Partner pays less per mile?

You will be paid for all miles as opposed to the miles you drive

 

Normaly its less but all miles, so if you and your partner can turn 1300 miles in 24 hours vs just you pulling 650 in a 24 hour period your 1300 x .24 vs 650 x .38 or whatever

 

No company I've heard of will pay each driver the solo rate. Doesn't mean there aren't any out there.
A team at most companies will be paid just like a solo driver (cents per mile) but the cpm is either split or individual. Either way it means about the same thing for each driver.

A company that pays teams 50cpm will really pay each driver 25cpm each, which will be lower than the rate for a solo driver with the same company probably around 35 cpm or so.
Where you make your money in teams is in the fact that a solo driver might run 3,000 miles a week while you run 6,000.
Teams are generally a slightly lower individual cpm for twice the miles.

So in that scenario above you'd gross around $400 more than the solo driver for the week. I pulled these numbers out of my rear but it should give you a general idea of how teams earn more.

 

As others have said, you will make less per mile but you get paid for all the miles that the truck runs (not just what you, yourself, drive). For example, if you were solo and ran 2500 miles at .40 cpm, that would be $1000 per week. If you ran team and the truck ran 5000 miles at .30 cpm, you would each make $1500 per week. So yes, the cpm is less, but as a team driver you will make more money because you essentially are getting paid while you drive and while you sleep. Anytime the truck is moving, you are getting paid no matter who is actually driving.

That being said, team driving is HARD. You need to ask yourself if you can imagine being stuck in a walk-in close for weeks at a time with your potential team mate. You will rarely be more than 2 ft away from this person. I drove team with my wife, who is the love of my life, and it was hard for us being cooped up so close for extended periods. Also, it is hard to get good sleep while the truck is bouncing down the road. Expect to always be tired and sleep deprived, because team trucks are expected to constantly be moving, there will be very little down time.

The money is good in team driving, but it comes at a price. Good luck in your future endeavors.

 

Check with Earl Henderson Trucking. They run reefers coast-to-coast and have their own CDL school.
Havent read any negative posts about their program or paychecks. Probably make some good money there.

 

Most of the operations I recall advertising, paid the truck a "premium" for team operation as opposed to solo (driver wages), in the neighborhood of 5-10 cents more IIRC.

For example a solo may get 40 CPM, but a team truck was paid 48 CPM (and they split that). Team's should always be paid a premium Vs. solo given all the extra production they can get out of a truck, and this significantly reduces the cost-per-mile for monthly/yearly fixed costs and at least some of those cost reductions should be passed on to the drivers who have to live a miserable life together in order to generate additional profit for the truck owner.

 

I got my CDL A yesterday at Henderson, they had a few rough weeks with the Illinois DMV coarse change on July 1 but they are back up to speed now. They are great people and do everything possible to get you that license.
I am told they guarantee 2100 at .38 if you don't turn any loads down.
Thanks again Chinatown for telling me about Henderson. Joe

 

As I re-read the OP, I guess they are caught up in the usual "low-pay team scheme" idea many perceive when they read team pay schedules here and there.

One way to look at this is yes, you are getting paid less per mile, but you are also getting paid for the miles driven while you are sleeping and your partner is driving. So, in theory it is 2 drivers running 6,000 miles/week and splitting 40 cents (20 cents each), or 1 driver running 3,000 miles/week and keeping all of the 40 cents.

But driver hears "20 cents" and think they are being "cheated".

 

Congratulations Joe