How do team truckers get sleep?

Ya when they hit the brake you get rocked. Quite often.

 

Make sure you have the safety nets up also, you might get bounced out, hopefully not.

I think a good set of earplugs would be a good bet also.
A small fan for white noise and to move air.
Someone who knows how to drive, and still then you will get it with potholes or even their rumble strip drifts, etc
If tired enough, I guess you will sleep. A half of a tylenol pm, or the generic type Equate, might help also as long as you don't have to get up.

 

I'm convinced 80% of drivers operating in a team environment are never sufficiently rested except perhaps after they've been on home time for 3+ days.

 

Back when I was training and we transitioned into more team-type runs, I loved sleeping in the moving truck. Never slept better than that in my whole life.

When I drove a sleeper I used to fantasize about someone driving me around for several hours to get a quality nap in. Some people like it, some don't.

If you don't take to it right away, I'd highly discourage running team.

 

Deep sleep. DEEEEEEP sleep. It was the only time where i would regain consciousness, but couldn't move for a few moments. It only happened when I ran team.

 

Sounds like my 2 year old

 

I used to drive around for hours when my baby was young and couldn't sleep and was crying with colic, but then people started telling me I shouldn't leave my baby alone at home.

 

More so after they "updated" the split sleeper rules so that you HAD to take 8 hours in the sleeper. Back when you could run 5 on/5 off (or 4 on/4 off under the OLD rules), you could get some decent rest, then work a short shift before resting some more. Once they implemented the mandatory 8 off in the sleeper to split, it became impractical to run teams on a split...so you're running 10-14 hours on crappy sleep, unless you sleep well in a moving vehicle (which some folks do).

 

Used to live in a truck 7200+ miles every week. And the only 3 good nights sleep I got in 16 months. One was after a big hit of Nightquil. Second and third one was locked down in a ice storm in SD. Now with a truck idling I sleep like a baby. But going down the road. a nap is about it. I was reading a book per night. Now the old man I was running with. He got 7 hours sleep every shift. As soon as his head hit the pillow. He was gone.
Loved running team, but not the no sleep. I had enough when in Wy I locked the truck down. Miles from anywhere, I had lost 53 miles. No ideal how I did not crash. But 53 miles driving and no ideal what happened.
I woke up with a kid on a bike riding out in front of me. Locked it down. Threw my buddy out of the sleeper. Bear asked what in the He@@ happened. Told him Antelope! He went back to sleep. When we were almost back to the yard. I told him that was my last trip. Then told him why I had locked it up.
That old man told me he would still sleep behind me. As I had been the only person. He could sleep sound behind. As I did not shake the truck.
That was the end of 1995 and sure missed that $1700. per week payday.