Driving in teams means that you are driving an highway truck with a co-driver. Each one drives while the other rest. That way, you can basically drives constantly (24/24 in Canada, 22 hours a day in the US). This makes it possible to do a round-trip from the east coast of North America to the west coast in less than a week!
The challenge however is to be able to have enough rest in a moving truck that shakes on less than ideal roads and is a noisy environment. Not only that, but as you know, it is not that easy, even in your own home to find sleep, let alone when you have to adapt to different shifts and different time zones.
Large, modern highway trucks that are designed for teams have what is called a “sleeper compartment”. In there, you can find one or two beds, a microwave oven, a refrigerator, 110 volts AC power and sometimes a TV set. The space is fine for sleeping in term of setting…
The first trip I did, I really could barely sleep the on the first couple of days. It only when I was totally exhausted that I could sleep. This is not enough however, The problem is that you are unable to be rested enough for your next driving shift. With time, and with some advices from drivers that had done it for a while, I began to organize myself better. I bought two body pillow so I can put one on each side, that way, the rolling is minimized in cas of breaking or acceleration. I began to sleep with earplugs to make the environment quieter and to find more stable sleep positions. I did get used to it.
However, this is only part of the story. I did try to do shorter trips but it proved to be very hard and I was beginning to develop health issues. You see, the problem is interruptions. To cross the border between the US and Canada, you need to be awake. So if we do a trip that is 6 hours away but requires a border crossing after 2 and a half hours, I can try to sleep for two hours, then I have to wake up to cross the border and then try to sleep for another 3 hours. Then we arrive at the customers site, they begin to unload the truck and everything shakes so much inside when the lift drives in the trailer that it is impossible to sleep… and then it is my turn to drive… this totally ruins my sleep cycles and after a couple of days at this… I am sick!
So after trying this for a while, my conclusion is that, for me, I need to do long trips only if I want to keep doing transport in teams. So starting this week, we will be driving exclusively between Québec and California!
Interstate Living 