Riding with the Turntable Trucker to LA: Day One
(The most intense customer development I’ve done in my life)
Summary:
I’m riding with the Turntable Trucker aka Charles aka DJ Joonie C from Des Moines, IA to Los Angeles. We’ve got 48 hours to get to LA to deliver the processed food in the trailer and I’ve been doing my best to capture my experience along the way.
I’m traveling with Charles to learn as much as I can about the trucking industry straight from the source: the driver. With 20+ years behind the wheel, Charles has some brutally honest insights about the industry and has been a great guy to hang with / learn from.
This is “customer development” in its grittiest form: digging in to intricately understand the profile, habits, demands, and emotions of prospective customers / users. I’m a huge believer in this process, as it will be vital as Andrew and I build WorkHound during the Straight Shot accelerator.
Combining this trip with my interactions with a number of other drivers, these are aggregated insights of what I’m learning about the trucking industry.
You can find the pre-trip post here: 48 Hours to LA with the Turntable Trucker.
You can find the Day 2 recap here: Riding with the Turntable Trucker to LA: Day Two
You can find the Day 3 recap here: Riding with the Turntable Trucker: Day 3 Hustle
Day 1: Des Moines, IA to Laramie, WY
Mental toughness
“The first 100 miles are the hardest.”
Leaving home wasn’t easy. Charles picked me up Sunday morning and we hit the road. Charles said getting past the 100 mile mark is a huge mental hurdle. He’s shifting from DJ mode to work mode and it takes some time. Once we got past Omaha and kept heading west Charles was in his zone.
A lot of driving takes strong mental resolve. You have to be able to stand long stretches alone, dealing with crazy drivers and a lot of unknowns.
Charles sets mental marks to have feelings of accomplishment. For example, he covered 700 miles on Sunday and will shoot for a long stretch the next morning.
Balancing routine and change
Drivers and companies have to find the right match for personality / company culture.
Some companies will tell drivers every step of the trip, from what route to take, what truck stops to get gas at and even when to start and stop driving.
Charles hates this.
Other companies, like the one Charles drivers for, give the driver one simple instruction: get the load there by on time. That leaves a driver like Charles the opportunity to decide every aspect of the trip: what route to take (there are 3 to Los Angeles from Des Moines), when to drive and when to stop. That kind of independence keeps Charles happy with the company.
Eating
What the hell do you eat when you’re always on the go?
Charles says you can easily spend $50 a day on food if you always eat out. Truck stops do their best to make a lot of money off of drivers and charge accordingly.
I packed some snacks, but am doing my best to eat a similar diet to Charles.
We kicked off Sunday with Casey’s breakfast pizza, then stopped at Walmart for lunch at the walmart grab-go counter and buy groceries.
We got mostly processed foods — some frozen dinners and some ramen noodle meals.
Since there’s no set meal time on the road, breakfast was around 11, lunch at 3 and dinner around 8pm. In the truck there’s a fridge to keep food cool and a microwave to heat things up.
How we spend our time
I had a lot of questions (maybe close to 48 hours worth) and luckily Charles is passionate about his career to share his insights. When we weren’t talking shop, Charles was in DJ mode.
Like an athlete training for the next game, Charles uses the time in the truck to review his mixes from the previous week to see where he could get better on his scratches. We listened to a number of mixes, some recorded from the past weeks, one was a live cut from his weekly Saturday DJ gig in Des Moines.
Once we listened to the mixes, we’d listen to new tracks that Charles could add to his mixes next week. Once we get the freight dropped off Tuesday, he’ll have some time to scratch a bit.
Honk that horn!
Truckers love it when you do the horn hocking motion (see below), as Charles said “It makes my day! I love it.”
RIP CB Radio
The CB Radio is dead. Activity on the original social network was nearly non-existent on our trip west after day 1. We left it on for hours and only heard one driver mumble something the entire time. I was really looking forward to having some crazy conversations on the road, but more and more drivers are isolating themselves as smartphones take over.
Sleeping
There are two sections in the back of the truck’s cab that we each slept in. It’s snug, but after a long day of being mesmerized by the road, I passed out pretty quickly in Laramie, WY.
Parking for trucks sucks
I’ll never complain about bad parking situations again.
Truckers have it rough. Usually, if you don’t find a parking spot in a truck stop or rest area by 6pm, you have to drive sometimes an extra hour just to find a place to park a truck for the night to sleep.
Why the hell do trucks go only 62 MPH!?!?
I had to know. Whenever I mention trucking to a non-driver, this is the #1 thing that gets mentioned.
Here is the deal:
Trucking is a delicate mix of timeliness and cost effectiveness.
Most big rigs average 5–6.5 MPG. That’s no typo! If trucks are driven really hard, they can easily average 4 MPG. To add to this, fueling up a truck can cost over $500.
Fuel efficiency is king for trucking companies, so they often set “governors” (internal speed limits in each truck) to prevent a truck running “wide open” (without a speed limit). Most trucking companies will set a governor between 62–68 MPH.
Trust me, truckers are always slamming the pedal to the metal. They don’t intentionally drive slow. The more miles they cover, the more miles they make.
So when you see trucks passing one another and going “super slow”, they’re driving as hard as they can and they’re both chasing their paycheck. Can’t blame ‘em for that.
Trucker joke of the day (from Charles):
Q: Do you know the difference between a baby and a trucker?
A: At some point, the baby stops crying.
In closing:
This is an eye opening journey and I’m grateful Charles has let me tag along for the ride. There’s a lot more to learn and plenty more to share. I look forward to filling you all in again tomorrow.
Keep following the Journey: Day 2 Post
Social links:
Max: Twitter // Facebook // Instagram // Snapchat: MaxOnTheTrack
About the author:
Max Farrell is co-founder of WorkHound, a software company tackling driver turnover issues in the trucking industry. Max also spends time driving innovation inside corporations with Create Reason. Prior to WorkHound, he worked with Iowa-based payments startup Dwolla. In addition to professional efforts, Max is also a facilitator for Startup Weekend. In his spare time, Max is a sound hip-hop artist and avid sportsman.
