Professional Skills · Driver Training VideoTeam Driving Rules

Team driving puts two qualified drivers in one truck so the rig can keep moving while one driver rests. But here's the part crews get wrong: running as a team does not change the rules -- it just means two separate clocks are ticking in the same cab.

Every driver on that truck is still bound by their own 11-hour driving limit, their own 14-hour window, and their own 60 or 70-hour cycle. The other seat does not lend you hours. If your co-driver is fresh and legal, that has zero effect on your logbook.

What team drivers lean on most is the sleeper berth split.

The handoff is where most team mistakes happen. A rushed handoff -- no real briefing, a driver climbing into the bunk without saying where the fuel sits, what the ETA is, or whether anything on the truck needs attention -- sets the incoming driver up to inherit a problem blind.

Sleep quality matters as much as sleep quantity. A moving truck is loud and it moves. If you climb into the berth and can't actually rest, that 7-hour period on paper is not the same as 7 hours of real recovery.

On the ELD, log the correct driver at all times. Co-driver status has to reflect who is actually driving, not who's supposed to be. An ELD showing the wrong person behind the wheel is a violation waiting to be found at the scale.

Your company standard: each driver runs their own clock and owns their own log -- no borrowing hours from your co-driver. Every handoff includes a full verbal briefing before the outgoing driver racks out.