Pros and Cons of teaming????

[YoungZ.W.]

As a new driver I've considered running with a team company and I would like to hear from you gals and guys about your thoughts and suggestions of teaming right out of school with no solo experience yet. :?: I knew it can be cramped in the truck sometimes but is it worth it to team???

[slowmoe20]

You are gonna get a million different answers to this question and invariably it all boils down to you, your personality, and who you get to spend all that time with. I have been teaming almost 2 yrs now....I hate it. Spent the previous 6 years driving solo....loved it. If God had meant for me to sleep bunping and bouncing down the road someone would have invented a bed that did that by now.....

Teaming totally depends on the individuals involved.

[ddog]

You are gonna get a million different answers to this question and invariably it all boils down to you, your personality, and who you get to spend all that time with. I have been teaming almost 2 yrs now....I hate it. Spent the previous 6 years driving solo....loved it. If God had meant for me to sleep bunping and bouncing down the road someone would have invented a bed that did that by now.....

Teaming totally depends on the individuals involved.

Slowmoe,

Are the beds suspended like hamocks or a cushion on top of sheet metal pan or matress box springs like a bed. Either way you are going to bounce and wake up. Right hand lane potholes would be a bummer for sure. How do people drive teams for years without deep sleep? Roads are in constant repair everywhere! Even in Tampa and Orlando, some bridges in FL would throw someone out of bed unless they were tied to it.

OTR drivers must be masters of cat naps at drop offs and pickups. Bet they can go to sleep real quick sitting still. Can both fit simultaneuously in the sleeper?

Finding a compatible driving partner seems as difficult as being happily married. And even worse, finding a partner you do marry. Wow, talk about being compatible.

Thanks for all the questions. This is a critical subject for newbies since this is most of them's fate in the near future. Finding ways to cope and understand seem critically important.

Please share some of your expert knowledge.

[DBW]

I just concluded 2 months of driving team. I hated it. Sleep was fitful since I'm a light sleeper. Our routes pretty much kept us crossing I69 and I94 in Michigan where they don't know how to build highways.

My co-driver and I don't do things the same and by the end of two months we were sick of each other.

[abc123]

the good: nothing

the bad: everything

[Cripplecreek]

I just concluded 2 months of driving team. I hated it. Sleep was fitful since I'm a light sleeper. Our routes pretty much kept us crossing I69 and I94 in Michigan where they don't know how to build highways.

My co-driver and I don't do things the same and by the end of two months we were sick of each other.

Michigan roads do suck but they have an exuse with all the freezing and salt and snow. I've got to say one thing about Michigan, they tend to do the roadwork at night when traffic is light. These jackwipes in Florida do the roadwork by day and make rush hour a living hell. Took me an hour to go 15 miles about 4'oclock pm last week, you woulda thought thier was a major accident with the gridlock, but no, a couple of workers fixing little potholes in one lane,it boiled my blood.

[Mackman]

the good: nothing

the bad: everything

i agree i never teamed and never will

[Drew10]

I cannot think of any benefit to team driving, IMO the only one to benefit would be the companys.

I am as certain as I can be that an individual in a team truck will not make any more money than a solo driver, perhaps even less if the team miles arent met.

A true Husband/Wife team truck, where the money is pooled into the same family, would be the only benefit to the drivers.

Why would a driver want to be tied to another driver in all you do 100% of the time you are on the road.

Solo driver has much more freedom while on the road vices the team, plus the benefit of sleeping in a stationary truck.

It would take a tremedous amount of trust to share such a small space with another individual and to trust their driving while you try to sleep.
Even while your driving, think about your ability to listen to the radio/music etc, may have to leave it off or down low that you cannot appreciate it.

I just never could see any benefit to the team concept, except to the company.

Im a solo driver, always will be, so much more enjoyable that way. IMO

[Blind Driver]

I wouldn't mind teaming with maybe a girfriend/wife and drive it "super single" as I call it. I'd drive my 11 hours, and she could drive anytime she wanted. Maybe 3-4 hours a day or sumthin'. Would make for a better income and not wear each other out.

[Drew10]

I forgot to ask in my reply:

Why are you thinking about teaming??? and which company???

[Templedawg]

sometimes the money is better. Most of our teams, depending on their bid, get right at 3000 miles/week to each driver. Get home around9 am on Sat, and leave out again on Mon. afternoon, plus get paid more per mile at $.54. singles ususallly average 2500 miles/week at $.52/mile. That is for an LTL company, where you go terminal to terminal, you don't do nothing but drop and hook. No grocery receivers to deal with, just nothing but easy $$$$. Our husband/wife teams are knocking down over $160k combined income, and still got the weekends off. The money can be there, but you do spend alot of time in the truck, vs spending it laying over in a motel.

[Shawster]

The one positive thing is that you have someone who can ground guide you if you get into a tight situation. I've teamed with two guys, and the first was a nightmare, while the second was great. Even as much as I liked my second partner, though, it gets old spending that much time with one person - and, as others have said, it's a pain to get a decent night's sleep.

