Team Approach

You can cover a lot of territory in 24 hours, when there’s no need to stop for sleep. That’s the nature of team driving. And with more and more shippers wanting their freight delivered yesterday, there are more and more carriers teaming up their drivers to meet those demands.

It’s interesting to note that at a time when drivers are harder to find, there’s still strong demand for driving teams, which use up the human resources twice as fast.

Theoretically, a carrier could get twice the productivity from a team-driven truck, but that’s not necessarily the case. Putting two drivers on a truck may potentially double the output, but it will still only serve a single customer. Regardless, the team concept is more popular than ever, and if you’ve ever thought of exchanging your privacy and autonomy for a few extra sheckles, then read on. Running team is a good way to earn the extra dough, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

As any team driver will tell you, stuffing two adults into a mighty small living space for two weeks at a time is an exercise in compromise. So perhaps that’s the best place to start. After you’ve found a place to stash the luggage, sorted the CDs, and decided who’ll take the first shift, you’ll likely be reminded to steer clear of the rough spots, don’t play the radio too loud, and go easy on the brake pedal, unless it’s absolutely necessary. But that’s the kind of thing you’d do anyway out of consideration for the occupant of the sleeper. Team driving may cramp your style a little, especially if you’re fond of cranking up a Bob Seger CD at three in the morning. Seger may help keep your adrenaline flowing, but it’ll have the same effect on the poor sod in the bunk as well.

It helps if both drivers have similar taste in music, of course, but the value of a little compromise on the volume control can go a long way in keeping the team, a team.

Smoking is another sensitive issue with team drivers. Both should either smoke or not. One or the other is bound to incite a riot if they can’t come to some mutually agreeable terms on puffing away. Fleets who team up drivers willy-nilly, without due regard for their personal habits, aren’t being fair. It’s a difficult job at the best of times without struggling to keep your opinions about body odour, music, driving style, and other irritants to yourself for long periods.

The sleeping/driving habits of team drivers can differ considerably as well, so it’s a good idea to find a partner who likes the same on-off rotation as you. If you manage on a four-hours-on, four-off rotation, you’ll be pretty unhappy with a partner who likes to run for eight and sleep for eight, and there are drivers who can do that even on the roughest roads. They should be sainted.

“It’s not the easiest thing to do if you haven’t got the right person to run with,” says veteran owner-operator Cathy Leeper. “The biggest adjustment for me wasn’t learning to trust my partner’s driving, or the idea of sleeping in a moving vehicle, but adjusting to the routine of sleeping and driving in short bursts.” The other challenge she mentions was the first day or two out after a bit of time off. “That was a difficult adjustment, sitting there bug-eyed in the passenger seat because I wasn’t tired enough to sleep,” she says.

Duffield, Alta.-based Leeper runs alone now, and has done for years, but she spent a summer teaming on the Alaska Highway hauling cement with a Super B. She and her partner ran the 2,500-mile, two-and-a-half-day round trip from Edmonton to Whitehorse twice a week.

The reward, however, for putting up with these and other bits of friction that can arise in a cheek-to-jowl relationship is the extra earning potential. Wages vary across the board, but generally, teams are paid a nickel a mile or so more than single drivers, with the rate split 50/50 between the two. If you can cover 6,000 miles in a week at 20 cents a mile, you’ll be carting home $1,200 for a week’s work. Not bad when all you do is drive and sleep.

Teams don’t work as well if there are multiple stops to slow the truck down, unless the time is compensated. Still, there’s money to be made on the right runs. Scheduled runs, like courier routes or dedicated freight, are set up for teams to keep the wheels turning. They work well in terms of take-home pay, but the schedules can put a lot of pressure on the team, especially in bad weather. There’s nothing that brings a driver out of the sleeper faster than the sensation, even if it’s only imagined, of sliding sideways down the highway in a snowstorm.

Different Options

Not all team-driving situations are the same. A popular option is the three-driver team, where three drivers work a two-weeks on, one-week off rotation. This way, each spends a week with one partner, then one week with the other as they rotate on and off the truck. After two weeks out, the driver gets a full week off. The pay isn’t as good as a full-time team situation, but there’s less stress and more time at home.

Obviously, teams are better suited for long-haul applications, but they can work well in situations like in Leeper’s 2,500-mile round-trip run, twice a week. Teams aren’t quite as practical in the short-haul load/unload situation. Every stop holds the potential of an unproductive delay.

Courier route and line-haul applications are fine for those who don’t mind covering the same territory repeatedly-the work is predictable, and so is the money. The schedules usually allow sufficient time to score a little stationary rest between runs. If you’re looking to play tourist for a period, the long-haul open board means a new and different destination every time out.

Then there’s the situation where an inexperienced driver is placed into the care and control of a coach. When that truck is expected to produce full team mileage, this isn’t training, it’s exploitation of the new driver. On the other hand, veterans willing to take on the role of a mentor, in a properly managed training situation, could find team driving with a rookie a rewarding experience. You may not cover the same number of miles, but you’ll be making a contribution to the experience of an entry-level driver, and that’s worth its weight in gold.