Aretha Franklin got it right when she sang that hit song. This is the number-one complaint I hear from other truckers: “We just don’t get the respect we deserve.” Rather than complain to the choir (other truckers), we need to do something about getting the respect we believe we deserve.

My father told me time and time again, “If you want respect, you’ve got to earn it. Respect isn’t a gift, it’s a reward.”  Martin Luther King, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Cesar Chavez didn’t gain respect by standing around complaining. They stood up for what they believed in. Agree or disagree with these pillars of change, you have to respect them for standing up and believing they could change the iniquities they saw.

The trucking industry is very much in need of people who are willing to stand up to “the way it’s always been done” crowd and deal with reducing the greed and deception that seems to run rampant in our industry. We need people who realize that you have to be willing to give up something in order to move forward -- to improve life for all concerned, including yourself.

Driver turnover rates of 115%, 127% or 137% are wrong, no matter how you look at it. It doesn’t make any difference where the fault lies, it’s still wrong!  But if it’s going to change, it’s going to be up to the trucker to make it happen. And that’s where R-E-S-P-E-C-T comes in.

It’s very evident a large number of people in trucking companies, brokers, shippers, receivers, government officials, legislators and the general public don’t have respect for the vast majority of truckers. In all fairness, a few companies, lawmakers, logistic management and regular folk do respect drivers. But the vast majority of others give truckers nothing but lip service when it comes to respect.

Once again, to get respect we’ve got to earn respect. We’ve got to police our own by confronting drivers who litter, throw ‘trucker bombs’ from their vehicles and look and smell like they just came out of a three-week drunk. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Would you respect someone who doesn’t value his time, who continually complains he isn’t getting paid for his time on task, who keeps doing the same thing the same way while expecting different results, and blames others for his shortcomings?

Don’t forget truckers who don’t understand the nuances of running a truck as a business, or those with bad credit who think they can become an owner-operator by lease-purchasing a truck. (If a person can’t manage their personal finances, there’s no way they can manage the business of running a truck.)  If one trucker can’t earn a reasonable living driving a leased truck at 92¢ per mile plus fuel surcharge, what makes another driver think he can? Yet day after day, week after week, year after year, and decade after decade, people with the dream of trucking success enter this nightmare of trucking, thinking they can make “the big money” driving for 92¢ per mile.

Trucking by its nature is a high-expense/low-profit business. Business savvy, financial management skills and patience are all necessary to succeed. Trucking isn’t any different than any other business. If you’re thinking of becoming an owner-operator, plan on 18 months to achieve your personal salary goal and another three to five years to actually start making a profit. And that’s only if you do it right. This means making a plan and sticking to it with small adjustments along the way. Each time an owner-operator changes from one company to the next, he starts his 18-month and three-to-five-year plan all over.

An owner-operator with a $1,200 a month truck payment must average 2,800 miles a week at $1.30 a mile for 44 weeks (308 days on the road per year) in order to earn $40,000 a year before income and self-employment (FICA) taxes.

Now for the bad news. When April 15 rolls around, his total tax bill will reduce his take-home pay to less than $25,000 for the entire year, or about $568 per week. If he’s earning less than $1.30 per mile, or his tractor payment is higher than $1,200, or his average miles are less than 2,800 miles per week, his take home pay will go down. Add a major repair, a large increase in the price of fuel or other potential costly episodes, and his net income goes down even further.

You’ll hear all kinds of claims and stories that seem to contradict the facts as laid out here. Recruiters will provide you with the best-case scenario; drivers who want to look good will inflate their numbers -- some will tell you what you want to hear, or you may hear what you want.

But real numbers don’t lie. Be sure you’re using the true factual figures; be sure you include your costs, all of your costs. Your costs aren’t just fuel, truck payment and insurance. They include taxes, FICA, retirement, health insurance, worker’s comp insurance, cell phone, showers, meals, laundry, tools, etc. And don’t forget the driver’s salary.

So what does all this have to do with truckers receiving respect? Like my father said, “You have to earn respect.”  To earn respect in the trucking industry:

1. Don’t believe everything you hear or read.
2. Do your investigation and research the segment in which you haul.
3. Prepare a comprehensive business plan so you know the pluses and minuses and have a strategy to deal with them.
4. Know your costs and how you’re going to cover them; know the break-even point.
5. Develop a profitable hauling rate range from your daily and weekly break-even points and don’t stray from them.
6. Remember, it’s what you make per day, per week, per month, per quarter that builds wealth, not what you make per mile.
7. Don’t be afraid of asking for more when more is needed.
8. Know when to say NO and walk away.
9. Understand wealth doesn’t come overnight; it’s built over a long period of time. Don’t have unreal expectations.
10. Before committing to a contract, before going to orientation, read the entire contract and then have an attorney explain what you don’t understand.
11. In any conversation with a potential or current carrier, broker, or customer, write down what is said. If it’s important, have all parties sign and agree to it.
12. Trust your instincts; if it doesn’t seem right, if it’s too good to be true, you need to put distance between you and it.
13. To have the right instincts you need knowledge. Just be sure you’re not one of the chickens being taught by the fox.
14. Don’t ever think you know it all. Both pride and arrogance will destroy you.
15. Surround yourself with experts who can quickly provide you with the answers you need.

Respect comes from due-diligence, planning, continued education, and assertiveness. If it’s not right or you don’t understand what is being said, step back. If it can’t be righted or understood, be willing to walk away. If you make a mistake, and we all will, learn from it so you don’t repeat it.

If we truckers want respect, we have to earn it.  All you have to do is look around at the people you respect and admire and follow their lead.

And most of all remember, respect yourself, your company, your truck.

Timothy D. Brady is

•  A 20 + year moving & storage veteran.
•  AMSA’s 2002 Super Van Operator of the Year HHG.
• The “Trucker’s Business Advisor” on Sirius Road Dog Trucking Radio’s “Open Road Café.”
• Author of several top-selling trucking business books.
• A columnist  for several trucking industry publications.
• An instructor for trucking business workshops through a partnership with a major university and local community college.
• Join him for his next I.C.E. (In-Cab Education) ® Workshop. For a workshop schedule go to www.truckersu.com
• Available for speaking engagements and to conduct workshops for truck drivers, trucking companies and trucking industry personnel.

Contact him at tbrady@writeuptheroad.com or call (731) 749-8567.