Team Driving

There will be many times where driving rush hour is unavoidable it just all depends when the load needs to be pick up or delivered.You get to the heartland of the northeast every hr is rush hour.Then parts on the states rush hr is a breeze to drive thru.

 

While it is best if you can split the day into regular shifts, like noon to midnight and midnight to noon, this will eventually run into issues with hours of service (HOS) if you intend to run continuously for a couple weeks or more. One or the other of you will end up with more available hours on your 70 hour clock. This can be due to gaps between finishing one load and having another load ready to pick up, one driver not getting any hours because of waiting for a shipper or receiver, etc.

You will need to sometimes "flip" your schedules in order to most efficiently keep your 70 hour clock balanced. For example, you may have a few days in the last week with very little actual Drive or On Duty time because of scheduling while your wife may have been "running and gunning" on her shifts. You finish delivering a load and have to wait 24 hours to pick up the next load. You look at your 70 hour clock and you have 22 hours left, while your wife has only 11 hours and neither of you have any hours coming back for two more days. Your next load is 1600 miles, which will require three full shifts to make the delivery. If you stick to your schedule then your wife will pick up the load and run her shift and she will be out of hours and then after your shift she will have to sit and wait to pick up some hours.

In this case it would be better to flip your schedules so you take the first and third shifts while your wife takes the second shift. She can use up the remaining 11 hours drive time on her 70 hour clock, while you can use up to 22 hours drive time. After you deliver the the load each of you will have recap hours coming back.

Whenever I "flip" a schedule while teaming I try to then keep to that drive/sleep schedule as long as possible. Sometimes that will be for weeks at a time and sometimes only a few days at a time.

If you end up with a dedicated run of some kind that has a regular 34 hour reset, like home every weekend, then you don't have to worry about flipping schedules. Keep to a regular drive/sleep schedule.

One thing is for certain, the new 34 hour reset rules that were passed last year are extremely hard on team driving. It used to be that getting a "rolling 34" was easy to do, a 34 hour reset while the truck is being driven by your teammate. You could simply miss a shift of driving and then you had a fresh 70 to work with. Now that is a very difficult thing to do.

 

There's a saying I use for trucking in general and team driving in particular, "Sleep when you can, where you can". Sometimes you will both experience the joy of sleeping in a parked truck. Other times you will have to sleep as best as you can on I-40 through Arizona, who "repairs" roads by posting a sign that says, "Rough road next 63 miles" (true story).

One thing I can't stress enough about team driving is that you should always consider that your teammate needs good sleep. If that means changing lanes to the hammer lane in the middle of the night because the potholes are in the right lane, then do it. If you are pulling in for a fuel stop at a truck stop that hasn't repaved for 25 years, then take it nice and easy as you pull in. Make the ride be as smooth as possible.

Lay off the maximum jake and the cussing and swearing in heavy traffic. Pretend you are pulling a heavy load of fresh eggs that weren't packed very well. It will go a LONG way to keeping your teammate refreshed, AND will go a long way to keeping YOU safe when your teammate takes the wheel.

 

Find a good divorce attorney, and put him on retainer.

 

My hubby took all the sharp stuff out of the truck. I understood. I AM a redhead.

 

This is so true!!...LOL We have been running LA to St. Louis for over a year and it has gotten to the point where I can tell where we are by the conditions of the road and sometimes I know which exit my husband took for the truck stop.

With us, one starts driving and drives for 11 hours (or close to it) and then we trade off. It takes almost 12 hours for the driving, 30 minute break, fuel, and quick bladder relief stops.

 

I myself will be starting a new job running team have done it B4 but only under the old 10 & 8 hour rule (boy those were the good ole days) was no 14 hour
clock BS or 34 hour clock or stupid 30 min. break IMO no need for. I was thinking about having 12 hour shifts myself how would this work.