I remember all them years as a company driver on the open road. Every time a Landstar driver would pass me, I would tell myself, “That’s where I want to be one day. Those guys are the best in the business, and I want to be the best.”
The choices I made and risks I took to get here were not always the greatest or the wisest, but I knew I had to make a move or else that day may have never come. But it did come! June 2025, I finally got cleared to come to orientation with my “new-to-me” truck. I did it! I’m officially a Landstar driver.
The climb
Five years ago when I started trucking (2021), I started out how most drivers start out. I started my career pulling a van. I knew right away that in order to make money, I needed to specialize. I have nothing against van drivers. It’s honest work and sporadic hours. They definitely earn their keep. But after six months of bumping a dock at three in the morning, then picking up another load that needs to be delivered by noon, I’ve had enough. So I quit and went to Melton Truck Lines to start my training pulling a flatbed.
What a great company. They are like the boot camp of the flatbed industry. If you want to learn securement, go there. If memory serves me right, you’ll spend your first week doing paperwork, then they weed you out in the next two weeks of securement training. They have a securement yard with a whole slew of loaded flatbeds that they teach you to secure. Then comes the fun part, learning to tarp. Yes, my absolute favorite. They’ll have you securing and tarping the same loads in their yard for the next two weeks all day.
One more level
Now, as I mentioned, throughout this whole time I had my eyes set on Landstar, but pulling a flatbed wasn’t enough. I needed to specialize further. So I set my eyes on Anderson Trucking Service (ATS). Their class system was exactly what I needed (a goal within a goal). I stayed with them long enough to make it to their class 2 tier. They start at 4 and work downwards with each class allowing you to pull wider, taller, longer, and heavier. I was trained to pull up to fourteen feet wide and tall. I also learned to pull a step-deck and an RGN while I was there.
Pulling the trigger
But… As it usually goes with companies, I was getting burned out with the company driver lifestyle. Always being told what to do, where to go, and when I can go home. I was also tired of “new companies”. Tired of the orientation process over and over. Tired of being, the new guy. Tired of being tired. Now’s the time to pull the trigger!
No more asking when I can go home. No more being forced to pull loads I don’t want to pull. No more going to certain parts of the country I can’t stand driving in. No more tarp loads. Or so I thought…
The mistake
My biggest mistake wasn’t the truck I bought or quitting ATS when I did. My biggest mistake was that I didn’t know half of what I thought I knew. I was as naive as my three-year-old daughter. She’s constantly trying to tell me how the world works.
Now that I’m the boss, I go home less often. I tarp just as much, if not more. I pull loads that pay. It doesn’t matter if I like to drive there. And the money that I anticipated I would need to get started was not even close.
What five years taught me
I did learn a lot however in those five years I spent as a company driver. I learned spreadsheets and tracking loads. Yes, I was building these and tracked every load even as a company driver. I did it so I can recognize patterns and market trends. I learned to specialize and specialize again. I learned financial intelligence and how important getting my credit up meant to my career. I learned how trucks are spec’d for the job they are meant to do or the region they plan to run. But the most important thing I learned is patience. Set long-term goals and break them up into short-term. Everything you do, you should be asking yourself, “Does this bring me closer to that goal or further away?”.
I used to watch the Landstar trucks drive by me. Now I am the Landstar driver.
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