Yeehaw!

Well, I don’t want to tell you everything about me right here because the really good stuff will be in my blog as well as on my Trucking Rocks! Youtube channel and Instagram @TruckingRocks.

But if you really must know, my trucking journey started in 2001. I was 25 years old and knew nothing about the real world of trucking except for what I saw in the movies. Some how, some way though I managed to get through all the crazy challenges and surprises I encountered during those beginning months and became a trucker.

As it turned out, I had joined up with a team-only company so my first few years of trucking were not solo but shared time with co-drivers, and later students, that rode in the truck with me. There are a lot of stories to tell about those times. Stay tuned.

About the third year in I actually took a break from trucking for six years. When I came back to it it was now 2010 and I went straight back to the company I’d been with before because it felt like a safe and sure path plus I was pretty good at teaming. But after another year and a half of co-driving and training I finally took action on my inward desire to finally go solo. What then ensued was a miraculous time period driving “western region” whereby I totally fell in love again with trucking in a new and awesome way. And that’s when my nature outings really began and I started to take more video. It was wonderful and fresh!

But I have a natural instinct to want to grow and try new things so when an opportunity came up in 2013 to team with an awesome owner operator and learn car hauling (specializing in high value vehicles hauled in an enclosed trailer), I took it. That’s the time period when I first became acquainted with the very different mindsets of owner operators as opposed to company drivers which I heavily contemplated and then proceeded to file all that new knowledge away in my head for possible later use.

I stayed over a year with my friend but then I felt the calling to move on and go solo again. There was just something about being alone in a truck that created a deeper Spiritual experience for me as a driver.

It was now December 2014 and I started with another company and opted to drive “western region” once again. I just love the western half of the USA. After a few months in I caught wind that they had a Canadian Fleet and I immediately informed my dispatcher I was interested. And just like that, I headed up to Oregon to start a new adventure phase of trucking. Plus, on this fleet, I could visit my dad who lives in Calgary, Alberta.

The Canadian Fleet was dedicated to delivering toilet paper to Costcos in Western Canada as far east as Winnipeg, Manitoba. There were about twelve or so separate runs that had two or three stops each and I loved them all. They took me deep into Canada and I found plenty of nature spots to enjoy. I have lots of video to share from that time which included one run I had all the way up to Whitehorse, Yukon which is the most awesome run I’ve ever had in trucking. Eventually and sadly, the trucking contract changed ending a very long run Canadian streak for my company and in the second half of 2016 I was back to running in the USA.

But I was not as happy as I’d been running Canada and inwardly I knew I needed to find a new gig to keep growing. Also, in mid 2015 I began studying and practicing meditation with an awesome teacher (see TheMysticalExperience.com) and that furthered my drive to keep growing and become even more successful.

A fresh new adventurous opportunity came up in April 2017 to join a company that hauled valuable cargo including coin, currency, precious metals and pharmaceuticals. I was required to obtain an armored guard license, qualify with a revolver and drive with a co-driver in an armored tractor where the windows didn’t even roll down. This was quite the experience. Many weekends we had hotel rooms, which our company paid for, and for a spell we had such regularity at one hotel that I was even able to take local yoga classes on the weekend. About seven months in though my co-driver had to take a break for medical reasons and I was left with a choice to stay or do something different. I made another change.

The idea to become an owner operator had been brewing inside me however I was not ready to just go buy a truck and get my own authority. I needed a segue so that I could learn the ropes at my own pace. And despite a million warnings never to go into a lease purchase program (a program whereby you lease a truck directly from a company for a time period under certain restrictions, drive as a contractor instead of as a company driver and take on full responsibility for the maintenance of the truck making it a high risk endeavor with little room to increase profits) that’s exactly what my soul guided me to do at the end of 2017. But I’d interviewed many happy drivers over the years in these programs so I was a bit puzzled about why they were supposedly so bad and quite frankly, I wanted to find out for myself what the real deal was. So I researched the different options at the time and found a company with a super easy walk away program. If I decided I didn’t like taking full responsibility for a truck I could just return the truck and go back to company driving.

I was fortunate and found a good truck from the choices I had at the time and then I proceeded to go gung-ho into learning the ropes of being a sole proprietor and hauling for revenue for the first time. The first few weeks were scary knowing I’d taken full responsibility for the maintenance of a truck but after about a month I settled in to my new experience and found that I actually loved it.

