My wife and I are still in school, having a ball coming out of retirement at 53 years old begining our new career. We have accepted a job to drive as a team for Gordon Trucking in Pacific WA. Our choice for GTI was simple, of all the drivers we talked to at rest stops, theirs were the happiest, and everyone of them said safety was really their priority.
I have been talking to a lot of drivers to figure out why some are so happy, and others just arent. Why they are not honest on their logs, why they speed, why they do some of the things they do that to me just seem to jepordise their jobs and future. It seems to come down to to this simple fact; they do it to get more home time and or money.
Now as a retired car dealer, I am not all that smart, but even I know if home time or big money is what you are after, OTR trucking is not the answer. We are doing this to earn money being together, see this wonderful country, and have fun doing it.
One of the old time truckers I have spoken with in search of my answers, a guy who has driven for 40 years without an accident or ticket and really seems to enjoy his life and years of driving gave me the following challange.
Drive for your first year completely legal. Don't lie on your log, and don't speed, not even going down a hill to get ready for the climb. Accept responsibility when you screw up and never lie, even when you are lied to. Be completley honest as if God were your boss. Let your dispatcher know you are doing this. Do this for a year and see what happens. If you do this you will become known as reliable and trustworthy and will be rewarded with as much money, and as much home time as anyone else by the end of the year, and you will be happy. He said the smartest dispatchers know their career will be furthered by a good safety record and honest logs, more than by the little bit of production that comes by pushing too hard.
This all seems pretty wise to me and the best advice I have received so far, so we are going to try it. In a year I will post the results.
Even though it will not change my decision, I would like to know if anyone else outherer made the same decision, took on the same challange, and what the results were.
Drive Safe, and wave as you pass us by.
TeamBobAndBev

My wife and I are also going into trucking as a new career, and we would love to know what your experiences are. My wife posts as MaggieSunshine: we should have joined this site together instead of separately, but, oh well.

My wife was in banking, and I was (is) a mechanical engineer. Like you, we want to be together and see the country, and make decent money along the way. Also like you, we are trying hard to avoid the sharks and alligators of the trucking companies and find a good employer who values husband and wife teams who are in it together as a career. Just thought it would be nice to have a like couple to bounce ideas and experiences off.

I haven't seen much on this site about team driving. Must be that it is rare, new, or too few problems to report. I am surprised how few posts are here regarding team (particularly husband-wife) driving.

We start on Sept 4th, and yes, it's a 3 week course. Yikes!! But, time is of the essense for us, and we hope that good companies are interested in hiring us, even if we have to drive with a trainer for a few weeks.

So, I will support my wife, and she will me, as we take these steps together.

We (Maggie and I) would love to hear from you both, as you have time. We will be coming home from the school on weekends only, since driving back and forth would be impractical. So, after Monday, we will check back when we drive back home on Friday evening, unless they have computers where we can log on to this site.

We sincerely hope your experiences are good!

Wolfie and MaggieSunshine

(In Navy jargon, a nugget is a new pilot.)

I think your assessment of OTR is not for someone who wants home time is way too simplistic. You are going out there with your wife, your kids must be grown, at least I guess they are. You have different needs than someone whose wife is at home with the kids.

It may not be an ideal job when raising your children, but the economy is unfortunately not as good in a lot of places as it could be. SE Missouri is VERY poor, and a lot of people drive truck to provide for their families. Of course they want home time. You want to see your family.

When my husband and I drove together, we stayed out 4 to 6 weeks at a time. We had no kids, no responsibilities and no reason to come home, we were with each other.

When my husband drove alone, he came home weekly, he wanted to see me. You can't apply your circumstances in life on every one out here. I agree going OTR is not a good choice for someone with small kids, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

__________________
For Anthony 12-21-1973 to 9-29-2006
Baby, I was always amazed by you. Till we meet again. I love you always and forever.

Sabine Hi, My name is Maggie, Wolfie's better half. I am truly sorry about your husband. Sabine thank you for your advice and comments. Wolfie has kids but they live in Maryland with his ex.wife. So he hardly ever gets to see them because after divorce she pulled a fast one on him and moved them out of state of AL. where they were living to moved in with her father in Maryland. She was and is a very bitter and deceiptful person to do this underhanded before Wolfie could stop her(sorry but the truth.) For he misses his kids and talks to them on the phone and they are 16,14 and 12 so we see them when we can. We had them here for Christmas for a week and droved over 3,500 miles to get them and take them back home. So they were actually here for only four days and the rest of time was spent on the road back and forth. As for me I have two sons who are 36 and 31 and they are married, and happy with their wives and kids. I have three grandchildren and another one due in December. But I hardly ever get to see my sons or my grandkids because they are busy with their jobs and social friends. So I have always been put on the back burner when my sons got married so I have to see or talk to them when it is a convenient time for them. I would have never imagined in all of my years raising my sons that they could stay away as much as they have. I was very close to my sons and am very proud of them for they are good Christian men and have good jobs. But I am not proud of the fact that they have hurt me so much by putting their wives families, and social events first in everything. I am not bitter just the honest truth and so as for me I am tired of waiting to be needed by my sons and grandkids and must move on. I have shed so many tears over them and now it is time to move on and live my life making myself and Wolfie happy for after all we love each other very much. My sons are from my first marriage of 34 years.

