No touch freight?

I currently do a team operation. It can be a struggle sometimes. You have to approach it like a professional marriage in a sense. You need to know how to pick your battles, what is important and what isn't, have the ability to look out for each other (trust is a major issue), and keep in mind that you are using each other to make money and the work is to be shared. Some weeks one driver may end up working (hitting docks, dropping and hooking) than the other. We do a twelve hour on and off shift where we change at the 2 o'clocks. That way both of us have day time and night time driving. If you are wondering how that works out with only eleven hours to drive it is as follows:

Driver one has thirty minutes pre-trip. Goes to pick up a trailer at roughly 15 to 30 minutes time not driving. May need to stop once or twice for the bathroom or just stretch the legs or eat. He stops with a fifteen minute post trip and driver two has his thirty minute pre-trip. The time works out. Or maybe at shift change the both of you want to go sit down and eat something. The time works out.

It is best to find a codriver yourself. Your DBL will not care that much if you are getting along, only that the truck is moving. That is not to say DBL's do not care, just keep in mind they normally have many teams on their board. While you are personally dealing with issues in the truck, the DBL is concentrating on finding freight for all their respective teams. It is not a high priority for them about the goings on with personalities in each truck.

I personally have driven both solo (starting regional) and teams (dedicated account). There are advantages and disadvantages to each. So it comes down to what you personally can live with. I have learned a lot from my more seasoned codriver, but there have been times I could have rung his neck as well. I should be going to a dedicated solo account in the next to weeks if everything works as it should. I could team again, but I would want to do a little more screening of the codriver than how it happened when I began teaming - which was one or two phone calls.

One thing to keep in mind is that when a person tells you about their own habits, it may be true or it may be just how that individual wishes they were. The only true way to know is through observation while living in a truck. I am sure I have some quirks that may be hard to get along with that I do not know I have. The most important part is how you and a team partner work together and only you can decide that.

 

Yes, trust is a major issue. Some may be reluctant to run teams with an inexperienced driver. Hence the reason I will never be a trainer. No way could I sleep when someone that has been driving only a few weeks is behind the wheel, especially during the night hours when ones body would be more susceptible to falling asleep. The pay per mile is greater, but not to forget that you have to split that pay in half.

 

As a trainer, why would you be sleeping when your trainee is driving?

 

Make sure you never deliver Easter baskets to the wallgreens DC in Paris, CA. I had to unload over 800 boxes worth of Easter baskets and stack them a certain way onto pallets. The only thing that saved me was that the boxes were light weight (less than 5 pounds each) so I could carry/stack multiple boxes at a time. Still took me just under 3 hours of busting my ### to get it all done. When the warehouse employee asked me why I didn't take a break, I told her I wasn't paid by the hour like she was lol. I had another load waiting for me after so I needed to get in and out asap. My back/knees/legs were sore for about 2 days.

Also be aware of the live loads of truckload baby cribs...I had two or three of these, one took them 5 hours to load. They bring a pallet full of product into the trailer, then unload the pallet and take the empty pallet off the truck. Major pain in the butt and wastes a lot of time to load and unload. Luckily I didn't have to help with those ones, but it was a huge waste of time and money/day

 

What...you mean YOUR trainer didn't nod off in the passenger seat? And here all this time I thought that was a sign of his trust in me...my bad lol

 

When I trained, my trainer and I we REQUIRED to run as a team after only 2 weeks. I was included in the conversation at the terminal with the terminal manager. He said something along the lines of "there is no reason why two people can not turn out more than 4000 in a week". That was after my second week hauling freight. A few days later I went down Black Mountain (I40 east of Ashevile), at night, during a thunderstorm, while my so called trainer was asleep in the bunk. I was amazed I even made it to the bottom. It was the first mountain I had ever went down. Yes, I woke him up, but being the **** he was, he said "you should know how to drive by now", from the bunk. Yes, I could have pulled over near the brake check, but I didn't know what a down grade really was at that point. Yes, he was a sorry *** trainer with a sorry *** company.lol..He had 6 months experience driving, which now I know isnt enough to be calling yourself a 'trainer'

 

In 18 month's the closest I came to handling any part of the load, was wrapping liquor on a pallet at the shipper. Better than 75% of my loads were drop and hook, and the live loads were a grab bag. Most shipper/receivers are pretty decent, except for mallwart in my experience. To be fair, I always liked the Sam's Club stores. It was usually a split load, and I was always treated decently there. If ya need your 10, you could park in the lot at the ones I went to, and even have the opportunity to use the store.