When you’re brand new to trucking, you don’t know much about trucking jobs in Missouri. You may have heard and gotten a lot of advice, but you don’t know what to believe. Unfortunately in the trucking industry, there’s a lot of bad information passed around, and much of it is terrible advice. And the standards that apply to grizzly trucking veterans are not the same as those that apply to rookies.
It Takes Time to Adapt to the Road
One of the most important things to understand is that a rookie truck driver does not have the ability to turn the miles that a veteran does. Drivers need to focus. They must adapt to the demands of trucking jobs in Missouri.
Sometimes It’s All About Parking
One of the most exhausting and frustrating aspects of trucking is the lack of parking at night. After about 7:00 pm in the summer and maybe 6:00 pm in the winter it can be quite difficult to find parking at truck stops. They fill up quickly. As a rookie, you quickly realize that if you can get parked early enough in the day you’ll have no problems.
Try to Avoid Getting Caught in Heavy Traffic
Scheduling your routes involves traffic management. Try to schedule your run when chances are better that traffic will be lighter. You can’t always win. Sometimes you’ll sit in a traffic backup at 3:00 AM. But, over time you have to learn to play the odds.
Getting Loaded and Unloaded Early
One thing veteran drivers usually become quite good at is getting to their appointments early and getting loaded or unloaded ahead of schedule. You will have opportunities to cut hours, or sometimes an entire day off of a run.
Rest Before You Become too Exhausted
The mind needs time to rest and recover. However, there is something critically important to know. The more exhausted you let yourself get, the less efficient your recovery time will be. If you learn to take short naps when you’re getting tired instead of pushing through to exhaustion, you’ll feel far more awake and energetic. Obviously there’s a huge safety factor here too. You’re incredibly dangerous when you’re driving tired.
