One real advantage to team driving is when your co-driver also happens to be your real-life partner.

“I started out just to spend more time with my husband, who was away a lot as a single driver,” says retired team driver Mary Ann O’Neill. “The money wasn’t really a consideration at first, but within three years we had a really healthy down payment for our first home.”

Even at a modest $1,000 per week salary, if all of the second income goes straight into the bank, there’ll be $50,000 salted away in no time. It’s no different for owner-operators, although the truck buying and payment strategy has to be altered to account for the extra miles run over a shorter period. Putting 250,000 miles a year on the truck trims the fixed costs, although running costs remain consistent with the mileage. Putting 500,000 miles on a truck in two years plays havoc with the warranty, so you’ll likely have to fatten up the payments so they expire at the same time the warranty does. To do that, you might be looking at a monthly payment of $5,000 or more. Scary, but you’ll be earning twice as much, too.

There are more than a few fringe benefits to this arrangement: travel, time together, and earning potential among them, but the pressure that a confined space puts on a relationship has to be managed carefully. Different couples cope with problems in different ways, ranging from negotiating sessions to all-out brawls.

Typically, says Fiona Stevens, a relationship counselor with a practice in Winnipeg, the couple should set ground rules and work hard at staying within the boundaries. “That could mean not mentioning until later the fact that hitting the brakes too hard rolls the sleeping driver out on the floor, or fielding each outburst as it comes,” she says.

O’Neill had a regular run between Niagara Falls, Ont., and Las Vegas for several years. She said they managed the togetherness thing by having her husband deposit her at a resort hotel for the day while he went on into Las Vegas to make the delivery.

“I had a day of R-and-R at the pool, while Jim had a little time by himself,” she said. “When he came back, he’d kick around the pool for a while, we’d get showered and hit the road, although sometimes we’d spend the night at the hotel and leave in the morning.”