#5 Quality Equipment

Quality equipment is vital to a truck driver and maintaining equipment is just as important. Having a state-of-the-art maintenance facility and hard-working, skilled mechanics reduces the turnaround time for defective equipment and helps to keep truckers on the road and making money. Completing regularly scheduled preventative maintenance checklists to find potential issues before they become serious can also save a lot of headaches.

#4 Bonuses

Many carriers want to give bonuses to encourage drivers who excel in areas like safety, efficiency, and mileage.
• Safety – Obviously, good carriers want drivers who value safety and can transport merchandise without incident. Carter Express not only values safe driving behaviors, we reward them. Our professional drivers always earn more when remaining accident-free and violation free.
• Efficiency – Carter Express rewards our drivers for their fuel efficiency. Favorable mile per gallon and idle percent averages means our drivers use less fuel. Our fuel bonus program allows the company to share the savings with our drivers. And, maximizing your fuel efficiency means less fuel stops for the average Carter Express driver. It’s a win-win for everyone.
• Safety Perks – Additionally, Carter Express’s safest drivers become eligible to win the Harley Davidson motorcycle safety award each quarter. To become eligible for the Harley drawing, our drivers receive 100% of their Performance/Safety Bonus for four quarters in a row. The company enjoys giving away four beautiful Harleys each year.

#3 Endorsements

Many Carter Express drivers are “fully endorsed”. That is, our drivers have every available endorsement on their CDL. These include:

• H Endorsement – vehicles containing hazardous materials.
• N Endorsement – allows you to drive vehicles with tanks.
• T Endorsement – you may tow a double or triple trailer.
• X Endorsement – this is a combination of endorsements H and N.
• P Endorsement – allows a driver to transport passengers.

Carter Express asks that our drivers at least have the X endorsement on their CDL. We would feel awful removing a load assignment from our driver because it was one of their rare loads that needed an endorsement that our driver did not have. As our drivers will share, Carter Express drivers rarely pull loads requiring these endorsements. In fact, well less than 1% of loads, each year, utilize them, however, our drivers do maximize their earning potential by having the endorsements.

#2 Be Flexible

Being flexible will show that you are willing to do more and in turn can earn more. Drivers who are open to flexible departure times, customer destinations and time off schedules, usually earn more money per year. Restrictive drivers, who only like to depart at certain times, deliver to certain customers and want to be off certain days of the week, tend to earn less per year. Flexibility is often rewarded with extra earnings.
Another way that you can be flexible is working as a team. Team drivers work as a pair and can switch off while the other rests. This means that you can be on the road longer and increase the amount you make. Driver teams are often spouses or good friends.

#1 Time On The Road

Obviously, as a driver, being on the road is the most important aspect of the job. The trucking industry is a “miles driven” industry. There’s an old saying in our industry that says, “How can a driver make more money? Close the left tractor door”. The more legal miles you drive, the more you earn. The longer you drive and the more you drive, the more you earn. Drivers working on the Carter Express team are able to take advantage of our company’s longevity in the trucking industry. Carter Express has developed a diversified customer base envied by others and a great reputation for servicing our customers. As a result, even with the potential seasonality of our large customer base, our drivers’ miles are strong year round.