By the time Angela Griffin and her husband, Scott, made the decision to become team drivers almost a decade ago, they’d each tallied numerous years in their individual trucking careers.

They’d also proven their trucking expertise through impressive finishes at state and national competitions – not to mention through millions of accident-free miles on the job. They found, however, that none of this prepared them for living well when they transitioned to team driving, pulling doubles for FedEx Ground.

“The first six months, we were so clueless; we were so lost,” Griffin said in an interview with Land Line Now. “It’s like, ‘How can we know all of this about trucking and then feel like rookies again?’”

For her part, Griffin had spent eight years as a solo driver – and her husband had a lengthier history on the job than that. They met while employed by the same company, after she’d decided at 22 years old that trucking would be a more viable way to reach her financial goals than the graphic design career she’d trained for in college.

But despite their seasoned resumes as drivers, they found themselves in a knowledge deficit when it came to living in a truck five days a week.

So Griffin spent about a year working out ways to have a home on the road – fine-tuning a kitchen setup and cooking techniques, figuring out how to best organize their small space and getting a better handle on time management, to name just a few improvements.

Then, knowing there had to be others out there in need of the same answers she’d sought, Griffin opted to begin a YouTube channel. She never expected that years later, the channel would have more than 17,000 subscribers and a track record of being a big help to other truckers.

“We have so many success stories about being able to mentor other drivers or our content helping them really stay in the industry,” Griffin said. “They say that if they would have never stumbled upon our channel, then they would have quit.”

The channel, called Simple Livin’, shares content that ranges from trucking tips to cooking tutorials to turning a truck cab into a tiny house – and beyond. Griffin also teaches healthy habits that are attainable even with limited time and resources, such as high-intensity interval training she fits in as a regular exercise routine wherever she happens to be parked.

“We’re a lot different, because our channel is considered lifestyle,” she noted. “You can go to any trucking school – you don’t even have to go to trucking school – and you can learn how to drive a truck. You can learn through your dispatch in a couple days how to work a load board … but nobody’s teaching you the lifestyle of trucking.”

She added that in terms of content, not much is off limits – with videos even tackling topics like how to go to the bathroom in a truck and how to manage conflict as a husband-and-wife driving team. She can of course speak from experience on all of this, as well as on other tough realities of trucking.

“In trucking, you’re working one of the most deadly, dangerous jobs in the world. And the stress that comes with that – if you don’t make your truck into a home, if you don’t do these little, tiny things that are simple … the industry is going to eat you up,” Griffin said, adding that she believes what some call a driver shortage is actually high driver turnover caused by this kind of burnout.

In terms of making their truck a home, Griffin and her husband have found that little amenities – like a mini fridge, an air fryer and a water tank that supplies warm water for doing dishes – go a long way. And with their employer’s approval, they also installed a small dining table, a bed that converts into a couch and even some wallpaper.

In addition to these and other ways she’s found to improve daily life on the road, Griffin also makes sure not to miss out on special occasions – as evidenced by videos of Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners made and shared inside the truck.

“After being in the industry for 17 years, I’ve honestly missed a lot of life,” she said. “A lot of birthday parties, a lot of holiday celebrations, a lot of times where my family and friends are hanging out – and I just got tired of missing things. And I was like, ‘You know what? You don’t have to. You don’t have to miss that stuff.’”

Although improving their quality of life on the road is a big part of what’s sustained Griffin and her husband in their nine years as team drivers, it’s not all that’s behind their stick-to-it-iveness. They’re also going hard after a goal to pay off the mortgage on their dream property – a log cabin on top of a mountain in Maryland, surrounded by woods on almost 8 acres. And hitting this milestone, which they’re on track to do in about a year, will enable Griffin to reach another longtime goal: being debt-free and retiring at age 40.

As for what happens then, she noted there are numerous possibilities. One already in the works is a church she and her husband started last year, with an intent to dedicate more time to ministry once they’re no longer trucking.

But in the meantime, they’ll continue doing the kind of ministering to fellow truckers that their YouTube channel has allowed – aiming to supply their brand of hope and how-to advice that makes the trucking lifestyle not only manageable but also a means for achieving big dreams.

Griffin has seen this happen with YouTube followers who reached out to say they were at their wits’ end and about ready to quit trucking. But after she helped them examine and correct what wasn’t working for them, they discovered a desire to stop spending a sizeable amount of their income at truck stop restaurants and to instead put it toward paying off their house – a goal they were able to achieve as a gift to themselves last Christmas.

“It’s simple things that make a powerful impact,” Griffin said, adding that it feels good to know her YouTube endeavor is making a difference. “I think so many people get into (content creation) for the wrong reasons. But our intentions, our hearts, were pure – to just want to help people.” LL

Land Line Now’s Ashley Blackford contributed to this report.