Welcome to Trucking Business Success!
Trucking can offer you unlimited opportunities for business and career success, including the opportunity to earn a lot of money.
Yet it is different.
Trucking is not like other jobs and other careers in so many ways. It is definitely a lifestyle and has its own benefits, own rewards, and more than its fair share of challenges you must overcome if you want to achieve lasting success in trucking.
That is why I founded Trucking Business Success and why we are working continuously to bring you the specialized information and other resources that can make a massive difference in helping you achieve maximum results in minimum time – and then keep doing it for your entire career in trucking!
My name is L.D. Sewell and I am glad you are here!
If you are the really curious type you can find out more about me on my Author/Instructor site www.ldsewell.com
But here is the shorter overview version;
I have been in trucking for more than two and a half decades and counting as of now. I started like many drivers do, by going through a training program and then to work as an OTR (Over The Road) driver with a megacarrier.
During the following years, I ran OTR all over most of the USA and much of Canada – and I was seldom ever home. Then I and my wife decided that I needed to be home more, so I got on a dedicated account with the same company running for a major department store pulling doubles – and home every day and off every weekend.
That was a great job while it lasted – until the bean counters messed it up and lost the account.
The process of them messing that account up caused me to begin to consider other opportunities and other options. I quit working for the mega carrier one day and the next day I had a job as a dispatcher trainee.
From there and over the next decade or so I was on a mission to learn as much as I could about trucking – with the intention of starting my own Trucking Business someday.
So I studied the regulations. I studied operations and dispatch, recruiting, training and retention, maintenance and repair, and every other aspect of trucking I could get a hold of.
I worked my way through various positions from dispatcher to recruiter, safety, training,and became a third part skills examiner for the state, and took on other positions and responsibilities – and along the way, I set up and opened and operated a separate truck driver training school, designed and implemented an ICA (Lease Purchase program) and a Freight Brokerage division of the same company.
When I first started I went through Compliance Review (DOT Audit) and had to very quickly clean up a major mess made by other incompetent people. That may sound harsh calling someone else incompetent but it is what it is and that is the truth – the individual they had put in charge as a “Safety Director” had NO CLUE what he was doing.
But then again it wasn’t really his fault entirely – because the company owner and senior management are the ones who hired him and put him in place in the first place and they were even more clueless than he was!
Just because you start and build a trucking business does not mean you will be able to keep it going or achieve trucking business success over the long haul if you do not know what to do and then actually do it.
There is a key lesson for you right out of the gate. Do NOT assume that all is well just because you haven’t been hammered YET. Get the Trucking Business Success INFORMATION, Training, and Support you need now, and make sure you have your business set up fr success so you can keep on trucking as long as you want to.
I went to a week-long seminar and training event conducted by DOT and sponsored by the owner of a TPA that has become a good friend of mine and a very valuable source of information over the subsequent years.
That information, help, and support – and a lot of long days allowed us to correct enough problems fast enough to survive the audit despite the company’s problems and to minimize the long term damage.
The next several years were good and very enjoyable.
I set up and ran an internal training program that allowed us to hire students right out of truck driving school and give them enough road training to be able to actually do the job safely and efficiently as they continued to gain experience after completing our training program on their own.
That helped double the size of the fleet quickly.
The truck driver training school, an internal Freight Brokerage, and other measures were initiated to continue to build the company and increase profits.
Transport Resource Solutions LLC is Born
Eventually, I started my own company Transport Resource Solutions LLC as a part-time training, consulting, and recruiting company while I continued to work full time as well as a Safety Director. Right after that I wrote and published my very first book, “Introduction to Professional Truck Driving Careers” which is still selling on amazon all these years later.
Even though the book is in need of a revision and update – it still contains a lot of value for anyone serious about trucking.
Over the years I have helped numerous small fleets and owner operators with various trucking business issues from getting authority to setting up Risk management Control Systems, to developing training programs, recruiting programs, retention efforts, and beyond.
I continue to do so today, primarily through my online courses, publications, and by providing support through our groups and directly as needed.
Eventually, I left the other company as it went on a path I chose not to travel, and I took care of some family responsibilities for a few years as well as began adding more online courses and other publications as part of our business.
TRS is my focus and full-time business today and it continues to grow as we continue to help others do the same with their own Trucking Businesses.
Transport Resource Solutions (TRS) Today
It really caused me quite a bit of frustration to see good people fail at trucking as company drivers or as owner operators. Often they did so because of either getting the WRONG information from people with their own agendas – or simply from not getting enough good information to make better informed decisions.
Over the years and through my own blood sweat and tears I have learned how to achieve Trucking Business Success as well as the reasons why other people so often fail in trucking – and in life.
This is why I founded Trucking Business Success as part of my training efforts as an instructor and consultant. I wanted a better way to help people who were taking my courses and reading my books and other content.
I also had a student in one of my trucking courses who asked if I had a Facebook group. I said know. He suggested I consider it as it would be a great way for my students – and others interested in trucking to communicate with me and with each other.
So I thought about it – looed into it and decide he had a very good idea. The group needed a name. I thought about what I was trying to do – to help other people achieve Trucking Business Success as well as continuing to work toward my own vision of the same thing – hence the name. So the group was created with just him, me, and my wife and business partner Elizabeth or “Abbie” which is her nic name and what she prefers to be called.
So there we were – just the three of us.
But not for long. That little group continued to grow. First to a few people, then a few dozen, and then a few hundred. Now it has more than a thousand people – and grows every day.
Today we have multiple courses available on Udemy and other platforms and we continue to develop and publish new courses periodically as well as update our existing courses occasionally.
I learned over time that other thngs in liffe affect trucking as does trucking afect other aspects of our lives too. This is one of the reaosn we cover and teach other thinsg in addition to trucking
Transport Resource Solutions (TRS) continues to evolve and grow over time too. Today we have our own authority and currently operate one truck as an independent owner operator (motor carrier) and we will soon acquire our Brokerage Authority and then begin leasing on owner operators as we continue to build TRS into a fleet following my own vision.
The information, lessons learned, training and support – along with all products we offer are developed over time with real-world experiences and I share with you all I have ever learned and all I continue to learn.
So if you are serious about achieving your own Trucking Business Success my friend, you are in the right place!