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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 8 - Three 'garbage' truck convoy to
ID Delivering an AutoCar (Volvo?) duel axel with a garbage truck Date July 17, 2003 Haven't been out this week, my choice ... things must be busy, THEY called me looking for a driver without my saying I was available. (Something I had been told wouldn't happen.) They are going to split the run into two legs for me. The run goes past our office, so someone is going to get my truck Friday and then I'll run it Sat/Sun/Mon to get it to Boise. Am going to be running with two other drivers who are running their trucks Fri-Mon. With a three way split on a rental car coming back, it should pay fairly good .... However, dispatch has yet to find a car ... sounds like everyone is leaving ID and no-one is going back (by rental car). July 18, 2003 I go into dispatch to pickup my check and find out how the first leg is going ... First I hear that they actually left early (for once), this is going to mess up my day if they get back early ... but then I talk to the driver and she says it will be late tonight and we will talk via cell. The only number I get is the current driver of my truck, who turns out to be less than helpful in relaying messages. The other number I thought I had for a driver "is no longer in service." ... so I'm supposed to be running the next two days with these drivers and I have no way to get a hold of them. I do know from talking to dispatch that the computer had not routed them past the office as had been planned. So now I will need to find them somewhere between here and Idaho ... and the last comment I got from my driver was that they were not going to wait for me ... after I told him if he wasn't back by eight I was going to wait until Saturday to start out. I saw no reason for me to driver a couple of hours yet tonight so that I could spend a night in a motel and then not be able to run when the others left because I hadn't been off duty for eight hours. July 19, 2003 Three AM ... I didn't sleep more than a couple of hours last night, not sure if it was because I wasn't sure how this trip would go, or because of all the stuff I didn't get done on Friday, or because the pop I had today had caffeine in it ... Four AM ... At the office, inspecting the truck ... had hoped it was a fire truck, because I knew there is a manufacture in the town these were picked up in, but no, instead they are garbage trucks. The guy who picked up the truck yesterday should have done an inspection, and all looks good except the fuel is on 'E.' So no bonus fuel on this one. I start the day being a little more creative on my log book this morning, I know this is going to be a long day. I had expected to find the other drivers phone numbers on my paperwork, but no such luck. Then I see I'm getting paid on a route that is different / less miles than I will have to travel with the other drivers ... for a second I think, "forget the other drivers ... I will never catch them ... have no way to reach them ... and I am not going to get paid for the miles to get to the route they are traveling. I will go my own way, and meet them at the customer." But I didn't, I set off to find them ... figured I would leave a message with dispatch later in the day if the drivers hadn't called me by then. I past one of the places that was mentioned as a meeting spot ... not sure why I didn't stop and check, but I didn't ... guess I thought the drivers were long gone, either the night before or already this AM. An hour and a half past that truck-stop I finally get a phone call ... "Where are you?" "Iowa." "Iowa? What are you doing in Iowa?" "Trying to catch up to you before you deliver these trucks..." But they are back at the truck stop assuming that I was going to stop there. They had run out of hours and had to shut down, now I was ahead of them and they were playing catch-up. We decided to meet in Des Moines at a frequent truck stop ... but I stopped to kill some time and saw that one of rear axle seals was leaking. Dispatch is "on call" on the weekend so I decided to handle this one myself. (Mistake) Being new to this, I didn't know who / what a "AutoCar" was ... and didn't think any dealers would have been open on the weekend. I also knew that the Flying J didn't have a shop but not sure who did. I started walking over to the next truck, but he started pulling out ... then a second truck pulled into it's spot. Wanted to see if they knew of a nearby truck shop. The driver was a female and when I tried to get her attention ... she rolled her eyes, shook her head and finally opened the door. I'm sure she was thinking "... not another one, I'm not even out of the truck yet." She caught my attention because it was the truck that pulled in next to me ... any female driver catches the attention of the male drivers. But I'm sure this one more than most ... a young blond, <> 130# in Daisy Duke cutoffs. But she couldn't help me, she didn't know of any shop's and her company driver manuals didn't help either ... so I thanked her and called the drivers I was meeting ... who also were of no help. (They also didn't tell me I should be calling dispatch, not the shop.) So by default, I headed out to look for the next shop ... and found one next to the Pilot Travel Center. In a few minutes I was in the shop and in 30 minutes I was on