Qualified Yet Unprepared

MAY 8, 2019 - Whenever we find a potential driver candidate we are interested in hiring, we have to send them through the process to become “qualified” at Landstar. No matter how highly we think of our potential candidate, if they can’t “qualify” with the carrier, we can’t hire them.

Chris Polk

This process of qualification has always been perplexing to me. Throughout my more than 20 years in the trucking industry, I have watched as we qualify drivers on what they haven’t done instead of what they have done. If they haven’t had any tickets or crashes, they’re “qualified.” They may not possess the talent, skill, temperament, maturity, or intelligence to handle an 80,000 pound vehicle, but so far, they haven’t been caught breaking the law, haven’t crashed, or haven’t killed anyone…yet.

This problem is amplified when drivers come to a place like Landstar. It’s one thing when all you have to be concerned with is trip planning and driving as a company driver. It’s quite another when you buy a truck and lease it to a carrier with no dispatcher. You now also have to be dispatcher, load planner, maintenance coordinator, accountant, and compliance manager. Your “qualification” now must include a variety of skills that aren’t covered by “…is insurable because they haven’t killed anyone yet.”

Self Education Is Key

No one is going to capture you and force you to learn all that you need to know. Given that most public schools teach absolutely nothing about history or economics, it’s going to be up to you as an individual to qualify yourself for the task before you.

You need to know the history of the industry you work in. You need to understand where we came from and how we got here. I implore you to study the history of deregulation and the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. If you don’t understand the history and context of the industry, it will be difficult to understand where it’s at and where it’s headed (more on that in another post). Marc Levinson’s book “The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger” does a great job of providing historical context to the events that shaped the freight market we work in today

You desperately need to understand basic economics. If you do not have a firm grasp of what supply and demand is, you are going to have a difficult time choosing rates and lanes that work best for your business. I suggest you read “I, Pencil” By Leonard Reed and “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt. (Clicking on the names of the books will take you to a free copy.)

Having a positive attitude and perspective are crucial to success in any business. You are a servant! Your business exists to serve people! If you are the only focus of your business, you will fail. It’s not about what you want! It’s about what the customer wants and needs. When you work in the Landstar system, the agents are your customer. They are your gateway to the people paying your freight bill. You must work with them and not against them. You must work together. The agents do NOT exist to serve you. They exist to work with you to serve the CUSTOMER! If you create adversarial relationships with agents, you will fail.

It is imperative that you understand the corporate structure of the carrier you’re leased to. This knowledge does not come from information found in Facebook groups. It is found by calling corporate and asking important questions. “How are loads billed?” “How do agents get paid?” If you don’t understand these basic concepts, you will be constantly frustrated and upset.

Now is the time to take advantage of the completely free and unfettered market for information we enjoy today. This is an exciting time to be operating in the transportation industry. Amazing things are on the horizon for us. You need to be prepared.