Owner Operator - Husband/Wife Teams

My wife and I have been teaming up for the last 5 years. She joined me on the road after all the kiddies had flown the coop and we love being together after all these years that I had driven solo 19 years to be exact.

What works for us is the fact that she recognizes that I have the most experience so she leaves almost all of the trucking decisions up to me. Pearl has been my accountant and book keeper all these years so she handles that aspect as well as her driving chores. I make the load decisions and keep the truck maintained.

Being together 24/7 is alot of togetherness so when we are home we do alot of things separately so we can each have our me time. Truth be known though.....when 1 driver drives days and the other driver drives nights, there really isn't alot of togetherness. We know that it is time to go home when we start getting on each others nerves, usually after we have been out for 5 weeks.

Everyone does things different and not everyone could team with their wife or husband. It does help if one or the other trains the other to drive though, so you are both working on the same page of driving views.

just a few thoughts
Best Wishes
Tim

 

Not sure if there is a difference between wife/husband teams or father/son teams but here's my input. My father has been driving solo for the majority of his life he's 51 now. I just turned 21 and was waiting since 18 to be interstate legal. I found local job(barely) in the mean time. We've been driving together for about 9 months now and its pretty good so far.
The good: my father is the best, went to hell and back twice for me and my family so we have a great relationship. Its great being with him in the truck. I let him have the final say when it comes to major decisions, because of his otr experience. We get along great. We average 5-6k miles a week. Runnin3 e trips a month, sometimes, althoguh rarely 4. Financially speaking it is wonderful. Obviously the more your out the more you will make.
The bad: EVERYTHING has to be perfect to him. I understand parking at a dock the trailer needs to be within the 2 lines(if any) the trailer needs to be straight as well as the truck. BUT COME ON. Literally moving the truck forward 2 inches is unnecessary, even with my little experience I know that it was fine 2 inches back. More bad: the truck isn't big enough. At this time we are hauling our ##### to purchase another truck, even putting another driver in the old.

Other than those things I love it and he does too so it seems. We are never late, we stop when we want and its great not having any bosses. We are leased to a bigger company so we run when we want. One of the best if not the best perk of being an O/O. =)

Hope this helps didn't mean to sugarcoat it if it seems that way lol
Best wishes and good luck!

 

I was the same as you. My Dad taught me to drive when I was 19. We teamed together for 6 months but I was too young to get hired by anyone. Had to wait till I was 22 before anyone would hire me.

What your dad is teaching you, my dad taught me, professionalism! The pulling in straight or making sure your perfect to the dock is important because as a professional, we set the standard. Sadly today, many drivers were never taught professionalism and it shows when they take up practically 2 parking spots at a truckstop.

 

I understand wwe have to be safe, and professional I know when I don't park good enough, I do fix it, but sometime I have to disagree with him. Don't get me wrong I do take what he tells me and I remember it too. I have yet to see/meet another young driver such as myself though =/

 

what company are you leased to? I am interested in teaming and O/O someday.

 

Man, what I would do if I could run a few runs with my father.... brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. fireba11 and KW600, you two are the luckiest guys in the world! I mean that too, not just trying to blow smoke. My father drove his whole life and than died in 1996 from cancer. I didn't want anything to do with trucking until 2008... weird when I think about it. Anyway, KW600 is right, professionalism is hard to come by out here and fireba11 your dad is just making sure you don't end up like the majority out here when your left to your own. I am a stickler about being straight at docks, being even in parking spots, not taking up anyones space or backing over that center line with my trailer,,,you know the center of the truck stop where trailers park back to back and almost everyone doesn't give a rats ##### where the end of their trailer is. If I was superman (bulletproof), I would drag drivers out of their truck and treet tham like a kid...fires me up when something so simple as looking out for your brother truckers out there is taken for granted. Anyway, I would trade just about anything with you fireba11 to be in your posistion for just one day. Make the best of it brother and be safe... thanks for posting as well and please, post some more.