About Us:
Our Passion and Trucking Experience

When you get to know all about us -- Mike and Vicki Simons -- you'll see why our passion and trucking experience make us uniquely qualified to write content for Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com. Not only have we implemented money saving tips while driving professionally, but we desire to help other truck drivers save money, too. While we both have college degrees, our work experience includes both white collar and blue collar work.

Just before coming to the end of a white collar job years ago, Mike was handed an application for and information about J.B. Hunt.

Even though a few of Mike's family members are professional drivers and he rode with his truck driving dad when he was growing up, he had no actual truck driving experience. Vicki's side of the family boasted no trucking experience whatsoever.

Read more about us and how we got started in the trucking industry by attending and graduating from truck driver training school. Our trucking experience began when we took our first jobs as a husband and wife professional truck driving team in January 1993 with Swift Transportation. After six weeks with individual trainers, we were on our own. We drove for Swift for 20 months. We worked diligently and passionately to pay off our massive student loans within the first 18 months.

Our trucking experience continued when we switched to driving for U.S. Xpress, for whom we drove just over a year. Using the same passion we'd used to pay off our loans, we saved money for the future.

We came off the road to start a business that we found Mike was not well-suited for. We burned through our savings and unfortunately wracked up a sizable amount of credit card debt.

He got a local truck driving job through a temporary employment agency. After that, he broadened his local trucking experience by hauling tankers which transported liquid fertilizer, gasoline or diesel. Vicki was so concerned about brake failure and a potential accident that he left that company.

After a brief foray in insurance, Mike used the services of a third party recruiter to help him get a job with an established trucking company that would meet his needs.

Mike began his regional trucking experience when he was employed by Epes Transport System, for whom he drove for 2½ years.

We pulled in our financial belt very tightly and paid off our credit card debt completely in a little over a year. Our passion to save money was honed to razor sharpness.

Free from debt, Mike took a white collar job that lasted 4 years. When he wanted to return to Epes, he found that they required at least 1 year of OTR trucking experience in the last three.

He hired on with Schneider National, driving for them for 13 months. There were several drawbacks to driving for them at that time:

• Home time consisted of only 5 days per month;
• They prohibited the use of inverters larger than those that plug directly into a cigarette lighter; and
• They prohibited the use of a portable toilet in their trucks.

Having the required year of OTR trucking experience, he applied to and was re-hired by Epes and has been with them ever since.

Even now, when people ask about us, Vicki still surprises them when she says she was a professional truck driver for almost 3 years. With her own good nature, she kids them and asks, "What? I don't look like a truck driver?" They usually respond, "No!"

However, her trucking experience includes team driving a truck with Mike, riding with Mike full-time for about 1½ years from Spring 2000 to Fall 2001, and riding with him full-time now.

Vicki passionately serves as Mike's "home support team." She did this when we had a residence and does it in our "home away from home," now that we have once again become "homeless." She works to save as much money for their family as possible.

A friend has repeatedly told Vicki that she has the "gifts" of researching and writing. She is using these gifts through this website to deliver to you information not only from our own store of knowledge but also from other experts in the field.

We provide real world tips that help professional truck drivers save hard-earned money and personal reporting about products and services for use on the road.

Since it has been reported that there are "over 3.5 million professional truck drivers nationwide, who log more than 432 billion miles per year," the opportunities for saving money on the road abound.

Throughout our site, you'll learn more about us, including both our successes and mistakes. While your trucking experience may vary from ours, our passion to help you save money is the entire reason for this site.

Even if your goals are small to begin with, we'd like to show you how to multiply savings to keep more money in your pocket.

The most important thing about us, however, is neither our trucking experience nor our passion to help you save money, but that we seek to honor our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in all that we do, say and think. To God be the glory.

Throughout our site, you will see a variety of images. Some of these images have been obtained (or modified) from free sources such as FreeFoto.com, Microsoft's Digital Gallery Live, Wikimedia Commons or ButtonShut.com. Some images are courtesy Amazon.com and may be used specifically in connection with a link so that you may purchase the product shown.

However, many of the photos on our site are our own original work -- taken at home, in the truck, or during our travels on the road -- so that you may have complete confidence in and about us as co-laboring with you to move America's freight while saving as much money as possible.

If you wish to utilize any of the information about us from our site -- or photos we have taken -- please first read our disclaimer.

Now that we've told you about us, we'd enjoy helping you save money on the road. How may we help you reach your financial goals? If you have a truck drivers money saving question, please ask.

We realize that every professional driver's trucking experience is slightly different and that the needs of drivers across the industry vary greatly. So, we're looking to expand our website to provide information of help on lots of different topics. While we have written about us and what does and does not work for us in our truck, you may have a different opinion. And that's ok! Please feel free to share with us whatever money saving tips have worked for you.

Feel free to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!