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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 15 - New Kenworth - class 'B' cement
truck Durango, CO Date October 1, 2003 Dispatch has been calling daily, yesterday I told them I was ready to go ... they had four cement trucks going to CO and three vans coming back from Saint Louis. A three legged trip with three of us to share the cost of a rental car. The cement trucks would be a 22 hour trip, then 20 hours in the rental car, then 10 hours with the vans ... and I should be back sometime Saturday. Dispatch will leave the paperwork in the lock box, two of the other drivers have already picked up their trucks, but they didn't know when they would be delivering them ... I had thought of leaving early, then realized that dispatch, in their last minute rush would probably forget a few things ... like my Nebraska plates. Sure enough, they hadn't left them for me, and the other drivers hadn't taken theirs either so dispatch gave theirs to me in case I caught up to them before the NE border. They also hadn't left the paperwork for the vans ... so now I had been at the office for most of an hour waiting on what should have been done last night. I call the other drivers to see where they are at ... they haven't left yet, all they did was pickup the trucks and take them home ... rather than try to meet them somewhere, I suggested they stop by the office and get their plates and paperwork. About the only good news of waiting this long was that rush hour is now over ... the bad new is that I will have to push it to get my 10 hours driving and still be off the road by 9 PM. Not much to write home about today, stopped for fuel every 3-4 hours and then stopped for the night. We had 1,300 miles to go on this run so I was glad to see that I was able to make over 650 the first day ... just in case. Just in case these other drivers decide to make the delivery tomorrow, I had told dispatch I would deliver on Friday by 8 AM, hopefully. 650 miles put me in North Platte, NE at the 1st (Interstate) Inn. I've stayed there before, so I know what to expect ... all I want is a (clean) bed and a shower. This one is a dollar more than the Motel 6 down the road was advertising ... but for a buck I was not going to move the truck again ... and lots of times the advertised rate is gone before you get there. For those that haven't stayed at a 1st Inn, Motel 6 is high class in comparison. Needed one good meal today so I walked next door to Perkins, the food was good but the whole time I was there I could hear the manager yelling at the employee's ... clean this, do that ... very unprofessional. Date October 2, 2003 5 AM without a wake up call, didn't sleep that good or that long ... I hadn't asked for a wake up call and may have been worried I wouldn't wake up. Had an added incentive to do a complete inspection this morning, I had parked my truck right across the lot from the Highway Patrol office. Not sure why this trip is rated at 22 hours, the speed limit is 70-75 in the three states we go through, it must be the last 200 plus miles after we get off the interstate, going through Wolf Creek Pass. I had noticed yesterday that this truck did not have the height listed anywhere and remembering the C W McCall hit ... "the sign said clearance to the twelfth foot line, but the chickens were stacked to thirteen-nine." About three hours later I came to the Colorado POE / port of entry, I was talking to a driver yesterday about this trip, I should have asked about the POE ... do I have to stop? or only if they flag me in? I go across the scale, the light stays yellow, doesn't turn red and there is no green. The semi's ahead of me are all pulling over and stopping, but ... I drive slowly off the scale and finally decide 'they didn't tell me to stop, so I'm not.' I know in Wyoming everyone stops. For the next 50 miles I'm watching my mirror, expecting the worst (I find out later it's the same as any normal scale, you only need to stop if they flag you.) Morning radio is different out here in the middle of nowhere ... they lead the news off with last nights police report ... who had their tires slashed, who was arrested for shoplifting ... all the details. Then instead of the 'one liners' you here most places, they read a complete report on the West Nile virus that's a problem in the Midwest, that report had to be 10 minutes long and they read it word for word. Just in case you wanted to know, with the drop in temperatures in NE you can now stop applying bug repellent until next spring ... it is serious stuff though, lots of deaths and thousands of cases. By 9 AM I stop for fuel and contact the other drivers ... they passed me last night (not sure how, legally) but are behind me now and just getting up ... AND they plan on dropping the trucks yet today. Wish I'd have known that yesterday ... but I'm still ahead of them and should be able to