How to make money in trucking....????

Theoretically you are correct. However, from the experience of my brother, who drove solo until I came aboard a couple months ago, it is impossible to double the miles as a team. That is the crux of the team driving issue. We average about 170% more miles than a solo driver could book. This is why there is a net decrease in income per driver, especially for the owner/operator that pays miles to the codriver and needs to cover truck expenses. We need to split up in order to maximize our income.

 

not only is it easier to get 500 mi a day solo, but .42/mi is a lot better than .35/mi, and you get to sleep with the truck sitting still. not only that, but most of the teams that I have talked to spend a lot of time sitting in the truck stop.

 

35 cents was a theorectical number, not an actual number, young man (I'm guessing man as there is no indication in your profile). We did not have time to sit around truckstops, as our runs were scheduled, out and back. We are not talking C.R. England or Knight trainee teams. But, a team of proffessional, experienced drivers that know how to do a job without being babysat by a "Driver Manager", needing their noses wiped.

 

So, what is your hold up? Too many video games? Perhaps, your brother should look at his scheduling methods. Adding only 70% more miles is wasting way too much time.

 

In our case the "hold up" seems to be the company we are driving for (Landforce). Although they advertise for team drivers they don't seem to be able to keep a team logging miles. I noted in an earlier post (perhaps not on this thread) that my first month had about six days downtime, even though we wanted to keep the wheels turning. The second month logged six days Off Duty as well. Often we would be arriving back near home base on a Saturday, but with a Monday or even Tuesday delivery schedule. Other times we drop a load on a Friday at home, but don't get dispatched until the next Tuesday afternoon.

Even if we have ongoing long runs, it's difficult to get maximum miles in a 12 hour shift when we split shifts 12 hours per day. Usually we can't make the 11 hour minimum driving time if we have over 1 hour on duty time for fuel stops or other stops. Throw in traffic delays or unexpected slow downs due to weather and there is no way to make up that time if you are only able to log 12 hours on a shift. A solo driver can run extra time in the event of unexpected weather delays, a team driver cannot. Therefore in our practical experience we are getting about 170% of the miles as a solo driver can make.

When I was making an Excel spreadsheet to compare team versus solo driving I assumed you could get 200% of the miles, and the fixed costs of the truck could be amortized over more miles and result in a pay increase for each driver. This is not true and I would encourage anyone else to assume 170% miles as their benchmark for analysis. At best it seems to be a wash, at worst it will represent a pay decrease for an owner/operator unless they are paying minimum $/mile to the co-driver. For company team drivers, if they are working for a company that is capable of maximizing miles for a team (I'm thinking CRST with almost 100% drop and hook), then it may be possible to come close to doubling the miles.

 

$10000.00 fixed cost over 100 k miles versus 200k miles is only .05 per mile, would be splitting hairs for a deal. Not something I would use as the reason to do or not do something but as a benifit of you go long.

 

Actually, .35 a mi might actually be a fairly accurate number, and maybe even a little high. I do know a company that pays straight time by the hour, from the time you leave untill the time you get back, but they also do not do any backhauls, so the truck keeps moving. one of the drivers that I know makes 70k a yr doing that, but he punches in on monday and punches out on friday. He hauls trusses out of verona wi, drives out to the job, unload, head back. He nets about the same as I do as an o/o. as I stated in an earlier post, I had a pretty set route that got me pretty good miles as a solo driver. I didn't need any babysitting or nose wiping, that is how I got a dependable route. I know that if I had a team driver in the truck with me I would not have been able to double my miles. first of all because I am flatbed driver. there is some weekend work for flatbeds, but not enough to keep the truck rolling. and because trying to schedule delivery times to keep a team rolling seems to be an impossible task for the large companies

 

You can make more as a company driver team then solo. Reason is if your with the right company teams get more of the straight thru runs then a solo which will bounce around which leads to more sitting and waiting. Alot of good companies put Teams prioty over solo when sitting. A company I ran with which hauled spealizes stuff I made more money teaming then solo. I'd run coast to coast every week no stops in between. We start on mon morning wait 8 hrs for load, then run to the east drop trailer wait 8hrs for them to load and unload while getting wait time then run back to the west drop trailer get there Sat night wait til mon and start again. Took about 5.5 days gross 1800 per week with a 65mph truck. Solo it take me 7 days and SOMETIMES id make 1500 a week. Team seems like less work, solo you got to load and reload couple times a week unless your getting lucky with miles per load. Which most companies give the teams the long runs.

 

please, dont tell me you slept just as good while truck moving as you would just parked at truckstop... I did team with my best friend for a year too - worst thing ever

 

All depends on your co-driver. Some were very good and the ex-logtruck drivers sucked.