Questions for any Husb/Wife Team

[lenix]

My husband and I are contemplating a career change to team driving. Our children are all grown and self-sufficient. We have been happily married for almost 30 years (we married pretty young). The best vacation we ever took was a long road trip from Utah, through NV, CA, AZ, and NM. Are there any teams out there that would be willing to share their advice, wisdom and experience with us?

[dle]

I've done solo and i've done team with my wife.

Are either one of you a current driver?

In general, doesn't matter how long you've been married living inside a postage stamp will cause nerves to get frayed. Team driving is not like taking a family vacation, no where even close.

You want to try an experiment. Get into the largest closet in your house. Put a curtain in the middle. Stay in the closet for a min of 6 hours, while one tries to sleep and the other one stays up and makes noise (talks on the cell phone etc).

Now do this experiment for 10 hours each for 3 - 4 weeks. You can only come out of the closet long enough to grab a bite to eat, use the bathroom, take a quick shower. Oh the shower can only happen every other day.

[Sabine]

Remember, driving a truck is a job, it is not a vacation driving around sightseeing. It takes a tremendous amount of trust, at least for me it did, to sleep while someone else is driving. To this day, I wake up if something happens, like hitting a large bump, stopping for something, going through a scale.

Trucking is like nothing I ever did before. You are cooped up in a space much smaller than most walk in closets, day in and day out. You have no place to get away from your job. Your time off, is still spent in an area smaller than a prison cell. You will be too tired to do much more than drive, eat, shower and sleep. This is not a picnic.

Don't take me wrong, there are times when you do have the time to do something fun, but more often than not, when you do have the time, you will be in the middle of nowhere, with the only place around for 50 miles, the truck stop you are sitting at. Murphy's law says, that when you are at the cool places, like right by a beach, or a park you've always wanted to visit, you will not have the time to stop. You will have time to stop going through Wyoming in the winter, where I wouldn't advise to sight see due to the weather.

Truck driving is nothing like your road trip. You are expected to go from point A to point B in so many hours, often not leaving you enough time for a shower or a sitdown dinner. Whoever drives during the day will get to see all kinds of things at 60 mph, while the night time driver sees.....well nothing.

I am not trying to discourage you by any means, but trucking is not like what you may have seen in the movies, we are not the "cowboys of the road". I may be wrong, but I bet there are a lot of us, me included that would not do this job, if we could figure out how to feed our families by doing something that will keep us at home.

If you think you can be in the confined space of the truck without killing each other, you don't have much in the way of obligations at home, and don't need to get home often it can be a decent way to make a living. And you will have good times too. It is nice to not have a boss sitting behind you all the time. You will get to drive through some beautiful country, and sometimes you even get to stop and take a closer look.

Good luck. Sabine

[Sabine]

DLE how right you are.....I didn't think of mentioning the lock yourself in the closet experiment.

[dle]

I guess I should mention that if you both don't have your cdl's, you will have to survive that.

Then you will have to both survive your training phase with the company that you choose.

Then you have to survive learning how to live with each other again after being away from each other after 6 - 8 weeks.

Got another experiment for you, each of you will serve 2 hours in the back seat with a blanket over you. The other person will drive for 2 hours over the roughest road you can find. You cannot communicate to each other in anyway - you are supposed to be asleep.

Please understand that we are not trying blow out your 'dream'. We are trying to let you know that this is a job and you are expected to drive under some very demanding situations.

Also you will have to deal with family issues remotely. You will deal with deaths and injuries in the family.

[heavyhaulerss]

My husband and I are contemplating a career change to team driving. Our children are all grown and self-sufficient. We have been happily married for almost 30 years (we married pretty young). The best vacation we ever took was a long road trip from Utah, through NV, CA, AZ, and NM. Are there any teams out there that would be willing to share their advice, wisdom and experience with us?

Happy & married for almost 30 years? & you want advice from us ? we need advice from you. how do ya do it? lol.. j/k

[lenix]

Thanks for the quick replies!!! This is exactly the kind of advice we need. We do realize that it would be no vacation, and a lot of hard work. I don't see the close quarters being an issue (understanding, of course, that I could be wrong), sleeping in a noisy, moving vehicle might be for the old man (I can sleep anywhere). Neither of us has the cdl yet, so dle's points about licensing, and the training phase are well taken. Right now, assuming we do this, my husbands biggest worry is learning to back up. Mine is getting a female trainer for the company training phase. The school we are looking at (Salt Lake Community College) was very reassuring about the backing portion, said they would give him all the help he needed. How worried should I be about getting a female trainer?

[lenix]

Happy & married for almost 30 years? & you want advice from us ? we need advice from you. how do ya do it? lol.. j/k

just lucky, I guess!!! Seriously, though, it's all about mutual respect, loyalty, and NEVER giving up when times get tough. We have our moments like anyone else, but no matter how angry we get at each other, we work at it and make it better. We have been through some 'stuff'... broke early on, four babies, lost one of them in '86, but we survived and we are stronger for our trials

[AC120]

lenix -- check your personal messages here @CAD

[repete]

Thanks for the quick replies!!! This is exactly the kind of advice we need. We do realize that it would be no vacation, and a lot of hard work. I don't see the close quarters being an issue (understanding, of course, that I could be wrong), sleeping in a noisy, moving vehicle might be for the old man (I can sleep anywhere). Neither of us has the cdl yet, so dle's points about licensing, and the training phase are well taken. Right now, assuming we do this, my husbands biggest worry is learning to back up. Mine is getting a female trainer for the company training phase. The school we are looking at (Salt Lake Community College) was very reassuring about the backing portion, said they would give him all the help he needed. How worried should I be about getting a female trainer?

Backing up should not be a problem, the school will teach you just enough to pass the state road test and a little more. As far as a femele trainer. I have no idea, but be prepared for it NOT to happen, if you sign on with a company that promise's you a female GET IT IN WRITEING. Remember, if it's not in writeing it didn't happen.

As far as teaming the only team driveing I've done was while training and it can be very trying. After 33 years I took my wife with me OTR for about 3 weeks and we had a great time time. But we also knew that there was an end in sight! She was glad to get home and I was just as glad to have my truck back!

[Jackrabbit379]

Very good replies. Interesting.
I am sure team driving with your spouse would be different than a normal "living-at-home" marriage.
In one aspect, you could see the country, but again, being out there, living in the truck, dealing with all that goes on around truck stops, etc, and customers and what not..

[dle]

Lenix after my wife's experience with just one female trainer, she absolutely refuses to get into any truck with any other lady.

Trainers The Truck Drivers' Paradise

This is from my website, with signs of a good trainer/ bad trainer. Many of the entries came from my wife's experience.