Prospective trucker questions

The "right carrier" is a carrier who has a dedicated team board, or at the very least offers runs where the average length of haul exceeds 2,000 miles and/or does almost exclusive coast to coast operations. You can't make any money as a team if your waiting for delivery/pu appointments 4-7 times a week. The training phase is the time spent with a company's "trainer" until he/she determines you are safe to operate a truck safely and effectively on your own. Some of these trainers have no real qualifications to be a trainer and many are difficult to be confined with for 4 to 8 weeks.

The good team operations that come to my mind do not hire new drivers, but some such as Transam and Marten do and may offer a decent starting point for a team. But others may have better ideas. Meat haulers (hauling out of the central plains states) offer good length of haul averages as they are routinely taking the better paying loads to the NE and NW that are long enough, question is how long is their turnaround time? A day lost waiting between loads (routinely) can throw off the entire concept of teaming, but for some, they do it not so much for the high, consistent miles, but rather enjoy some "time off" from time to time. (solo and a half so to speak)

 

Carriers are carriers, you have to kinda of pick your poison and the type of truck you want to drive. You can ask ten different people what is a good company and you'll get ten different answers. So the best thing I can suggest it do a lot of your own research and ask a lot of questions. Don't be afraid to have your wife get on the phone and drill the recruiters. Wives tend to be our saving grace when it comes to recruiters.

Training is probably going to be the hardest on the both of you. You'll be with one trainer and the Mrs. will be with another unless there's a company that will let you "train" your wife?

Hope this kind of helps.