New Driver, Will I Need To Do OTR As A Team Member ?

Hello, I'm getting ready to do a CDL , but I want to know in advance, will it be hard to get to be an OTR/long haul driver NOT as part of a team? I realize that there is a period of time where they'll have me drive with a trainer, of course, but I mean after that when I'm a working driver, how common will it be to get work driving solo?

Thanks

That is company specific. Alot of companies have solo positions. Some do teams, just ask the recruiter and they can tell you. CR England and CRST both do teams so you may avoid them knowing that.

The vast majority of larger carriers are set up for solo drivers. I don't know an exact percentage, but I would be safe quoting more than 85%.

That is company specific. Alot of companies have solo positions. Some do teams, just ask the recruiter and they can tell you. CR England and CRST both do teams so you may avoid them knowing that.

Ah ok. Great, and good to know. I'm ok to do it for a bit, like if they wanna test me out a bit for a while, but I'd wanna know that eventually it'd be transitioning to solo.

Thanks!

The vast majority of larger carriers are set up for solo drivers. I don't know an exact percentage, but I would be safe quoting more than 85%.

85% or so is great to hear. If it's higher, even better, and if it's less than that, I can work with that.

I'm not totally against it, I'd be ok to do it sometimes. But it'd feel restrictive to have to always have to ride as a team, and also you'd surely get stuck sometimes with someone you can't stand.

Thanks!

Bill, team driving is not for everyone.

However, being with a trainer is an entirely different consideration. I try to encourage new drivers to take into serious consideration their allotment of time with a road trainer when choosing a company to pursue. I had less than two weeks but would have greatly benefited from a longer time out with a trainer.

Don’t be too eager to get out there by yourself at first. Two weeks with a trainer should be bare minimum. A month or two is much better. Check out Prime’s training program, they really do it right.

We had a member here who insisted on ttaining as a solo truck. "Three weeks with the guy sitting next to me is all i need". He then went out on his own and had one of the worst weeks of his working life

Evaluate your own needs. Some people need the longer training and or team training. Some companies have shorter training but run the truck as a solo. As are as goibg solo... learn as much as you can. Plenty of companies will run you solo after training.

Thanks to both of you. Yes, I hear you. I do realize that some mentored training will be one of the best things I can have in my training, so I'm not against that at all, actually I hope I get enough of it and learn as much as I can that way. I totally expect to go through a period of that. I just hope that I'm working toward a time down the road when I'm driving solo. But yeah, I"m not in any rush to get to do that. As long as it takes.

Thanks again.

At CFI after school you will be on your trainer's truck for about 3 weeks. The truck will be dispatched solo. That means you drive, trainer sits in passenger seat and helps from there. No team driving. You both sleep at the same time.