stay that way. Spend a few more minutes talking to dispatch ... plans may change (boy do they ever) so I was to call them from my next fuel stop as my ATT cell service out here is not good. Guess the customer closes shop at 5 PM, I could have left earlier this AM if I had known that, it's not the 650 miles, that could be done on the freeway, it's those last 200 on the two lane highway through the mountains ... its the not knowing. This mornings timing was good, I got to Denver after rush hour, not sure I would have gained a lot by getting here during rush hour. Lots of road construction, but what's a city Interstate without road construction? Pedal to the metal and another three hours and I'm off the Interstate, I don't need fuel yet ... but ... this is the last 'big town' and if I fuel here I 'should' make it to the customer with 1/4 tank of fuel to spare ... depending on the mountains .... I spend more time making calls and getting something to eat from the in-store A&W. As I'm cleaning a little of the garbage out of my truck the other drivers pull in ... not sure how they caught me but they did ... but they still have to fuel, so I'm still ahead. We greet each other and I'm on my way ... about two miles. In town I have to stop for the railroad tracks ... the only train I can see is empty coal cars winding down the hills a mile away ... my luck, it's the same one, so I have to wait. I find out later that the other drivers caught up to me here, only they were so far back they didn't know why they were stopped. A ways out of town I get another call from dispatch, but I loose them ... when I try to call back, a recording comes on the line saying I need to use a credit card ... and I'm trying to call an 800 number ... sorry, no deal. I stop at the next town and use a pay phone ... not everyone in a small town is hospitable, and all I asked was where the nearest pay phone was ... with six people in the office I don't know why they let you go into voice mail ... I waited a few seconds and called back ... by now the other drivers blew their horns and sailed by ... We were no longer going to Saint Louis, we were now going to Rapid City and somewhere in Montana ... and to check back for more details ... this was getting to the end of the 'office day' and I was in danger of not making the drop by 5 PM. Dispatch tried to call me back a couple of times, I tried calling them ... when I did get through I'd loose them while I was on hold ... not getting all the details now was going to cost me big time later. I thought I would be able to catch the other drivers, they couldn't be more than five minutes ahead of me ... wrong. By now we were down to the real mountain road, lots of curves and steep grades up AND down ... and a few spots where I had to cross over to the oncoming lane because of the over hanging rocks in my lane ... car weren't a problem, but this road wasn't built for trucks ... and then ... road construction. The other drivers must have been the last ones through ... and me one of the first ones who didn't ... they had a single lane past the road construction, with a 1/2 hour delay ... that was it, I wasn't going to make it by 5 O'clock ... a minute here and there can sure change things. Seems they are putting in a new tunnel on US 160 ... forgot to log this as 'not driving' ... a few miles of dirt roads and we were on our way. Glad it was still daylight, now where I want to be driving truck in the dark, or in the winter. Somewhere along here I see a sign 'Motel $15 nightly, $35 week' ... now I stay in some low rent places, but even I have my limits. I miss my turn, it's 10 miles before Durango ... I have to turn around and go back ... only to find out later that that highway is a big U, starting and ending on US 160 and I picked the wrong end. The other drivers had made it with a couple of minutes to spare, and the owner had taken them in to get our rental car so all was OK after all. I finally have time to take a picture, and I only have one shot left, great planning. The owner was back shortly and while waiting for the other drivers with the rental car we had a little time to chat. From him I learned a lot of little things like. ---"Yes there is limit to the number of turns the drum on the cement truck can do before the cement is no good - 180." ---"But if you pour the ingredients in the right order and run the drum super slow - the cement will not mix, it will stay layered until the drum is turned at a high speed." ---"An average of two motorhomes a year burn up coming over Wolf Creek Pass." ---"When we had all the fires last year (burning tens of thousands of acres) most of the homes that were burnt had no fire insurance, they can't get it because the roads are not accessible to the fire equipment" Dispatch had ended up faxing our paperwork here, so now we know where we are going ... Rapid City and Great Falls. Unfortunately dispatch is closed and we