Team Truck Driving Tested by Sleepless Shifts and Partner Turnover

Team driving can keep seasonal freight moving across long distances, but a guaranteed weekly minimum doesn’t solve the harder problem: two drivers have to trust each other with the truck, the schedule and their rest. A six-week run hauling Christmas greenery in the late 1990s made that plain. The work began with a new driver eager to earn enough to bring his family to Utah. It ended with the narrator deciding he had no appetite for team runs again.

The seasonal customer shipped fresh-cut floral greens and wreaths from production farms to retail outlets around the country. With Christmas its busiest period, the account manager sought volunteer drivers for six weeks of team operation, offering a minimum of $1,000 per week to those who committed. The narrator had just finished orienting Dave, a young driver, and was scheduled to spend two weeks training him. Dave agreed to take the assignment without hesitation. He had come to Utah for work while his wife remained employed at a meat-packing plant in Colorado, and he wanted to save money to move her and their child from Greeley.

A difficult adjustment to the sleeper

Four drivers signed up, forming two teams. They collected two Ryder rental tractors and refrigerated trailers, then headed to Belfair, Washington, where the trailers were loaded. The narrator and Dave chose a five-hours-driving, five-hours-resting rotation. That schedule was the narrator’s first extended experience running team.

The first days were rough. Even in conventional Freightliners with air-ride suspension, the narrator struggled to sleep in the moving truck’s bunk. After a couple of days, exhaustion finally forced him to rest, and the routine became more manageable. The adjustment did not make the arrangement easy: the narrator came away with a lasting sense of how demanding it was to alternate driving and sleeping while sharing a vehicle for weeks.

On a later trip north, the pair loaded for a delivery to Tennessee. The narrator could tell Dave was missing his family. He had considered routing through Salt Lake City for a brief visit home, but chose to go through Colorado so Dave could see his wife and child. At their apartment, the tension between the couple was apparent, so the narrator waited outside by the truck. A few hours later, Dave returned and said he was quitting. His wife had told him to stay or not come back. It was around midnight; Dave took his belongings and left the truck.

The narrator was angry and started driving rather than waking his manager, Michelle, in the middle of the night. The following morning, he explained what had happened. Michelle and the account manager arranged to fly a replacement driver from Oklahoma to Kansas City, where the narrator could collect him and continue the assignment.

A replacement creates a safety problem

The new driver, whom the narrator nicknamed “Doofus,” arrived by taxi from the airport late that night. The narrator said he would take the first shift. The replacement immediately raised concerns, saying he had trouble staying awake while driving at night. He then said he hoped the route would not go to New York because he was wanted there. The two had little rapport from the outset.

They delivered near Nashville, then waited three days while the customer’s team searched for another load. The guaranteed weekly pay meant they did not need to chase miles during the delay. The narrator used some of the time to visit downtown Nashville’s honky-tonks. When no load had been found by Monday, they were instructed to deadhead to DeLand, Florida, for another shipment of greens. That freight went to San Antonio, the customer’s headquarters.

After unloading in San Antonio, the truck was reloaded for the Northwest. The narrator had driven into the facility, leaving the next shift to his partner. He repeatedly urged the replacement to rest in the sleeper while the loading work continued, but the driver did not take the advice. By late afternoon, the narrator could see he was tired, so he offered to drive for a couple of hours to give him time to sleep.

After the drivers switched, the narrator settled into the bunk. A couple of hours later, he woke to the truck running onto a gravel shoulder and swerving as the replacement yanked the steering wheel. The driver said he had become tired. The narrator took the wheel and drove until he found a truck stop with a payphone, then called Michelle. He told her the driver had to leave the truck or he would. Michelle directed him to take the man to the Albuquerque airport so he could be flown back. The narrator kept him off the driving shift and drove through the night to Albuquerque.

A reliable partner gets the run back on track

After dropping the replacement, the narrator learned that the other Salt Lake team wanted to split up. Jim, another driver trainer from the Salt Lake City account, agreed to join him and complete the six-week commitment. The narrator describes Jim as a professional, and the two worked well together through the rest of the run.

Dave reappeared at the company office about a year later to ask whether he could apply again. The answer was no; the narrator felt Dave had damaged his standing by walking off the truck during the seasonal assignment. The larger lesson from the run was more immediate: team freight depends on a partner who can manage fatigue, communicate and follow through. A weekly pay guarantee may make a slow stretch easier to bear, but it can’t make an unreliable or exhausted driver safe. For the narrator, one good final partner was enough to complete the work, but not enough to make him volunteer for team driving again.