WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE DRIVING TEAMS?

I hope I can explain this in a way anyone can understand.

FFE was pleased to put on a round trip series for about 7 weeks give or take 24/7 between NJ and CA for wife and I, she was still in training so paid her 350 flat weekly and me about 1500+ net call it 2200 gross or whatever total 2500 to house gross on paper. (Our deducts to fed and state in excess of W2 to build savings for new trucking year, we usually get four to five figure refunds)

Anyway. Run 5700 miles in 6 days.

AFTER our training our pay to the truck came out to about .75 per mile to the two of us.

IF we were not flat paid or salary paid that 5700 miles in 6 days is worth 4200 or so dollars to us.

Don't you see? Sometimes that nice salary comes out to be half of what you otherwise would have made on actual miles for the two of you (Husband and wife) Company keeps the rest. So during that seven week period call it 42000 mileage run to us but we only got salary which is about half what it would have been otherwise.

Estimated permile .75 would be about $31500 gross to the house bank and salary over 7 weeks times 2500 or so came out to be around 17000 dollars. FFE keeps the other 15000 or so.

 

For a lot of different reasons, but mainly because I had three years experience when I went to Yellow. Driving out west on those big mountains in bad weather with those experienced drivers taught me how to handle it, and taught me how to be confident that I could handle it while having a guy who could give me advice in the truck with me.

And it also proved the point that there is more than one way to drive a truck. Guys would give me advice that was on the polar opposites of the spectrum, and I would have to apply it to my driving style and see what worked for me.

The two holy grails of advice that I ever got were following distance (####ing football fields in front of you. What do you care? Let it all happen way the #### up there where it doesn't affect you, so you have time to react if something happens) and tach driving.

Basically tachometer driving is not paying attention to your speed in snow, but paying attention to your RPMs. You find the low torque point in your engine's output, and you pin it there. It's generally somewhere higher in the RPM level. Much less chance to spin your tires. I haven't broken traction in many years doing it.

That latter one is the best advice I've ever gotten, and that's why I miss my man Jeff. He taught me the best technique I've ever found in trucking. Wisdom, man. That's what today's trucking industry is missing, and what most trucking companies don't feel the need to pay for.

 

...you will be WASTED