don't have a map with mileage ... and my great ATT cell isn't working worth ... up here in the mountains. It seems like I have always gotten stuck driving the overnight so decided to try and get some sleep right away. From six in the evening to about four in the morning I was trying to sleep ... didn't ever feel like I was going to sleep or waking up, but there were a couple of times where it didn't seem like we had gone 200 miles since I last looked. Sometime during the night we looked at a map and "guesstimated" that it wasn't much different to go to Great Falls first ... and the rental car was supposed to be returned in Rapid City so it would all work out. And at this time I was thinking I would be back to Rapid City before noon ... when I looked at the clock it looked like 12 midnight, found out later it was really 2 AM ... Pacific time, not mountain time ... so I was off by a few hours on what time it was ... and a lot more hours on how long it would take to get to Great Falls. Date October 3, 2003 Time for me to drive, they've each drive about 330 miles. So I get out my bottle of water, my dried fruit bits, beef jerky and an apple and some Certs ... all the things I need to keep me awake. Not much to see flying low across WY and MT in the dark ... did hit the remains of a deer, enough to wake up the passengers and just as it was getting light I had to hit the shoulder to go around a deer who was standing in my lane ... it just stood there as I went around it. By daybreak we hit Billings ... at rush hour ... if you can call it that. I did my 330 miles and it was time to switch. We usually get a full sized rental car but out of the four rental car agents there weren't any available, so we had ended up with a Mitchibitchi ... not much for sleeping in ... which may be why I hadn't gotten any/much sleep ... my knee's hurt from being bent ... there was less leg room in the back seat than in the back of the club cab on a pickup. By the time we hit Billings I knew I was in trouble, we would be lucky to make it to Great Falls by noon ... not back to Rapid City. From Billings it would be two lane highway ... no too bad though ... speed limit of 70 mph, not much traffic, no mountains and mostly good road. A few small towns ... few enough that you have to watch your fuel. Back in the back seat and try to sleep ... Great Falls ... coming in from the south, this is a long town, looks like everywhere else in the US ... fast food, strip malls and car dealers. Finally we were there, it was a 2004 Freightliner with a sleeper. Now I'm on my own ... by now I know I have eight hours back to Rapid City, and I haven't slept in a bed since 5:30 yesterday morning and that was 1,850 miles ago. Somehow miles were going fairly fast ... sometimes its an hour between towns. Heading out of Great Falls I see the signs for a scale, not sure where the other drivers headed with the tractor, they left me in their dust ... thought I'd catch them at the scale but no ... they must have taken a different route. By the time I got close to the scale I was following a cattle truck and getting a little "spay" ... sure enough, when he pulled off for the scale I could see a steady stream of 'animal waste' running from his truck ... the rental car place should love us ... we put 1,800 miles on in 24 hours with their 'no milage charge' option AND return it smelling like ... the farm. A few more miles down the highway I noticed a helicopter following the highway at a low altitude ... green with no markings ... then I see the convoy ... a few of the usual 'military' vehicles ... and lots of SUVs and pickups with lights and some type of government markings. By now dispatch has agreed to pay for our rental car ... it will not be back within 24 hours ... and will pickup my cab ride to my next pickup. Sailing through Wyoming at the speed limit ... plus 10% ... I see lights in my rearview ... I'm due ... we have been pushing it for a thousand plus miles ... but he sails past me ... had to be doing 100 plus. The mileage is good on this car, I'm going to make it six plus hours at these speeds before having to stop for gas. I hit 'E' before I get to Rapid City but keep going ... there has to be a gallon or two left after 'E' ... right? I finally see a station at an exit and stop for gas, I'm close enough now that the car will still be on full when I return it. I also take time to look at the map dispatch faxed us ... and then the directions, the directions, when given to us, are usually good. They didn't seem to match the map, so I ignored the map. Less than ten miles off the Interstate I find the pickup location ... I had decided to stop here before returning the car ... there was a chance I could get a free ride instead of the cab ... and I'm not sure this truck is going to be legal ... it's just a chassis, and a lot of times the tail lights and mud flaps are part of the box. When I talked to dispatch last in the mid-afternoon I asked them if the truck was 'street legal.' They said the customer was 'just finishing that up now' ... Now? I was supposed to have picked this truck up at 6 AM ... 