Re-Thinking Team Trucking

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Most team truck drivers didn’t attend truck driving school as a team. Usually, each driver trains and graduates as a solo driver. When they start driving for the trucking company they chose to work with, they’re usually still in a solo driver mindset. Even after graduating from truck driving school, a trucking company requires that you drive with at least a trainer for the first two to three months. Sometimes there will be another driver — YES, three drivers in the truck — at the same time… Ugh! 

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I often ask drivers if they ever thought about taking on a co-driver and I’ve gotten some very interesting responses! Lol The most common answers were:

1. I don’t even want to be around my husband/wife that long.
2. I tried working with a co-driver, but it didn’t work.
3. I ran as a team with a man/woman I was dating, but we broke up.
4. I couldn’t get used to sleeping in a moving truck.
5. My co-driver couldn’t drive, so I couldn’t get good sleep.
6. They didn’t like animals, so they had to go!

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These are just a few of the reasons I’ve heard. It’s funny and sometimes scary, the reasons why people don’t drive as a team. One big misconception about driving as a team is that the pay is way better… SO NOT TRUE! Many companies route their team trucks for longer runs so they aren’t sitting in a dock, killing their hours for the day. Instead, the dispatcher will have them take 900+-mile runs or have their team truck on a “drop and hook” route. This way the team isn’t hitting as many docks, and can keep moving the loads.

If the money is all you’re looking at, think about it very carefully! With a “drop and hook” schedule, as long as the company has the freight to keep the truck moving, the truck and its drivers can make some pretty good money.

When a truck is covering about 5000 miles each week, each driver should earn an income on the higher side of a team truck driving scale. Even when you divide the money per mile by 2, at $.25 for each driver, they’re each still looking at about $1250 per week… not peanuts! That’s not to mention whatever benefits and safe-driving bonuses they may receive. Unfortunately, it often takes a few years for a team to work their way up the driver ladder to be able to get consistent miles like this, but it can certainly be worth the wait!

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A solo driver will cover, at most (legally) about 3000 miles each week. They’ll most likely have to hit a dock every day, taking up a few hours, and cutting into their sleep/ rest time. A solo driver earning $.37 per mile will gross about $1110 at this rate. That’s just a few dollars less than the team drivers in the above example, but the energy and hours to get the job done. Although it is somewhat difficult to get good sleep while the truck is moving, the stress alone can make working with a co-driver well worth the fewer hours of sleep.

In either case, truck driving is not an easy profession. Between dispatchers, shippers/ receivers and other vehicles — other truck drivers, too — it takes a special type of person to get on the road in a 60+ ft vehicle and move loads from one place to another, rarely getting the “proper amount of rest”. Then they get up and do it all over again… FOR YEARS! 

The average OTR truck driver’s pay barely tops $40k per year, whether they run as a solo or team truck driver. A company will have you think that their company is the best trucking company to drive for. Every trucking company has its pros and cons. It’s no wonder that truck drivers are looking at any and all ways to make more money.

Let’s face it…  you’re going to be away from your family and home for weeks or months at a time. This is the part that many recent truck driving school graduates have a hard time dealing with. And the trucking company recruiters who come to your truck driving class don’t tell you.

A solo OTR driver hears about how great it is to work with a co-driver. A team truck driver is told that driving solo is the way to go. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Simply put… there is no right or wrong way to work as an OTR truck driver. You have to figure out what works best for YOU! I do know this… the transportation industry has been, and will continue to go through some major changes. Hopefully, these changes won’t drive you out of the trucking industry!