Team Driving Question

I would stick with the larger companies. Bigger companies=more trailers which=more drop and hook for teams which=more miles which=more money. DId you get all that?

 

New team ugh hope you guys get along real well, companies treat teams pretty good doesnt generally matter which one, but I hope you know what you are getting into

 

I currently run as a team, have for most of my 2yrs driving. I would tell you to make sure you really look into the company you are looking at. The company I work for cried for teams, so my partner who was brand new in trucking and myself went there, and are lucky if we get 5000 miles for the week and we have been top team for 3 of the last 4 mths we have been there. Ask how many trks they have, how many solos they have, how many teams they have, how many trailers they have, and what are the lanes they run thier teams. look at the ratios and also ask what the top 50% of thier teams are running for miles weekly, monthly and yearly. Find out how much of thier loads for teams is drop n hook, and how much is live load or unload. Ask them how long they have been running team frieght and what is thier team turn over rate. These are all things I have learned over the almost two yrs and most of it since going with the company Im with now. Stay away fom companies that want to start teams out at less then .44 cpm split, you will work twice as hard to earn less and .44 cpm split is industry average. make sure they are paying all miles to the trk, only a few left that pay based on what you log, in other words, you logged 2500 miles for the week, so you got .22 cpm and your team mate logged 3200 and got paid .22 cpm for 3200 miles instead of what the trk ran, 5700 miles at .44 cpm split 50/50. I hope this all helps you in finding the right company. If you have any questions ask, I will be home till the 6th, if i think of anything else I will re post. good luck

 

Great advice!

 

if a company has lets say 1500 trucks, and of those, 200 are teams, thats on the low side, i would look to see that number more around the 500 mark. when a company has that low a number, that means you may be doing more load saves then anything, so your looking at low milage runs. when a company has a higher number of team trucks, that shows they are running team frieght and will do more long hual miles instead of load saves. If a company has a high numbr of team trucks, and a low number of solo trucks, that could be a red flag. it could mean hey are loseing team frieght and acounts and are slowly merging over to sol frieght, but it will still take time if you goto a company like that. a company that say is 50/50, is still a good company, it means they are diversified and tring to cover all ends, but monitor it to make sure they are not losing teams or team trucks being switched to solo trucks. at the same time, a company that s all team, no solo, may hurt you. too many teams means your always in compition for loads, and those that produce are always going to get the miles, its the favorites game. I hope this helps and if you think of anything else, just ask. glad to be able to help ya. I will tell you this, when the economy is bad and frieght is down, teams are god to companies becuase you can move more faster, so in a competative sence, companies tend to treat teams better and run them more while solos will sit, its a cost factor. happy new year to you and yours as well

 

Hope you guys get along REALLY good; it may seem like it now outside of the truck but when you are in a small space with someone for an extended length people start to get on each others nerves a little more than usual.

 

Howdy, Zar
And welcome to the forums.

Before you make any final decision(s) as to which truckin' company(s)
you might be interested in, you might find some insight in the thread by Mrs. Redcoat, titled:
Covenant From A Wife's Perspective, I think it is.

By the stories she's been relating, I think Covenant would be a company to avoid.

 

I ran teams for Conway and it was a pretty nice gig while I was there although I can't say the same about their solo side

We ran an average of 6500 a week, paid .44 split for all miles to the truck so I was paid .22 for 6500 miles as was my team mate no matter who drove what. Great weeks we would break 7000, slow weeks were 5500 but the majority were mid 6000's running Chicago to LA area, back to Denver and up to Chicago again. Seemed to be our triangle. We made good money and always had ample time to take a shower and grab food on our runs as well, usually around a 55 mph dispatch so not too bad but you couldn't screw around.