Husband Wife Team Driving Help!

Thanks Scott D for your update on the situation with Covenant. Would love to hear more about your guys experience. We have still not made any decision as of yet. We are not in a position to "have" to move on from our current jobs...so we want to make sure we get all the info that we can.

My husband and I just completed the school part of our training with C.R. England and are awaiting a trainer to take us out on the road. Here, if you come in together, you go out together. So far, we are still very pleased with this company. No one has lied to or misled us, though many new students have been weeded out throughout the process, for various reasons... Drugs, disrespect, unable to pass tests, etc..

Well, I'll try this again. I was working on about a 500 word response when I must have hit the mouse pad on the laptop by accident. I got a tone from the laptop and my post was gone. Wonder where it went lol? Anyway, Jetguy, your idea sounds great if the company is willing to pony up for the hotel every day. Covenant was willing to put us, as trainees, in a hotel if we were not under a load. But quite honestly that was rare. As a team truck we were almost constantly in motion. Our runs averaged 2000 miles. (The first week out we drove over 6000 miles). Also, if we were going to be idle for less than 8 to 10 hours we just stayed on the truck - too much hassle and not enough benefit for that short of a period of time. We did do it at least twice when we each needed a 34 hr reset, or rather didn't want to run recaps because the amount of time coming back would have been too little to be beneficial for a long run in a tight window.

My wife and I split the day into two 12 hr shifts. She took the 2pm to 2am shift, I took 2am to 2 pm. That way we never ran out of our 14 hour clock and while one was on duty, the other was sleeping and getting their ten hour break in. Also that kept us on a schedule that we could get our bodies used to, right? Works good in theory lol. Inevitably when it was shower or laundry time, somebody's sleep got shorted as we couldn't get it to work out right to do that at "shift change" all the time. Also it took a few weeks before we could sleep through fuel stops, weigh station stops, etc. It seemed that any time the truck slowed dramatically or stopped, the "sleeper" would wake up. Now, being on home time, staying on/getting back on those schedules is proving to be a task lol.

We have lots of info to share about our experience in training with Covenant. It would probably be best to have questions to answer so I don't just ramble on. It might also be good to share the info in here as there isn't a lot about Covenant experiences on this site. But, I would also answer PMs if anyone preferred to ask questions that way. Wish us luck as we are about to embark on this journey without the luxury of an 18 year vet next to us to answer questions or offer guidance sitting right next to us. That is, of course, if our truck is ever ready to go out. That is another novel in and of itself. Hopefully we can meet some of the Trucking Truth folks out on the road. Hey Brett, ever think of having a Trucking Truth sticker to put on, say, the pass side window or pass side of the cab to let us know out there who is a "member" of the site?

Talk to you all later. Be safe. Scott and Maggie

Thank you for your insights Scott. I'm wondering what training cost you incurred. How long was the class room and driving portions? Were you able to continue working your original job and attend class at night? Have you ran across retiree teams? I assume a team can earn more than two individual drivers. If you are permitted/willing, can you let us know what you expect your combined annual earnings to be? Do any companies offer part-time opportunities? Are you permitted to refuse a run in order to be at a wedding or graduation etc? Do you know if certain companies target husband/wife teams? From your perspective, what companies do you believe are the best to drive for?

Hi Mark. I'll try to answer your questions the best I can. Please forgive if I miss one or the answer I give isn't helpful enough for you. As far as training goes, we went to a private school in the Cincinnati area in order to get our CDLs. It was a five week class, M-F. They also have a weekend class, which is much longer in duration due to only two days a week of training. Some of the students in our class were there with the help of government programs to help with the cost of the training. I'm sure most states have something like that depending on your eligibility. Also, there are trucking companies (like Swift, Prime, CR England, etc.) that will hire you and train you to get your CDL. You are working for the company, getting paid, and getting trained at the same time.

Back to our CDL training, we had two weeks classroom and three weeks road/backing training.

Yes I have seen retiree teams. Team driving is an interesting animal. With two drivers, the truck can move more, thereby getting more miles. Since you get paid by the mile, more miles equals more money. However, depending on the company's pay structure, the money the truck generates either gets split between the drivers, or is paid based on how many miles each driver drives. Knowing that each individual driver is limited by hours of service, speed limits, speed governors on the truck, etc, there are only so many miles a single driver can drive. With all of this info a lot of the time each driver on the team is not taking home any more money than they could earn as a solo driver. Not to mention the headache of living 24/7 with another person in a small area. With a husband/wife team, all of the money the truck generates goes into the same bank account. There are many more pros and cons to team driving. Most drivers seem to prefer going solo, but there are plenty of teams out there that are happy and making good money.

