Is it worth it to do teams?

I teamed for 3 weeks with my mentor at swift. He was really cool and we got along great. But it was also my limit for teaming. I can't sleep when the trucks moving and I prefer solitude. Unless it's a one off (like if they need a load in cali asap can you team with x there and back?) I will never do it again.

 

I wanted to murder my trainer after 3 weeks. Guy really got on my nerves between his sabotaging his Apple juice with piss and constant pushing on my buttons to get me to crack. I will only trust 2 people to drive teams with, my dad that has 30 years on the road, and my wife, who I would have to personally train.

 

If i could clone me I'd run teams haha

 

Who gave you the notion you make more driving team??

 

Individual preference and compatibility of the drivers usually settles the question. You can get hints about how team driving may work out for you, but you won't know for sure until you team with the person. Riding with a trainer will likely give you some insight on your ability to sleep while the truck is rolling, but it tells you nothing about you and your future team driver. Obviously if you can't sleep in a rolling truck, I hardly got any sleep, it may not be possible to drive team. It's a pretty small space for 2 grown adults to live 24/7. "If you slurp that coffee one more time I will run this truck off a bridge!"

 

Trucks bounce around a lot, much more than you could imagine, even on what you would consider smooth road. If you are one of those freaks that can sleep through anything then you will probably be OK.

 

In my personal opinion, the only time that another individual should be in the truck with you is when you are under instruction by a trainer, which can be any where from 3 weeks to 3 months, depending upon both you and the company. During that time, use it to LEARN and RETAIN as much as possible.

Afterwards, you are much better off being by yourself, as a SOLO driver. You are going to be under a LOT of pressure to be the safest driver possible, while making all of your deliveries on time. All too often, having an individual in the truck with you can DRASTICALLY INCREASE the pressure, especially if the personalities, capabilities, and ambitions of the team driver is different from yours.

Many people, myself included, can endure a lot of stresses much better being alone or solo, vs. having someone "watching" or "supervising" them. It is often easier to both learn and recover from stressful situations when you do NOT have an individual there to either "criticize" or "critique" you.

In some cases, you may have made a mistake that is CORRECTABLE, and you do NOT want someone to "tattletale" on you. It could potentially get you written up, disciplined, or cause you to be outright terminated from the company.

In some HOPEFULLY VERY RARE cases, the team driver may be doing something ILLEGAL or perhaps brought some ILLEGAL or PROHIBITED contraband or substances onto the truck. Either way, it could potentially get you terminated and legally put away into the penitentiary, only because it is as much your truck as it is the team driver's truck.

Also, especially for an OTR truck driver, that truck is your home. Sharing your home with another person, even with the best person with the best of intentions, can be outright STRESSFUL.

If I was a truck driver, especially an OTR truck driver, in addition to having all my logs and records straight, I would be absolutely meticulous about NOT having any ILLEGAL or PROHIBITED contraband or substances inside the truck. I would also NOT have any "visitors" come inside the truck at all, unless it was a law enforcement officer doing a legal search or inspection of the truck, both inside or outside.

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

 

NOT sure, I think Crete and Prime have lengthy training periods with the instructor inside the truck with the student, I could be quite wrong about this.

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