Meadow Lark

The Lark

Thoughts and insight from Meadow Lark and our partners, published online!

Meadow Lark: Your Ultimate Co-Pilot on the Road to Success

Driving a truck can be an incredibly fulfilling career. However, as with any job, finding the right company to work for is essential to ensuring that you enjoy your work and achieve the success you de...

A Stronger Future Together: Merge with Meadow Lark

Meadow Lark is thrilled to announce our latest strategic move - a merger with agents who share our values and commitment to exceptional service. We have established our Platinum Agent Program to rewar...

Why Meadow Lark's Asset-Based 3PL Solutions are the Key to Your Business Success

In today's fast-paced business world, finding a logistics partner that can provide flexible and scalable solutions to meet your unique needs is crucial to achieving success. That's why Meadow Lark is...

Discover the Benefits of Partnership: How Meadow Lark’s Platinum Agent Program Can Help You Succeed.

If you're looking to become a part of a successful and profitable team, the Meadow Lark Platinum Agent Program is the perfect fit for you. With over 40 years of experience in the trucking industry, we...

Breaking Barriers: A Journey as a Woman-Owned and Second-Generation Trucking Company

Meadow Lark Companies, a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, has a rich history of innovation, determination, and excellence. Not only is it a woman-owned business, but it is also second-generation,...

How Detention Hurts Everyone in the Industry

Just when you thought you didn’t have to deal with detention outside of high school, you got into trucking and detention took on a whole different meaning. To the outsider, detention may seem like jus...

How would a Recession Affect the Trucking Industry?

Talks of recession have recently been the main stay of your morning news and we couldn’t help but ask: what will a recession look like for the trucking industry? The economy is in a never-before-seen...

Vertical Integration – How companies leverage this arrangement to curb supply chain issues

The term “vertical integration” may not be used in everyday vernacular, but it is a part of our everyday lives. From your clothes to your electronics there has been multiple purchases that have been...

Is the Trucking and Logistics Industry Volatile?

One of the most volatile industries around the world is the energy sector, say, oil and gas. This is widely known, and you can always seem to rely on it to change, boom or bust, every two to eight yea...

How Inflation and Shortages are Affecting the Trucking World

You probably can’t go a day without hearing about “soaring inflation” and “skyrocketing prices” for everyday items. When it comes to the transportation industry, inflation is especially profound. Noth...

Why Truckers avoid California

It's no secret that California has made itself one of the hardest states to run a truck in, depending on who you are. With AB5 now in play, the heart burn for truckers with California has renewed. Wha...

Who and What is the FMCSA and What Do They Do?

Not everyone we come in contact is savvy of the key players and their functions in the industry so we would like to shed some light on who they are and their role in the industry. Many of you already...

The Future of 3PL Spells Success for Customers

Experts are reporting positive growth for the 3PL (Third Party Logistics) industry in the years to come. With growth can come new innovations and resources that can better serve their customers. More...

Protecting Your CDL

As a driver, it can seem like the world is against you and the odds really aren’t in your favor, especially when it comes to regulations and policies. Passing billboards on the interstates with law f...

How Would a Railroad Strike Affect the Trucking Industry?

With recent threats of railroad worker strikes, the topic of strikes in the transportation and shipping industry tends to make even the strongest economies sweat a bit. Which it should when you stop a...

How Freight Brokers are Becoming a Necessity for the United Postal Service

In the late 1700s, courier service was a milestone in breaking away from British rule and played (and continues to play) a critical role in our independence. Fast forward a few centuries where populat...

Driver Burn Out – What it Looks Like and How to Fight it.

Does your company know how to prevent or reverse driver burn out? What actions can be taken to reduce it and make an impact to turn the tide?

The Do’s and Don’ts of Truck Stop Safety

In this industry we can never preach safety enough as crime seems to evolve and adapt. Staying aware of your surroundings is crucial when traveling, especially for a truck driver. While there are many...

Eating Healthy on the Road – Is It Possible?

It doesn’t take long to look around at truck stops and see that they don’t scream “healthy options for truck drivers here!” One of the many sacrifices truckers make that isn’t widely talked about is t...

Trade School vs. A College Degree – Which one is best for you?

To each their own, is what they say. The important decision of choosing a career is something most of us face early in life, as young as fourteen years old. From specialty schools that began early col...

Reverse Logistics and Why They Matter

Most of, if not all, of us has been involved in reverse logistics whether on the consumer side or the logistical side of it. The constant evolution of technology mixed with increase demand in today’s...

