How to find success as a company driver with Bruce Outridge

We’ve met a wide variety of individuals from the trucking industry while interviewing for the Successful Driver Podcast. Everyone has had their own tips for success; whether that be properly maintaining your truck’s HVAC, or ensuring you’re practicing healthy budgeting habits. Bruce Outridge, host of the Lead Pedal Podcast, joined us to discuss his past in trucking and to share his top tips for success.

Bruce was in trucking long before he launched his podcast in 2015. In his over thirty years of working in the transportation industry, Bruce has worn many hats; from driver, to owner-operator, to fleet supervisor. Today, Bruce owns his own company, Bruce Outridge Productions, and uses his platforms as a podcaster, author, speaker, and producer to share the knowledge he’s gathered over the years. He has produced several programs to help new owner-operators build successful businesses and uses his podcast to chat all things trucking.

Much of Bruce’s time in trucking was spent working as a professional driver. He shared with us four tips to help you succeed when working as a company driver. Most of the advice Bruce shares can be narrowed down to a simple, universal concept; being professional. Personability is one of the top traits that Bruce equates to success; having good customer service and being kind to dispatch goes a long way in Bruce’s book. Punctuality is another big plus according to Bruce, and while that is important in any business, being known to be on time in trucking is a great way to build rapport. Even though you don’t own your truck as a company driver, Bruce emphasizes taking care of the vehicle as if it were your own.

“I always had that mentality that whether I pay for the truck or not, I own the truck, like it was my vehicle. When you take care of it like that and the company realizes you take care of it like that…I never drove old trucks, at the beginning I did for a while, but at the end they were like ‘let’s go to the dealership and I’m going to show you the leather seats’ like that’s where it was at the end because I took care of that old truck they gave me in the beginning. The drivers that do that, you will find that companies kind of leave them alone. When a company finds a guy who will take care of their equipment like it’s their own vehicle, is going to be on time, is willing to do the work and get the job done…they’re not going to bug you so that you leave, they want to keep you.”

Watch our full episode with Bruce Outridge now and check out the Lead Pedal Podcast if you’d like to learn even more from him!