Teams or Solo

When teaming they split the cpm pay, when I team drove for schneider two years ago my co driver and I each got 17cpm. Teaming has its up and alot of downs. But if you can stand being in a small cell with another person and there stuff then you can make a lot of money.

 

If you're going to team you better make sure you can stand that other person 24/7.

You better make sure the work between the both of you is equal.

And you BETTER make sure that you can TRUST him/her COMPLETELY!

I'm not trying to talk you out of teaming or anything like that. I'm just saying to keep your eyes and ears wide open.

I tried teaming ONCE! NEVER AGAIN.. Ok.. I take that back.. But it will have to be with the right person.

The idiot I teamed with just got off his mentor's truck and thought he knew everything there was to know about driving a truck. STUPID ME was like Ok kid can handle himself... NOT!

He didn't know how to shift, couldn't back the truck, would forget to do his tug test.. among other things.

Needless to say the one time I didn't remind him he lost a fully loaded trailer at the customers. The reason why I didn't remind him you ask???? Quote : "I know what I'm doing.. Just let me drive MY WAY".

This accident cost us about 2-3 hours of down time waiting for a tech to come out and replace all the lines to the truck to the trailer. I was fired up.

And to top it off he could/wouldn't drive off the customers property because he was NOW too scared to drive.. Mind you I'm supposed to be in the sleeper... SLEEPING! After all I just finished my 11/14 when he took over and he slept all that time.

Wow... Issues?? NAH!

Anyways.. You ask Team or Solo? It's all you... I say try going at it solo first. Then If you still want to team later, you'll have some experience and kinda know what you want/need from your partner when they get on your truck.

Hope this helps.

 

Provided you get the miles... you both could do that easily..

 

Some companies...I'll use CFI as an example. Split the pay based on experience.

After they removed "bonus pay" schedule.

Team base pay was .42 So my co-driver got .21 (less than year experience).

I had almost 3 years with them. So I split .44...for a total of .22 a mile And was about to receive a another raise had I stayed.

Don't fool yourself into thinking you can make money...just because you are a team. There are a lot of things that can affect your pay. Don't fool yourself into thinking you won't sit...lots of teams are doing just that now.

Hometime...do you live in the same general area? It's gonna suck if you don't.

 

Danc did put it well............

I train for a team company.........their are alot of things to consider......
Finding a good co-driver is not as easy as it sounds......I went thru 4 my first 6 months before I found a good one, not the best but just good enough to get by......

Have to consider more than just can you get along in a 15-20 minute conversation asking questions like, do you smoke?, do you like driving day/night?, etc.

Can they drive, Are they safe, can they park, etc.

Next and this is just as important.......PERSONAL HYGIENE............
Some people feel 1 shower a week is good.........even for OTR.........
(A BORAT MOMENT)................NOT

Now getting to the most important part...........MILES and PAY

Some companies pay each driver thier c/pm on all miles or split miles ie.

Truck does 5,000 miles you get all miles paid $0.16 p/m......=$800.00

Truck does 5,000 miles you and driver split miles you get 2,500 miles at $0.22 p/m =$550.00

What looks nice is not always nice..........playing musical numbers

Next company that keeps you working..........Ideally a team truck can do 7,000 miles if team works correctly a week. Only a handful of teams are gettig that kind of miles.........that is a perfect world.

A team truck with a governor # 65 should do a minimum of 1,200 miles per day while loaded, up to 1,400 miles per day......(conditions apply)

Each driver has 70 working hours per week.........with an average of 62.o miles per hour taking out for fueling and pretrip and drop/hook looking at about 6,500-7,000 miles if your company/dispatcher can keep you moving that well..............Not likely......

Hope this helps...............good luck.........