Switching Gears: A Team’s Successful Transition to the Storey Trucking Family

90 days into their Storey Trucking careers, team drivers Amanda Lewis and Ryan Tietze are driving full speed ahead.

Before starting her truck driving career, Amanda Lewis had a job that was making her restless. Now, she’s learned, driving cross-country in a big rig is her dream job.

“I've always wanted to travel and I'm not the type of person who can sit still,” she says. “I can't handle sitting at a desk 9 to 5. I can't stand being in a building for eight-hour shifts. Driving a truck, I get to see different scenery, different weather, different cars, you know, everything's different.”

Finding the Right Fit at Storey

Storey isn’t Amanda’s first trucking job. But, together with her driving partner, Ryan Tietze, she’s found the right spot with the Storey family.

Originally meeting in a safety class while working for a West Coast-based trucking company, Amanda and Ryan became friends and started driving as a team. Though they enjoyed the partnership they found in team driving, the company they were driving for left much to be desired. Knowing there had to be better options, the two decided to start hunting for a better driving fit. For a while, their search didn’t yield the results the two veteran drivers knew they wanted. That all changed, however, when some friends who worked at Storey Trucking convinced Amanda and Ryan to apply for jobs there.

And the partnership has proved to be a great fit.

“Anytime you transition to another job [...] you got to look at the pay, how new the trucks are, and how fast the trucks can get down the highway,” says Ryan. But while changing from one company to another typically comes with a learning curve, the quick-turn experience of adopting new policies and procedures was well worth the switch to Storey, according to Ryan.

“We like [working at Storey] much better. Way better,” Ryan says.

Great Pay. Great Lanes. Great Communication

For Ryan and Amanda, several things drew them to Storey. The pay is comparable, if not better, than other driving jobs they’ve had. The trucks are newer, safer, and run up to 70 miles per hour, which can be a big time-saver on roads with higher speed limits.

“To me, slower trucks create a hazard on the road,” says Ryan.

For Amanda, one of the perks she found at Storey was that they are pet-friendly. “A lot of companies aren’t pet-friendly anymore,” she says. But at Storey, “they’ll welcome your dogs just like one of us. And for us, our dogs are like our kids.”

Also, Amanda and Ryan have enjoyed the exclusive West Coast routes that Storey offers as well as the open lines of communication they enjoy with Storey’s experienced dispatch team.

You Have a Voice at Storey

And speaking of communication, probably the most important aspect of Storey — the one that keeps Amanda and Ryan satisfied there — is that the company listens to their drivers.

“If you don't listen to your drivers, drivers aren't going to be happy, and they're going to go elsewhere,” says Ryan. “Storey treats you like family. Anything you need, you ask. And if they can help you, they will.”

90 Days and Beyond

Three months into their Storey careers, Amanda and Ryan have found the trucking partner they had been searching for. We’re glad they kept looking and didn’t settle for anything less than what they knew they wanted.

With 90 days in the books, we’re looking forward to many more hauls with Amanda and Ryan. And we hope to meet more drivers just like them who have high standards and want to drive for the best partner possible.

To learn more about driving with Storey Trucking, visit our Drivers page.