How IoT and AI Became the Saving Grace for Supply Chain Woes

Mounting supply chain choke holds are increasingly being exploited as the world incurs crisis after crisis - what can be done to make transactions, transports and any logistical matters become more e...

High Traffic with Low Efficiency: America’s Port Problems

Bottlenecks, shortages, tariffs, oh my! After recent years of chaotic crises, do companies remain hesitant about returning their regular, pre covid, shipment operations? What continues to drive port p...

Big Enough to Compete, Small Enough to Care – The Best of Both Worlds

Every truck driver is unique when it comes to their individual needs while looking for a company to work for. Some drivers prefer the quaint smaller businesses that are more flexible and personable wh...

Broker vs Dispatch – What’s in a Name?

Confusion has long been lingering in the trucking world of what constitutes a freight broker and a freight dispatcher. With the lines blurred and a lack of structured repercussions for those that can...

The Latest on Diesel Costs

Everyone’s pockets seem to be hurting from the jumps in fuel prices but none more so than those that rely on diesel. Carriers and owner-operators alike are struggling to cover the costs while navigat...

Freight Theft – Don’t Become a Victim

A report has come out that global cargo freight has skyrocketed in no small part due to the pandemic and shipping issues. Cargo theft happens many places such as facilities, trains and ports. When it...

Avoiding IFTA Audits and How to Handle Them

If reading the words “IFTA Audit” made you shake in your boots, you have probably encountered one or more of these lovely events. We have compiled helpful tips on how to avoid an IFTA audit and what y...

How TMS Benefits the Logistics Industry

TMS (Transportation Management System) are programs that have leveled up carriers and shippers to new heights as they continue to evolve and upgrade its users. These days it would seem almost impossib...

The Battle of Bathrooms for Truckers

Restroom availability may seem like a trivial issue in the scope of problems in the transport world, but it is nothing to flush down considering more truckers continue to walk away from their jobs for...

Using Scientific DNA Analysis to Fight Human Trafficking

As human trafficking awareness becomes more widespread, more agencies and organizations are stepping up their game with a more scientific approach to studying and advancing the fight against this wide...

Bill That Guarantees Overtime for Truckers – What It Means for Drivers and Companies

A representative from Michigan has introduced the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, also known as bill number HR 7517. If passed, this would be the first legislative action involving truckers pa...

China’s Spring Lockdown Spells Eventual Surge

In late March of this year China entered the strictest lockdown in the past two years due to the rising Covid-19 outbreak. Since we are unfortunately no stranger to the ripple effects this has globall...

Recent Supply Chain Issues Exposes Weaknesses in Shipping Visibility

There is a lot to be said when it comes to the affects of supply chain issues in the past two years with many of them showing various weak spots in how businesses currently run their operations. Out o...

The Summer Heat and Your Truck Tires

Ever notice more scraps of tires on the road when the summer heat hits? Heat is an adversary to the tires on your truck and can become an even bigger threat when a blow out happens. Year-round tire ma...

The Tight Rope of Freight Recession

As this tumultuous period of the stock market continues to do its best to even out, the logistics industry has not been unaffected. From supply chain strains to market uncertainties, companies and tho...

How Can a 3PL Transport Company Better Your Customer Experience

How many times a week, or a day even, do you find your team struggling to keep their heads above water while trying to manage regular operations? Could it be that dealing with logistical and shipping...

Temperature Check for the Supply Chain

In our ever-changing economy we feel it is necessary to keep current on the happenings in the global market as it directly affects us all. Let’s get our feet wet with an overview of what today’s suppl...

The Stigma of Truck Drivers – How to Change the Stereotype

The American truck driver, polished, presentable, well-mannered and considered a hero to all. What? Does that not align with what you think of when you think of a truck driver? Truck driver stigma is...

Speed Limiters on Trucks – A Debate of Safety

For those that are unfamiliar with the term “governed truck”, it is a truck that has a speed limiter on it to keep the truck from going over a certain RPM or a certain speed. When were governors on tr...

How 3PLs Help Reduce Costs for Businesses

The bigger your business, the bigger the cost is to run it. From giant corporations that are in the business of acquiring to expand their footprint to the small-town manufacturers that are hitting a...

Texting and Driving –Double Dose of Danger for Truckers

Since the advent of cell phones, texting and driving has become a bigger and deadlier issue than we ever imagined it would be. Logically, it doesn’t make sense to operate a machine while diverting you...

Importance of Partnering with an Experienced 3PL

Putting your business practices in the hands of a third party can naturally come with feelings of apprehension and uncertainty, but you may have gotten to a level of growth that it would make more sen...