At Covenant, team hazmat drivers make 40 cpm once out of training, with a 2 cpm quarterly safety/performance bonus (if you qualify for the bonus, they add up the miles you drove in that quarter and pay you 2 cpm for all of those miles as a one time payout).

As far as yearly income, there are a lot of factors that influence that. Say you are making 40 cpm, work 42 weeks per year, and average (conservatively) 5,000 miles per week (as a team), you could see $84,000 for the truck for a year. But there are always things that affect that number - detention pay, breakdown pay, bonuses, breakdowns, slow periods of freight, delays at shippers/receivers.

As far as part time opportunities, I don't know. I'm sure there may be some out there but I can't answere that from personal experience or knowledge.

Refusing runs - each company has their own way of dispatching loads and time off requests. You would have to talk to the individual companies you are looking into. At Covenant you get one day off for every six days out on the road. They are primarily a team trucking company so they expect you to be out running and running hard. There are solo opportunities at Covenant, but primarily team driving. Other companies have different schedules and earned time off programs so, again, you would have to check with the individual companies you are looking into. One word of advice, refusing loads is not the best way to become a driver the dispatchers or companies want to help succeed.

It seems that any company that has team trucks likes husband/wife teams. Covenant loves them I know from experience. There seems to be more stability within the team when they are husband/wife. There is usually a same-goal mentality, and they are used to working together making a life together. And believe me, team driving is a life together with another person. It is a lifestyle change. Very different than anything I've done before.

As far as the best company to drive for, it depends on what you are looking for. The best company is the one that meets or exceeds your expectations or needs. There are plenty of companies that are bad-mouthed, but have plenty of happy and successful drivers driving for them. There are so many opportunities out there, you just have to check them out and see which ones suit your needs.

Hope this helped you some Mark. Let me know if I can provide any more assistance/info. There are plenty of members here at TT that have much more experience and knowledge than I do, so read as much as you can here on the site. You will learn so much from them.

Thank you Scott. I'm sorry to be so slow to respond; I'm still learning how to use this forum. In the two months since I posed my questions above, I have come to realize my wife is not interested in driving.

I am blessed with an excellent job but the office politics has become nearly intolerable. Blatant favortism extended to millenials over GenXers and Baby Boomers and the resulting attitudes of the millenials is contributing to my current angst. I am 50 and I can retire with a pretty darn good deal at 55 so I'm doing some long term planning.

I don't like the idea of being obligated to a company by taking their free training. I was thinking of going to my local community college for CDL training, they have a program for $3k. I could take vacation from my current job to train. I was hoping that I could work part time for 5 years (evenings/weekends/vacation from current job) getting some miles/hours under my belt and then either drive full time after retirement or continue part time with the same company(ies). Does any of this seem plausible? I hope I don't sound ridiculous, I'm just brain storming options.

Does any of this seem plausible? I hope I don't sound ridiculous, I'm just brain storming options.

Honestly, no. But you don't sound ridiculous either.

Trucking isn't a good candidate for a part time gig. In fact, trucking isn't a good candidate for simply having a job. It's really a lifestyle. It will permeate every aspect of your life, especially in the beginning when you're adjusting to very long days, travelling away from home, dealing with the pressures of driving a rig for a living, and learning so much all the time.

Trucking isn't something you should get into unless you're 100% ready to attack it full time and dedicate yourself to learning your trade. It's takes an incredibly high level of commitment, more than what most people would be willing to do quite honestly. It's one of the big reasons the turnover is so high in this industry. It's far more difficult than most people expect it to be.

I don't like the idea of being obligated to a company by taking their free training. I was thinking of going to my local community college for CDL training, they have a program for $3k.

Our highest recommendation here at TruckingTruth is to stick with your first company for a minimum of one year no matter what. It takes a long time to learn your trade and prove yourself as a safe, reliable, hard working driver. It also takes a long time to learn how your company operates on the inside and to develop good relationships with the people you'll count on to give you great miles and help you work through special circumstances that will arise from time to time.

There's nothing wrong with going to a private school instead of a Company-Sponsored Training Program if that's what you would prefer but the same advice holds true - pick a company and stick with them for a minimum of one year.

Thank you for the advice Brett, much appreciated.