Married couple wanting to team, we have tons of questions

You will ONLY have your CDL, once you earn it. There will be no DL from another state. The CDL includes your endorsements (get doubles/triples, tanker, & HazMat if possible) & passenger car privileges. You will turn in you current DL when you are issued a CDL. It's illegal to have multiple DL or CDL from multiple states.

 

You are mostly right except for the part about using a UPS store, etc as your CDL residence address. TN does not allow that. Those addresses are prohibited as CDLaddresses. You will need a physical address, same physical address for personal vehicle registration & one or more utility services (not cellphone, but electric, water, cable TV, etc) at same service address. You can provide a property tax receipt, IIRC. The OP can either have an OK DL/CDL or a TN DL/CDL. He/they cannot have one of each. The CDL replaces the DL. I'm very familiar with TN process.

 

I was thinking of a good analogy of what driving team with another person was like, in a way that non-truckers could understand, and this is what I came up with:

Driving team is like spending 20 hours a day with another person, sitting at your kitchen table. Maybe you have a radio, maybe also a mini-fridge, but for 20 hours a day, you have to sit right there with that person. To make it maybe a bit closer to the reality of trucking, also say that there are only 2 chairs at this table, but also a cot with a blanket underneath one side of the table. One of you can sleep while the other stares out the window for hours, occasionally drinking coffee and listening to the radio. But maybe once every 3 hours, you need to get up and use the bathroom. If the other person is sleeping, you also need to wake them up. For an hour, 4 times a day, you can both leave the table, only to go back to it, same as before. You do this every day for 2 or 3 weeks at a time.

 

this was an awesome read Mother Trucker: An Urban Couple Downshifts to Life on the Road
https://a.co/d/ixjiHSz

 

But what if she says after two months with trainer, she wants to stay with the trainer, then what do you do? Ha ha ha . Sorry could ‘nt resist. Ha ha ha

 

Just having fun, you know that, ha ha ha ha

 

A extended stay motel usually works for an address .

 

More accurate if you set to not very comfortable kitchen table chairs in the bathroom and close the door

bout the same size as a truck cab .