Re-Thinking Team Driving

That's just ridiculous that you would say covenant/us express is a horrendous company to work for...especially when you probably have never even worked for them. I work for covenant, it's not the best company but horrendous? Come on really lol.

I actually met a Werner team driver at the freightliner while our truck was getting fixed. He was happy teaming at Werner but only making .36cents a mile split. Also Werner wouldn't buy him a hotel room so he slept in the truck at the freightliner...so he told me. He said the truck has to break down on the side of the road for a hotel room to be offered. All the drivers in the lounge agreed he should be making more money.

Also getting penalized for getting too much fuel? Are you just making these things up? Covenant let's you fuel however much at any ta/petro.

Maybe Werner is a good company to team with, I wouldn't know because I don't work for them. But I heard it's horrendous so I'm not going to...lol.

 

Teams are carefully selected at trucking companies. First... Do you smoke? Second... where do you live?.... Whaaala...your a team!

 

Lets see?
+/- plus vs minus

Plus?..You get to hear every micro detail about his/wifes life while he yacks into his cellphone day/night

Minus?..a driver was caught with a dead body in the truck?
yep.. he and his team partner got into a fight and stabbed and stabbed him and finally he killed him and then rode around w the body for days/days while he was trying to find a place to dump him..(not making it up..heres the link)

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/201...emi-near-truck-stops-in-southern-dallas.html/

 

I'm looking at USX now, and can answer some of these.

That's take-home pay he's quoting there, as a company driver, not owner/operator. Here's the math:

Average 6000 miles/week X 48¢/mile = $2880/week (total paid truck miles.) Split that with the team mate, and it's $1440/week gross.

Now it starts to get fuzzy estimating withholding, but lets say 7.65% Social Security and Medicare, and ≈17.35% Federal income tax (25% total, $360). No state income tax figured here, calculate that if your state has one.
Add about $30/week (single person) health insurance.

So far you're looking at $390 deductions, $1050/week take-home pay.

Additional deductions will come out if you have a state income tax, want health coverage for spouse and/or family, and want to participate in a 401K and/or Health Savings Account (HSA), not sure if they have this?

Take-home pay may change a bit too if you participate in a company per-diem program (basically a slightly lower salary, in exchange for some of that salary being tax-free.) These are somewhat controversial, and benefits/drawbacks of these programs are discussed elsewhere here on TTR. But really, they shouldn't make a huge difference in finances and taxes either way for most people.


Correction: The above example is for Team OTR driving. They currently have a 22¢/mile bonus for miles over 18,000 in the span of a month. So in the above example, assuming 6,000 miles each week, the 4th week of the month would be totally on the bonus, and have:

4th week w/bonus: 6000 miles X 70¢/mile = $4200 (total paid truck miles.) Split that with the team mate, and it's $2100 gross for the 4th week. Usually employers have a higher rate of withholding for overtime/bonus pay.

 

Davezillas post about US Xpress is sooooooo off. This guy must be on drugs. I'll be home this evening to give a proper response. Till then Davezilla put down the drugs.

 

Wrong. So much wrong I dont know where to start... Werner is a crap company people. If you like real paychecks that is.

 

Thank you for taking the time to do the research, excellent work!

 

Please, do your husband a favor and get him out of that wreck. Go look up the CSA score for CRST. I have never seen a worse crash score...its worst than CR England! They have one in five of their trucks in an accident in 24 months. Werner is the worst company I would ever send someone to, and we have only one in 20 trucks involved in a crash. CRST is 4 times worse than Werner. Thats hard to even comprehend when a company is that bad.

Stay the heck away from CRST. Anybody, anybody is better than they are. And more than half of the companies out there would love to have your husband in their safe new trucks. Tell him to give Crete and Prime a call. Prime will take him after 6 months, definitely, but Crete is a little more picky. They both pay well, but Crete pays an honest $1000 a week on average, including down time and home time. Average first year is $53,000. I dont know what prime is, but they sure have nice trucks and good training.

If anybody has any other good names, feel free to share them. I can only gives good advice I have seen with my own eyes.

 

Exactly. The point is that US Xpress and CR England are such freaking nightmares, even Werner looks good to them.

I thought I made it clear when I said Werner was a backup only if you dont get hired where you want.

Either way, I made an honest $35,000 my first year, and $45,000 my second year, despite taking 3 months either off or retraining for flatbed at reduced pay. So its definitely not CR England, but its definitely not Crete. Like I said, its a backup company if you dont get one you like.

I was just using it as something we all could compare to. Most people understand whats up with Werner, so I use them as a benchmark. Absolutely nobody should go with a company worse than Werner. There is no reason to go any lower.

 

Had great team experience at USX. Made $60,000 a year as a newbie in a brand new truck. You are talking out of something other than your mouth. Absolute crazy talk.

Oh, and a company that specializes in teams.....has team freight.

In my two years at USX I made $40,000 more than you made in two years at Werner. What a "nightmare" that was!