Totally Out of Sorts About A Team Driving Situation

If there is an experienced trucker or a trucker's wife reading this, I sure hope someone can give me sound advice.

OK, here goes my situation. My husband is brand new at being a trucker & I totally love & support him in what he is doing but he is running into roadblocks. He graduated from his trucking school, went out with a trainer, then did his final testing & then he was so proud when he got his truck & got a partner so he could do team driving.

Well the first 2 weeks, my hubby & his partner who happens to be a kid that lives home with mommy & daddy & they were running coast to coast until their truck broke down & they were down for 4 days.

The kid didn't like the situation & made a phone call back home & his parents told him he had his old job waiting for him. Well the kid only told my hubby that he was leaving ASAP because he had his old job back & the kid never told the company he was leaving.

Well after the truck got fixed, my hubby asked his FM (fleet manager) for another partner because he joined the company to be a team driver & not be a solo driver & the fleet manager told him he had nobody to give him. Well the kid's job failed him because he didn't get his job back & the kid called the company & asked for his job back & told the company he left ASAP because he had a family emergency at home.

Well my hubby told me 2 weeks ago that he was told the kid was coming back on the truck & he was supposed to pick the kid up with the truck 10 days ago & still the fleet mgr. has not given my hubby a run close to where the kid is located & the fleet mgr is only giving my husband loads that are only about 2 states from our home state.

He was making good money doing coast to coast & my husband feels the fleet mgr is punishing this kid by keeping him longer from being back on the truck & my husband feels he is being punished also.

I have mentioned to my husband to ask for another fleet manager & he said he doesn't want to make waves but in the meantime I have to listen on the phone when he is constantly complaining about this kid with some colorful expletives added.

My husband is a hard worker & he enjoys going coast to coast making good money till now what his kid partner did. So if there is an experienced trucker out there that has had the same problem or a wife out there that knows her husband has had the same problem, please give me suggestions to direct my husband in the right direction & also at stopping at different truck stops, my husband has talked with other truckers about this & the only thing they had said was they were surprised that the company is taking this kid back so he must have talked the talk & walked the walk.

Thank you.

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Aug 24, 2013
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by: NickV

I team drove for 9 months starting out for CRST and it was definitely a task. Finding the right driver that has good work ethic and you can get along with is pretty much impossible. Taking two people and placing them in very stressful situations inside of a little box is not only difficult but its kinda like shaking up a soda bottle, its gonna blow up eventually.
The deal with this kid sounds almost exactly like my first co driver. I think at the time I was 28 and he was 21. From the very get go we bumped heads. At truck stops we would call the fleet manager and he would make empty promises to both of us. Its really quite hard to make fleet managers understand your situation. Things almost got violent a few times and I would tell my fm im not going another mile with this guy and that's that. They will just let you sit til you find out oh boy, im not going to make any money this way.
Tell him to speak to someone higher up then his fm, its possible trust me. It may not happen today or tomorrow but they will give him a new co driver. Next one may be worse but beggars cant be choosers. I think I went through about 4 different people over 4 months until I found a guy I could get along with and had the same drive to make as much money as we could.
The thing with these companies is usually your just a small fish in a big pond. He is somewhat correct about not wanting to rock the boat cause they can screw him over just like they are doing the kid. Its kind of a catch 22 cause you want to be happy and you want to make money and you have no decision over either. That's why a lot of people are totally against teams unless its a friend or family you are going to team with because problems like this are abundant.
I hope this helps , I know its mostly rambling but he CAN get a new driver. As rough as these companies are I'd like to believe that if your really that miserable they would do something about it. If you need anymore questions answered I would be glad but honestly I would tell him to sit tight, get his experience for a year or so and get out of team driving. You don't make more money as companies so well explain.

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