Study Guidance Needed

Philteam, that is the most common myths out there! My wife and I drove team and she was a #### good driver! (not as good as me!) Actually when we went to Central for our orientation and did our backing test my wife put in the hole with no pull-ups and she was the first one to try! There were about 20 or so other truckers there and they all crapped their pants because she set the bar! It was quite comical to watch all of them try to do what she did.

So don't feel as if you are second to the male truck driver. Yes it will take a little practice and sometime to get used to but you will be fine. Also the book work isn't rocket science! You need to be very good at logs though. When my wife and I drove over the road we divided up the duties and she did the officework, phone calls, logs etc... I took care of the mechanics, extreme weather driving and difficult backing etc... Worked well that way.

I can tell you one thing for sure, be prepared to hustle and run hard! Husband/wife teams run 7000 a week! You will also make very good money! Very, very, very good money! (provided you know what you are doing)

Its going to take you guys a good three months or so before you are used to the lifestyle and are comfortable with the day to day schedule. It will also take you awhile before you guys can build up to running 7000 a week. Most companies expect you to run 1000 a day. However, you will need to build up to this and learn how to refine your schedule and driving abilities. Won't be long and you guys will be running coast to coast three times a week!

Your first year as company drivers make sure you keep track of everything you do including fuel and such. Once that first year goes by see how you did. As a husband/wife team I recommend owning your own truck. You will make far much more money (provided everything goes right). As company drivers we did about $140,000-$160,000 a year. When we owned our own truck we did between $210,000-$240,000 a year. We had no house payment or rent, no electric or utilities, no car payments etc... so all of our money went in the bank! Except for the occasional little vacations and my wife having to buy friggin DVD's to fall asleep to!

The only other thing that I can highly recommend for you guys starting out is to get involved with Dave Ramsey. Spend the money and order his CD's so you can have them in the truck. He is also on Satellite radio everyday and fox business. This is very important. It will keep you on track and really help you save money! You can probably get the CD's on his website or Amazon etc... This will be just as important as your license! Trust me....

As far as company recommendations, I highly recommend Central Ref. For the one reason that they really went above and beyond to help us succeed and if we ever had a problem they were there to solve it. They a large enough to keep you busy as a team but small enough to treat you like human beings! When we were there most husband/wife teams had planners instead of dispatchers. Big difference! As a husband/wife team you guys will be treated like gold!

If Central isn't something that interests you I would still highly recommend you drive for a reefer company. Pulling reefer allows you twice the opportunity for loads and also a lot of reefer loads are classified "hot" which pretty much means only teams can pull them. Also reefer loads are all for the most part "no touch". No tier building or stacking or lumping office furniture etc... Reefer loads are palletized and more uniform. As a team though you guys will hopefully be doing mostly drop and hook. You need to learn how to plan and stack your loads though to get optimum miles and more drop and hook. Usually I do not recommend the larger companies but when running team you want to make sure you choose a company that is going to keep you busy and also that has a lot of trailers. More trailers = more drop and hook = more $ ! You can afford to be picky when choosing companies, husband/wife teams are the "cream of the crop" and in very high demand! I would maybe stay away from the top 5 mega-carriers though. (Werner, Swift, England etc..) Like I said, you can afford to be picky so don't sacrifice yourselves because every other newbie goes to them. When you are in school they are going to recommend these companies. They get paid to!

Take your time, do your research/home work. Make yourselves a list of your wants and needs and start combing the internet for companies. Once you have narrowed your choices down to a couple dozen or so, then start making phone calls and talk to the recruiters to get the finer details. Its also good to have a list of questions ready to ask the recruiter.

Sorry this is getting long, if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Good luck gang!

 

Your welcome!

You guys are going to make lots of money, however, the memories and adventures you are going to have will be worth way more than any amount of money you ever made!!!

 

If that's true then that is something they recently changed. Central has always been a starter company and they have a school at several of their terminals for the sole fact of training new drivers. Maybe call and talk to a recruiter if they are a company that you are interested in.

If not, like I said, there are many, many other companies out there to choose from. The ones that don't advertise as much are the ones with lower turnover rates meaning happier drivers. Companies have been known to also make exceptions for husband/wife teams due to the high demand.