Team driving is a scam

It is very difficult for two people to get along in a small box, even for a husband wife team. (If any of you have spent any time at all married, it's even more special getting one spouse or the other to listen and mind lessons to learn...)

I had some trouble with my spouse now and then as she had trouble with me once in a while on the road on bad days. It is human to be mad about something that is not doing well but if it is not taken care of asap and that mad person made ok again, then it festers and becomes a REAL problem. Same with single drivers.

I offer you the a broken A/C system as a example. Driver gets mad. But what you want to do is fix that A/C asap and spend a little money (Not that you really want to...) to make driver happy. If you fail to fix that A/C it will fester into a real nasty bad war against you and your company in a few days.

Once in St Louis my spouse was angry with me for percieved mistreatment when docking the previous night. I asked her to hop out so I can get the trailer in and did not do it the right way. ANYway it festered on the spouse and developed into a no no which is a full blown domestic arguement at 65 mph rolling down the freeway complete with bad words and armwaving.

A detective spotted us from the middle lane having trouble with each other and at that point the truck was a threat to everyone around including him. He pulled us over essentially ending the entire argument and pulled a sham inspection process with the real goal of seperating us and listen to our problems that hour. And he did. He spent one hour with the spouse and she was fine and spent some time with me making me safe again to drive on and I think to this day he saved lives. With that little manuver.

It's a rarity. because when that truck is parked, spouse and I knew enough to leave work in that truck. We don't look at it, we don't visit it, we don't talk about it. We are literally OFF DUTY at home. That means all things trucking OUT. Not allowed in the house until it's time to pack up and go to Memphis. For us that was the key to harmony and peace at home. Leaving the workplace problems with the truck, you can burn that tractor trailer we don't care (We do but for purposes of establishing how little that truck means when home...)

For strangers to do team together, that's a little different. It can be done. But if I was to team with some stranger, it will be a pretty intense process of making discovery what makes the stranger go. Example. Do you run at night or not? Are you lazy? You able to work unloading 48,000 off the floor? (That means I will be in that trailer with you working too...) and so on. find the weaknesses and vices too. If you like to go to the strip joints to play with the female, I might have dispatch route us to states without them so that you are not distracted.

I had one who was my trainer first and later a team partner. It was a good team for purposes of running that truck down the road and I retained much of what I learned from him for all future teaming during my time out there. We had what we called radio wars. At night I'll pass the miles listening to Unshackled or some other radio programming dealing with the word of God in human problems and vices etc while he is trying to sleep. Or I would be listening to his metal music while trying to sleep. Basically a christian on one side of the truck and a hellion on the other. *Shrugs. However what made us work well was not religion, it was a combined goal to get that truck down the road no matter the weather etc. That was a good team effort.

I recall another who did not last one hour with me. He demonstrated unstable talk and behavior. I had the truck back at the shop to drop him off which is pretty much the best way to handle a potentially explosive problem safely. I never saw him again, apparently the birdie on the wall heard and saw him continue to be unstable in front of officers of the company trying to decide what to do with him and ultimately discharged him from the work force. You cannot be demonstrating signs of mental problems whatsoever in trucking. At that time we just had a trucker aim his company tractor trailer into a state house out west all over the news. I'll have to research it and find it to link if any of you are interested in a classic mental trucker problem.

Alls well that ends well. Have a great time out there.

 

I could have sworn teams make money so long as the truck is rolling, not individual miles. So a team being paid 50 cpm each pays 100 cpm to the truck on all miles. Teams from what I've gathered make money hand and fist over solo drivers.

 

Yeah but I don't think anyone pays quite that much. Generally when they list team pay it's a split, such as, we pay 62 cpm split. That means you make 31 cpm, but on every single mile the truck moves.

 

Nothing like being in tight quarters and inhaling another mans farts.

 

For me teaming was a nightmare. He short shifted every driving shift, leaving me in the lurch when it was my turn to drive. I never slept and he was paid for miles he didn't drive. Dude even ate all my food, drank my coffee and stole some of my belongings lol. My first solo check was more than double the team checks

 

That was a funny line

 

LOL that's hilarious!

 

Serious?! Haha it's like a Ringly Bros clown car!

 

This dude was a layer cake of confusion. He didn't understand brevity. I was scaling a Georgia Pacific load and didn't have time to start playing with the 5th wheel or sliding tandems due to him not driving his miles, so I compensated by calculating less fuel. We have no time to spare and he's friggin shopping! I almost left him there. He actually wanted to start a discussion about about bridge weight and how we could take on more fuel. It was surreal. I called our manager and told him to find me my own truck because that guy could "complicate a hamburger. "
Haha

 

They should ban the practice outright IMO and it would instantly make the trucking industry a little less awful. If anybody really gave a crap about safety then requiring a parked 10 hour break for anybody on the truck wouldn't be a bad place to start.