Five Skills That Will Take Your Truck Driving Career to the Next Level

To succeed in the truck driving industry, you must know how to safely exit a highway, reverse down narrow roads, and navigate steep hills. However, the list of skills you need to have a long trucking career doesn't end there. The best truckers have a wide range of peripheral skills that allow them to get the job done efficiently and effectively every time.

In this article, we'll discuss the most important peripheral skills you need to take your truck driving career to the next level.

The Most Important Peripheral Skills in Truck Driving

You can take your career as a trucker to the next level by developing the following five skills:

Communication Skills: Truck drivers tend to spend a lot of time alone on the road. However, they still need to communicate with other people, like customers and dispatchers. Truckers with well-developed communication skills typically do an excellent job of keeping others updated about traffic, weather, and other issues that may impact their delivery.

Organizational Skills: Getting a trailer from one place to another is just one aspect of a truck driver's job. They also need to keep track of their miles, fuel expenses, hours of service, and trailer numbers. Drivers with well-developed organizational skills tend to find these tasks fairly easy. Disorganized truckers frequently struggle to get them done at all.

Maintenance and Repair Skills: Tractor-trailers have tons of moving parts that require regular maintenance and repair. Most of these jobs will be carried out by a trained mechanic or technician. However, it is still a good idea for truck drivers to have some basic vehicle maintenance and repair skills. This knowledge will allow them to fix small issues that occur on the road without needing to wait hours for a mechanic to arrive.

Cleaning Skills: To truckers, their cab is not just their office. It's also their home. As such, it is always a good idea for drivers to learn some basic cleaning skills. Truckers in clean cabs tend to enjoy their jobs more than those in dirty ones. As a result, they also tend to be more productive.

Decision-Making Skills: Truckers need to make dozens of decisions each and every day. These choices often need to be made quickly, with no time to contact dispatchers or customers to seek their input. Truckers who have well-developed decision-making skills tend to make smart choices that keep them safe and help them arrive at their destination on time. Those who have poor decision-making skills frequently get themselves into risky and dangerous situations.

Perfect Your Truck Driving Skills with Logisticize

Do you want to work with a company that will help you develop your truck driving skills? If so, please don't hesitate to contact Logisticize. Our drivers attend multiple in-person training classes each year and enjoy lots of development opportunities through both online and hands-on learning.

To reach our office, all you need to do is fill out our online contact form or give us a call at (419) 399-3900 option 3. We look forward to hearing from you!