[madpuppy]

8) I did it for a time, with a friend. one day something kept hitting me on the side and back of my head, I turned around and this clown was clipping his toe nails !. another time I was shaken a wake and I here" hey great driving, Driver ", I came out of the sleeper asking whats up, my partner was sweating bullets. Look back there he says. We were pulling doubles on I-80, winter in Wyoming, he hit black ice, went down into the comedian, and worked it back up on to the interstate! yes a very good Driver. But that was it for me. I quit when we got back to Ca. P.S. I got him back for the toe nails, when nature called, I set the tractor break, he went back to squat by the tandems( it was about noon) I waited a few seconds after his pants dropped, eased the break off and pulled away about 50 feet! I thought it was funny! we haven`t talked in 15 years.

[Jackrabbit379]

i never teamed and never will

Yeah, teaming is for the birds. :P

[larryh31]

Being stuck in a small space for 24hrs a day with another person sucks...
My 2nd trainer and I had a lot in common, but by week 3 of 4, I was ready to choke him.
You have very little privacy and you get poor quality of sleep.
CRST must have great recruiters in order to talk people into this arrangement for so little money.

[YoungZ.W.]

Drew10- I planned on driving for CRST van expedited and they are a team only company. When I was in school a guy who had graduated from the school a year ago stop in with his truck and he is driving for CRST. He was had with it and said they treated him tremendously well. I know every company has both good and bad.

If I don't go with CRST then I will go with Swift and drive in there Great lakes regional and be home every weekend, but I've heard good and bad with Swift as well.

I have more options than CRST and Swift, but so far it looks like Swift is going to be my best bet. My main concerns are: hometime, benefits, and good equipment, and they expectation of being treated reasonable.

[ddog]

sometimes the money is better. Most of our teams, depending on their bid, get right at 3000 miles/week to each driver. Get home around9 am on Sat, and leave out again on Mon. afternoon, plus get paid more per mile at $.54. singles ususallly average 2500 miles/week at $.52/mile. That is for an LTL company, where you go terminal to terminal, you don't do nothing but drop and hook. No grocery receivers to deal with, just nothing but easy $$$$. Our husband/wife teams are knocking down over $160k combined income, and still got the weekends off. The money can be there, but you do spend alot of time in the truck, vs spending it laying over in a motel.

Templedawg,

Those are some nice average miles demand and pay/mile. May I ask what company you work for?


Thank You

[Drew10]

I planned on driving for CRST van expedited and they are a team only company

Still not sure why you want to team, I would have to assume CRST pay isnt very good, even if they are going to make you habitat with someone else.

When I was in school a guy who had graduated from the school a year ago stop in with his truck and he is driving for CRST. He was had with it

"He has had with it" What do you mean?, "He has had it with trucking, teaming,??

Templedawg,

Those are some nice average miles demand and pay/mile. May I ask what company you work for?

I agree those a really good numbers for team or solo, exception not the rule....let me guess, Conway or Fedex Custom Critical???

[brian griffin]

I wouldn't recomend it; Nowadays, i don't feel you'll make anymore than you would solo. Back in the 60's or something maybe, but not now.

I might be doing it soon, but that's only because i need a gig NOW, AND the way my company does it ( i work local part-time now) is that we go from terminal to terminal and we would be returning back to my home terminal everymorning.

So, what i might do is sleep in the yard everymorning and then around 3 or 4pm i might go home and take a shower etc.
The run would be rountrip to boston everynight, so bascially i would just stay up all night and sleep when we get back---when the truck is sitting still.
I would be getting around 2250 miles per week at least at .46cpm plus we get stop pay. So that's the only reason why i'm even considering it.

But don't you do it, son.

[Doghouse]

Teaming is not for me, I did it during my training period with Stevens and it went OK with the first guy (even though we had major disputes on bathroom habits, he liked to pee into a bottle while he drove). Claimed it saved time, I told him to pull into the next rest area, that we would be stopping anyway 4 miles down the road. I even got his guy to get out of the truck on the last few days of my time with him,...we went into an old airplane museum. He liked it but probably never went stopped again.
Now,...the second guy was a total pig!
He would down a steak and chase it with a bottles of Pepto (the bottles would roll all around the cab), 2 hrs later he would be juicing in his undies, and then he would throw the poo covered underwear in the storage nook on the top bunk, I got him to put them in zip-locks till he could wash them.
Then he would leave his stinking,....and I do mean STINKING shoes up by the jump seat while he was in the sleeper, I got him to use a hat on the seat instead.
We were in Vegas and I went hiking during our weekend off, and when I came back to the truck he had pawned some of my stuff to pay for a hooker, and there was gaaak all over my mattress.
Every time I would go in the back to sleep, he would either hit the rumble strip, slam the brakes, or get us lost. He even got nailed by DOT for log book violations.
Needless to say I was happy to see him go his own way, and I will never team again.

To team you really need to like the person you're with, and be able to tolerate their bad habits,...it's a lot like being married.