Husband And Wife Looking To Team

Husband is already a truck driver with 3 years experience, I have no experience and need to get my CDL. We are located in southern California. I'm hoping to go through a company paid training but I can go to an outside training school if needed. We also have a dog that we would like to bring with us on the truck so pet policy is a plus. Any suggestions on who to check out?

Husband is already a truck driver with 3 years experience, I have no experience and need to get my CDL. We are located in southern California. I'm hoping to go through a company paid training but I can go to an outside training school if needed. We also have a dog that we would like to bring with us on the truck so pet policy is a plus. Any suggestions on who to check out?

Prime has a great training program and allows one pet up to 30 pounds as a compnay driver. They do charge $1000 as a pet fee they take weekly until paid.

Basically you go to orientation.. get your permit... go on a truck for a few weeks then come back and test. The you go out for 30k mikes wi th a trainer. Since your husband is already driving he will do some kind of evaluation and may do training depending on the division. . If he is currently flatbed for example and you both want to do reefer he would need like 30 days training. Prime has many hubby wife teams.

They make u sign a contract stating you owe $3200 if you do not stay with them for 1 year. The only thing I paid upfront was $155 for my permit and processing. I have paid nothing toward the 3200... my year is up in a couple months and then I wont owe anything.

Here's my thread about my experience.. it's long but people said it was helpful

My Prime experience

I have done some research on the requirements for Prime and one of them is a passport. Do they force you to go to Canada or Mexico? Because that is something that neither one of us wants to do.

I have done some research on the requirements for Prime and one of them is a passport. Do they force you to go to Canada or Mexico? Because that is something that neither one of us wants to do.

Honestly they say you need hazmat and passport... I never got either. My passport expired before I went to prime. The lady at the post office argued with me about it...long story.. so I never got it renewed.

Some teams DO go to Canada.... but from my own observance the are experienced teams. You need to do some sort of special border paperwork.. I haven't been there.

American Trucks do not cross the border into Mexico. Ever! Canada is a different story. Most Canadians are not prone to wanting to kill you and steal your truck or cargo!

That's good. My husband's father told stories of driving in Mexico as a trucker but it was a long time ago, wasnt sure if we still did or not. I am definitely more comfortable with Canada

American Trucks do not cross the border into Mexico. Ever! Canada is a different story. Most Canadians are not prone to wanting to kill you and steal your truck or cargo!

Ive heard border crossing is a hassle though and not sure if I want to deal with all of that

I only know 3 teams who went to Canada and all three were lease or owner ops. The loads probably pay a lot more. But that is a guess. If you are not consider prime because of Canada you are doing yourself a diservice. Worst case scenario you tell them you don't have a passport... but they already know that. My truck is flagged for dispatch as no passport and no hazmat , so I don't get those assigments.

One of the most impressive things I saw when I came to prime was how many men were training their wives to team. Any man who works at a compnay for years then brings his wife in is putting himself in the position to be nagged for life if the company sucks. If knowing that he still. Rings her on board. . The compnay is darn good hahhaha

There's quite a few different team companies out there, but I drive for Prime so I'll speak about them.

My wife and I both have passports, twic , hazmat and in the year we have been teaming we have never gone into Canada. In the year and a half prior to us teaming I had one load that went into Canada and they had me drop it near the border in Michigan for another driver to take into Canada.

As a company driver at Prime you are pretty beholden to whatever they want you to run, which they generally keep you pretty busy. As a team you will get the occasional solo load to reposition you, or to allow one or both of you to complete a 34 hour reset. Lots of coast to coast runs, you will see Cali a lot (mostly LA and Bay Area for deliveries, pickups all over), Washington in the winter to run those apples, New Jersey port, Boston, quite a bit of Oregon, and everything in between. Sometimes you will repower solo drivers that got behind on their delivery or save loads that were missed, but not often in either case. It might depend on where you are from, but I bet we spend 50% of our time on the i80 corridor.

I get $0.25/mile for the first 3,000 miles the truck gets, and $0.35/mile for the rest of the miles (no matter who is driving, total miles). The wife is I think 1 or 2 cents less (she hasn't been here as long). There's also fuel bonuses, safety bonuses, service bonuses, wellness bonus for never using sick pay, hazmat bonus, extra stop pay, detention pay, holiday bonus pay if you stay out December, etc...

Prime uses all newer equipment, everything is pretty much 3 years old or less. Teams run in full size condo's, most often freightliner cascadia's. Trucks are equipped with APU's and 1500 watt inverters. They are in the process of switching to an all automatic fleet, but still lots of 10 speeds for now.

Plenty of other companies that run teams too, but I like my dispatcher and like it here.

HAZMAT:

Hazardous Materials

Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations

Dispatcher:

Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager

The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.

TWIC:

Transportation Worker Identification Credential

Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.

Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APU's:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Always forget things typing on the phone...

Prime like many OTR outfits pretty much expects company drivers to stay out 4 weeks for 4 days off (for example get home on Tuesday, head back out Sunday morning at like 8 am). Three weeks is the minimum for three days off. I have found themy to be pretty accommodating if we need other arrangements, but we're team players and they seem to reciprocate that.

They generally have the spouse do the training, which involves a couple weeks to get your cdl and then you are paid pretty much like a team from that point. Until the new driver "upgrades" they make less than a regular team driver while the trainer makes more, I think it's a wash on the total money though. I can go into more detail about this if you need, but there's lots of threads about Prime training on here.