January is here and a new year is looming — and I use the term “looming” advisedly. For many small carriers around the nation, 2012 means another year of dealing with difficult-to-satisfy shippers and another round of HOS and CSA slowing the wheels of progress for your trucking company.

You can’t do much about government regulation. But, that shipper that has you grinding your teeth every time you deal with him — something can be done about the situation.

Fire him.

The Time-Sucking Shipper

If you think black ice is scary, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Move over contractors, singers, marriage-pursuers, and aspiring chefs—the reality television industry has a new sweetheart: truckers.

Want to know the key to trucking success?

Become the “go-to carrier” within a selected niche.

Doing so requires you to learn about every shipper and broker who ships loads within your selected hauling specialty. The plan—your plan—is to become the expert that shippers and brokers seek out to handle their shipments.

Why You Should Become a Niche Carrier

It’s happened to everyone. After putting a few hundred miles behind you, the drone of your tires and the hum of your engine start to work on you like a lullaby. Without warning, you start battling a wandering mind and heavy eyes.

But as a professional in the freight industry, you know all the tricks to combat getting sleepy behind the wheel. Caffeine, your AC on max blast, and good tunes on the radio help, but a good night’s sleep is always the most important tool in a truck driver’s toolbox.

Diesel fuel—why can’t you be consistent?

While moving freight, every trucker must plan around your seesaw prices to protect their bottom line, but you insist on fluctuating—and increasing—at all the wrong times. Don’t get me wrong—when you dropped 22.7 cents over six weeks around the holidays, truckers gave three cheers. But starting 2012 by increasing six out of the past seven weeks after steadily dropping for six weeks prior? Can’t you throw our truckers a bone?