For the long haul: married couple support each other on the road

This story first appeared in The Long Haul 2024, an annual special section that celebrates National Truck Driver Appreciation Week by looking at Eastern Iowa’s trucking industry.

Less than 12 hours before Mike and Karen Overturf are scheduled to leave the Don Hummer Trucking Corporation’s Homestead terminal, their gleaming red truck is all ready to go. And they’re going to head out on the road not just as a married couple but as a driving team, taking turns at the wheel as they drive loads of freight across the country.

Trucks brought Mike and Karen together. Karen was working at a trucking terminal, checking trucks in and out and collecting paperwork from drivers, including Mike. As they got to know each other and eventually married, she had an idea.

“She said, ‘I want to join you,’” says Mike, reminiscing. Before taking the job at the terminal, Karen had gotten her commercial driving license (CDL) and teamed up on the road with her ex-husband, so she knew what she was getting into.

Mike, on the other hand, had been a solo driver for many years.

“My dad drove, and I drove in the military,” he says. He’d been driving long “over the road” (OTR) jobs. “I’d pick up a load of meat, drive it to Boston. Then I’d go to the pier, load up with seafood, and drive back.”

But he was willing to try teaming up with Karen. And now they drive as a team for Don Hummer.

Driving as a team presents many advantages for drivers and trucking corporations. For safety and health reasons, every truck driver is limited to driving 11 hours per day and must take breaks at prescribed times. With a two-person team, one driver can sleep while the other keeps the truck moving along its route. There’s less downtime for the truck, and freight can be delivered more quickly.

Sleeping in a truck can be very comfortable for Don Hummer truckers. All the trucks have spacious, climate-controlled sleeping berths behind the cab, with enough room for a large mattress.

Don Hummer trucks also have a small refrigerator and microwave in the sleeping berth. Mike and Karen appreciate the opportunity to bring their own food on the trip. Eating fast food all the time can get old, and many restaurants are closed when truckers need to stop during the wee hours of the night.

“We always have to hit the grocery store before we leave on a trip,” Karen says. “And I usually cook a couple of things.” Besides the refrigerator, there’s plenty of storage in the sleeper berth for provisions.

When they prepare for a trip, Mike says Karen is in charge of organizing the cab and sleeper berth while he does one last double-check for safety: checking hoses, fuel level, tires. Once they’re ready to go, they start their time clocks, fuel up and head out to the shipper to get their load of freight. From there, they might head anywhere: to California, Georgia, Texas, Ohio. At each stop, they’ll drop and hook — exchange one trailer for another — and head on to the next destination.

  Buy Photo

On the road, Karen and Mike are in tune with each other: whoever is most tired gets to rest while the other drives. Both keep track of their driving hours to comply with regulations. They plan their driver swaps to coincide with fuel stops so they have a good place to stop and stretch before changing seats.

Having a driving partner makes taking a break more pleasant.

“After I’ve been driving, I’ll sit up in the passenger seat to wind down before I go to sleep,” Karen says. Having a partner you trust can make for a more restful sleep. Both Mike and Karen say they sleep better in the truck than they do at home.

Mike and Karen have other ways of supporting one another while on the road. Karen admits that she has always hated backing up a truck with a 50-plus foot-long trailer. At first, she thought she’d just let Mike do the work, but he wanted to give her confidence. So, he insisted that she do some backing up, while he jumped out of the truck and gave her directions and instructions.

“I told her ‘If you’re getting mad and frustrated, just get out of the truck and walk away for a while,’” Mike says. “When you come back, you’ll be fine.”

And both love having the company on long drives.

“There’s always someone to talk to,” Karen says.

One of their favorite drives is across Wyoming, where Mike and Karen love to watch for pronghorn antelope. And there’s that stretch of road that Karen loves, going down into a beautiful valley in Utah.

“We get to see a lot of things that other people don’t see,” Karen says.

That doesn’t mean working as a team is always easy. Mike and Karen agreed that there are plenty of challenges a team must negotiate in addition to the usual challenges a trucker encounters like traffic, road construction and (as they discovered on one trip in Colorado) rockslides.

  Buy Photo

The two drivers on a team are in a confined space together for 2-3 weeks at a time.

“Yes, you will get on each other’s nerves,” Mike laughs. For example, the couple has a disagreement about time zones: do you reset your watch to the local time or keep it on Iowa time the entire trip?

For any drivers considering driving as a team with a spouse, Mike has some advice: “I tell people to drive solo first. Then take your wife in the passenger seat for a month.”

Don Hummer, like many other trucking companies, allows drivers to take a passenger on trips, so couples with commercial driver’s licenses can see what it’s like to be in a truck cab for long stretches of time.

But having a strong relationship is probably the most important thing for a couple to work as a team.

“You have to have that trust there,” Karen says. “That’s the biggest thing.”