an audio book. Like travel coffee mugs, you can find books on practically any topic: hunting, business, sports, finance, history, science, technology, or even truck driving! No matter what subjects they are interested in, it is practically impossible that someone hasn’t written a book on it, then turned that book into a CD.
Find the Perfect Gift this Season!
We hope our little list of gift suggestions was enough to get you started with some ideas for your shopping list.
Whether you are looking for something fun, something useful, or something that will make them feel healthy and happy, there are millions of gift choices out there for the trucker in your life.
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- Written by: Kate Williams
Obviously, this list is solely a matter of opinion and meant just for fun, but seriously, why do most trucking movies revolve around some whacked-out crazy truck driver spending every ounce of energy they have chasing down some poor four-wheeler who cut them off in traffic?
If there were even a shred of truth to that notion, the entire country would be filled with tractor-trailers chasing cars throughout residential neighborhoods right after rush hour traffic.
Trucking Movies To Avoid
Anyway, in no particular order, here is our list, we would love to hear any other suggestions you may wish to add.
Black Dog
This 1998 trucking movie has everything anti-trucking you could imagine. The main character Jack Crews (played by Patrick Swayze) gets back into a truck after being released from prison on a manslaughter charge stemming from a trucking accident. He hooks up with Earl (played by Randy Travis) as a sidekick and they transport $3,000,000 worth of illegal guns from Atlanta to New Jersey. Sounds like a real family-friendly film, huh?
Duel
Dennis Weaver plays David Mann, an electronics salesman, who is traveling on a California highway when a truck driver in a 1955 Peterbilt decides to run him off the road, steer him into oncoming traffic, and follow him into and out of small towns terrorizing him for no apparent reason. This Steven Spielberg-directed waste of 90 minutes was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1972. It lost. Shocker.
White Line Fever
Jan-Michael Vincent starred as truck driver C.J. Hummer in this 1975 feature film about a trucker forced to haul untaxed cigarettes and illegal slot machines (starting to see a pattern here?). C.J. tries to find other driving jobs but his boss has blackballed him in the industry. The entire movie is based around C.J. trying to find legal freight to haul, but apparently there isn’t any to be had. In the end, C.J. helps the entire trucking population of Tucson, AZ go on strike in order to stop hauling illegal freight.
Smokey And The Bandit Part 3
I need to go on record saying that I LOVED Smokey and the Bandit. I even like Smokey and the Bandit II. But, why ruin a good thing by trying to make Sherriff Bufford T. Justice become Bandit? It was too much effort and the end result was a bad trucking movie. Big & Little Enos Burdette offer Justice a wager on his ability to move some freight a long way in a short amount of time. The rest of the movie is a lot like the original but way worse. Don’t waste your time on this one.
Road Rage
Yasmine Bleeth starred in this 1999 movie about a truck driver who makes it his life mission to kill Bleeth and her daughter because Bleeth cut her off in traffic. Again with the traffic altercation causing a truck driver to snap and follow a four-wheeler for the rest of his life.
The Sad Truth Of The Matter
I guess that a movie about a guy or gal who does their job, drives safe, keeps good logbooks, and helps out others on the road when given a chance to do so wouldn’t make a very good movie, but it would be a lot more realistic than these five stinkers. If you have the opportunity to spend some time Netflixing this weekend, a good laugh-inducing comedy will be better for you than a bad trucking movie!
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- Written by: Darin Williams
You’ve heard of Schneider, or at least you’ve seen the orange trucks and trailers all over North America. They’ve been around since 1935, and they have 11,000+ company drivers and 2,000+ owner-operators. They’ve had some success, but they’re just getting started, and they want you to be a part of their continued growth.
There are thousands of reasons to join Schneider, but here are a few:
1. Driving options
The largest variety of truck driving jobs in the industry, period:
- Team or Solo
- Company Driver or Owner-Operator
- Local, Regional or Over-the-Road
- Van, Dedicated, Tanker, Intermodal, Port Dray
2. Unlimited career paths
From seeking your CDL to settling into retirement, Schneider has you covered:
- Driving options that grow with you
- Training/mentoring opportunities
- Becoming an owner-operator/fleet owner
3. Innovation
After almost 80 years, it’d be easy to settle into a comfort zone as an industry leader, but Schneider has been around that long precisely because they've never settled for the easy way. They’re always looking for new ways to enhance people’s lives, and they’re in it for the long haul:
4. Ask their drivers
Of course they think we’re awesome, but why take their word for it? Talk to some Schneider drivers at truck stops and check out online trucking forums to get an unfiltered perspective.
- Real Schneider company drivers:
- Real Schneider owner-operators:
5. Your reason
Everyone has a different story to tell. They value yours, so who are they to define your reason for joining Schneider? Do your research, find your reason(s), then search opportunities and apply to join the Schneider team, or call 800-44-PRIDE. You won’t regret it.
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