Team driving vs solo driving

by Jimmy
(Kingman,Az)

This is Jimmy and I will set you straight. You want to know about team driving, right? You will make more money if you run team, o/o or company driver, BUT, everything has to line up perfectly. In a perfect world, you would have a load lined up ready to go as soon as you get empty. Coast to coast is the best. Remember, every time you empty and re/load, you are NOT running, therefor you are not making money. One exception is a drop and hook. You arrive at the consignee, drop your trailer, go around back and pickup a loaded trailer and you boogie. Time wise, you just used up 1 hour. No big deal.

It's when you have to 'live' un/load and 'live' re/load that uses up more time. Might be all day or overnight. Consider deadheading as well. You could deadhead 10 miles or 1000 miles. My longest deadhead was Albuquerque to Irvine, Ca and Anaheim to Del Rio, Texas.

You will get paid to deadhead, so in reality, it is no big deal.

Now unless you bring your team mate with you, you will be teamed up with a perfect stranger. The most the company will do is put smokers with smokers and non with non if requested. If you smoke, could you refrain from lighting up until the truck isn't rolling if they teamed you up with a non smoker? Also, male/female is to be considered.

Yes, a perfect stranger. You might like country music, he may like rap. You may be a day person, and so might he. That's a probelm. Who's going to drive at night? He may want to eat at Burger King every meal, you the buffet.He might think showering every 3 days is good enough, you may need a 2 hour shower every day. He may be a religious zealot, you a salty sailor. I could go on and on. You get where I'm going with this.

I'm not trying to discourage you. I've had excellent team mates and when you are compatible, pardner, that truck rolls and you make money. Heck, I even married one of my teammates. But if you team up with the wrong person, life is miserable. Also, take into account time off, and where your team mate lives. Do you want to hang around while your team mate is at the house taking time off? Do you live close to the terminal? There's a lot to consider. Husband/wife teams are usually the way to go. That's where the money is.

Since it's so hard to co-ordinate two individuals off time, remember you will probably switch team mates frequently. Or you could just run solo and stop when and where you want, not have to worry about the other persons likes and dislikes.

One more thing, CRST out of Cedar Rapids,Ia runs 3 man teams. So, that's 2 guys you have to deal with personality wise. Jimmy