Is it time to move on?

It's funny because i think i know the company you are talking about

AND if you're in NE AND the kids are going to be gone, then you're actually in a VERY good position, so everything is not quite adding up..............

Perhaps we should go to PM.

 

Teams get priority over solo drivers & seniority has nothing to do with that. If the more senior solo drivers don't like it, well , they can run teams, but they won't. Most drivers won't run teams even if it means more money and I'm one of them. Husband/wife teams are a whole different world because they're married and the paychecks go to the same household.

 

If you're in pittston and wanting to team, then you're sitting on top of a gold mine. And if you don't realize this, then something isn't adding up/(or the company you're with isn't the one i'm thinking of.....) i'm talking about $1500 gross per driver per week minimum w/ 4 day work week. So that's $3000 gross to the household. i suggest a new suburban or silverado 2500 pickup.

We should probably go to PM.

 

Tell them you and husband want a team position.

 

Check out SAIA LTL Freight

 

Not all trucking is this bad. However I dare say not all trucking is that great either.

I don't participate in union or non union politics. Boiled to simplest equation for me as a 21 year old in the Port of Baltimore I watched the Union Men sit in what was called the long house in early morning. If their names are called they get to run the crane or whatever position for that work shift. Sometimes they are bad behaving or otherwise on time out like misbehaving children and sit there waiting for a call that does not come from the assignment desk. In other words unpaid for a while.

I was offered a place in that dock. I told them no sir, Im still young and I intend to run the entire USA. I had too much wanderlust and a goal however long it took me in life. It was a nice oppertunity, but it's not for me.

Trucking is feast and famine. When you are buried in work you set aside savings any way you can because next week you might sit a while with no loads.

Union does offer certain things in life should you last long enough in that kind of employement. But... if you are not happy for whatever reason, you need to sit down together in nuetral ground (As in away from your homes somewhere good) and talk this out carefully. Make a list of pro and cons, make a wish list. And finally make a list of what you wont put up with in life.

100 people wanna drive a truck. I tell you that in 2 years I figure about 30 are still driving for a variety of reasons. With that kind of turn over it's a young person's game. You will have times of plenty and you will experience a time of starvation (Maybe too strong a word... enduring is a better one, learning to enjoy a single bowl of soup and making the work success on time as assigned) It goes through a awful lot of people awfully quickly. Sometimes kills them, other times disables some like myself and frankly it's not for everyone. I'll die a trucker. I knew I would be one as a kid. Partly to escape the growing micromanagment in the cubicles that I discovered very early on in employment. Here kid fold this stack of envelopes and hurry up we gotta go to lunch now.

piss on the envelopes. Im backing into your warehouse to load a million dollars in medicines for your sick relatives now in Memphis prior to getting out of OTR for medical reasons. THAT is worth doing. Because people are sick and will have that medicine the next morning at the hospital bed no matter the weather in the USA.

Things like that makes life worth living as a trucker. I refuse to be abused. Sometimes I am without a choice.

I dont want to rant about bad things or good things. It is your life. And that of those you love. You need to do it together as one or go do something else that MIGHT be more fulfilling to both of you.

Here is a hint.

Husband wife teams are in my time the most... well paid. Disgusting amounts of money are thrown at good H/W teams and for very good reasons. But be very careful with that future because in the hands of a cheap company with a thousand volvos all needing maintaince yesterday... they can abuse you both badly. And both of you will be not happy with this industry.

And... you two need to talk this through. You are fixing to be living in a closet together 24/7 unable to get away from each other and committed to appointment times as a team. That truck must be on time regardless of your little ... battles with one another. That is a different bucket of worms to go over entirely.

It's not for everyone. At the present time the industry is a very dirty unclean one. It will become apparent to you both just how bad it is out here in some areas of the USA. MAYBE if you are lucky you will run in nice areas with good people. If not? ugh. Follow me?

 

Treading water is ok as long as you can keep your head up.
When you start to dip below the surface repeatedly, and are getting tired, with the shore nowhere in sight...
It weighs on you.
Financially. Emotionally. In the marriage.
Some things are more important than $$$.
The unseen damage being done to his health due to the stress (it's there), the finances, being apart, aren't worth it.