my way ... this left me still an hour ahead of the other drivers. The guy who worked on my truck said they get a lot these leaks ... said he thought every cement truck built on the east coast that was going west stopped at his shop to get at least one of the seals replaced ... sounds like someone has a quality problem. AFTER all this, when the drivers pulled in, the first thing they ask is "Did you call dispatch?" These are new trucks and should have been under warranty ... OUCH. Not sure I'm going to get that money back ... I will sure try, it was my first breakdown, it was on the week-end, it is not a brand name ... not in our area anyway. (And I'm a driver they want to keep around ;) ??) Time to roll ... I soon find I am working with two "log book artists" and I am way out of my league ... but I would try to keep up. Nebraska ... another new state to add to my map. I traveled this stretch to Omaha many times as a teenager, either visiting friends or heading to the west coast. But that was 15 - 25 years ago and I was having a hard time picking out land marks. We didn't have any radio's in these trucks, which doesn't bother me ... just gives me more time to think. This corner of Iowa reminds me of all the C W McCall songs, many which were based on places here. He did a lot of great stuff besides Convoy. I have C W's five original albums / cassettes / 8-tracks, by the time the sixth came out on CD my buying music days were past. (But I will have to try and get a listen to his newest / American Spirit down with Mannheim Steamroller) Permits Been driving on and off for almost three months and this was my first time to purchase a permit. (I plan on adding a permit's hints page, because I wouldn't have had a clue without the other drivers I was with.) It appears that the permits can be purchased throughout the state at truck stops, and that part is "on the honor system," meaning you don't go through a mandatory 'Port of Entry' type stop. We purchased ours at the first station we saw in Omaha. That was fairly painless, you just need your Bill of Lading and your plate number. Also learned a new phrase, "Three axles down." Permits must be based in part on axles on the highway. Some of the trucks we drive have extra 'tag' axles that are dropped and used when the vehicle is loaded. The company does have NE plates, not sure why they weren't sent with us or what good they do. Maybe they already had other drivers using them ... A ten mile detour down the two lane highway slowed us a little, between this and the fact our trucks only do 66 on the Interstate its hard to maintain that 75 mph average. At this point I can't remember a whole lot else about NE ... which is what I'm sure a lot of people say. Somewhere out here in western NE (or eastern WY) is an old canal / irrigation system ... looks like it may have been abandoned when the Interstate went through. I would think these canals would be harder in some ways to build than the railroads. With the railroads you can fill in low area's and change the grade some. With the canals you have to follow the contour of the land, if the grade is wrong you will have standing water somewhere between the start and the end of the canal. We had already logged a lot of miles and hours, but the other drivers knew of this cheep motel just before the border so one of them called ahead and got the last two rooms. Me and the other guy would share, the gal got her own room which also meant she wasn't splitting the cost with anyone. You may have been able to sleep in these trucks, but I was glad to see they were getting rooms. Guess the first night the guy paid $60 for his room, they finally came down to that price after he told them he'd have to try sleep in his truck. Tonight's room was $42 because it was the weekend and we split it. Kimball NE, no diesel at the intersection but they do have truck parking, the motel and a restaurant. I've run with drivers before, but this was the first time everyone had gotten motels every night and ate together every night. My diet doesn't vary much on the road, hate to eat something that doesn't agree with me ... so it was eggs scrambled, bacon and hash browns for me. By the time I lay down to sleep, I've been up for over twenty hours ... go, go, go. Date July 20, 2003 I thought it we had agreed on a 7:30 or 8 am start so I was up by six to be done / ready and out of the other drivers way. I'd fallen asleep right away last night, but after about five hours I was wide awake feeling like I was on a caffeine high again. When I started this I thought I was going to be taking walks either in the morning or evening to kill time. Even when I have time it hasn't crossed my mind. Today it was because of my truck ... the "check engine" light had come on last night. This hadn't happened to me before so I was ready to shut it down ... again. The light came on again this morning but every thing else looked OK so I would try to make it to Cheyenne. This time I did call and leave a message with dispatch ... but when you're on 'roam' the calls don't always come through, and even less often do the missed calls and message show up. (Finally got / listened to their call back message after I was home, three days later.) I spend an hour just walking around the parking lot, enjoying the not sitting. Once the other guy is ready, he goes and knocks on the gals door ... ya, she's up, but it's another