Road Tripping: Tips for Sharing Driving Duties With Your Fellow Traveller

The humble road trip has once again become an extremely popular way to see the world, driven partly by a renewed interest in domestic holidaying, camping and the ‘van life’ philosophy. If you’re planning a road trip of your own with a friend or family member, you might be equal parts excited and nervous; excited at the prospect, but nervous about the logistics. In order to keep your trip timely and safe, you will need to share driving duties – but how would you plan for such a thing?

Van travelling on the road. Photo by paje victoria on Unsplash

Schedule

One of the smarter ways you can approach the logistics of your road trip is by incorporating driving plans into your general trip planning. You will already have your route set, and you should already have a decent idea of the rough duration of your trip. Using this information, you can break the journey up into chunks, and divide these chunks between you in terms of driving responsibility.

This way, you’ll know exactly which days or hours of your trip you’ll be driving for. This can be helpful in a number of ways. For one, you’ll know which days to be rested (and sober, depending on the nature of your trip) for another, you’ll know which days you need to be insured on the car you are sharing for the trip.

Regular Driving Breaks

Your general schedule will be fantastic for arranging driving days in a fair and equitable manner, but will not take into account your need for regular breaks during each driving day. These are important to take into account ahead of time, but should not skew your journey plan too much. Just make sure to be stopping on a semi-regular basis, in order to refresh yourself and stretch your legs before continuing.

Arrange Entertainment

Road trips of any length can quickly become boring, especially if your driving ‘shift’ stretches on for much of the day. You and your driving partner should make some entertainment arrangements ahead of your trip, that are suitable for both passenger and driver.

You could have each other take responsibility for a music playlist, creating your own radio station throughout your trip. You could join in on listening to a podcast together, or you could even come up with some driver-friendly games to keep everyone awake and engaged.

Communicate!

Last but certainly not least, it is vitally important that you and your fellow road trippers communicate as openly and transparently as possible, both before and during the trip. If there are stretches of the journey either of you are not comfortable driving for, let the other know and you might find a compromise. Likewise, if you’re driving and tired, don’t be afraid to pipe up and pull over.