Team or Solo?

For sure solo, that cab is small and heated arguments can get ugly, even if it was a husband, wife team. Although i feel that the husband, wife team would have to be the way to go and they would have to be really dedicated in there goals. I talked to a few teams a while back and there goal was to do it for an x amount of years and then pay cash for a house and to live on when they finally call it quits and then find local jobs and then enjoy life from there on......

 

Teaming with a stranger would be complete and total hell for me. No amount of money would make it even remotely attractive to me. I'm an introvert and a bit of a loner by nature, which makes OTR driving a good job for me. Companies that force you to team with a stranger have exactly 0 concern for their drivers. There is the previously mentioned safety aspect of it, and the mental anguish that it would cause. I would never work for a company that forced me to team.

 

It's like the Lone Ranger and Tonto sharing a horse. Or a wife having two husbands.

 

some people team great and some dont, you see some couples getting along well and some who want to tear each other up and wreck the truck while the other sleeps.

Always will be solo for me, my old trainer tried to get me to go team with him since he knows I can run hard when i want to, he even offered a nice incentive pay scale but I still said no. And now that I have my dedicated I make plenty solo.

 

I teamed for 4.5 years. I wouldn't advise teaming unless you're really familiar with your potential co-driver (temperment, ability, and how they keep their house), and you can handle how your potential co-driver drives a car. If you don't like their temper, how they drive, how they keep house, their attention to detail, etc, then don't team. Teaming with someone you don't know well is usually a recipe for disaster.

My co-driver and I are a couple, we decided to go driving together, and went to school together, with the intention of teaming once we got out. When we were hired, our company actually trained teams together, so we went out together, until she dislocated her ankle 7 days out. I finished my training with my trainer, then I drove solo until she finished hers, then we hopped in the truck and teamed together.

I thought we were going to kill each other the first year we were in the truck. We didn't know much, and while 2 heads are better than 1, when you're frustrated and anxious and confused, 2 heads is double the confusion. We had to consolidate stuff into a space smaller than a walk in closet, learn to sleep while the truck was moving, learn to drive and be mindful of the other person sleeping, and do a lot of things we wouldn't have had to do solo.I don't regret that we did it. After we worked out the kinks, it was great, and we survived 4.5 years on the road. It only ended because we scored local jobs with our company.

I wouldn't recommend teaming unless you're super familiar with someone, and can handle how they live and drive. Teaming up with a classmate, or someone you just met? Not a good idea

 

For many people, probably myself included, the only thing worse than forced team driving would be having to share a cell with another convict in the penitentiary, GOD FORBID!!

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

 

Well while most here are naysayers on team driving, here are some advantages from my experience teaming, (the obvious caveat being that your co driver and yourself get along, ability to give a good reach around ect)

But more seriously, teams are normally better paid and get longer runs.

You don't have to #### around at truck stops getting parking, just switch and go.

In my job I can get good miles and still be home 2 days a week, doubt i could do that with a lot of solo gigs.

Also makes sense that if you have freight that needs to get there fast, you would have a team do it,no brainer really.

Obviously if you get stuck with a neandrethal browed anally explosive gobshite then it wouldn't be much fun.

My co driver and I were strangers when we started but are firm friends after a year and wouldn't consider solo OTR as this works better for us