13 hours ago. By the time I pull into the customer it is 9 PM ... people are still there ... the first thing I do is use their phone and call the rental car locations to see how late they are open ... 10 PM ... so I have an hour, never can tell in these 'small' towns. Next I try for a ride, the only guy talking says he has plans ... it is Friday night ... so he asks the other two guys ... no response ... a couple of minutes go by and he says "Don't think too hard about it ..." still no response ... so I said I'd get a cab ... suppose I could have told them their boss would get the bill but I didn't. The airport was about 10 miles away ... it's big enough to get a the major airlines, at least a couple a day ... but small enough not to have a parking ramp. Had thought maybe the rental people would give me a ride ... but no offers ... I asked for the best way into town ... its the 'City Express' van ... $12.50 and a few minutes wait. There was a flight coming in so they wanted to wait ... no taker's ... but I did have to share my ride with some lost luggage. The van driver was from my home state, just moved there a few months ago ... is retired and just working to be able to send a few bucks to his kid in collage. He had checked into working 'driveaway' for the company who delivers the Winnebago's ... he found out that they just pay enough to cover your costs ... and as long as there are people willing to drive them for that price they will keep doing it. (from the driveaway message board ... it sounds like they are not the only 'motorhome company' who has found out they can get "free delivery.") There were no motels in sight so I hit the Interstate and head east/home. I am still wide awake and want to both get an hour driving out of the way tonight and get away from Rapid City before finding a motel ... where they are cheaper. Wall, SD ... I pull in at 11 PM and Econo Lodge and Knights Inn both already have their lights out ... the parking lots not full but they're locked up ... I park on the street and starting walking ... the Days Inn is still lit up and is a "Budget Inn," the Budget costs be under $40 after taxes ... no wake up call ( I realize later I should have, as I was missing a headlight) ... I needed to sleep, it had been about 42 hours since I had really 'slept.' If the other drivers had dropped me off first, I would have been home hours ago ... without tonights motel bill. Date October 4, 2003 No clock in the room, and the clock on my cell no longer displays ... but it is light out ... by the time I shower and get out the door it's almost 9:30 AM ... the longest I have been in bed in days, but I still didn't feel rested, not sleepy but not rested either. I was surprised that with a half dozen motels by this exit there wasn't one fast food place, I skipped the restaurant and hit the road ... I still had a supply of Pop Tarts. This was going to be one long day ... I'm thinking that driving a chassis down the Interstate is a lot like riding a jackhammer for 10 hours would be. I finally strapped my pillow between me and the seatbelt ... my gut was getting busted to pieces with from the seatbelt every bump in the road. Pro-pain ... I figured I should make it from Rapid City to Sioux Falls ... on the map it looks like fewer miles than Fargo to Montana, and I and the other drivers have done that many times ... I made it, but I was flat on 'E.' This was over halfway home and somehow I ended up on 'E' when I pulled into the office also ??? More excitement ... somewhere on I90 I lost my mud flaps ... on a Saturday night ... if I stopped to get them fixed I would have to get the headlight fixed also, as it would put me home after dark. I was in luck, a few cops out but no scales open. By the time I pulled in the yard the sun had set ... a beautiful sunset, but I had used up my last picture in Durango ... hope to be posting them soon. At first I thought that we had made a bad choice to go to Great Falls instead of Rapid City, but after doing the miles I found that dispatch should have known there was no way we could get to both cities within 24 hours. As it was, I got the short end of the stick on this one ... When I compared my dropping them, vs them dropping me off, I found that ... I spent over 10 extra hours driving in the rental car ... they saved almost 9 I spent $55 more, they saved $5 each ... I was still splitting the cost of gas to drop them off Because of the 10 extra hours, I had to get a motel, another $44 dollars ... they had two drivers and a sleeper, they (could have) drove straight home Follow up - They did end up paying me five hours 'down time' for this trip ... splitting the difference ... but didn't pay for my cab which both dispatchers said they would. |