I read some of your posts and you have a dog that travels with you and a dog is very good company for you.
We have a dog Mojo and we are going to have to figure out what we are going to do with him once we are finish with school. He is our baby and a Shih-Tzu and so lovable and very playful. I wrote some on the pet board about our Mojo and was going to post some pictures of him there but I have not been here long enough to do that yet. While my sons were home and growing up we had German Shepards and they were great dogs, very protective and loyal. Their names were Smokey and Bandit.

I know you said driving a truck puts more money in your pocket then working an $8.00 an hr. job would and I am sure it does. Because now days who can make it on $8.00 an hour and have anything. I mean really could not even pay rent or morgage and ultilities. So I don't blame you for staying with the trucking business after your hubby passed away. You have to do what ever makes you happy and can take care of yourself. I can only think or imagine though how hard it must have been at first when you went out alone. No one really knows what a person goes through unless they have walk in their shoes for at least a day. So I do hope you are doing good and you sound very nice. When I read your story about you and hubby my heart felt for you and all you have been through.

Any information you have on good companies who take care of their employees, and are looking for a good team who are willing to do the distance in miles and work hard, yet be safe and work very professionally is welcome and appreciated. We love being together and have no problem being cooped up together, for we have been for years now. We both know when to nip it in the bud and go on and cool off and I don't care how long you have been married you have to know when to bend and when to give. We both know to succeed at anything in life that you have to have patience, kindness, good attitude, loving, forgiveness and the two have to be as one and acheiving their goals. So I know that we both have nothing to tie us down and we want this to work so we will give it our best and more. I was hoping that Bob and Bev would have posted also, to Wolfie's post. As I have seen from being on here they do not have that many team drivers that post. It would be great to just have a board for team drivers here to read and see, and post on. I know they have many boards so I could have overlooked it.

I need to go so take care and I will be thinking of you and praying you stay safe and well.

May God Bless Us All and Watch Over Us and Keep Us Safe Out On the Highways.

__________________

Maggie Sunshine & Wolfie,
My heart also goes out to Sabine and have prayed for her happieness. It is good to hear from another team and I agree I haven't seen much from husband and wife teams. My guess is they spend much more time driving and have little times for writing.
We have learned a lot initially looking into companies for OTR teams. It seems they all want a profile like ours, 54 years old, married and best friends, kids grown and on their own, don't drink or do drugs, no tickets or accidents, etc. It just makes good since to utilize a truck 22 hours a day rather than 11.
Out west, we live in Spokane, the top three companies we found were Gordon Trucking in Pacific WA, Interstate in Tacoma, WA, and TWT-Systems in Spokane, WA. In our speaking to drivers at rest stops, they all three have mostly happy drivers. We initially looked at Swift, but their drivers did a lot of setting instead of driving and we didn't find many happy with their job.
I hope school is going well for you. I know there must be an orginization of married team drivers, but haven't found it yet. You can E-Us at TeamBobAndBev at that better than warm mail.
BobandBev

Thank you all for your kind words. I appreciate it. The pain is not so hot or intense anymore, but it is still right under the surface, just waiting to burst out. Going on with life after Anthony died, was the single most difficult thing I have ever had to do. Ever will have to do.

There are companies out there that will let you keep the dog, you may have to find a place for him for a few months, while getting your license and while in training, but don't give up on taking him. I could not imagine not having my pup with me.

Usxpress takes pets, so does CFI, well they are Conway now, or soon at least. TLI out of Russellville, AR will too. TransCarriers out of Memphis, although I would not recommend them.

I know it is very difficult to find a good company that "fits" you. Trust me when I say there was a lot of trial and error for us. Lots of errors to be honest.

I wish you all the best of luck, when I have more time I will post a little more.

Sabine

__________________
For Anthony 12-21-1973 to 9-29-2006
Baby, I was always amazed by you. Till we meet again. I love you always and forever.

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__________________
For Anthony 12-21-1973 to 9-29-2006
Baby, I was always amazed by you. Till we meet again. I love you always and forever.