Recruiting Bonuses

Ben and I have been actively recruiting since August of 2010. To date we've successfully brought in four drivers, with many more waiting on the sidelines to come on board. We received quite a treat last time we were home: the recruiter we work with (she does the heavy lifting, with checking out all the info on their applications) emailed us to let us know she had scheduled another team for orientation! I didn't recognize either of the names, so I assumed our strategy of leaving behind our can't-miss-em-neon-green business cards in truck mirrors at truck stops started to do the trick!

Well, I came to find out I was wrong--but that was okay, because we still got another team on board! The reason I didn't recognize the name was because the trucker I made contact with goes by a nickname--his legal name was on the application. He was a driver we met in late November who never returned our follow-up phone calls....but held on to our information, found a co-driver he wanted to stick with, and here we are!

I will say, with this recruiting endeavor, that while we are still active in pursuing CRST trucks at truckstops or places of shipping freight, we have certainly toned it down a little bit. Ben got burned out from the manhunt for a while as it seemed we were putting so much work into it and nothing was happening back for us. We've had success, yes, but no matter how good you advertise the deal, if the people you're advertising to aren't ready or willing to make the step/take the risk, you're spinning your wheels with effort and no return. So, we've backed down on our phone calls but still keep enough contact--especially with the folks who are just waiting for their contracts to expire with CRST so they can make the big move.

By our calculations, those teams that have expressed deep interest in making the switch--and whose contracts expire in the next two months--should total nine teams. Nine teams x $1000 per driver = $18,000. Not bad, when we just have to do a little leg-work, pay for printing costs of applications and business cards, and make follow-up calls every now and then, eh?


Presently we're in Lebec, California, "on top of the Grapevine". After we go for a hike on this gorgeous, breezy, clear and warm day, we'll be picking up a load in the early morning. After delivering tomorrow night, we're then on our way home for some R&R!

Income Opportunities

There are no shortage of opportunities at this company to earn a little extra income here and there. Ben and I are working on two at this time: the health incentive and driver recruiting.

The health incentive deals with health, obviously. Specifically, if a driver logs his/her diet and caloric intake for the day, an exercise log of working out at least three times a week, or turns in doctors annual exams or proof of preventative care, points are earned. One hundred points are awarded for each three months of logging; once 600 points are earned, you can redeem them for a sport bottle, gym bag, exercise clothing or $400 cash. Can you guess which one we're going for?

As detailed in our “Exercise Endeavor” post, we are working hard at keeping active throughout the week getting exercise. This health incentive is the extra motivation needed to keep up our routine! At present, we are only logging our workouts, but may add the other options at a later date. It's kind of nice to earn $400 a year for just exercising!

The driver recruiting incentive is where the big bucks come in; for every experienced driver we successfully recruit from another company (i.e. they become employed by our company and are dispatched on their first load), we earn $1000. We could potentially earn more income recruiting drivers than we could in driving! For every $1000/driver recruiting bonus we earn, that is 3 days less we need to be on the road. If we get even just 10 drivers/bonuses, that is one month less we need to be on the road!

We are targeting drivers of our former company, CRST, because we know how poorly run they are and how awful the drivers are treated. If you remember my post about the differences between the old and new companies, you could see how we want to convert, if you will, drivers from CRST to our present company. To date, we have contacted over two dozen CRST drivers; though we have yet to see the bonus. Some of them found other companies to switch over to, and some—no matter how much we tell them “It's better on this side”—are just reluctant to change. This company even offers a $5000 sign-on bonus for teams and 48 cents per mile if the drivers have their HazMat certification. To further give incentive to our recruits, we are offering them $100 of our own money if they get signed on with the company; a 10% investment from our $1000 bonus is worth it to guarantee they apply and are hopefully employed! (Once we receive the bonus on our payroll, we send out the $100)

When we found out about the program, we got decals put on both sides of our truck as well as a stack of promo packs including applications for new drivers. On our last hometime, we made up business cards advertising the $5000 bonus and our phone number; anytime we see a CRST truck we either talk to the drivers directly or leave our card in their window. Once we gather their basic information, we forward that on to our recruiter, Rhonda. She then makes contact to sell them on all the other great aspects of the company. It has been a little bit of a comfort zone breaker, walking up to complete strangers and trying to deliver a pitch successfully. What drives us is the bonus, obviously, but we also really believe in what we're selling: a professional company to work for, and one that treats you as such as well.

If you don't mind, keep this endeavor in your prayers! Like I mentioned—the more recruits we get employed into the company, the less time we need to be on the road!

