New female driver with female drive partner All advice and tips needed!!!

First, don't worry about low pay; no one starts out on top of the pay scale. What's wrong with a contract? It's a good deal, like a barter. The company is providing you with schooling, a cdl and a job, plus taking a big risk with you since you have no experience. All the company wants is a return on their investment in you for the training.
CRST near Fontana specializes in team freight and has cdl school. The commitment is only 10 months. The main reason people fail at CRST is they are assigned a team driver they don't get along with, but in your case, you already know you'll team with your friend, so that's a non-issue. Probably make decent money there on a "Expedited" account, so ask about that. One soon to be driver posted he was offered a run from Southern California to the East Coast and back; over and over so he already knows he'll get plenty of miles every week.

Celadon - has cdl school and runs teams and solo drivers. Meals & lodging provided.
Jim Palmer Trucking - has school in Missoula,Montana and can run teams. Meals & lodging provided.

All these companies will provide transportation to get to the school from your home.

 

Be prepared for a drug test on day one.
Google for "Free CDL Practice Tests" and there's also Free CDL Practice Tests on this website. Scroll to top of this page and put the cursor on the 3 horizontal bars, then click on Free CDL Practice Tests. Memorize, word for word, even if you don't know what the heck it is, just memorize it.

 

It's a great career. You should do really well, especially since you'll be teaming with someone you know.

 

double post....

 

First off, I welcome you two.

Second off, two newbies trying to make it against the world so to speak (To paraphrase, bear with me) will make for some stories to tell your children someday or at least forum content. LOL. I advocate that your school will teach you just enough to get a CDL, then a company trainer (Provided he or she is a good one...) will follow a structured book given to him or her (I think both of you need a female trainer, remove as much distractions and potential issues re: Men for the time being...) and in that book is a range of things both of you will need learning. Then you both will be tested seperately and see if your performance etc is acceptable to the company to hire one or both of you.

I suspect a company will be reluctant to form a team consisting of two newbies. I want to tell you that the first year of both your trucking lifes is so short, easily gone. But pack with so much learning, blood, sweat and tears or.... sunshine and success, piles of money you are too tired to spend this friday night.

I recommend you both stay with a good female trainer (Each of you) for a while. I think the trainer can be rewarded with salary beyond normal pay because she will be losing students retaining both of you. (Two trainers, one for each of you. Do not allow a situation where there is three souls to a tractor trailer...) The goal is to make both of you somewhat effective when alone, and team together.

Many of my posts related to teaming. Instead of digging all that up, I suggest you search via my handle, then Husband Wife Team, you will see a number of posts from me about our time together, wife and I running as a team. Iowa is a subtopic that comes to mind, I don't know how to reference that specific load to you to read, it's one of the better material. Maybe a mod will take pity and help.

Anyhow.

You are fixing to go out into these United States. I hope that you have had some travel. Because you are fixing to get a life times worth of travel until you are either going to thirve and love it for 50 years or get burned out in 9 months. Winter is coming in about 2 months. You have alot to learn relatively quickly.

Fortunately good automatic transmissions with extreme effective jacobs systems backed by Radar and Big horse engine plus a strong ABS system and relatively new equiptment will give you two a fighting chance. I don't know if you have been inside a modern tractor trailer. These things are palaces. Bordering on excessive luxury offerings that make sure that when you run a hard day's work you will get rested relatively speaking.

The first thing you need is to get together a spray bottle. Fill it with a cleaner of your choice. (Anti Bacterial is one part) then add 10% bleach to it. Purchase two or three shop towels rolls. Once you have a clean truck, and have a shower often, and eat and drink well that is the first step to driver being healthy out there on the road.

Buy two cases of large quality water. Nothing fancy. Just distilled water. Something like 48 quart bottles, put that under your bunk. Hydrate as your body tells you are thirsty. You will constantly be travelling around the USA between say the Sonoran Desert where you need 8 bottles of water per day to maintain your systems and especially your blood and particularly your eyes and vision) And end up in the snowy redwoods by morning 2 feet in snow watching the rain come down. Sometimes people unused to that level of travel will get sick. It takes a time to build up stamina and be able to get hard.

The biggest struggle for both of you is real simple. Once you two are a team, then you both can split the entire 24/7 day and night into half for you, half for her. And essentially there will be no more limitations to your HOS total allowed per week. You both will be allowed to work/drive 70 each, total 140 hours, total 168 hours in the week. Follow me? That truck at .60 a mile to each of you (Total 1.20) on a 3200 mile haul from Yakima Washington to Boston Market in 60 hours will generate a payroll approaching 3900 gross for the two of you. Maybe even 8000 gross should you both get back to Seattle within 7 days.

It's a pie in sky money. That was O/O money back when I bought a tractor in the early 90's to make a living. Now it's something between 1.90 to 3.00 a mile paid for those trucking companies who are not protected by a Non discolosure Legal agreement not to talk about anything. Especially that unicorn 5.00 a mile run.

Anyhow...

Stay with whatever company you both join. IF that company is any good at all, they will pay you both a few thousand dollars in your first year. You learn to file perdiem, and so on. (If you are homeless, make sure the driver's louge supervisor is your mailing address. Some older truckstops have post offices in which you can rent a box without trouble.

Finally not lastly. If I ask you to run a Little Rock to Memphis to get loaded... 200+ paymiles, then go to Detriot to deliver a load which will be close to 650 miles more or less for next morning then you have on paper going to earn 850 miles x .60 a mile for a total of $510.00 Gross. Taxes, withholding etc will be taken out, then the net will go out to you via satellite comms. Call it 380.00 NET. Whoo hoo..

Whoa there. Take 180, put that into savings. Run on the 200., of that you will deliver tomorrow. So... set aside 150 more into savings. Run, eat etc on that 50 dollars left. (Showers etc) for yourself.

It's a business. When you are empty in detriot tomorrow morning, there should be 330 in your savings. Why? Trucking has a hard time componet to it. You will work many miles one week, and suddenly it might be 3 weeks on no miles before you get good miles again.

Which is why you and your teammate should always be very careful. Having a Team in trucking, one who does not fight, gamble, drink, argue or have domestics etc and deliveres all loads assigned on time each week is a very, very, VERY FINANCIALLY VALUE to both you two and to the company whose name is on your door.

You do not understand yet the value of teams in earnings potential. Provided you two stay away from the so called emergency racing around taking loads from late and lazy singles, but actually running straight coast to coast twice a week with a actual no touch load, drop and hook etc. You two will have so much money really fast.

When that happens, put it into the bank. (BORING...) leave it there. Don't touch it.

Just in case you run over someone's feet at a right hand turn with your trailer, get sued and fired for it.

 

Just to be on the safe side, have a place with a physical address on it, not only for your CDL, but to also have a place to go back to, should the need arise.
This can be a studio apartment, a room in a rooming house, or a cheap motel room that you feel comfortable with.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Me and my wife have been teaming 10 years now. Wish we had started LTL linehaul from the beginning. More money and weekends off. We each are grossing 90k a year. Run we are on has us at house 4 hrs everyday also. Get your hazmat doubles/triples and tanker endorsements. We drive for R&L carriers. I have a thread on here "husband wife team R+L carriers". We need teams right now to run terminal to terminal. All drop and hook.

 

Here's another one you can research for teams and cdl training:
Contract Freighters Inc. (www.cfidrive.com)