Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/148061
T Courtesy of Jon and Miriam Brown here's a reason so many young and ambitious company drivers and owner-operators tend to gravitate toward team driving, says Rick Duke. He's a former team driver who's now a solo owner-operator of a 2013 Kenworth T680 in a lease-purchase arrangement with Swift Transportation. "I think it's just the drive, the motivation" that exceeds what's typical for older people, Duke says. "You want to succeed quickly" – and teaming is one way to do just that. In the right niche, of course, and affiliated with the right fleet. Duke estimates his prior team arrangement with a good friend, based around St. Paul, Minn., enabled him to increase his take-home pay by as much as "10 percent, maybe 20 percent on a good week," he says. "Running team as an owner-operator was where the money was really good." Jeremy Campbell, a Maryland-based company driver now with small fleet Sabatino Trucking, recently ended a team stint on a dedicated account with J.B. Hunt hauling mushrooms from Pennsylvania to the Midwest and back on a weekly turn. Paid mileage on the company-driver job and paired with another Hunt operator, Campbell says teaming allowed simply more mileage than otherwise would be possible. Operators also earned more stop pay, given the speed at which they were able to unload as a team on their multiple-stop outbound loads. The team partner "makes it easier to keep pushing through" on a live unload "when you're getting tired," Campbell says. On Campbell's team runs, he and his partner were getting 56 cents a mile to the truck, split equally, plus accessorials that added up. That's a common way of approaching pay to teams either driving for or leased to a larger carrier – pay goes to the truck and splits between the drivers. Whereas the most Campbell ever had made driving solo was about $68,000 a year before taxes, he was looking at almost $93,000 in the dedicated team, had it lasted. Teaming also is more attractive to empty-nesters adopting second careers or bringing family on after a solo driving career. Such has been the case for countless husband-wife teams now in expedited and other segments. Load One-leased owner-operator Tom Evans' 13-year expediting history wouldn't have been possible without Tina's ability to join him when their children were well into their teens and being home alone for extended periods was viable. Keeping business in the family What is the biggest attraction of team driving over solo work? ss in usine with ping bteaming 1% Com Kee ily ( pa m er) 3 more enionship / the faily memb n downtim joyable fam e 25% Better income 33% Similar income, but with less time worked 9% Other lifestyle factor 2% Income-related factors account for much of team operators' favorable views of their businesses over solo driving. July 2013 | Overdrive | 25 Teams.indd 25 7/29/13 8:48 PM