Need advice from successful husband/wife teams.. PLEASE

Do you mean from switching to team your personal income has dropped or do you mean it dropped from slow fright,economy etc and that is why you switched to team?

 

As a solo driver I used to make 1350 to 1400 gross per week. With the economy slowing down (and my pay checks getting smaller)I convinced my wife to go through truck driving school in November of last year to take advantage of the team freight my company recently started pulling (about a year or so they started hiring teams). She graduated at the end of November and began training 1 week later.

I was able to train my wife for 6 weeks personally (she received 100.00 per day and we got a hotel each night on the companies dime). I got a 750.00 referral bonus for bringing her on plus they paid me all the miles the truck turned, stop pay, drops, hooks, congestion, detention, etc. plus an additional 30.00 each day for training her.

Now we have a dedicated route from Pennsylvania to California and back each week. Miles are about 5200 total. I get .24 cpm she gets .23 cpm plus we split all the accessorial pay down the middle. So now running as a team we are able to gross a little under 2500.00 per week and be home for 1 to 2 days per week to boot.

Teaming is where it is at right now. We turn about 900 to 1000 miles per day and shut the truck down for 6 to 8 hours each night to get some quality rest.

For the teams that "turn and burn" 20 plus hours a day my hats off to you. 16 to 18 hours a day of bouncing in a big truck is plenty for us.

 

My husband has been a driver for many years. We have been talking about me getting my CDL and team driving with him. He would like to be the one to train me. Any suggestions as to companies that this could be accomplished with?

 

I guess alot depends on where you live and is your husband willing to work for a company that may offer him the opportunity to train you.

Eastern has done this for me as well as 1 other couple that joined about a year ago but I believe it is on a case by case basis. Can't hurt to call the recruiter and ask.

Other than Eastern you could check into Us Xpress. I think they used to offer a "train your spouse program."

 

My honey and I plan to team when I get my CDL, but we would like to know what companies are good for this. What companies out there will let the experience partner (him, 21 years) train the inexperienced (me, 0 years). I've read that Schneider has a program for this and heard that CRST does too. Any thoughts? Any other companies out there? FWIW, my fiance and I work well together. Both very organized, take-care-of-business, no nonsense people. I don't think we'll have trouble working out the particulars. I saw in this thread that the wife did the night driving because she had more stamina at it and the husband handled the day driving. Wow, that sounds like us! I used to work 3rd shift and loved it. Had no trouble staying up all night. Him? uh huh. Days for him. We've already talked about who would drive when and yes, I get the night shift haha.

 

For hours: Switching shifts is generally not a good idea. Your body needs to establish a rhythm to stay healthy. Keeping a 12-hour shift (with a little bit of flexibility on either end) keeps your body happy. Don't vary more than a couple hours on either end and try to get back to "normal" as soon as possible.

For driving styles: I agree with an earlier poster; just drive how you drive and, if your husband doesn't get your point about trying to drive smoothly, drive like he drives for a while. I can sleep through almost anything other than being thrown out of the bunk, so I'm not as good about this.

For those who are talking about letting their spouse train them: I would advise against it myself. Training is pretty stressful and can put a lot of strain on your relationship. There are some special couples out there who can do it; I would say most can't.

For those who want a good company for teams: Watkins-Shepard has a great dry van team setup. We run flatbed, but have several friends running van.

Finally, regarding hours: we split at 2 am/ 2pm. I drive well early in the morning, but don't do well with evening traffic/lights. He does great. I can drive as early as 10 pm without too much trouble, but 2 am just works well for us.

Sorry for babbling.

 

if you and your wife are still trucking together and how you've managed through the recession. Is the pay more or less where it was when you posted? My boyfriend and I have talked about trucking together for a long time. He has been a trucker for a while, but I need reassurance that I will be able to continue to pay my bills if I quit my current job to do this.

 

I am not sure who this post was directed toward but I will answer. My wife had some health issues and had to get off the truck October of 2010 for surgery. Since then she has not healed sufficiently enough to get a release from her primary care physician to return to work as a truck driver. I have been operating as a solo driver since October of last year.

The recession took its toll on my company as well as our earnings. Pay cuts, an increase in the cost of family medical insurance, suspension of 401k contributions, and finally suspension of all bonuses.

As far as yearly earnings as a team they broke down as follows; 2008=126k, 2009=120k, 2010=108k. As you can see, a steady decline in our earnings which wreaked havoc with our personal finances.

I guess the moral to the story is do not expect a steady increase in your earnings in the current economy. Live well below your means if possible and squirrel away as much cash as you can when times are good. You never know when someone is going to get sidelined due to sickness or injury.

 

This is very helpful. Are you and O/O or company driver? Even with your 2010 earnings, it's far and above what my boyfriend and I make separately. So sorry about your wife's illness. Hope she will someday be able to join you back on the road.

 

Are you still driving together? How is it going?