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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 19 - New GMC - Refer ... to Hudson, NY 10/30/03 - I was only going to do shuttles this week ... was gone five days last week ... but dispatch called and 'almost' begged ... so after checking things out on my end, called back and said 'OK.' "Oh, by the way, you'll be with two new guys ... and I need you to drop another driver ... 10/31/03 - I suggested 6 am, so 6 am it was ... the new guys were there early, I was there on time and the senior driver was late. I wasn't sure how green these guys were so I asked if they'd driven before ... the younger guy (my age) used to have his class 'A' years ago ... the retired guy said he'd done the shuttle a few days ago. So I was going to have to cover everything ... how / where to pickup paperwork before hours, how to fill out everything, how to ID the trucks, what to check ... (forgot to tell them to do the actual check sheet ... until much later). By 7 we are finally ready to go ... but they wanted coffee, so we stopped a couple miles down the highway ... for another half hour. I had 1,200 miles to go in two days ... plus dropping one driver and pickup a second, adding a few more miles. Told the guys to think about running on their own later today ... it would save me hours if they could. Finally on the road ... the driver riding with me is one of two known full time drivers ... with a few stories to tell. A few weeks back I had heard an irate driver telling about a co-driver ... and no-one would tell me who it was ... but there are two sides (at least) to every story. The first driver had said that the other driver had woke him up in the middle of the night wanting to go, NOW (they were sleeping in their trucks), and the first driver had choked him and told him to "... never wake him up in the middle of the night," ... and the other driver could leave if he wanted ... then later, the other driver was out of cash and the first driver had left him ... so the "... other driver had to leave his BL and driver licence at the toll booth so he could go get cash for the toll." Today ... I'm talking to the "other driver" and don't let on that I have heard the story before ... Seems these two drivers were stranded in New York City during the blackout on the east coast ... everything was shut down, they couldn't get fuel or cash or ... (I'm not sure why they were stopped, they had some fuel ???) Anyhow, they had been sitting for <> 24 hours when in the middle of the night, the 'other driver' had heard that the power was back on in New Jersey ... and they had enough fuel to get that far, so he wanted to leave ... now. And the other driver did try to choke him, he had scars from his finger nails ... now when they got to the scales, the 'other driver' didn't have enough cash and tired to get through with only paying $6 ... but the toll people were not amused, it didn't matter that he couldn't get cash, not their problem ... but the first driver did not leave, he actually came back through the toll booths so he could loan this driver the money ... two sides to every story. The trucks had enough fuel to get to the first Flying J a couple of hours away ... once there, the guys 'realize' they need cash ... time to call the office and get some money on the ComCheck ... good thing we didn't need fuel at 6 am ... It takes up to 15 minutes to fuel each truck with pro-pain so these drivers have plenty of time ... Flying J are our 'scheduled' stops for pro-pain, but they don't do ComCheck, so these driver walk to another truck-stop while I get the trucks fueled ... and it takes them most of the hour to get the money. They get back in time to pay for their fuel ... and I'm ready to go ... so I do, leaving them on their own ... they will meet me in Gary, IN after I drop the other driver. My truck has two tanks so I should be able to run about 500 miles, the other two have a large single tank so they can run a 'safe' 300 miles ... the driver I was with last week had a smaller tanks so we could only go about 200 miles, and we don't get paid anymore for stopping every 200 miles. We have new trip reports this trip ... we have always had to log fuel used, now we need to log the miles and record that we've checked the oil every stop ... my last truck was using oil ... the light had come on a couple blocks from a truck-stop ... guess I was lucky ... two trucks have 'blown up' recently ... which explains the new forms. I had hoped to leave as soon as I was fueled, gaining a 1/2 hour on the other drivers ... but with them not knowing to plan ahead (did they think the fuel was free?) ... I had to wait around adding more hours to a log that would already be a problem. Time does go faster with someone riding with you ... and soon we were there ... back there, this guy was