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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 16 - New GMC - class 'C'
refer Humbolt, IA And New Peterbuilt - class 'B' garbage truck Saint Louis, MO Date October 10, 2003 Like the last couple of trips, dispatch keeps calling ... The plans for this trip kept changing so fast that I quit taking notes ... first they wanted me to do this run with a 'show truck' ... then they wanted me to move a tractor-trailer with a couple of trailer switches ... I asked them to find someone else, it took a couple of days but they found someone ... then I was back on the 'show truck' ... then the semi run was delayed so I ended up running with another driver with a refer a truck. The owner called me on this truck to make sure I was OK with driving a right hand drive ... I had just turned down a semi run, I have told them I don't want to tow ... I suppose they have reason to wonder ... but I have no problems with a right-hand drive. ... and I need to start running my own trips on MapQuest before I leave, dispatch never seems to see the whole picture, especially on a multi-leg run. On this one, they said the first drop was 'about' an hour out of the way, it was closer to three hours. Friday morning, no reason to get going early (per dispatch), we can't pickup my second truck until after 3PM ... the other driver going with me is a 'rookie,' did two shuttle runs and now he's ready to go. He has a class 'B' refer for Jefferson City, MO ... I have a class 'C' refer for IA, then pickup a class 'B' garbage truck for Saint Louis, MO. This is the first 'C' refer that's been a diesel ... all others have been pro-pain ... it took two trips around the truck to find where to fuel it. "Can you run Monday?" (I can't) A couple of minutes later we heard the ower reminding dispatch to "... ask every driver you talk to today if they can work Monday, we have 26 trucks to move out on Monday." We both have over 1/4 of fuel so we head out, but 20 miles down the road the 'rookie' was wanting to pull off for fuel. He got nervous when the fuel gauge hit 'E' ... and he was able to put all of 35 gallons of fuel in a 55 gallon tank, better to be safe than sorry. The next couple hours were uneventful ... northern IA ... fields, small towns. Mine was a blind drop ... this was a short run, don't know of anyone who would have taken this one on its own ... only a few hours, and no ride out. Which is why dispatch paid the other driver for the miles to follow me ... usually we don't get paid, it's 'supposed' to all even out in the end, this time someone's going out of their way for me, next time I go out of my way for someone else. Now I'm 'on duty - not driving' for the next few hours. We opt not to take the computers shortest route and head for the nearest four-lane. It works to our favor, the computers and our map were not as up to date as the highway ... US-20 is now a four lane from I-35 to Waterloo. By now the 'rookie' was running low on fuel, he didn't want to go two miles out of his way to go up to the Flying-J and we ended up going four miles out of the way after hitting 'E.' The highway is done, but the road is so new that there aren't gas stations at the exits yet. My paperwork said I was to call my drop at 8 am Saturday morning ... but I like to call as soon as I as I pick up my vehicles ... I like to know about any 'surprises' as soon as possible ... due to dispatch being off on the estimated hours of the first drop ... my second pickup was now a blind pickup ... I would need to call my second drop before I made the pickup, told them I planned on being there before 8am and would call them at eight as requested. The rookie didn't remember to call his drop until we were back on the road, and had to use my cell to call. He has a few things he still needs to get, but he seems to have done his homework on knowing what to expect. My first right-hand drive, my first Peterbuilt ... not a bad ride, I was more worried about the speed, I've heard that some of these trucks will only do 55 mph, that can make a little difference on the timetable. This one does ... good. With a speed limit of 65 in IA, and 55 in IL it didn't make much difference. The pickup location has been known to leave their trucks on empty ... at least one driver ran out before getting to the station a mile away. This one was on 1/4 but I didn't know where the next closest station was so I filled up in town ... or tried to ... the pump stopped at $75, and they had no idea why ... I thought maybe there was a max dollars, but by the time I paid, someone else gas pump had stopped at $.49. For a while I thought not filling was a good thing, I may be able to make it on the one fill, but gauges are misleading and I would be stopping. But no, I would have to stop ... the Iowa 80 / worlds largest truck stop was there, but it was now getting later and I was pushing it so I stopped at Pilot as it was the same price AND on the same