Is a 3PL Right for My Business?

Supply chain issues can become a fast track to an everyday migraine for business owners, especially with companies overseas constantly opening and closing due to the pandemic. Could a third-party logi...

Why are we better customers, than shipper clients?

A broker is a shipper to a carrier because he controls the freight and the money. He is the carrier to the shipper because he provides the truck. A broker partner for a carrier is a good business ch...

Web 3.0 and the Trucking Industry

Alright, so what is this “Web 3.0” and how will it change the world? That may sound a little drastic but if you were to time travel back to 1999, would you be able to predict that one day you would b...

What Does it Take to Become a Successful Truck Driver?

Before you consider life on the road, consider why you are making this decision. You may have heard that truck driving has good pay, independence and minimal schooling to get into the trade. While the...

The Truck Stop Struggles

In the U.S. truck stops are a staple along the stretches of highways and interstates that connect one city to another. There is a problem with these truck stops though that continues to grow and it’s...

Owner Operator Vs Company Driver – Which one is right for you?

So, you’re looking into trucking as a career, or maybe you’re in trucking but would like to change it up. Either way, dive into the pros and cons of becoming an owner operator or a company driver to l...

Summer Trucking – The Heat is On

Depending on the area of the U.S. that you frequently drive, you either look forward to the summer months or they are less than ideal conditions to work in. For those that have to endure higher tempe...

Meadow Lark’s first Owner Operator

It was considered by most the hay-day of trucking. Doug Stark started in the industry in 1973 at the age of 26 when the pay was high, and the work was plenty. He began running his own authority haulin...

The Latest FMCSA & DOT Regulations and How They Affect You

All too familiar to ever-changing laws and regulations, truckers and carriers are faced with updated and changing laws and policies that directly affect their business. As technology advances and econ...

The Truth about Driving for Meadow Lark

As a driver, you’ve got your priorities aligned and know what it takes to lead the life you need. With that it is necessary to join a company that fits well into that. Whether you are a veteran driver...

How Sanctions Impact Supply Chains

The latest example being the sanctions being placed on Russia in response to their invasion of Ukraine. Everything from wheat to oil, these sanctions are meant to hinder their economy so much so to en...

How are Rising Gas Prices Affecting the Trucking Industry

“What’s up?” “Gas prices,” and a talk ensues of how your wallet can’t handle much more of this. The U.S. is no stranger to price hikes at the pump with the ebb and flow of the economy but this time ar...

Everything You Need to Know About Becoming a Truck Driver

Is truck driving for me? This is for all the fresh fish looking to enter the industry wanting to know what the truck driver life is like and tips on how best to do it.

Everything Tech

In a previous blog we dabbled in the history of trucking, taking us back to a simpler time. If our ancestors could see us now with the innovations and accomplishments we have made today, they’d likely...

The On-Going Battle for Trucker’s Health

It’s hard enough for those of us with typical nine to five office jobs to stick to a good diet and commit to a healthy regime but when it comes to truck driving, staying healthy is one of the biggest...

Truckers Against Trafficking

Maybe you’ve seen the signs posted up on the bathroom walls of a rest area along an interstate or a quick PSA right before the video on your phone starts, they typically tell you the signs of human tr...

Women in Trucking

A Peek into the Past
Before we get started on the topic of women in trucking, we need to take a trip back in time.

Essential Safety Tips for Truck Drivers

It’s simple physics, an 80,000-pound machine going at 65 miles per hour can easily become a traitorous thing to navigate. Attempting to stop on a dime for four-wheelers changing lanes, making tight tu...

What’s Causing America’s Truck-Driver Shortage? There’s No One Answer.

What’s Causing America’s Truck-Driver Shortage? There’s No One Answer.
If you have paid attention to any media outlet in the past two to twenty years, you will no doubt have heard or read a headline...

Red Chair

This single chair may be my favorite piece of furniture. Not for its appearance, but for what it represents to Meadow Lark, my family, and the value of living an honest life.

How to Weather the Winter

It's fall, and we’ll see the weather changing soon. Your Safety team at Meadow Lark wants every driver to have a safe winter season. Here are some tips to help you weather the winter.

The people who represent our company are truly our greatest assets. I am in awe of the professional and eager employees, drivers, and agents who call Meadow Lark home. We are one big family: we sit down and talk about things if we have difference; we enjoy the successes; and we come up with solutions for every challenge. This is what makes Meadow Lark truly great!

Amanda Roth

Meadow Lark CEO