Will I have to do team driving if I opt for OTR/long haul?

Hello,

I did not get my CDL yet, I should say that upfront.

But I have heard that carriers now try to set up teams for OTR/long haul. If that's so, I guess it might be tough for me to get work doing solo long haul, is that so?

Thanks

 

The vast majority of long haul drivers are solo , not teams .

a lot of people just can’t sleep while the vehicle is rocking and rolling down the road .
And there are lots and lots of driving jobs that are not OTR long haul .

there’s plenty of local and regional positions .

Dry vans, refrigerated vans , flatbeds , removable goose neck for heavy equipment, dry bulk tankers , liquid tankers , heated tankers , refrigerated tankers , hopper bottoms , dump trailers , roller beds for roof / floor trusses , boats , trees and logs , etc

just stand beside a busy highway for a hour and count the different types of trucks and trailers passing by .


if it needs to be moved , there’s a trailer designed to move it . And alot of those loads are local and regional . The drivers are home every weekend or every night .

 

Ah, thanks. OK so maybe I misunderstood some things I read out there on the net.

My family isn't in the US, so I actually don't need to get home.

That's maybe an advantage that I have, being very flexible to keep moving around, for a year or more at least

So I was thinking I could take advantage of that and not need home time the way most guys do.

 

Being young and single , you could take advantage of that and basically live in the truck.

Living in the truck gets old after while but some folks do it .

i did , but I owned the truck so I built a shower and portable toilet in the truck .

if I had a few days off , I’d find a secure parking for the trailer if I had one , and go stay in a state park campground.

sitting by a lake at a state park for a couple of days is way better than sitting in a truck stop.

 

Yes. Well, I'm not young and single. Opposite. Old and married. 59. But my wife and I agree this would be good to do for a few years. It's a long story, but basically she can stay back and run the family business while I go make some money to help us move back and get our kid into a good school there.

Great idea about state parks. I assume you had your own tent....?

 

As posted, you won't have to team to do long haul.

 

Most companies that hire BRAND NEW CDL holders put them with an experienced driver for different amount of times to learn how to do the job. I teamed with my trainer at my first company for 8 weeks and then was solo for the next year. Some people use the word team to mean driving half a day while the other "team driver" sleeps at which point you sleep while he drives. Sometimes the word team is used for the training period where an experienced driver teaches and supervises the new driver learning the job. Some of the companies that hire newbies with a freshly printed CDL will try and use the training truck as a team truck, if they can.

You do NOT have to start trucking only by driving OTR. I's possible to begin as a local or home-daily driver if you find the companies that hire for that job. Most newbies think all trucking companies are similar therefore they don't need to research what working at a trucking company will be like. That's how you wind up working for a string of bad companies, or companies that don't fit what you need. No research equals bad results 99% of the time.

 

Gotcha. Yeah I did expect to have a mentor/trainer with me for a while, and I'm not too bugged how long that's for. Prefer it be shorter rather than longer but whatever happens, happens. And maybe it could be a good time with another guy for a while. But I did kind of look forward to solo driving eventually.

Starting out, I'd much rather do OTR, and maybe switch over to regional later, have a chance to settle somewhere first.

I'm doing that research now, asking lots of questions.

Thanks

 

I understand the desire for a shorter training period, or riding with a trainer. I felt the same way, but you will be on your own once it ends and once you start moving freight in training you will see there are hundreds of things you need to know and figure out that nobody in any office job once ever thought about, like the customer address being out of date/old. The more training you get the more issues you will see a veteran driver solve. Or what to do when the customer that was demanding you be early for the last 2 days won't start working on your trailer for half a day while your working hours evaporate and nobody knows why or says anything more than "you're next". Go watch all of the backing videos you can find. It's the one skill that makes the biggest difference while doing this job. Not every customer has 3 football fields of empty space directly in front of the dock door they want you to put a trailer. Most new drivers cannot back with less than 3 football fields of empty space in front of their desired spot.

 

No tent , I used the sleeper .