While adjusting to my new trucking conditions I didn’t hesitate in beginning to research established owner operators on YouTube to learn what it was like to own a truck and have the ability to lease it anywhere or even get my own authority. It was a hoppin’ time because the rates were high so the drivers were super excited and sharing all the glories of this gold rush. Eventually, by July 2018 I couldn’t take it anymore so I came up with a plan to get my own truck so I could get in on the action of actually choosing my loads from a load board for the first time ever and earn my share of these wonderful profits.

I found a company that sold used fleet trucks from the big companies. I was able to get a 2014 Freightliner Cascadia with about 500,000 miles on it for a low down payment and a low $1395/mo truck payment for about four years. It was scary as hell but also super exhilarating for my soul.

I leased on to a big company that had their own load board where I could now choose my own loads. We were advised to develop good relationships with agents/brokers and develop a regular triangle of freight between three cities to achieve a consistent revenue stream. Also, the relationships with brokers might be very crucial at times when the load board sometimes becomes scarce with loads.

But running a triangle sounded awful to me so I took a different approach. I decided to take full advantage of good times and high rates and proceeded to run myself irregular all over the country and, in effect, made few deep relationships with agents. I simply was enthralled with the freedom of being my own dispatcher for the first time. Eventually though, the gold rush dried up and one day I went to the load board and there was nothing I could choose from that would provide me the revenue I needed proving my strategy wasn’t to best for the long term. So I soul searched and planned my next move.

All I knew is that I didn’t want to run a triangle and stay in one region. I still wanted to go everywhere like I did as a company driver.

While my truck was in the shop one day due to very strange and mystical circumstances I met a man that leased his truck to a “power only” company. He spent at least two hours explaining how it all worked and answered all my detailed questions. For the next week or so I pondered over it and finally called them and got the paperwork going to make a change.

I saw many new benefits to this new gig which basically entailed transferring all types of trailers, empty or loaded, from point A to point B. Between the runs I’d be bobtail (without a trailer) and I imagined and easier ability to go grocery shopping as one perk. But again, it was a new and fresh trucking adventure to experience and my soul was very excited.

That brings us to April of 2019 and the beginning of my power only (also known as tow-away) journey in which I am still enjoying at present. I’ve had many new experiences like hauling stage and generator trailers for events and concerts, tankers (always empty), preloaded flatbeds and many more unique trailers. Overall, it’s been awesome and I have been able to shop more often for groceries.

Another important thread in my 19 year trucking journey involves managing my overall health and diet. I’ve spent many time periods exercising and eating well only to plummet down to eating all fast food and drinking way too much soda (I don’t drink coffee or smoke.) By me continually insisting on running irregular routes and living 99% of the time in my truck instead of keeping a normal home I keep myself in a super challenging environment with little regularity of schedule. This setup does not make it easy to make a plan and stick by it but instead of giving up my ways and doing something local I fiercely go forward with the goal of finally getting the right balance and being a perfectly healthy trucker. I will share much on this in my blog and on YouTube.

I give the most credit though for all my awesome improvements in the last five years to my consistent meditation practice which I consider the most important of my daily practices. Plus I’ve given up most useless activity and focus now mainly on continual self improvement in all areas of my life. This has given my trucking journey a whole new meaning.

Do I have kids? No. Am I single? Yes. Does this assist me in my personal quest? Absolutely. But anyone can, with awareness and perseverance, start the journey of self improvement, working on one bad habit at a time. I fully believe the environment of trucking offers great opportunity for one to soul search and focus on their goals without distraction. Of course, if one does not put forth the effort trucking can also be a means of cultivating an extra nasty version of personal hell. I have had many hellish spells in trucking before let’s say, about 2014, when I consciously decided to finally stop the love and hate relationship I’d had with it prior. That was the beginning of a great transformation that brings me to the current time period when I can say with full heart that Trucking Rocks!

My hope is that by sharing my experiences as a female trucker in the USA I can help people realize that they too can experience an adventurous life full of continual transformation resulting in more and more happiness!

Thanks for your interest!

Jeananne

P.S. Rock On!

Wanna hear a deep rock ballad by Within Temptation about transforming into a higher you? Click here!