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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 18c - New Peterbuilt - Garbage
Truck Waterloo, IA to Appleton, WI 10/25/03 - The other driver does the inspection while I do the paper work ... we are in and out in less than 10 minutes, hope the 'shop stop' takes about that long ... a quick look at the map they left in the truck and we are on our way. It looks like it is only a couple of miles away on I-280, should be the first exit after I-280 splits from US-20 ... a place called Cedar Rapids Truck Repair, right next to the airport ... we go more miles than we think we should but you can never tell how far things are on these maps (and we don't look at the exit numbers - it's a faxed copy and both of us are blind as bats once it's dark - when it comes to small print). I-280 ends and we are on city streets so at a stoplight we ask a driver next to us where the airport is ... "about five miles straight ahead" ... so we are on the right road, but this map is misleading. As soon as we get past the main part of town we hit think fog, I can't see the highway signs until we are a couple of car lengths from them ... we follow the signs to the airport ... all the way to the airport ... and no truck dealer. I had seen a repair person working a little ways back so we'd stop and ask for help ... there was no one else around, we had seen one car from the four lane to the airport and back. The other driver hops out and talks to this guy for a bit, standing in his headlights so he can read the info .... When the driver comes back he start out by saying ... "Remember our conversation earlier about not reading stuff close enough? About people misreading ME for MA? ... We are looking for the Cedar Rapids Truck Repair IN CEDAR FALLS ... we are an hour from where we are supposed to be" ... by now it's 10 pm and a lot of those places close by midnight. The other driver was originally going to be home tonight ... then later we talked about traveling together after we picked up his truck until we stopped for the night, then about stopping somewhere before so we'd have a wider choice of motels ... now we were going to be spending the night in Rapid City with our whole run ahead of us on Saturday. ... Then things got worse, the other driver called ahead to see how long they were open and if they'd still have time to work on the truck tonight ... "No ... we can't get it done tonight, we were expecting you by 8 pm ... we are supposed to change a wheel seal and do a PDI / pre-delivery inspection, together they are about a four hour job" "WHAT?" ... this is what they meant when they said 'stop by the shop?' "The customer is paying the bill, and that's what they called and told us to do ... if you can get a hold of someone to tell us otherwise, have them call us ... otherwise your truck will be done around noon tomorrow." (and I'll be home sometime Sunday) We start calling our companies "emergency" number ... I've had to do this once before and even when you get someone to call you back they aren't much help ... When you think about everything our dispatchers have to deal with ... a hundred drivers who can say 'No' to any and every job, and only a couple of those work anywhere close to full time, most of the drivers have other drivers they won't run with and trucks they won't drive, places they won't go, etc ... the dispatchers do a good job ... EXCEPT when it comes to the 'emergency number' ... we start calling them about 10:30 ... no call back ... we keep trying until after 11 ... (it will be about 10 am tomorrow when they finally call back) We decide to leave it for the night ... the wheel seal does need to be replaced ... something that was not so obvious when we picked up the truck in the dark. We had seen there was a Ramada Inn about three blocks away and decided to walk even though the mechanics said they have a shuttle. It was the only motel at the 'airport' exit so we knew it wouldn't be cheap ... and it wasn't ... $100, but the other guy worked him a little and he came down to $90 ... the fuller the motel gets the higher the price and they were just about full. Didn't help it was a Friday night, and their college had a football game going on. The only other price we had seen was at the Motel 6 a couple of miles back ... "$49 Single" ... that usually means at least $59 for two of us ... AND we'd have to pay for a taxi both tonight and tomorrow ... and this Motel has breakfast. The motel has a table full of menu's for local restaurants that deliver ... and most of them have what time they close ... Cedar Rapids may think they are a big city ... but based on what hours their restaurants are open ... they are not ... McD's next door had closed while we were at the truck dealer and most of the delivery places had also already closed, we were down to to choices Pappa John's (again) or one other pizza place ... we / I went for the other one ... in about 30 minutes we had our pizza ... it was good, but if I do this again I'd go for Pappa John's instead. Again tonight, the other driver is watching what I eat, but gets ahead of me by one piece so he's glad when I reach for one more. By now it's well after 1 am ... not that we are going anywhere ... the shop doesn't open until 7 am and who knows how much longer after that. Sometime during tonight's conversation, the other guy mentions that I must not have too many worries ... that I'm snoring within five minutes of lights out ... (who me?) ... guess he was more tired than me tonight, he was out in less than five minutes. 