OTR Team -- what to expect?

Even saying .24 a mile is dishonest since, as a team, you get paid for all the miles the truck runs. Nobody would drive for .24 a mile if it was only for the miles you drove. So you get the equivalent of .48 for all the miles you drive. Are you making that now? As a company driver? With 7 months experience?
While I agree that married teams do better, you can easily make over $1000 a week take home as a team driver.

 

It sounds like a good plan to me. You may hate teaming (or you may love it) but it will give you the income you need and the OTR experience you HAVE to have if you want to move forward in your career. Best of luck with this.

 

I dont know why teams pay less then solo drivers.Each one drives and should get paid like solo drivers do.

 

A solo driver can't drive 6,000+ miles per week.
3,000 @ 40 6,000 @ 20 .... same difference

 

What to expect? You will work your ### off if you want to make money. Getting a decent partner with the same goals is important IE home time or out making money. 48 cents a mile for a team isn't bad money that's around 1000 to 1400 a week each depenendent on your miles and I know a lot of people that would kill for that kind of money in my neck of the woods. I just came off a team job to do a dedeicated solo run the only reason was to be home more often. you will make money if you work, the thing to look out for is, if you want home time they will generally tell you you get 1 1/2 to 2 days home time. This is a recruiter trying to tell you that you are going to get 34 hours whether you come in at 10pm or 10 am. You don't have to be married to your partner but yall have to get along or its an awfull small space to share with another indivifual that you can't stand. I personally never had a problem sleeping in a moving truck a lot of drivers complain that they never could well teaming is not for them. The only drwawback that I ever had with teaming is that it is non stop.

 

Each team driver will be paid .24 cents per mile for every (paid)mile the truck runs, NOT .48 CPM.
Are yoe willing to live in a truck with a stranger trying to sleep while this unknown person drives from say 0001 to 1000? And do that for .24CPM?? If this team runs 6000 miles each driver will gross $1440, in my book thats just not enough, not by a long shot!
Being part of a team should bring premumium loads AND PAY

 

My point really is that there are companies out here that pay solo company drivers pretty well. (as long as you do not calculate the hourly pay, lol) $65,000 to $75,000 a year gross is very do-able for an experienced driver with a bunch of years under their belt. Only team drivers can make that kind of money with less than a year of experience OTR. That is what I have seen anyway. There MAY be outlier examples but it is not common and should not be used as an example here. Teaming is hard, but if you need to make 60k to 70k a year fresh out of cdl school I do not know how you do it any other way.

 

The other advantage of a good teaming operation is longer home time. For some, fewer trips home with more time there is better then frequent trips home with barely enough time to do laundry. Of course not all team operations operate like this, but many do (or should) as they can get a nice profit from the truck in 3 weeks and potentially rest the team 4 or 5 days, then repeat. But that cuts into the monthly gross pay, but money is not everything.

 

I tried team driving three times:

1) with my brother and in 9 months we found our selves in peanut crop field trying to kill each other with load locks and it took 7 deputies to pull us apart.

2) with a company that promised me 7000 miles a week and home every weekend, that lasted 3 months when my co-driver rolled the truck down an embankment while I was sleeping breaking both my arms and my right femur. Lost three months out of work.

3) time I was an O/O and was with my wife and it worked for two years and helped start our company.