If you've spent any time listening to self-help podcasts or reading motivational books, you've heard this saying. The underlying message is one of self-belief, faith in your abilities, and perseverance. Reality, however, reveals a variety of challenges to betting on yourself that can't be captured in a 30-minute keynote speech.
Mike Tomlinson has lived this mantra, and this reality. He, like many other truckers, chose to forge his own path as an owner-operator and accept the good and the bad that comes with it. His is a journey that's featured ups, downs, and even a harrowing stint as an ice road trucker in Northern Alberta, Canada.
Growing up, Mike dreamed of a different kind of ice: that of professional curling. Inspired by his parents, national curling champions back in the day, he chased that dream until it became evident that it was not where his future lay.
Mike tried and failed to lease-purchase from a carrier in 2014. In 2016, Mike took a risk and bet on himself, again, this time successfully lease-purchasing his first truck. For the last eight years, he lived and breathed trucking. He has been singular in his pursuits. All other dreams and desires have been cast aside for the road in order to pay off his truck.
Unlike drivers that simply drive for a carrier, a lease-purchaser lives the life of an owner-operator without many of the benefits. Weekly payments, maintenance fees, and taxes begin to stack up as drivers struggle to make even close to the gross revenue amounts promised by the carrier. In order to stay on top of these costs, the driver has to be relentless in their work. Missed payments result in hefty fees or even default. Free time disappears.
All of these stresses combine to produce a work-life balance that is less than ideal. With no one to manage the operations side of their job, lease-purchasers, and many owner-operators, are left to cope on their own. For Mike, this meant frequent battles with depression. He says, "For the last five years, it seemed like nothing else in the world existed outside of my trucking company. I made no time for fun, vacationing, relaxing, or anything else. I lived and breathed trucking. My home was wherever I parked."
Mike was able to pay off his truck in five years, freeing himself from the lease agreement that attached him to a carrier. While that carrier was based out of Oregon, Mike established his operations in Washington. Unbeknownst to Mike, Washington, unlike Oregon, carries a sales tax which he would now owe. This error would've cost him an extra $20,000 had TrueNorth not helped him transfer his title to Texas at the end of the lease-purchase agreement. A costly mistake like this highlights the perils of striking out on your own in the trucking industry and why TrueNorth does what it does.
For Mike, TrueNorth immediately changed the way he works. "With such a tight cash flow, I was always thinking about getting the next haul. I'd go months without taking any time off for myself. Since I leased on with TrueNorth, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I'm not so cash-strapped these days. Pretty soon, it might even make sense to buy a house. I've lived for my company for so long. It's time for me to discover fun again."
TrueNorth's sole mission is to bring profits to truckers. Their innovative software frees truckers of many of the operational tasks that ruin owner-operator efficiency and enables them to focus on trucking. By shifting, or entirely removing, some of the fundamental burdens placed on owner-operators, the company has altered the sometimes harsh reality of truckers like Mike.
When Mike reflects on his story, he views his time as an ice road trucker as the low point. "It was a time where I'd hit bottom emotionally. I struggle with depression and I developed PTSD. I got to the point where I stopped caring. I detached myself from my feelings and just did my job."
In driving on the ice, Mike, like many other drivers before him, chose to put himself at risk for greater reward. The ice roads offer a lucrative opportunity that only comes around once a year. He says, "I literally didn't care about my life. Sometimes, the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] would threaten to take my keys away from me or arrest me for my own protection." He credits his friends and family, especially his dad, for helping him out of those bouts of depression and anxiety.
TrueNorth believes that truckers should not have to make such a trade-off. By focusing on bringing profits to each member of the company's fleet, they're hoping to do exactly that.
If the ice roads were the low point of the journey, what's the high point? For Mike, it may be just over the horizon. It may ironically also be a return to the ice, just a different kind, he says, "On the top of my list would be to go curling or going home and doing stuff with my dad. It'll be a real delight to have a whiskey with him."
Recently, Mike acquired his second and third trucks to begin growing his operation into a full-fledged fleet based out of Dallas (home to TrueNorth). As he's expanded his fleet, he's started to recruit other truckers to drive for him.
Discussing the hiring process, he notes the qualities that he believes make a good driver, “A lot of people can get a CDL [Commercial Driver's License], but it's tough to find a CDL driver with a good work ethic. Truck driving is hard work, and not everybody can handle it," he continues, "Safe drivers are critical to success, I had to fire [a driver] because of safety issues."
Mike also notes one aspect of the trucking industry that's particularly special: diversity. He says, "don't think any profession expresses diversity like trucking. It just seems to come naturally. A lot of trucking companies offer jobs without ever seeing the candidate's face. They know that they'll still end up with a strong mix of races, faiths, and ideologies. I've had a driver who showed himself to be a racist. I don't tolerate that."
This approach to work, and life, is what makes Mike special. It also highlights just how unique this industry is, equal parts one big community and thousands of individuals making their own way. Mike prefers to view it as a community and, as his fleet grows, he wants it to be part of the TrueNorth family.
For TrueNorth, trucking truly is a family matter.
Jin Stedge, CEO of the company, comes from a family of truckers that entered the business in the 1980s. She saw an overwhelming issue in the industry that independent drivers consistently operate at a disadvantage and founded TrueNorth to fix it.
Mike Tomlinson is one of thousands of drivers who have already reaped the benefits of this mission. His story is both individually unique and similarly ubiquitous in the trucking industry. His relentless work ethic has enabled him to have success despite numerous obstacles. Not every owner-operator and lease-purchaser is quite so lucky.
If he could go back and do it all over, would he change anything?
Not much. Except one thing: "I've sacrificed a lot to start my trucking company. The only regret is that I didn't find TrueNorth years ago."
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