picking up the truck by Appleton, WI that I had dropped off last Saturday and he was taking it to TX ... then picking up another vehicle a few hours away and driving to Oklahoma City and hoping by Monday to have another run lined out from out of the OK area ... he says they keep him busy full time, but like the rest of us, doesn't think the pay is enough for what we do ... driving, being 'log book artists ... all for around $10 an hour ... this guys been doing this for a while and knows what area's you can get deals on airfares from ... something I haven't tried yet. We find the truck on the first try (I missed the exit when I dropped the truck) ... it even had fuel in it so I was 'soon' on my way ... (have to make sure my story doesn't conflict too-oo-oo much with my log book). This part of the country is 'off route' for our pro-pain runs, so I had checked the Internet for possible stops but now decided to chance it and not spend time fueling ... Trying to find pro-pain I had emailed Speedway / SuperAmerica ... but the "don't know" which of there locations sell pro-pain ... I'd have to call the individual stores ... Spending an extra hour getting started this AM ... then another hour fueling ... has gotten me to Chicago at the beginning of rush hour ... on I-94 right through downtown ... it's pretty much like rush hour in anyother city, just miles longer. I turned the radio on for a traffic report ... instead found a station playing an old Johnny Cash song ... and another ... and another ... for two hours until they signed off at 6 pm ... no commercials (now that I'm home, I did a web search ... I was listening to WAIT-AM 850 / a Newsweb station ... there was even an article about the station in the Chicago Paper about that station, written the day I went through WAIT's new owner brings 'World Cafe' to Chicago). Never did find a traffic report ... Guess the other drivers had a few delay's so they didn't get to Gary too long before I did ... one of the drivers had exited at Janesville when he saw the 'Alternate route' ... the other driver stopped to wait, until the highway patrol told him to get moving ... then the hit the road construction ...then they stopped for pro-pain ... that would take at least a half hour ... and another stop ... me? I had kept driving at ++ the speed limit. They had already fueled, so that would save me time ... as soon as I was fueled we'd be ready to go ... but there's a problem, they have already logged nine hours driving and we've barley gone 400 of our 1,200 miles we are supposed to make in two days ... I had hoped to make at least 500 and stay in Sturgis again ... guess we'll worry about tomorrows miles tomorrow. Even South Bend is too far ... that and it's Friday night ... and Notre Dame football ... we wouldn't be able to afford a motel even if we could find a room ... The guy who fuels my truck says Michigan City is about 45 minutes away ... so we'll be stopping there ... but I can't see any motels from the exit so we keep going ... the next exit has a Hampton and a Holiday Inn Express (advertised) ... we pull off and there are two more 'economy' motels with billboards on the local highway ... after checking with the other drivers we pull into one we could see from the toll way ... it was missing a couple of letters on the sign and only had a single car ... but how bad could it be?? We pull in ... the owner (?) is sitting watching TV ... it looks like his den ... except the 'bar' is the office ... complete with a dog that opened one eye as we walked by ... we asked for a room for three ... I'm guessing he was hoping for three single rooms, but after a long pause he said "I suppose I could give the three of you a room for $55 ... $60 after taxes." ... I offered to take the cot ... we also asked for a wake up call, he offered an alarm clock which he said he would bring to our room ... but never did ... he also gave us the name of a restaurant in town, right next to the Kentucky Fried Chicken ... the other drivers opted for the chicken ... so we all piled in my truck and went out to eat, our only food stop for the three day trip. Back at the motel we tried to figured out our log books ... one driver had logged 10 hours the other only 9-1/4 ... one of them couldn't add ... so we could have gone further, but where? ... but by stopping at 7 pm I was 'almost' legal ... closer than I would have been in another hour or two ... it seams like forever and the lights are finally out ... the retired guy says he'll be up by 4 so the wake up call is not needed. Didn't even remember it was Halloween ... had thought if we were in Sturgis we would park in front of the building instead of behind it ... but by the time we shut down here ... never even thought about it ... and it was still early, but it had been a long day. Cassidy Motel & Rv Park - La Porte, IN - this