side of the highway saving time. Guessing how much fuel I needed didn't work well this time, I should have been about halfway so I put in the same about as the first time. My bigger surprise was when I went in to pay, the bill was a dollar and half more than the pump ... "we charge three cents more for credit" ... nowhere was that posted ... not happy, its not the dollar, its the policy of "after the fact." Back on the road I passed the other end of I-155 ... now I know I should have looked at a map ... my directions had said Illinois 155 and I didn't make the connection, this cost me an extra 35 miles which is another half hour of driving. I had thought of driving all the way tonight, but I checked on the price of the motel where I dropping my truck and it was $80 ... too steep for me. I decided to stop about one / two hours out. I started watching for billboards ... never there when you need them. I finally pulled off for a Motel 6 for "$37" ... the Ramada Inn across the street was the same price. The motel was very nice and fairly new, my only complaint was they didn't give me my requested wake up call ... this would mean my customer would be waiting in the parking lot for an hour ... again not a happy camper. Date October 11, 2003 An hour and a half to go and 45 minutes to get there ... in the fog. Got behind a flat bed with a John Deere dozer on it ... it was the only one with tail lights that I could see at a quarter mile. The drop customer called me right at eight, before I had a chance to call him ... I would be an hour late ... they would be waiting in the parking lot. Two guys were in the lot of the motel ready to clean the truck for the show ... I quickly exited, got the paperwork signed. I mentioned it should have 1/4 a tank of fuel ... he said it hoped it didn't have more, because it would be indoors at the show ... it actually had 1/3 ... so I left at least $20 extra in the tank, all out of my pocket, it would decrease my take home by about 33% on this run. But good news, they said I could catch the motel's airport shuttle ... which I knew that had from my earlier call ... so I walked in and asked what time the next shuttle for the airport would leave ... "how soon do you want to go?" ... ASAP ... "We'll have someone to take you in about 10 minutes." A couple minutes later the motel clerk came back and said "The driver is busy, so I've called you a cab, it'll be here in about 15 minutes." (Great !!) The cab came, the driver checked in with the clerk and we were on our way. The airport was about 7 miles away and the driver dropped me right in the rental car lot, bypassing the front desk. I had never had a motel call a cab so I asked the driver what I owed ... "nothing, the motel covered it." From what I could tell, the guys I dropped the truck with had stayed at the motel for the night so I didn't feel too bad taking advantage of their perks ..." Waiting in line ... this time it was an incompetent clerk, it was the customers. "Why can't I get the 'weekend' price for more than the weekend?" "Why can't I keep the car?" (They had rented it for a day, kept if for a week ... and and only had a credit line enough for the single day and no other way to cover the cost) "No I don't have a credit card, why can't I rent a car?" "I've crashed your car, why aren't you here with a replacement yet?" ... and for me? The guys in the lot like to send the one way cars in the direction of their home state / plates ... but they had no clue as to what states were next to mine ... Now, 100 plus miles to pickup the other driver who had been sitting at McDonalds since about 8 am, and it was now after noon. Being in a rush, I'd hadn't taken time to eat yet today. Now that I was stopped, I need to eat, being cheep I order my usual ... something for the dollar menu. The rookie offered to drive so I could eat ... and drove as far as Kansas City where I took over the drive and drove the rest of the 600 miles ... which is fine with me, unless it's an overnighter. As we approached our hometown, the rookie called a girl he knew who came and picked us up at the airport. This saved us the time of having to pickup one of our cars, drop the rental and then pickup our other car. Home Again, Safe at Last ... Problems this trip 1) Dispatch says "allow an (extra) hour" to drop the first truck" ... it took three 2) Do to gas station problems, I couldn't fuel my truck ... so I can only guess my fuel usage, leave <> $20 extra in the tank 3) Computer directions / routing are wrong ... drove an extra 35 miles, unpaid 4) Computer mph is wrong, IL is 55 mph not 65 mph ... estimating time of delivery is wrong 5) Pilot changes extra for using a credit card ... but doesn't tell you until after you pumped your fuel 6) Motel 6 didn't make the requested wakeup call ... causing the customer, other driver to wait an extra hour 7) Avis, every difficult customer was either in line or on line ahead of me ... about an extra half hour waiting |