50+ yr old Husb + Wife want to form a team. Advice welcome.

Do it. I first entered trucking school when I turned 62. I'm now almost 66 and have had many wonderful experiences and make a fair living doing specialty work. Getting hired is a piece of cake. I had three job offers before I left school and I still get 2 job offers a week even at my ripe age.

Learn how to chain up, figure you axle weights, properly do a log book, which areas of the country to avoid (yessss, I'm thinking of the east coast!), which carriers to avoid, and NEVER EVER sign up for any lease-purchase deals no matter how good they sound up front.

Read this forum religiously but don't pray to any of the members. Keep a "beginners mind" as they say in Zen---you will never learn it all.

Have fun and JUST DO IT ! You'll be glad you did.

 

I usually left my silencer at home, but not always.
Choose a good company so you and wife can be comfortable on those breaks and layovers out on the road.

 

what @Chinatown says

 

Welcome to the forum, Trucking can be a rewarding career. I know you said dry van, but Prime Inc offers a top notch training program. The pay is decent as well. Good luck.

 

That is good.

Now that I said that, it's not so good. I conceal carry myself under license with a colt. The license itself is no longer mandatory in our state that just became a free state with open carry. Go figure. But the topic threatens the veer beyond what it subject being new to trucking.

There are defenses possible in a truck such as a flatbed straps to each door in tension but I don't know if it is still possible today because the confounded engineers that design truck interiors don't like people doing stuff like that. They already removed the side rails from the sleepers, the steps out from under them and so on so the parasites dont hop up and stick to you requiring you to find a big bushy tree to brush em off. And yes Ive had a few trees do that work. SCRAPE. And a scream with a string of bad words to show me he did not get killed.

It's fun when you consider most of the USA with places to go, things to do. I remember one with a drive in south of Elmiria NY on the PA border I think it was US 6 or 15 cannot be sure now, but a drive in is something that is fading. And sat on the shoulder a while taking in the movie. hee. That was a memory long ago. I could use Google Earth to see if it is still there.

With two people in a truck and one awake usually at all times, defense is somewhat easier in a way. Being aware of the bad things and evil is part of being good to others where possible but not out of weakness or fear. Does that make sense? If a bum is thirsty, you feed him instead of giving him money because alchol makes his problem worse. Food and hydrate makes him better. Not necessarily HAPPY but better.

Savvy? The USA is a awesome land. But there are areas of rot. And it will always be that way. Other places like Nogales have another issue for example people will climb to the top of your sleeper and hide under the air dam if there is space above to do it. But you hopefully ask questions and learn. Someone will teach you.

Finally but not last, there are oppertunties to enjoy food around the USA rather than the same old stuff in our local store at home. That was the big draw I guess. The Gulf Coast, the Upper west and carolinas and so on all offer different foods local foods you cannot get at home. Canada offers actual foods that the USA does not allow to sell in our country but you can buy some of it and bring it back south. Mexico is pretty basic but a good tough breakfast will make you sweat and ready for work a thousand miles if need be when done right, minus the flies LOL.

 

Good luck!

 

Community colleges are less expensive, but generally take longer. I'm finding that I had more in-cab practice there than others get in the 3-6wk schools. Best of luck to both of you, and please keep us posted!

 

Students take school differently.

I recall a roadtrip in Batesville AR where we changed out and I got her in a rest area at a bottom of a smaller roadway not far from 67 with instructions to take her back to the yard in town. Well coming out of the lot I see that I have to apply some horses against the upgrade on that big detroit prior to shifting up so I held the gear all the way through the left turn, straightened up and went ahead climbing through the gears once the pressures came off the 5th wheel (I'll explain in a minute)

One of the other two in the back piped up and questioned my choice to leave her in gear and did not shift during the entire turn to the Ops manager adminstering the test. He told the student I know why he did it. And left it at that.

When you make a turn against a upgrade and try to shift and there is a difference in the tractor frame angle and trailer angle there is pressure on your drive tandems and you risk stalling out should you not catch the next gear halfway around. It's a touch slower and longer but assures you are at or over high horse near the governor ready to get the next one and start rolling against the upgrade with some power.

I don't know where that student schooled at, but people are not consistently schooled across the board I would think. So results in a wide range of quality of newbie drivers. Some have good trainers, others are not trained very well and think they should showboat or abuse the truck in road tests to wow the test giver and others. These are the ones that don't get jobs.

 

Get your CDLs at the local community college and then sign on with Watkins Shepard. They will not make you train separately. Work for them for a year with no accidents or tickets and then move on to something better.