Thinking of taking the plunge into OTR driving....and trying to drag my wife with me

Never know if you don't try. Teams are the most sought after in this industry so you have that going for you. You can make really good money as a team, lots of drop and hooks. I have only teamed on special runs, like needing to pick up a truck or move a driver, but I never could sleep when the truck was moving so there is that problem.

 

No worries about money and miles. Teams burn up the highway. They do at the company I'm leased on to. Us solos call them "rescue teams". They are ALL the time rolling and ALWAYS have hours on their e-logs so when we run into a tight and cant deliver on time with the legal hours we have we message (and actually JCT watches that too in case we aren't LOL) and it's swap with a rescue team to get delivery on time and they NEVER want for miles. I'll be sitting and waiting when a team is steadily rolling. Only time they stop is for their mandatory 30 minute breaks, fuel, delivery time, or swap time and then whenever they just want to for a shower, in house meal or mutual down time or normal delays hold them up. I have a good team friend here and those two cats grumble if they make less than 8,500 miles a week cause of normal delays nobody can help cause the company sure has the miles for them. E-logs hamstringed the solo driver but they made for a real moneymaker for a team in repowering solos with HOS problems. Just remember, though, if you go with a lease company (like JCT) your miles are WAY up there so maintenance, tires and service roll by FAST because they are mileage based and also your exposure to road hazard repair is a little more than double a solo because the truck is rolling a little more than twice as many hours per day. My friend is out 10K in 2 weeks cause a rock hit the condenser, (no warranty - road hazard), a rock hit the left windshield, then a bird smashed the right and they needed new drives, and PM all at once cause the more miles - the more exposure to road hazard and maintenance; BUT they had plenty of money in escrow to cover it. That's deducted by the mile too (here anyway) so they racked up a big escrow quick. Sucks they had a big chuck come out like that though, but half was for the rock in the condenser. That could happen to anybody, solo or team, though. Guess they were lucky in they had team miles to bank team escrow money. If that'd happened to me I'd be negative in my escrow.

Main thing no matter what is you're young and you have each other so go wherever the fun takes you while you can. Team diving might be just the trick for you! Best of luck and above all be safe!

 

i was OTR as a solo, and the miles I wanted were scarce.

If you and the wife both want to do trucking, see who is in your area (company wise) and find out what local/dedicated routes they got and make the best decison. That way you're both home every night, can keep the dogs, and you will most likely have 2 days off in a row or weekends off. And the pay is better than OTR, you'll get a steady paycheck every week, same amount, and you can have a life.

my 2 cents.

i have no team driving experience other with my trainer at Werner and to say the least, the experience sucked.

 

My wife and I have been teaming at US Xpress for almost 2 years now. Together for 2014 we will make $120k. We highly recommend you get your wife on board to team. I recommend you get on a dedicated account because that's where the money is. We traveled all across the country and had plenty of downtime to enjoy the cities we were in.

 

Companies LOVE husband and wife teams. They are far more stable than just two guys (or gals) deciding to work together.

Swift has a gig where one of you can go through training, then upgrade on a one time basis to train your spouse. Although I wouldn't recommend this unless one of you has some form of at least Class-B experience and certainly not in the winter in any case. In that case it's better that each of you train separately with an experienced trainer.

My first trainee did the "Friends and Family" thing and upgraded to train his wife (he had extensive Class-B experience). They are into their third month as a full team and are doing very well: 100% on time, plenty of miles, and happy with their paychecks. Their plan is to run team for at least 4-5 years with no car, no rent, just road expenses in order to create a substantial nest egg. Right now they seem to be on track for about $100K in their first full year.

With no rent or car you can save a lot. For breaks from the truck take "home time" anywhere you want, get a hotel room and a rental car and take a few days off.