About This Episode
There are two words that have probably cost truck drivers more sleep than just about anything else. What if? What if a company really does pay more? What if those miles are actually better? What if that shiny new truck or that giant sign-on bonus or that recruiter promising you home every weekend is not just another sales pitch? In Episode 29 of the Cypress Truck Lines Podcast Marcus sits down with two Cypress drivers who stopped wondering and actually went to find out, and both of them eventually found themselves making the same phone call asking if they could come back, with Dean Kreigsman chasing the owner operator dream and Simon Barnett chasing more home time as he started building a family, and what they found on the other side of that fence says everything a driver needs to know before making the same decision.
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Episode Highlights
Nobody left angry and nobody came back embarrassed: Marcus sets the tone in the intro and returns to it throughout the episode. This is not an intervention. Cypress is not mad at anyone for leaving. The trucking industry has one of the highest turnover rates of any industry in the country and drivers are always looking for the best possible situation for themselves and their families. What Dean and Simon's stories show is that Cypress understood that, kept the relationships warm, and was ready to welcome both drivers back when the time came. No hard feelings. No burned bridges. Just open arms.
Dean left for the money and found the market: Dean was with Cypress for five years before leaving for a lease purchase opportunity that a friend made sound very enticing. And for the first few years it was. He paid off a truck. He made good money. But then the freight market hit the floor, the truck started eating him alive in maintenance costs, and the rates that company drivers never notice suddenly became the only thing Dean could think about. As an owner operator every penny that the market moves up or down hits you directly. As a Cypress company driver paid by the mile, it never comes up. Dean did not fully understand that difference until he lived it.
Simon left for home time and found retreads: Simon's story starts with his wife, a nurse practitioner who explained to him in very explicit detail that he had to be home for them to start a family. Running two to three weeks out at a time was not compatible with that plan. So when a friend of a friend called out of the blue offering him a blank check to fly around the country picking up trucks for a commercial dealership, Simon said yes. More home time. More money. No trailer. What he found instead was trucks with gouged sidewalls and exposed steel cords, a dispatcher who told him to just drive down the road and see what happens, retreads that blew out on him multiple times, and paychecks he sometimes had to chase down on Fridays because nobody was around to write them. The safety culture he had taken for granted at Cypress became the thing he missed most.
The safety lane that no other fleet has: Dean mentioned something in the episode that Marcus says in the outro he has never heard from any of the seven fleets he has made podcasts for. Every time a Cypress driver enters or exits the terminal they go through a dedicated safety lane where a second set of eyes inspects the truck independent of the driver's pre-trip. Brakes checked from a pit underneath. Turn signals verified. Tires inspected. Two pairs of eyes on every truck every time. Marcus says that detail alone should be enough to tell any driver evaluating their options exactly how seriously Cypress takes the culture of safety.
The 1099 trap: Both Dean and Simon discovered the same thing from different directions. Being a 1099 employee or an owner operator means taking home a bigger number on paper and a smaller number in reality. No benefits means insurance comes out of pocket. For Simon, with a baby on the way, that calculation changed dramatically. For Dean, with a truck that kept breaking down during a soft freight market, the math never added up the way the recruiter's pitch suggested it would. Cypress paying drivers by the mile regardless of what the market does, providing full benefits, and keeping equipment maintained is not a small thing. It is the whole thing.
Simon was still waiting for his last check: The moment that crystallized what leaving Cypress had cost Simon was not a blowout or a bad paycheck. It was what happened when he gave two weeks notice. He and the family at the commercial dealership had a great relationship right up until he said he was leaving and then he became persona non grata overnight. He gave the two weeks out of professionalism. They responded by making his final weeks miserable and holding his last paycheck. At Cypress when Simon told them he was leaving they said come back anytime, we are sorry to lose you. When Aaron called him back he was on the phone with the recruiter within minutes. Marcus says that contrast says everything that needs to be said.
Don't let it be an easy decision: Dean's closing advice is the line Marcus calls the most tattooed-on-the-back-of-the-eyelids piece of wisdom the podcast has ever produced. Think it through hard. Ask yourself if you are happy. If you are not, talk to somebody at Cypress first because they will try to fix it before they will let a good driver walk out the door. And if after all of that the other opportunity still looks better, then go and find out. But do not let it be easy. Because the things you do not know to ask about before you leave are the things that are going to matter most after you get there.
From The Host
“Simon said he left Cypress for more home time and more money and ended up calling Cypress back for the exact same reasons. That might be the most perfectly complete sentence this podcast has ever produced. I have been making podcasts for trucking fleets for four years now and what I see at Cypress I do not see anywhere else. A safety lane that no other fleet has. Management that knows every driver by name, not truck number. An owner who picks up the phone when a driver calls. And a culture that says we are disappointed you are leaving but the door is open when you are ready. Dean has been back for ten months. Simon hauled his first load back the day we recorded this. Congratulations to him and Stephanie on the baby. And don't let it be an easy decision, people. That advice applies to more things in life than just trucking.” — Marcus Bridges, Host
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