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My Lessons Worth Passing Forward
What you will discover below is more than just another book. These are all designed to pass along the Lessons Earned through experience.
Over the past three decades, I have worked in transportation, recruiting, operations, leadership, military service, workforce development, and driver staffing.
Along the way, I have made mistakes, watched others make mistakes, and witnessed organizations spend thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars solving the wrong problems.
- Those experiences became lessons.
- Those lessons became frameworks.
- Those frameworks became books.
I never set out to become an author. I started writing because I kept seeing the same challenges repeated over and over again.
- Drivers struggling with career decisions.
- Recruiters who chase activity instead of results.
- Leaders who try to solve retention problems with recruiting.
- Companies keep replacing drivers without understanding why they left.
- New supervisors are promoted without ever being taught how to lead.
The same problems kept appearing under different names.
The books below were written to uncover hidden causes and provide practical, real-world guidance.
- Not theory.
- Not motivational fluff.
- Not generic business advice.
Pen2Paper and I offer these books on Amazon. Click the individual book links to go to Amazon. They are designed accordingly based on the information provided. Their offerings range from Kindle eBooks, paperbacks, and hardbacks.
If you are interested in Bulk orders for staff, drivers, or an event, please reach out, and we'll work with you on the best options available.
Real lessons from real experiences.
Why I Continue to Write
A Learning Journey
I believe knowledge loses value when it stays locked inside one person's experience.
- Every lesson learned should become a shortcut for someone else.
- Every mistake should become a warning sign.
- Every success should become a roadmap.
Writing lets me pass on what thirty years of transportation, recruiting, operations, military service, leadership, and workforce development have taught me.
- Some readers will use these books to improve their recruiting process.
- Others will use them to strengthen leadership skills.
- Some will use them to build more stable organizations.
- Others will simply avoid making a costly mistake.
If a lesson in one of these books helps someone make a better decision tomorrow than they would have made today, then the book has accomplished its purpose.
A Personal Note...
Every book listed below reflects a simple belief:
The problems we see are often not the problems we have.
Whether the topic is leadership, recruiting, driver staffing, workforce stability, or professional development, the goal is always the same: Help people see what is beneath the surface. Once you understand the real problem, you can make better decisions, and those decisions create better outcomes.
The three numbers quietly destroying trucking profitability and how fleet leaders take back control.
WORKFORCE STABILITY
Most trucking companies are not failing because of effort. They are failing because they are operating without full visibility into the numbers, quietly controlling their business.
- Every empty truck.
- Every failed hire.
- Every unprofitable mile.
It all connects.
In this executive transportation brief, transportation professionals and Workforce Stability advisor Edward D. Smith break down the three numbers that silently determine whether fleets stabilize or
struggle:
- Seat Gap Costs.
- Recruiting Costs.
- True Cost Per Mile.
But this book goes beyond numbers. It exposes the hidden operational instability that drives turnover, increases pressure across departments, and quietly drains profitability from trucking companies every single day.
Once you clearly understand the numbers, you will finally begin to control the system that produces them.
-Completely Updated Version-
An Executive Framework for Stability, Alignment, and Workforce Control
Recruiting Reality Check
Recently updated, Recruiting Reality Check is not a hiring manual. It is an executive risk brief. Inside, transportation leaders will gain clarity on:
- The real financial exposure of seat instability.
- Where turnover actually begins.
- How vendor incentive structures influence outcomes.
- The metrics that protect stability and those that mislead.
- Why leadership ownership determines long-term retention.
This book was written for leaders willing to examine systems, not symptoms.
Leadership and Executives Resources...
Leadership & Executives Section
Great executives and leaders build more than profitable companies. They build cultures of trust, develop people, and create environments where professional drivers thrive.
The books below focus on a company's Workforce Stability and how companies not only attract quality drivers but also retain them.
Harmonization Within The Transportation Industry
The Missing Key
Drawing on 28 years of U.S. Army leadership and decades of transportation industry experience, Edward D. Smith presents a battlefield-tested framework for transforming trucking companies. Using both military and civilian analogies, he demonstrates how recruiting, safety, maintenance, leadership, customers, and even competition all play a pivotal role in the same mission: building a company where drivers want to stay, leaders thrive, and profits grow.
Industry Resource Topics...
Transportation Industry Resource Topics
To stay competitive in the transportation market, it's vital to stay up to date on available resources that can support your business.
The books below focus on industry resources available to transportation companies and their leadership.
-Recently Updated-
What Every Transportation Leader Needs to Know Before Choosing a Staffing Partner.
Driver Staffing
Every empty seat costs more than most transportation leaders realize.
When a driver leaves, the impact extends far beyond recruiting. Dispatch adjusts. Operations compensate. Customers feel pressure. Revenue opportunities disappear.
For years, transportation companies have turned to driver staffing as a solution. Some have found success. Others have found frustration. The difference often has less to do with staffing and more to do with understanding the workforce problem they are actually trying to solve.
Drawing upon more than three decades in transportation, recruiting, operations, business development, and driver staffing, Edward D. Smith provides a practical, no-nonsense guide to one of the most misunderstood tools in the transportation industry.
Inside you'll discover:
• Why driver staffing exists and where it creates value
• The advantages and risks of every staffing model
• How staffing companies actually make money
• Questions every fleet should ask before choosing a staffing partner
• When staffing works, when it fails, and when it should not be used at all
• Why workforce stability matters more than simply filling seats
Whether you operate ten trucks or hundreds, this book will help you make better workforce decisions, reduce costly mistakes, and build a stronger, more stable operation.
Because staffing is a tool.
Workforce stability is the strategy.
