Driven for Success

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking company owners have heard of per diem.

Most drivers have heard of per diem.

But very few people can clearly explain what it actually is.

In this episode of Driven for Success, Mike Ritzema breaks down truck driver per diem in plain English and clears up some of the biggest misconceptions in the trucking industry.

You'll learn:

•  What truck driver per diem actually is 
•  Why the IRS created it 
•  Why it's not a tax loophole 
•  How per diem affects drivers and trucking companies 
•  The biggest misunderstandings owners and drivers have about per diem 
•  Why so many companies either avoid it or implement it incorrectly 

If you've ever wondered whether per diem is worth offering, whether it's legal, or why drivers have such strong opinions about it, this episode provides the foundation you need before diving deeper into the topic.

This is the first episode in a special series focused on truck driver per diem and how it impacts trucking companies.

Driven for Success is the podcast for trucking company owners who want to build a better business, make better decisions, and grow without losing control.

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking company owners don't have a time problem.

They have a decision problem.

When every question, exception, approval, and problem comes back to the owner, the business starts to feel chaotic—even when you have good people on the team.

In this episode of Driven for Success, Mike Ritzema explains why most owners make the mistake of trying to systemize everything at once, and why the better approach is much simpler.

Instead of documenting your entire company, start with the one decision that drains you the most.

The one your team keeps bringing back to you.

The one that makes you sigh every time your phone rings.

You'll learn:

•  Why overwhelm is usually caused by repeated decisions, not workload 
•  How owners accidentally become bottlenecks 
•  The simplest framework for creating a useful system 
•  Why clarity matters more than software, dashboards, or additional hires 
•  The first practical step you can take Monday morning 

If your trucking company feels like it depends on you for every answer, this episode will help you start breaking that cycle.

#TruckingBusiness #TruckingCompanyOwner #FleetManagement #Leadership #BusinessSystems #DrivenForSuccessPodcast

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking companies do not feel chaotic because they hired bad people.

They feel chaotic because everybody is filling in the blanks differently.

One manager says yes.
 Another says no.
 Drivers get different answers depending on who they ask.
 And eventually everything starts flowing back to the owner.

In this episode, Mike Ritzema breaks down why chaos in growing trucking companies is usually not a people problem at all.

It is a clarity problem.

You’ll learn:

•  Why good employees still create inconsistent results 
•  How unclear expectations turn owners into bottlenecks 
•  Why repeated questions are a systems warning sign 
•  The hidden cost of making employees “guess” 
•  How clarity creates momentum and consistency 

If your business feels harder to run than it should…
 this episode will probably feel very familiar.

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking companies don’t have a people problem.

They have a repetition problem.

The owner keeps answering the same questions over and over again… and every unanswered process slowly turns the owner into the bottleneck.

In this episode of Driven for Success, Mike Ritzema breaks down why growing trucking companies get stuck in operational chaos — not because employees are bad, but because answers never become systems.

This episode covers:

•  Why repeated questions are a warning sign 
•  How undocumented answers create inconsistency 
•  Why owners accidentally train team dependency 
•  The hidden cost of interruptions and context switching 
•  Simple ways to turn everyday answers into systems 
•  Why systems create freedom, not bureaucracy 

If you feel like every decision still runs through you… this episode is for you.

Because the goal isn’t to work harder.

The goal is to build a business that can operate consistently without depending on the owner for every little thing.

#trucking #truckingbusiness #smallbusiness #leadership #operations #processimprovement #podcast #businesssystems

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking company owners think process problems are people problems.

They’re not.

In this episode of Driven for Success, Mike Ritzema breaks down the hidden reason processes stop working as trucking companies grow.

Because most of the time…

your team is not resisting the system.

They’re adapting to reality faster than the system is.

You’ll learn:

•  Why employees create “shadow systems” 
•  The real reason shortcuts happen 
•  Why forcing compliance can make operations worse 
•  How to spot friction hiding inside your workflow 
•  What great processes actually look like in real trucking companies 

If you’ve ever said:
 “Why can’t people just follow the process?”

This episode is for you.

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking owners think they need to delegate more.

They don’t.

They need to stop giving away the wrong decisions.

In this episode, we break down why some decisions should never leave the owner—and what happens when they do.

Because when direction gets delegated, your business doesn’t get easier to run.

It gets inconsistent.

We cover how to identify the decisions that define your company—and how to keep control without becoming the bottleneck.

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking companies aren’t overpaying drivers on purpose.

But if you’re paying drivers a percentage of revenue… there’s a good chance it’s happening anyway.

In this episode, I break down a common mistake that can quietly eat into your margins—paying drivers on revenue without separating out fuel.

When diesel prices rise, revenue goes up.
 Driver pay goes up.
 But profit doesn’t.

And if you’re not accounting for that, your numbers can look better than they actually are.

In this episode, we walk through:

•  Why revenue can be misleading in trucking 
•  How fuel surcharge distorts driver pay 
•  A simple way to back fuel out of revenue 
•  What this means for your margins and growth 

If your business feels busy but not as profitable as it should be… this might be the reason.

Send us Fan Mail

Most trucking company owners don’t have a people problem.

They have a decision problem.

If every question still comes back to you, your business isn’t lacking effort… it’s lacking context.

In this episode, we break down why your team struggles to make decisions without you—and how to fix it without micromanaging or stepping back completely.

You’ll learn:

•  Why people don’t actually make bad decisions 
•  The real reason your team keeps coming back to you 
•  How to use rules, guardrails, and examples to improve decision-making 
•  A simple way to turn everyday questions into long-term systems 

If you want to stop being the bottleneck and start building a team that can think and act independently, this episode will give you a practical path to get there.

👉 Learn more at: https://truckingpayroll.com

Send us Fan Mail

If your team isn’t following your processes, it’s easy to get frustrated.

You put the time in to build the system. You explained it. And yet, people still do something different.

In this episode of Driven for Success, we break down a simple way to think about why this happens—and what to do about it.

There are really only three reasons someone doesn’t follow a process:

•  They didn’t know 
•  The system isn’t clear or doesn’t work 
•  They chose not to follow it 

We walk through how to identify which one you’re dealing with, how to respond in the moment, and how to improve your systems so they actually get used.

If you’re trying to build a business that runs without you being involved in every decision, this episode will help you take the next step.

Send us Fan Mail

If you're running a trucking company and trying to delegate more… but you're not sure what decisions you should still be making—this episode is for you.

After realizing they’ve become the bottleneck, many owners swing too far in the other direction and try to hand off everything. That usually creates more confusion, not less.

In this episode of Driven for Success, we break down a simple way to think about decision-making as your company grows:

•  The three types of decisions in your business 
•  What you should keep as the owner 
•  What should become systems 
•  What your team should be handling without you 

If you want to reduce the number of questions coming your way—without losing control of your business—this episode will help you define your role more clearly.