We accept guest posts, but they must meet certain criteria.
All posts must be related to Trucking and must be useful for people in the industry. So if you read your own article and think – “what’s this?” – don’t bother submitting it!
As you may know, Big City Driver has been here since 2000, and is not going away any time soon. I started it before I was a columnist for Ten-Four Magazine (2000-2010). It was through my writings here, that I got that gig. During those initial ten years, I developed a certain standard that I uphold to this day at this website.
Even when I write an article myself, these are the guidelines I use:
- It should be about something important, or entertaining.
- It should be related to trucking or city driving.
- It should show your personality, whatever that is.
- It should show some emotion- anger, happiness- something.
- It should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, with a lesson learned.
- It should be 900 to 1200 words, or more. (Shorter is OK if it’s good.)
- It should have a one-line header or title above each section.
- Include a picture that you took, that is entertaining, or appropriate (if you can).
- It should be written with decent command of the English language.
- It should have one authoritative link to a news, gov, or edu site.
- It should be original content, written by you. (Yes, I check.)
- It could have one link within the article to a site of yours if you’d like, but it must be appropriate.
- It could have your bio at the bottom. You can include a link or two there as well.
I’m willing to do some editing:
If your submission isn’t all of those things above, that means more work for me. I still may publish it (especially if there is some monetary influence). But I will likely edit it, or spend some time finding a good picture, or doing some keyword research, or adding to it, that’s all.
IMPORTANT: I will not allow certain links – Only social medial profile links will be allowed. Anything that requires an email address to continue, anything with pop-ups, or annoying, flashy ads. Any links on this site must lead to a legitimate business website, or a website with relative information.
It may be best to query me first. Let me know your article idea, the website you plan on plugging, and a little about yourself. Here is my email address- info@bigcitydriver.com
Some examples of well-written articles:
NOTE: Sometimes a short article is appropriate. Sometimes just a few paragraphs is all that’s needed, and the rest is just fluff. Here is a short piece about how to fix your DAC report. There is really not much more to say about that. People just want to know how to fix it.
The best thing to do is email me, and let me know your idea, how much you can write about it, and what links you want to put in it.
Thank you for stopping by,
Ken Skaggs
BIO:
Ken Skaggs is a 30-year veteran trucker and safety professional, who has always been a writer, and an entrepreneur at heart. Since 2000, he’s had hundreds of articles published by Ten-Four Magazine, Careers in Gear, Driver Story Magazine, and dozens of websites.
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I’m still awaiting a $400. sign-on bonus from BMC/Daleville, IN back in 1996. Should I just cross this off to Xperience?
Ken I started trucking back in the late 70’s as a company driver for the first 5 years I tried different types of trucking to see what type of trucking I wanted to do around 1982 I found a truck for sale from intercity lines a massachusetts enclosed car hauler I made an inquiry about it and asked if I could possibly buy and lease truck back to them I explained I had no prior car hauling experience but had been driving for about 5 years .long story short they said they would be willing to train me. I worked there for about 4 years with the goal of moving up to reliable carriers ,which you may or may not have heard of but is considered the best enclosed o/o company to work for .in 1992 my dream was finally realized and I spent the next ten years there which I might include was a great experience hauled some great cars and I met some of the best drivers on the road the only problem was home time it wasn’t unusual to spend a couple months at a time on the road the longest being 4 months so after my ten years I decided to stay in the car hauling business but move to production model transportation which I did for another 6 years but in sept of 2008 I fell and tore my rotator cuff which ive had 3 surgeries on and it is finally better while I was on disability my mom became became unable to care for her self so it turns out me getting hurt was a blessing in disquise allowing my wife and I to care for her she has since passed away which bring me to the reason for my writing you . I am a 63 old trucker with 29 years of accident free experience except for a steer tire blowout that put me in the median , 4 million plus miles and I recently wanted to get back to trucking as an o/o have contacted a few OD companies but have been told I need 2 years recent trucking experience to hire on not necessarily OD experience yet they advertise for 23 yr olds with 2 yrs experience which translates to me to be about 200,000 – 250,00 miles total experience I might be wrong but my qualifications seem to far out weigh those sorry for the round about way to this point but I felt my background needed to be spelled out. maybe its pride or maybe something else but I’m not starting my career at the bottom again my experience must be worth something to someone in the heavy haul oversize buisness i was hoping you could steer me in the right direction or give some advice thanks for reading this and hope to hear from you soon
Hi Brian,
Yeah, when you have no recent experience, especially when you get more than 3 years out of trucking, it’s a little harder to find work. You can though, there’s just fewer opportunities. You have to look at the smaller companies, especially local haulers, like gravel haulers, or consider buying a truck. There are some OTR companies that will let you ride with someone for a week or two, although I can’t think of who, I just know I’ve seen that a few times.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Good luck!
Ken
actually I would prefer to buy a truck as I was an O/O for over 20 yrs so I know that to be a successful owner you have to be in a specialized niche of trucking. where I live you either work in a paper mill or haul wood products to the mills or bio mass electric plants and this ,even though it dosnt pay well, is locked up by companies that have been doing it for years. my hope was to get into some oversize work as ive been told if I can get a years experience I could get on with a company that I’m familiar with.so I guess my question to you is I saw your article about sammons and was wondering if you thought o could get in there with my own truck,home time is not a precedent to me anyhow your thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated thanks