A trucking business can be one truck with one owner, or thousands of trucks owned by one company but driven by many different drivers. It’s estimated by the United States Labor Department that a truck hauls about 70% of everything you wear, eat, use or enjoy around your home, in your school or at your job. It’s also usually a truck which takes the pieces or rare materials to make those things from suppliers to a manufacturer to a store where you buy it. So just from this brief description, you can see that making a trucking business work smoothly is quite a challenge. Trucking Business IndustryA trucking company has to pay special taxes and have special permits from the federal and state governments to operate, as well as the truck drivers having their CDLs (Commercial Driver’s License) and also any permits he or she needs, like a HazMat (Hazardous Materials) certification. Drivers who haul corrosives or other dangerous substances have to go through special classes and have that certification on their CDL before they are permitted to pull out of the trucking company yard. A trucking business may specialize in what it hauls. Some trucking businesses move people’s households, tanks and weapons for the military or heavy equipment like gigantic bulldozers and cranes. Some have armed guards aboard their trucks while taking irreplaceable art and sculptures to museums. But whether the trucking business hauls whales and porpoises or brittle china teacups, the same basic steps are always followed. Every person at a trucking business is necessary to get each load from pick-up to its destination, whether it’s the company mechanic who looks after the trucks’ engines; the dispatcher, the safety director who makes sure Hours of Service rules are followed, salespeople who find new shippers, or the file clerk who keeps track of all the paperwork for every truck and driver working for the business.
