It was either 1996 or ’97, our regional director received word that seasonal extra help was needed for a national account customer. Their business involved transporting fresh cut floral greens and wreaths from their production "farms" throughout the country to retail outlets. The Christmas season was their busy season and they were asking for volunteer drivers to spend six weeks running team to support their operation. The drivers would be guaranteed $1,000 per week minimum to those that would commit. I had just completed the orientation of a new young driver named Dave. I was going to be riding with him for two weeks training anyway so I asked if he was interested and he said yes, without hesitation. He was trying to save up cash so he could move his wife and kid to Salt Lake City from Grealy, Co. He had left them at their apartment to come to Utah for a decent job as she was still employed at a meat packing plant in Colorado.
There were four of us drivers that agreed, making up two teams and off we went, getting a couple Ryder rental tractors and heading up to Belfair, Wa. We picked up a couple of Ryder refridgerated trailers from a Ryder shop in Tacoma and went over and got loaded. Leaving out, Dave and I decided on running a 5 on, 5 off schedule. Being the first extended time for me running team, it was quite an experience. I hardly got any sleep the first couple days bouncing around in the sleeper. We had decent conventional Freightliners with air-ride but that made little difference. It was a real struggle until finally, I was so dead tired that my body had to sleep. Once past the initial couple days it was better, but still, team driving is a hard life. I don’t know how they can do 10 on, 10 off with the new regulations.
After a couple weeks we were back up in the northwest getting loaded to go to Tennessee and I could sense that my partner was getting homesick missing his family. I had been thinking about running back through Salt Lake to get home for a couple hours but decided to go through Colorado so he could stop and see his wife. Bear in mind that I also had a wife at home, but deferred to get him some time with her and his kid. Well, we drove up to their apartment and he introduced me to the spouse. I could sense a palpable tension between them so I decided to go outside, telling Dave I would wait for him in the truck. A couple of hours later Dave comes out and announces that he was quitting! Just like that. The dude just walked off the truck on me, his wife telling him to either stay or not come back. It’s about midnight and I was pretty pissed off. He packed his stuff out and I just started driving, not wanting to wake my boss up, knowing she could do nothing at that time of night.
The next morning I called Michelle to tell her what happened. She called the account manager and they came up with a plan to fly another driver from Oklahoma into Kansas City where I could pick him up and he would finish out the commitment with me. Late that night I pulled into a truckstop near KC where he had taken a cab from the airport and met Doofus. He got his stuff on board and I told him I would drive the first shift, 5 on, 5 off. One of the first things Doofus said to me “I don’t know how you can drive all night, I have problems staying awake”. Not a good way to start off with me and I informed him what “team driving” consisted of. A short time later he says “ I hope we don’t go to New York, I’m wanted there”. Needless to say, Doofus and I didn’t start out on very good terms.
We made it to the Nashville area where we delivered and then got stuck for three days while they looked for a load. That wasn’t so bad though as we got a motel near the Nashville truck stop downtown and I was able to get away from my "partner" and tour the downtown honky tonks over the weekend. Being guaranteed $1,000 per week meant we didn’t have to worry about getting the miles. By Monday, they still couldn’t find us a load so we were told to dead-head to DeLand, Florida for another load of “greens”. That load took us to San Antonio, Tx, the location of the customer’s headquarters. I had driven in and my "partner" was up for the next driving shift. We spent several hours unloading and reloading for the northwest and I told him several times to jump in the sleeper and rest so he could be ready to go. I might as well have been talking to the wall as the jerk didn’t listen to me. Late in the afternoon they finished loading and I could tell he was tired. I was pretty irate and told him I would drive for a couple hours so he could sleep.
After we switched out it was dark and I went back into the sleeper and dozed off. A couple hours later I was startled awake with the truck running on the gravel shoulder and violently veering off as dipshit jerked on the steering wheel. I tore open the curtain and asked him what the hell is going on with his response being “I got tired”. That was it for me as my adrenaline took over telling him “pull over, I’m driving”. We were out in the middle of nowhere so I took the wheel until I could find a truckstop and payphone. I called my boss, told her what happened and said “either he gets off the truck or I will”. That was it for Michelle also as she told me to take him to the Albuquerque airport, saying they would fly him back to where he came from. I never let him back behind the wheel and drove all night to get rid of him. When he woke up I told him what I had done, what I was told to do, and he remained quiet as a mouse the rest of the way as I was in no mood for conversation.
After getting rid of him I called Michelle and found that the other team from Salt Lake wanted to split up and that Jim was willing to jump on my truck to finish out the six weeks. What a relief! Jim was another driver trainer from our Salt Lake City account and a true professional. We got along great and finished out the time together. But, ever since then, I’ve had no desire to ever run team again! A note about young Dave: About a year later, he showed up at our office wanting to know if he could reapply for a job. “Ummm, no!” was the response. He had definately burned his bridge. If I had been there when he came in, I would have asked him if he was still married.