half hour before she's out the door and now its 8:30. I was going to go first in the convoy this morning in case anything when wrong, but the when the gal said to be sure to stop at the Port of Entry I decided she had better go first. I had already put my WY plate in the window and would have driven right by. Permits - WY Busy place, even on the weekend ... also noticed that one out of every three is a female. Not sure if they are all drivers or if some are just riding with on vacation, but its more than I'd noticed anywhere else. I had grabbed all the right stuff, just didn't know it so I followed our other drivers to the door. Here they needed to see our WY plates and the info on the back, our IFTA sticker located next to our company name and DOT number on our magnets and our BL with the destination. If you don't bring the plates in and show them, they will charge you even if you tell them they are on/in the truck. They also wanted to know if the truck was going to a dealer or the end user. This also makes a difference whether or not they charge you. I didn't know, but the fact that part of the company name was "... Equipment, Inc" and not "Disposal" convinced the DOT man. The other two drivers said they have always had to pay so I was a little hesitant when he was done and said "have a nice day" without taking any money. The three of us were waited on by three different people, one told the driver to MOUNT his plate on the rear of his truck, the others didn't mention anything ... so he didn't. Cheyenne was a busy place, and / or the Flying J was not that big. The gal had gone to Love's across the Interstate so that she could cash a ComCheck but being creatures of habit the other two of us first went to Flying J. But not being a patient man (on the highway) I was not going to sit third or fourth in line for fuel, so I told the other driver we were going to Loves. I did notice that the third station, a Diamond Shamrock, at the intersection was not part of a 'chain' and only had one truck at it's pumps ... guess there must be something to this name branding. We had to wait at Loves too, but at least we were third or fourth in a single line instead of for each pump. The other plus today over the Flying J was this Loves had a Wendy's and it was serving breakfast ... but you just can't find "fast food" anywhere, everything is made to order. Back when "fast food" was still fast, I used to look or ask them what was up / ready and that's what I would order ... not anymore. By now between the truck running fine and talking to the other drivers, I decided to run with the "check engine" light on, so I called dispatch to let them know my change of plans ... and they picked up, that doesn't happen too often on the weekend. Dispatch also suggested that I run it ... "happens all the time." Reason 1003 that I don't like running with other drivers ... it is now after 11 am and we don't even have an hour driving in. And I was hoping we would make another 700 plus miles today ... and do it in daylight. I think this is beautiful country out here and I like to see it, that's part of the reason I'm driving ... that and in my old age I don't stay awake as well as I used to at night. Somewhere along this stretch of highway they have a different way of fencing ... appears to be to keep the elk, etc out ... works most, but not all of the time. The fence is double high and ever so often they have a short fence that runs from the main fence twords the freeway. Where these short fences meet the main fence they have a gap in the fence and have built wooden walls facing away from the Interstate, with an earth hill on the freeway side. Finally realize this was a way to "encourage" the animals to leave the freeway ... they'd hit the corner and see a way out. Even with this fancy fence we still saw a couple of elk on the side of the road. But that's nothing compared to the deer we see daily on the road in the Midwest. Wonder what happens if a compact car hits an elk? These were some big animals. I was just noticing how all my stuff had been sitting on center council for hours, days without moving. May Dick (another driveaway driver http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Driveaway/ ) is right I35 in southern MN is the worst stretch of highway ... and right then ... BUMP ... bump ... BUMP. Heard later that other drivers on the CB were yelling "Ride 'em cowboy" and other phrases as they hit that stretch. ... and some places you can see for miles, lots of places actually. But one stretch the road is straight for a mile or two down the hill, another two or three across the valley and straight for a mile or two up the other side. Need a way to take pictures when I'm driving ... Sinclair, WY home of Sinclair gasoline ... has two intersections with the Interstate ... and one Phillips 66 station. I would have thought it great PR to have a nice Sinclair station at each end of town. But in my opinion, Sinclair is not the best on the block in marketing. They sell fuel, they don't seem to have any standard or consistency when it comes to where their fuel is sold. Most of the stations I've seen were build for other oil companies, and most have about as many convince items as an Amaco / Texico service center. The ones that do have a mechanic are private shops ... but the gas is usually the lowest price, in our area anyhow. The only "chain" of Sinclair's