Operate as a team with a permit???

When you have a permit you are legal to drive a truck as long as you have an experienced driver awake in the passenger seat.... period. I know, as I've gone through this scenario twice in order to gain my CDL (having let the first CDL lapse).

A major company that has a permitted driver in the rig is not (or should not) allow that driver behind the wheel without the trainer awake, logged in as On Duty, and in the passenger seat. In fact if they tried to log as a team or run miles as a team they would be vulnerable to the first DOT inspection they came across.

It may be that a major company hires a driver with a permit, but unlikely. What you more likely saw was an O/O leased to that company that is training a new driver, giving him/her enough experience to take the DMV drive test asap. That was the scenario that I did for both times I got my CDL, driving with a permit until I was ready to take the DMV test. Both times with my brother as O/O leased to a company, and in both cases the company had to vet me and approve me for insurance purposes to be in the truck. Most major companies don't allow drivers with a permit to drive their trucks on their insurance. It may be that the O/O pays for their own insurance, and there is a premium to pay if the codriver only has a permit.

 

Both you and the company are LUCKY not be doing time in the penitentiary.