The Exercise Endeavor

Many of you may know that both Ben and I have a past with running. We've logged a couple hundred miles of training, three marathons, three half-marathons and several 10K's between the two of us. Knowing, then, what kind of shape we've been in, and what "shape" we're in now, we're seeking resolution and working towards the former. Having this sedentary lifestyle as we know it in trucking, it is easy to just continue sitting--but, we are tired of it being easy, because in reality, that's hard.

In June, we both applied for term life insurance, which included as part of the processing a physical exam. We had Nurse Nancy and her husband Jack come to our home and do a thorough medical history, blood and urine samples, and height and weight measurements. That was all the kick-start we needed (do not worry; everything else is completely normal--we just added a few pounds) to get into gear and "healthy-up".

Since then, we have made it a point to get out and run at least every two days. This has certainly been a challenge for us with time constraints, hot weather, and lack of motivation. But--we have done it! And we have loved it! A great help to our endeavor is several of the company terminals have work-out rooms with treadmills. Sometimes they have only one treadmill, so Ben will run and I'll do yoga for 30 minutes. It has been a great way to sweat out stress, feel better physically, sleep easier at the end of our shifts, and tone up our trucker bodies.

This has also inspired us to search a little further off the beaten path for places to run. We found the Rogue River State Park Rest Area near Grants Pass, OR last week, and enjoyed a 2 mile stretch along the river. In Santa Rosa, NM there is a great length of road right by a truck stop that we've run on a couple times now (and watching the sunrise up over the mesa in the east is quite a beautiful sight!). The terminal in Lincoln, NE has been a frequent stopping point for us with their work-out room, and the terminal in Markham, IL (Chicago) also has a couple of treadmills. Laramie and Evanston, WY have also provided us with some nice trails, and we've made our own routes in Mountain Home, ID and Dunnigan, CA.

When we are home in Bend, we try to maximize our opportunity in the land-of-the-outdoor-enthusiast. Pilot Butte (2 miles round trip, 460 feet up) is right outside our front door, the river trail loop (3 miles), and a myriad of other hikes keep us busy and our heart rates elevated.

Do you live near an interstate and know of a running path? Let us know, and if we're ever in your area, we'll stop to take advantage!

Sunny Sacramento

Can you believe that it's not quite spring yet but the high today in Sacramento was 78 degrees? We took advantage by utilizing our roller blades! The truck stop parking lot is huge and there weren't many trucks parked yet, and it felt great to get the blood pumping and our muscles used!





Driving near Lincoln, NE the other day brought a challenge: we blew a tire! Ben was in the back sleeping and all was going well with my driving and then, POP! I look in my side mirror to see smoke coming from the driver's side front axle of the trailer tires. I immediately put on my four-way flashers, slowed down, and pulled off to the side of the road. Ben woke up and checked out the damage:

Five hours and many phone calls later, we drove away with a brand new tire and were on our way!

When we were on our last home-time, we looked into getting an up-graded laptop to use while out on the road (our present one was a 2000 model!). After a Craigslist search, we found a place in town that refurbishes "older" computers and resells them for a relatively inexpensive price. We made a purchase on an HP 4-year old laptop and are so thrilled with it! It moves with great speed, plays dvds and has awesome picture quality. Adding to that, we adjusted our cell phone plan a bit to allow my BlackBerry to be used as a modem for internet service on the computer as well! That means I can now update the blog on a real computer using more than just my thumbs to type!

We have some other really great news*, but in Ben's introductory contribution to our blog (stay tuned, hopefully it will happen in the next week), he will be the one to share!

*Mom, if you're reading this, no, the other really great news is not that we're pregnant. We're still waiting.

In other other news, we have named our little coffee/tea french press: Pierre. Our whole brood of coffee/tea related items was joined by "Stan Jr.", a smaller green thermos, gifted to me by Becky and Michelle for my birthday. Having names for them all may seem strange, but it certainly helps both of us to know what the other is talking about in reference to them.

Speaking of my birthday, I had a great day! We originally planned on getting a group together to go on a ski trip up to Mt. Hoodoo, but time and money did not permit that little adventure. Rather, we had friends over for a dinner night on Friday and a brunch on Saturday! Thank you to Adam, Kathy, Eric, Justin, Pat, Carolyn, Matthew, Sharon, Michelle W, Michelle O, Becky, Eric, Ray, Breanna and Jill for helping me celebrate! And thanks for the chocolate! :-)

In other news, we are (still) in Sacramento, picking up a load early in the morning and heading to the Seattle area. Then we'll head out to the east side of Pittsburgh! We look forward to being in that "familiar" territory, even though we'll be in that region just next month for my comps. Speaking of, please keep my studying efforts in your prayers! This is just one of three last steps to completing my masters degree, but is by far the largest chunk...

Have a beautiful weekend, and Happy Spring! St. Joseph, pray for us!

Peace,
deb & Ben