I know of are the 'Little America' locations out west ... and there is not even one of those in Sinclair, WY. Somewhere out here in the flats of WY I noticed a half a dozen little crosses in a couple of miles. One was just a cross, one was a cross with a little circle of rocks (like the way they used to do it out west?) and the rest had an assortment of flowers and other items. Out here they may last on the roadside longer, they highway crews don't have to work around them ... there is no grass to mow. It is just a few miles down the road ... and with their "Burma Shave style advertising, we had to stop for a 35 cent ice cream cone. ... we will get to Boise someday ... Little America was just as I remembered it from 20 plus years ago ... and it's clean. This time 'we' were after the ice cream and not in the truck stop part so it may not be quite as nice in that building ... truck stops usually don't have carpeting ... Evenson, WY, after we fuel we pull ahead and park before paying. Right next to me pulls in a guy pulling TWO fifth wheel horse trailers, so I waited until he was stopped to look at it. Not one to usually talk to strangers but his innovation had caught my attention. He said it was custom made, and that they were driveaway drivers. They also pulled motor homes (but I doubt he can pull two of those for weight reasons.) Ahh ... what a life he said the two them camp out, but they did have a club cab so they could sleep inside if needed. ... And they were in there early twenties, what a way to start a life together. Traveling, doing something you enjoy, together. They were out of Iowa, but not a town I had heard of and didn't write it down, but they're the only ones I've seen PULLING two fifth wheels. The only 'interesting' person I saw this trip was at a truck stop, haven't seen another driver like him yet. From the Middleast and in full dress, beard, turban, sandals, and the native desert ware. Somewhere out on I80 is a Stucky's ... I could see it a mile away even though it was on the other side of the highway behind a bridge. Yellow and red lettering on a deep blue roof ... closed. Someone has hay growing right up the where the pumps used to be. But I hope who ever did that paint job has a patient, from a half mile away it looked like it had been painted yesterday ... and they went out of business how many years ago? By the time we hit Utah it had started to rain. The other drivers said they always had to stop, but no fee is involved. This time they flagged us on through. Being third in our convoy I didn't have to watch the lights and signs quite as close, if the others got through I should too. It also gave me a chance to see how the area operates before going past ... usually I try to stay right behind another trucker if I know a scale is coming up. So this is one plus of running with other drivers. It rained, rained hard or maybe even hailed by the sounds of it beating on the truck. And coming down the pass into Salt Lake City, instead of a guard rail the have a concrete barrier ... and all the drain area's must not have been working cuz the trucks were throwing up a wall of water. Traffic got down to about 45 coming down the hill which was plenty fast for me. But in the distance you could see the blue sky again. The shower lasted about 10-15 minutes and then it was sunny again. It did cool the air ... there, but a few miles down the road it was quite hot again. Somewhere along this stretch of I80-I84 is one of the most beautiful and interesting stretches of highway. The freeway follows the river through a narrow pass ... in addition there are two and / or three sets of rails winding back and forth across the river. And hundreds of feet up you can see the sets of high line wires ... how did they get those up there? Helicopter everything in? In one of the few wide spots in the pass I could see people kiaking on the river ... I'm sure it was a lot more beautiful before the wires, the rails and all the concrete. There just isn't scenery like this out in the rest of the country, not that I've found anyhow. On other pages I have commented about the lack of fences along the Interstate, here in UT they have fences but along one stretch they have little ladders going over the top of the fences. And the shoulder / ditches in those area's look well used as parking spots. Although I didn't see one right in that area I think there is river that runs along that stretch of highway. And it was along this stretch that I saw this trips ... ??? A car passes me with a kid about two years old leaning out the window like a dog would do ... there was a person holding them with one arm around their waist, but they were deep in conversation with the driver. That's why the rest of us have to live with so many stupid laws, because there are so many people who don't have basic common sense. Getting close to the Idaho border we stop at a rest area and it was HOT. After standing in the sun a few minutes, even my hair was hot to the touch. Not sure what the temp hit today, but the forecast for the next day was 100. Did buy a cold drink from the machine, but wouldn't buy anything out of the other machine, especially the candy. The vending machines faced west, a direct hit for the sun and the one hundred degree heat. I'm sure that chocolate tastes (and looks) just grrreat. Permits - ID Sounds like usually our drivers had just been stopping at