Truck drivers that you should not team with

I was a team driver for 2.5 years. During that two and a half years, I had about 10 teammates. My goal as a team driver was to make as much money as possible. Through experience, I learned about what type of truckers one should not team with if one wants to make as much money as possible.

Here is a list of the type of truck drivers that you should not team with:

1# The truck driver who is always at the terminal.

I was a trainer for about two and a half years. I would go to my home terminal whenever I upgraded a student. Then I would go on hometime for a week. Then after a week, I would return to my home terminal to pick up a new student. I would also go to my home terminal from time to time over the years to pick up or deliver trailers, to get a DOT Physical, and for other miscellaneous reasons. So I would go to my home terminal about 10 to 15 times per year.

My sixth or seventh student was a guy I will call Tim. I was a trainer for about a year and a half after Tim upgraded. I got along well with Tim while he was my student. One thing that I noticed is that whenever I was at the my home terminal over the next year and a half, I would usually run in to Tim at the home terminal. I probably saw Tim at the home terminal about 7 or 8 times over the next 18 months after Tim upgraded. So about a year and a half after Tim upgraded, I was banned from being a trainer for six months because my company found a sleeping pill on my truck. I needed a teammate. I saw Tim on the list of people looking for a teammate. I was thinking about calling Tim and offering to team with him, but then I changed my mind. It occurred to me that whenever I was at the terminal in the daytime, Tim was almost always also at the terminal. Unless through fantastic coincidence Tim just happened to only be at the terminal while I was there, Tim seemed to almost always be at the terminal. I don't know why that Tim was at the terminal. I just know that he was at the terminal. I don't know what was wrong with Tim. But there had to be something wrong with him for him to always be at the terminal. There is something wrong with any OTR driver who is always at the terminal. It occurred to me that if I teamed up with Tim, I would always be at the terminal too. And if I was always at the terminal like Tim, I would not make any money. So I decided not to team with Tim.

2# The truck driver who tries to get you to sleep on the top bunk while he is driving

I once teamed up with a guy named Todd. He had his own special mattress covers that he did not want me sleeping on. He suggested that I sleep on the top bunk while he was driving. I refused to do it. A few weeks later, he had to slam on the brakes while he was driving, and I wound up sliding out of the bed onto the floor. If I had slept on the top bunk like Todd wanted me to do, I would have gotten hurt real bad. I also ended up sliding out of the bed with another teammate who had to slam on his brakes as well.

If you team drive for long enough, eventually your teammate is going to slam on his brakes so hard that you will slide off the bed onto the floor. You need to be on the bottom bunk when this happens.

Any teammate who wants you to sleep on the top bunk while they are driving is either an idiot, or they don't care about your safety. Either way, you don't want to team with such a person.

3# The truck driver with several years of experience who does not have his hazmat endorsement

The company I used to drive for as a team driver pays drivers a lot of extra money if they have their hazmat endorsement. Drivers with the hazmat endorsement make about $12,000 extra per year than they would if they did not have hazmat endorsement. One time I was at a teaming meeting to find a new teammate, and I was considering teaming with this guy who had four years of experience. Then I found out that he did not have his hazmat, and I opted not to team with him because he said that the hazmat test is too hard.

Some truckers act like the hazmat test is extremely hard. I only studied about 6 hours total for the test over two days (3 hours per day), and I passed it with flying colors (which made me well over $50,000 extra income over the 5.5 years I was with that company). If they are too low IQ to pass the hazmat test, they are too low IQ to be my teammate. The hazmat test is not like trying to get a master's degree lol.

I have known other drivers that say that it's not worth the hassle of getting hazmat endorsement. LOL Like I said, hazmat drivers made over $12,000 more per year than drivers without hazmat. I think it might vary by state, but I think that in all states, the hazmat endorsement is good for at least two years before you have to re-take the hazmat test. So that means that for each time you pass the hazmat test, you are making at least an extra $24,000 over the two years. All for a test that can be done in one day. If the truck driver is so stupid that he thinks it's not worth taking one day to make an extra $24,000+ (at $12,000 per year) over two years, then he is too stupid to be my teammate.

If the truck driver is too lazy to get his hazmat endorsement, then he is too lazy to be my teammate. You won't make as much money with a lazy teammate as you would with a hard working teammate.

THe only exception to this rule is if you meet BOTH of these criteria: 1# You work for a company in which you will still get paid for having hazmat even if your teammate does not have hazmat, and 2# the truck driver does not get his hazmat because he cannot get the TWIC card because he is not a US citizen.

4# A truck driver with a different "smoking status" than you.

Non-smokers should only team with non-smokers. I don't want to smell your nasty, stinking cigarettes. If they agree to only smoke outside the truck, I still don't want to team with them. No offense to any smokers here, but in my experience, all smokers smell like an ashtray.

Smokers should only team with smokers.

5# A guy who lives really far away from the terminal or wherever you leave the truck on hometime.

One time I teamed with a guy who lived a thousand miles from the terminal. He would fly to the terminal after hometime to get back on the truck, while I lived only 15 miles from the terminal. I loaned him $20 one time, and he refused to pay me back because he had to spend hundreds of dollars on airfare to get to the terminal. It pissed me off because he is the one who wanted to team with me. He got a sense of entitlement because he had to commute so far to get to the terminal. So I would never team with someone who lives real far from the terminal ever again because the cost commuting gives them a sense of entitlement.

 

I have had my hazmat endorsement since 2012. I got my hazmat endorsement about 3 months into my 10 year career.

 

I don't fit into any of the five categories of drivers i say one should avoid. I am not always at the terminal. I don't try to get my teammate to sleep on the top bunk when I am driving. If my teammate and I are shutdown, and my teammate is sleeping on the top bunk, and I am about to start driving, I will wake my teammate up to get down to the bottom bunk.

I have had my hazmat endorsement since i got off the trainer's truck eleven years ago.

I am a nonsmoker, and i only team with nonsmokers.

I am only willing to team with drivers who live close to where I leave the truck on hometime.

I am not hypocritical.

 

Have y'all ever encountered truck drivers that meet my criteria of truckers one should not team with?

For instance, have you ever been to a terminal at least, say, six times in the daytime in the course of a year, and you saw the same OTR truck driver at that same terminal all six times? Whenever I see a truck driver like that, i always think "There's a few bricks missing from his building." LOL

 

This thread is not supposed to be about me per se.

This thread is about my criteria for truck drivers one should not team with.