Driver Lifestyles

The Better Half of Our Expedited Team

Friday morning I felt a head cold coming on.

The Qualcomm unit beeped with a load offer: pickup Friday afternoon in Missouri, deliver Saturday morning in North Carolina, 825 miles, 120 miles deadhead, $1,257 gross to the truck.  Yes, we accept.

The delivery details followed with an interesting line, "...located in a mountain valley, speed limit is 20 MPH with hairpin turns."

As Friday progressed, I surrendered to the fact that no amount of positive thinking was going to fend off a world-class head cold.  I was going to be sick and that was that.

Fortunately, it was Diane's turn to drive after the pickup.  She drove from 1:00 PM to 6:30 PM giving me time to sleep. The nap did me good.  I was able to drive from 6:30 PM to Midnight, but was also glad to return the wheel to her and get back in bed.

In the boondocks

About 4:00 AM I awoke to the sounds of the engine brake and the automatic transmission working its way up and down the gears.  The tight turns and inclines that rolled me one way then another in bed told me Diane had reached the roads the delivery info warned us about.  I thought about getting up to see what was out there but the bed won out.

I laid there, cozy in a warm bed, miserable with a head cold, and grateful that Diane is a skilled driver in whom I have full confidence.  "You go girl!," I thought to myself as I used the pillows to brace myself like so much freight and went back to sleep.

She ran out of driving time a half-hour before reaching the delivery so I got up to finish the run.  Having rested, I was OK to drive.  With first light, I could see what Diane had been dealing with; steep hills and one tight turn after another on narrow two-lane roads with no shoulders.

The highway paint lit up bright under the headlights making the road easy to see.  Depending on the spot, trees, rocks, or deep ditches were within a foot or two of the fog line.

The drive was not particularly dangerous.  There were only two or three places where deadly cliffs rose to meet the edge of the road.  In some spots, the lanes were narrower than our 40-foot long straight truck.  We had no choice but to straddle the double yellow line, but that didn't pose a problem since traffic was light.  The frustrating part was that it seemed to take forever to drive a mile.  Actually, it took us three hours to drive eighty miles on those roads.

We made the delivery on time and went straight to a grocery store parking lot to sleep.  Two load offers soon came in which we accepted.

The first was a short run picking up and delivering early Monday morning in North Carolina.  The second put us on the road overnight to deliver near Chicago on Tuesday morning.  Those runs gave us $1,660 in gross revenue to look forward to and Sunday off.

Recuperation

Sunday off was great news since I had now developed a fever and chills and was in no condition to drive.  On the way to the Saturday delivery I noticed the local fire department was having a barbecue chicken fund raising event.

Normally we'd take our morning nap and go there to eat a fun lunch and visit with the locals.  Not this time.  Instead, we moved to a truck stop where I slept the clock around and got back on my feet.  Diane passed the time reading and nursing me back to health with vegetable juice, chicken soup, and TLC.

While we've had many memorable weekends on the road, I was glad to just put this one behind us. We departed at 4:00 AM Monday and quickly completed the short run. As we drove overnight to Chicago, Diane displayed the same early symptoms I had.  After the Chicago delivery, we went to a truck stop and took ourselves out of service for two days.  It was her turn to sleep the clock around and mine to be the nurse.

In expediting, team driving practices are as unique as the people themselves.  With one team, the wife may drive at night and the husband during the day. With another, the husband does all the backing.

There are teams where the husband drives in the city and the wife on the open road.  Our choice is to drive in shifts whatever the time of day or terrain.  That decision paid off on the North Carolina run.

 Consequently, each of us has driven in Rocky Mountain snow storms and New York City rush hours. Our choice paid off on the North Carolina run. I got to lay in

I got to lay in bed as Diane did the hard driving needed to keep the load moving.

Diane shows 'em how it's done

Sometimes people are surprised to see a woman truck driver. We once delivered to a police station in New Jersey. We parked in a large lot behind that city hall complex. I went inside to find out where to deliver the item.

After several referrals from one city employee to another, I ended up with a friendly uniformed police Lieutenant. He walked me outside to the front of the building and unlocked a lower-level door for us to use.

The building was being remodeled. Parking was a mess. Wed need to move the truck into a narrow driveway and thread the needle between parked cars, construction equipment, sand piles, and trees.

As the young Lieutenant and two plain-clothes officers waited to help unload the truck, I used a walkie-talkie to tell Diane to bring the truck around.

When Diane answered back, "OK" the surprised and now wide-eyed Lieutenant said, "She's a woman?"

"Yes." I said.

He asked, "Does she know how to drive?"

"We'll find out." I replied.

My answer left a worried look on his face and a smile on mine.

Diane pulled the truck around and threaded the needle like a pro.

We like to think we added an item to the Lieutenant's learn-something-new-every-day file.