the Port of Entry but this time decided to by the permit at the Flying J on the UT side of the boarder. Another $30 and very few questions ... this like the NE one had to be displayed in the front window. So it seems that permits are fairly easy, its just knowing when and where. Not sure what the cost is for NOT getting one, but I would think the cost of the fine would be an incentive. By having the permit ahead of time we sailed right through the Port of Entry. Another incentive to get the permit ahead of time is if you stop at the Port of Entry / scale they can start asking a whole lot more questions ... We leave it to the lead driver to stop at the first "budget" motel with truck parking, what would we do without those ugly billboards? The are both helpful and just help pass the time when you are on the road as much as I have been. The budget motel was named just that "Budget Motel," $40 split in two, and next door to Perkins. Meat, its been days since I've had a burger so a pattymelt was my choice. Had only had a biscuit in Cheyenne this morning and a dozen bottles of water / juice today. Must have been too much liquids, couldn't eat the whole burger. Was good food though, most Perkins are, but we have a couple locally that we don't frequent. Waiting outside before going to eat there was a gal unloading their van, and about a three year old with a beagle on a leash. The kid was holding on for all she was worth ... seemed to be an older dog so it wasn't being wild, it just wanted to go. Then it decided it wanted to go into their room (no pets allowed), I thought it would pull the kid with it but pulled out of the leash instead. So the kid was left holding the leash ... Date July 21, 2003 This morning I was not the first one up, but today everyone was ready to roll at 8am. It does cut into the earnings, but it is sure nice to have a bed and a shower every night. Aaagh ... ComCheck ... a pawnshop for truckers. ComCheck is a way for companies to advance money to people on the road. With our company you can get up to half of your check advanced through ComCheck to cover expenses while on your trip. Although I have heard of people getting much more, so much that after two weeks of work their pay check still showed a negative. We had to stop right away so a driver could get more money through ComCheck ... this time wasn't too bad, sometimes it (seems like it) takes hours. Three hours left to drive this morning, through ID. Love this part of the country, looks like southeastern WA where I spent a bunch of time in my late teens. Irrigated desert, and a few feet away is land that is so rocky that isn't not worth grazing. Saw one place that looked recently burnt ... when I got closer I could still see the smoke. All the buildings were gone, some equipment and the burnt grass came right up to the Interstate ... what if it started at the Interstate ... some ... person throws a lit cigarette out the window ... a fire starts ... and someone looses their house and everything they own. Crossed the Snake river a few times, once a few feet above the water, the next hundreds of feet. Also crossed the Continental Divide a couple of times in the last two days. The truck wasn't running quite as well today. It had always been slow in the low gears, I could be right on their bumper at the bottom of the exit ramp and within minutes they were a quarter of a mile ahead of me. But other days I could catch them on the hills. Not today, I would only get further and further behind ... a few feet at a time, soon they were a mile ahead, then two miles, and then I couldn't see them. Knew I could catch them at the drop ... But they finally stopped, and called just as I was pulling off the ramp behind them. Someone knows who we are ... we are listed second on the Port of Entry signs under who must exit "Driveaway Operators." We saw a few today ... five short buses. Didn't know that were that many people who rode the short bus ... but then, I have have met a people who must have rode "the short bus" ... We were also past by one of those 'Super Suckers' like we had delivered a few months back, out of the same location. He hit the scale right in front of us, and had to stop ... someone came out and talked to him, and we sat in line waiting. Hoped it wasn't the same for us and it wasn't, we sailed right through. We took a quick break, I added a couple of gallons of fuel as to not leave it on empty. So far we had been adding almost exactly the same amount of fuel, but today either I was using more or they were going to turn their in on empty. Off to the airport, I was a little concerned when I saw the size of the terminal. But the lead driver kept going ... I was afraid we were going to get to a low overhead and have to back out, with an escort. But she found a way into the car rental return that didn't have a low overhead and found a "no parking anytime" place to park. One of the drivers though we should all go in, but one didn't so I sided with the one who wanted to stay outside. That was a good idea, I had forgot about all of the "all unattended vehicles will be towed" signs. The driver who stayed out did have to move one of the vehicles and answer a few questions from others ... so it was a really good idea, would have hated to see that tow bill. Our dispatch had been looking for a rental car since Wednesday, my wife had been looking since Friday and nothing ... affordable. When I last checked with her she was checking the Greyhound ... $150 each and close to 48 hours ... the other two insisted there was NO WAY they were taking the bus ... I didn't care much one way or the other, but given a choice it would be a car. The only car so far was a National for about $600 dollars ... usually we pay from $100 to $150 a day for one-way rental. So we knew when we walked in what we were up against ... if there was one available, someone should have found it by now. Avis - the only one-way cars had to go to either Portland or Seattle ... but we could check back tomorrow at 11 am in case anything has come in. Hertz - yes they have a car, we could have it for $443 a day and they would even give us 200 free miles ... National - we didn't stop, we already knew, $600 Budget - yes we have a car .... and they did, $69 dollars, unlimited free miles, no drop charge. We must have asked them a dozen ways ... "Are you sure?" "No drop charge?" "Where does it say that on what I'm signing?" By the time we got out side to the cars they had already changed it from a Torus to a Century and we had to wait until they brought it from their remote location, which turned out to be a plus ... the shuttle driver would follow us to our drop, and we would drop him back at his lot ... worked for both of us. As we are waiting, I am watching security watch us from a balcony ... some had come by when we were inside to make sure these these things were empty and not packed with anything dangerous ... Which is why it was REALLY good we left someone outside with the trucks. And there was the old guy who was really interested in our trucks so I walked over to him ... he had been a route driver in Montana is his younger days, and just wanted to see what they looked like now ... so we talked until our car arrived. Budget is another one of those companies who has you sign off that there are no damages, up to now the only one I knew of was Enterprise. If using those two companies you had better look closely for anything and everything ... Our drop is only a mile or so from the airport, doesn't always work this good. They asked how things went, and he notices I hesitated he pushed the question, so I told him about the axle seal. "Happens to most of them" was his reply ... so he signed off and we were on our way. By the time we dropped the Budget driver off at his lot it was 45 minutes from the time we signed the car out ... and we needed every minute we now had 23 hours and 15 minutes to get 1650 miles ... The way home ... I was the first truck they signed off on so I hopped in the driver seat and was ready to go ... the gals CB was laying in the car but we never stopped long enough for her to set it up. We/I knew we were up against the clock and wanted to be home in 24 hours, even though a two day rental at this price wouldn't have hurt us too bad. One of the drivers calls dispatch to update our status to "delivered." But wait, they have two trucks for us we can pick up about three hours from home, but that means taking a different Interstate home than we had planned. The gal jumps on the chance, neither of us other drivers are ready to head back out. Would have like the trip, but the timing was wrong ... have stuff that needs to get done. The trip was ... more garbage trucks ... going to NJ and NY, then picking up two more trucks in NH to come back home. It was to states I haven't been and a paid round trip ... maybe next time. Two hours after the split where we would have taken the shorter route home, dispatch calls back ... "come on home," they had found another driver and wanted to keep the drivers together, so they would both leave from the office when we got back ... six hours extra riding for the driver with us, but ... I had hoped to knock off four, six or more hours of driving but by the time we got the call I needed to stop. I just couldn't keep awake, so we stopped and someone else offered to drive. I had hoped for a quick stretch, some cold water in the face and fresh air would wake me and I could keep driving ... wanted to drive in the daylight hours, my system doesn't seem to be adjusted for all night driving yet. I didn't time it be it seemed like we stopped for twenty minutes, first we all stretched ... then one lit a cigarette, when they were done then the other lit one ... You would think with having had five kids, plus my wife's two ... plus now the grand kids that I would have a little more patience ... I used to. ... And when we start to drive, he's driving the speed limit. What's he thinking? We'll never make any time this way. Oh well, at least we are heading into the mountains where its harder to make time ... on this stretch I would rather have the driver at or under the speed limit than hanging on for dear life. I lay down in the back to try and sleep, and did for maybe an hour. But the gal was hungry and wanted to stop ... now. I would have waited until we could see the places from the highway ... easy on, easy off, but she wanted to stop as soon as she saw a sign. And at this exit they were two miles off the freeway ... the clock is ticking. Then no one wants to make a decision as to where to stop ... fine, "Subway" I say, its the closest. May not have been the best decision, cuz if you get all the fixings its kind of sloppy to eat. The driver got a foot long and was working on that thing for the next hour ... weaving out of our lane almost every time he took a bite. He drove for about four hours until we were out of gas, almost, the thing has bee laying on empty for the last 20 miles. "No problem, I have a Century and you can go 50 miles on empty." Sorry, I would much rather fill at one 1/4 and not have to wonder. The first tankful put us back at Little America where they wanted to stop for the 35 cent ice cream cones again. I passed on the ice cream and got some ? mountain juice ? It sounded interesting but didn't taste very good, didn't help that it was warm, as was the other juice I had bought. Think they need to turn their coolers down, if it had been milk I had bought I would have thrown it just cause it was warm. Time to switch drivers, so the gal started driving ... the other guy didn't care and I wanted to get some more sleep before it was my turn again. Just what I didn't want ... if she finished off this tank of gas I would be driving from midnight to four AM. I watched the scenery for a while and then tried to sleep. I may have gotten another hour of sleep but not much more. Soon we were in Cheyenne and time to switch drivers. Other than a few miles of road construction I flew through the last few miles of WY and most of NE ... just a little less than the law will allow. It wasn't as hard to stay awake as I had thought ... never got as tired as I had yesterday those first few miles. Had hoped we would make it to Lincoln on this tankful but I was not going to run it to empty. I figured the more miles I was driving the better chance we had of making it in 24 hours. Now I was riding in the front passenger seat, not an easy sleeping spot in this car, at least not today. He knocked off the rest of NE and by the time we got to Omaha it was getting light ... rush hour in Omaha?? I could tell that dispatch had asked the gal to call in the AM with an ETA so they could let the other driver know when to meet us, and be ready to head to the garbage trucks. She was still sleeping a 1/2 hour after dispatch so I called in ... that and I wanted to see how they were getting to the trucks ... I had an idea of what was on their minds ... It sounded like they thought we wouldn't make it back in 24 hours so we would be paying for two day car rental, and they'd use the car to get to the trucks. I could see a few problems with this idea. One, this car was in my name on my credit card and I had not paid for any extra insurance. Two, we had gotten this rate because this car was going to our home town ... if they drop it in another state we (I) may get changed $140 per day instead of $60 ... or get stuck with a $400 drop charge. And three, no one had checked to see where the closest place the car could be dropped, not all locations do the one-way rentals and they may have to drop the car two hours away ... ... So when I called I gave them our ETA and then asked about the car ... "If they could get it changed from my name to the companies" "Not likely" was the answer ... So I told them that I would have to return it. They offered to cover the costs ... that wasn't the whole issue. If anything happened it could still be months of headaches trying to get every thing straightened out. It was obvious that dispatch did NOT like that answer, "OK, we'll have to work something else out." and hung up. When the gal finally woke up I told her I had already called with the ETA ... she wondered if I had asked about the her idea from yesterday ... no, I hadn't thought about it, but it was one of the reasons I had called early ... we were still going past her pickup location and she wanted to stop now. Her idea, and I thought it was a good one too, was to drop her now and she could head out from here. The other driver with us would take the second truck back to the office for the second driver. The gal would get a six hour earlier start and the second driver would get a three hour early start than by dispatch's plan. But the driver felt it was "too far out of the way" ... really? On the drop end I personally have gone that far out of the way to stay with another driver or pickup a rental car. Break time ... and we need to fuel once more before we get home so we do it now. I offer to drive the last three hours, it looks like we will can still make it in 24 hours ... plus the hour grace period. The car return place is about 15 closer than our office and we pass the location in just under 24 hours ... we still have an hour to get the car returned. We go to the office and pick up another car, my ride back. As I walk out of the car rental office with the invoice in hand, I tell the other driver "I have the paid invoice in my hand and I still can't believe we got this car for $60." I was sure they were going to try and add a drop charge are milage charge ... Lesson - One company is not always cheaper, Always check around. Lesson 2 (I saw this posted in our office, so it has been a problem) If you rent a car on your credit card instead of the company doing it. YOU are responsible for the car, the other drivers and collecting the money from those drivers. The guy I was with on this run has been stiffed before by another driver ... what do you do when you are halfway home and the other driver decides he's not paying for any (or any more) gas? ... or what if he decides to drive like an idiot? Best not to get in that situation. I'll take the bus. a C W McCall website |