The truck driving lifestyle is as unique as they come. Whether you’re driving solo, in a team, locally, regionally, or in an OTR role, your time behind the wheel will look a bit different on a day-to-day basis. However, the trucking industry is changing and has been for quite some time.
With new technology, increased demand, and more new truck drivers than ever, the trucking lifestyle is transforming. While the pillars of this age-old industry remain firm—adventure on the open road, camaraderie amongst drivers, competitive pay, unique schedule, and much more—new trucking industry trends have begun to take root.
But with our decades of experience, Lily Transportation is no stranger to change. While the industry around us evolves, as a privately held, professionally managed organization, our principles remain unchanged. Since our inception in 1958, Lily has provided its drivers and customers with stability, industry expertise, and a fierce commitment to the job at hand.
If you’re interested in learning how to become a truck driver or are curious about what a career in truck driving looks like, then you’ve come to the right place. The truck driving lifestyle is unlike any other, and Lily Transportation is proud to contribute to its ongoing evolution in as many ways as we can.
Table of Contents:
A “Driver First” Mentality
- Promoting Truck Driver Health and Wellness
- Making Safety a Top Priority
Embracing Modern Trucking Industry Trends
- Hiring Younger, More Diverse Drivers
- Adopting Trucking Technology
How to Become a Truck Driver with Lily Transportation
A “Driver First” Mentality
Every company’s success is based on mutual trust. At Lily Transportation, our drivers aren’t only our greatest asset; they’re family. Promoting the continued health, wellness, and success of our driver is essential to the positive company culture we’ve built for ourselves.
Whether it’s the highest quality equipment, competitive pay, or a diverse range of employee benefits, Lily Transportation is committed to making sure the truck driving lifestyle is productive and satisfying. Here are just a couple of the ways we do that:
Promoting Truck Driver Health and Wellness
Truck drivers are one of the foundational pillars of our country. Without them, the ever-growing e-commerce industry could collapse, and the way-of-life online shoppers across the world rely on could be a thing of the past. This is why, among countless other reasons, promoting the health and wellness of our drivers is so crucial to Lily Transportation.
To ensure our drivers are the best they can be, whenever we take on new truck drivers, we have them take a Department of Transportation (DOT) physical. While the DOT requires drivers to undergo a physical as part of their CDL-certification, we want to ensure that our drivers are healthy from the very beginning of their time with us.
Health and wellness isn’t a one-and-done affair, though. It’s an ongoing process. Which is why we offer all our drivers plenty of benefits to keep them at peak health. Some of these benefits include:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Medical and Dental Insurance
- Paid Holiday and Vacation Time
- Matching 401K
- Safety Bonuses
- Health and Wellness Program
- Cell Phone Allowance
- 24 Hours Dispatch
Staying healthy while spending the day behind the wheel of a truck may sound difficult, but it doesn’t have to be! With the right truck driver accessories (like a seat cushion, dashcam, or a GPS), some healthy snacks (pre-washed fruits and veggies, nuts, greek yogurt), and a regular exercise routine, you can create a truck driving lifestyle that’s both productive and healthy.
Making Safety a Top Priority
When you spend most of your day on the road and behind the wheel of a big rig, there are few things more important than truck driver safety. Which is why Lily Transportation prioritizes safety in everything we do. Whether we’re hiring new truck drivers, acquiring or maintaining equipment, or educating our existing staff, Lily promotes and adheres to an extensive list of “safety-first” principles.
Here are just a few of the ways Lily emphasizes the safety of its drivers:
- Requiring each driver to be fully CDL-certified
- Driver physicals
- Drug and alcohol testing (as required by the DOT)
- Requiring drivers to pass a road test before hiring
- Maintaining a fleet of brand new or late model trucks—including Kenworth, Volvo, and Freightliner
- A Driver Safety Program that rewards drivers with bonuses for their safe operating practices
- And much more!
There isn’t a single, one-size-fits-all approach to truck driver safety. But Lily Transportation has a detailed list of standards and regulations to help keep our drivers, and everyone they share the road with, safe. For example, part of the truck driving lifestyle we promote involves walking our truck fleet daily, training drivers to identify potential hazards, and prioritizing the repair of any hazards they find.