10/26/03 6:30 wake up call ... even with going to bed after 1, I was awake and in the bathroom before that ... it is going to be some long mornings once we hit the new 10 off rule. I start calling the shop at 7 ... no answer, finally I call their main number someone picks up right away but then puts me through to the same number ... finally about 25 after someone finally picks up ... and yes, I have been listening to the phone ring for the last 25 minutes. "As far as I am concerned the truck is ready ... we fixed the wheel seal, that's a warranty item ... and we have nothing in writing to do a PDI, and I don't do anything without it being in writing" All right! let's go ... I was hoping for this, but wasn't ready for it ... we hadn't eaten breakfast yet ... but first we go and get the truck, don't want them to change their minds and be stuck here the rest of the morning ... "It's warrenty" ... they didn't want to give us any kind of paperwork on it, but we finally convinced them we had no chance of collecting down time without any paperwork. Yesterday it was cold pizza for breakfast because we had a fridge, today for over twice the price there was no fridge ... or microwave ... so I was going to make use of their breakfast and leave the pizza ... "That pizza is still good, we're not leaving it" and sure enough later that morning he would dig it out ... after sitting out for 10 hours. Sorry, I'm not known to be real picky about eating old food, but 10 hours is over my limit. Rolling, US-151 will take me almost all the way to Appleton ... it wasn't one of the highways I was looking at when I took the job ... I thought I would be on two lane county roads with towns every 10-20 miles ... US-151 is not a bad route, most of it is already 4 lane and they are working on more of it. I will put on over 300 miles today and less than 3 of it will be interstate highway ... usually our route are 90-99% Interstate. I do have to get off of US-151 to drop the other driver north of Dubuque ... which take us right through Dyersville, IA ... home of two of my favorite companies Ertl and SpecCast ... I collect 1/64 scale farm toys, have somewhere over 1,000 of them and I haven't bought any new models for the last few years, so I am way behind ... Dyersville is also the home of the "Field of Dreams" ... I've been there before so I am less interested in stopping than the other driver is ... but ... We find his truck, get it inspected and fueled and part ways ... that is a long time to spend with a stranger ... glad it was him ... and vs ... there are some real 'interesting' drivers out there that even I could not have lasted five days with ... again, how dispatch keeps that all straight even most of the time is a wonder. I still have about six hours to go ... not much for the first few hours ... enter WI ... for some reason US-151 goes right through Madison, usually they go around a "business route" goes through a city ... then I don't see anymore signs for this highway but do see I-90 in the distance so I head that-a-way ... only to get back on 151 a mile down the road. By looking on the map and on our computer route, it showed a shortcut by getting off the main highway at Waupun and taking a county road ... which I did ... heading right through downtown ... suddenly I am confused ... there are kids in costumes everywhere ... at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on October, 26th ... when is Halloween? I thought it was on the 30th? Now not only was I confused, I was frustrated ... after spending 15 minutes crawling through this nice little town, I get to a detour ... right back out on US-151 ... couldn't they have had a sign on the highway that told people that??? About there was the end of the four lane, most of the rest of the way to Fond du Lac. Luckily I had done the math on my first tankful and only put in $40 gallons or so ... but I miss estimated and had to stop again and put in another $10, better I suppose than leaving $10 or (a lot) more in the tank. Missed my exit, my map had a street name and the highway calls it by the county route name ... and of course this street doesn't have the name on the overpass ... have to wait until the next street which doesn't have an exit but also shows on my map. Only about a 15 minute delay but they all add up and I've going to be doing most of my trip home in the dark. Find the drop with no problem, takes a little longer to figure out where they wanted the truck dropped, and how I was supposed to get there. Once I shut the truck off I called the cab ... they'd be there in about 15 minutes, plenty of time for me to pack my stuff, clean out the cab, hide the keys, etc ... $25 for a 10 mile cab ride, and it looks like the boss is paying $50 for my rental car. Finally I've gotten good about doing the 'once over' on rental cars for any damage ... got burned by Enterprise a few years back on a windshield crack that I didn't see until I turned into the sun as I left the lot ... too late, I had signed ... they got their windshield but lost a loyal customer ... refused to use them for years but now the two closest locations to my house are both Enterprise, closest by at least 15 miles. Anyhow I did find a dent where the paint was cracked on this car from Avis and went back in before I even opened the door ... they made a note of it and I was on my way ... how times have changed ... Avis call the Malibu a 'full sized' car. Another five hours in a rental car and I'm home, the car I have for another 20 hours ... unlimited miles. |