Embracing Modern Trucking Industry Trends
The trucking and logistics industry has been a staple in our country since gasoline-powered internal combustion engines first entered the scene in the early 1900s. It’s no understatement to say that the industry has grown a lot since then. With more demand than ever before, the transportation industry has become indispensable to the way modern business is conducted.
Statista reported that “796.7 billion U.S. dollars in revenue was generated by the U.S. freight trucking industry” in 2018. For an industry as lucrative and necessary as this one, it’s not surprising that jobs in the trucking industry have become more accessible (and needed) than ever.
Companies across the country are eager to work with new truck drivers who can bring new perspectives and skillsets behind the wheel. To accomplish this, carriers are making an active effort to adopt modern trucking industry trends and ideals. Here are two of the many trends companies like Lily Transportation are adopting:
Hiring Younger, More Diverse Drivers
With a large percentage of the truck driving population rapidly approaching retirement, the trucking and transportation industries are actively looking for and excited about opportunities to recruit new truck drivers. And like every industry, trucking is also in need of new and more diverse perspectives if it hopes to continue to grow and evolve alongside demand.
In the past, many trucking jobs were occupied by men. Thankfully, this stereotype is no longer as widespread as it used to be. As companies like Lily actively pursue women truckers, the needle is beginning to move toward progress. But there’s still work to be done, as Women in Trucking (WIT) reported in 2017 that “women comprise over seven percent of female over-the-road drivers and 23 percent of management.”
Those percentages are low, but in that same report from WIT, it’s explained how there’s “been a 19 percent improvement in those companies tracking the percentage of female drivers and managers. This means that more companies are actually monitoring these figures and can benchmark with other carriers in the industry.”
The trucking industry is paying attention and making great strides toward a fuller, more developed truck driving lifestyle. For example, truck stops are safer than they’ve ever been and manufacturers are designing trucks that can meet the needs of different kinds of drivers. As a result of the industry’s efforts, “more than 28,000 women have joined the trucking industry since 2014,” and that number continues to climb higher.
Additionally, Lily Transportation offers a unique training program for military veterans who are interested in a truck driving career. Unlike most companies, however, our Veteran’s Program will not deplete your GI Bill; it’s fully paid for by Lily. And if you have experience driving heavy vehicles, you may be eligible for a military CDL waiver. These are just a few of the ways Lily, and the industry as a whole, is reaching out to new demographics.
Adopting Trucking Technology
Technology in logistics and trucking is one of the most recent and fastest-growing trucking industry trends. According to Sandeep Kar—an expert in heavy truck systems and technologies—the trucks of the future will be “connected to the world outside, and the world outside will be connected” to our trucks. What does this look like, though? How will the technologies usually associated with smartphones apply to the trucking industry?
The better question to ask is, how will these technologies not apply to the trucking industry? Not only are today’s trucks more connected to the outside world than ever, but NPR says that many of the newer models “have automatic transmissions and the type of safety features you might expect on a new car: cameras and computers that watch lanes, look out for obstacles and even hit the brakes automatically.”
And since Lily Transportation only uses brand new or late model trucks, our fleet is always equipped with many of the latest and most exciting technological developments. Our drivers are the backbone of our success, which is why we’re committed to providing them with the best equipment, support, technology, and training they need to succeed on (and off) the job.
How to Become a Truck Driver with Lily Transportation
A career in truck driving can be an exciting and lucrative path for anyone looking to experience something new. There’s an inherent sense of adventure in the truck driving lifestyle, and as the industry continues to grow and adapt to the world around it, the benefits of getting on-board just keep growing.
When you drive with Lily Transportation, you’re not only joining a team of passionate professionals who love what they do; you’re joining a family. We’re always looking for new truck drivers, and even offer training programs for veterans who are looking for new challenges and experiences.
Lily Transportation has been a staple of the transportation industry since it was first founded in 1958. We’re committed to our drivers and are continually looking for new and dynamic ways to make the truck driving lifestyle as fulfilling and productive as possible.
If you’re interested in hearing more about how this lifestyle can work for you, then get in touch with us today! We would love to answer any questions you may have and help you kickstart your truck driving career on the right foot.