is the only Ma / Pa type motel I have stayed at that has been well kept up ... all are old, but this one is in good repair ... better than the Knights Inns and 1st Inns we stay at ... and easy on easy off ... food is about two miles into town, no food right at the toll exit. 11/1/03 - I didn't sleep very well ... I think less because of the cot and more because I knew I would be logging w-a-y over hours today ... the other driver was up early ... sitting on the edge of the bed, bad back ... finally at four he takes a shower ... I was going to wait until 4:30 but was a bad judge of time and didn't get up until 4:45 ... then we had to wait for driver three ... the more drivers you have the longer everything takes ... all three of us have to use the shower (one at a time), we all have to get fuel ... one at a time ... and there is more chance that someone will get in the wrong toll line ... that someone has will take a couple of extra minutes here or there ... ... and again we stop for coffee ... another half hour delay ... then we are in Sl-ohio ... as soon as I knew I was heading east, I had called Flying J to see if the Toledo location had pro-pain yet ... they didn't ... so I called a couple of pro-pain dealers in the area ... both would be closed on Saturday ... so I called the KOA to make sure there would be someone there ... their last day of the season was Friday ... "Yes, he would be there ... no, I would not have to call in the morning to make sure." As we exit the toll road I see a pro-pain truck filling the tanks at a truck wash ... it would cost us a couple of precious minutes, but worth the chance. No luck, he was only working because someone had been off sick and they were behind ... he didn't have any extra fuel ... or paperwork to sell us fuel ... oh well, off to the KOA. We get to the KOA and the office is dark and locked ... so I go to the mobil-home and knock ... and find out the guy should be in the office ... so I go back and knock ... I should have looked through the window, he was sitting there playing Solitaire on the computer ... I like to help out the little guy, but at three times the price, even if I'm not paying for it ... I and the other drivers just get enough to get us to the next Flying J ... still between the three of us it was about 75 gallons ... another hour plus not driving. We finally have decided how and where we are going to split and meet again ... and by now I know the first bad news ... I have about 1,000 miles to go ... in 10 hours ... with some help from back home I find that one way is 40 miles shorter than our other option ... I had thought it would be 1-4 hours shorter ... so we decide where to meet ... hoping it will be by midnight. I will run with the Watertown driver which is also closest to the route of my paid miles. By late afternoon I realize that we are in danger of missing our rental car pickup (like we did last week) ... I'm guessing we have about a half hour fudge factor, and eight hours to go ...with more help from home I get a general idea of where the airport / pickup location is ... and a backup plan, if it looks like we will miss the Albany close time, we can pickup a car in Syracuse ... but if we do that we will be stuck paying for two days rental. The rest of the day is nerve racking ... and I'm a really low key guy ... I'm fudging every way I can on the log book, we are up against the clock to pickup the rental car, if we miss it we've got the third driver sitting somewhere for an extra eight hours ... and there are cops everywhere. Usually it's IN where cops are thick ... the only squads I saw there were sitting at the office ... here in NY they are parking at (just about) every 'no U-turn' crossing ... so we'd "speed" until we say the next sign and slow down until we passed the crossing ... some places there were squads on five crossing in a row ... even saw one cop parked / standing behind the 6 foot cement median, so that he was shooting the radar over the top of the barrier ... others were sitting in the trees in the median ... others in the right ditches ... what a fun Saturday night. I've got to learn to start reading ALL the info dispatch gives us ... by the time we reached Watertown it looked like had gained a 1/2 hour and the directions looked easy. BUT ... all I remembered was to go 55 miles on I-81 ... and there was an exit, with a town by the correct name ... so I look at my notes, (the other driver had the actual paperwork but I was leading ... was going to save us time) two lefts then second building on the left ... easy enough, we quickly find two lefts but go for miles before we find two houses on the left ... time to re-read the directions ... then read the second set of directions which say we should be two exits down I-81 ... we are quickly loosing all the time we gained. Back on the interstate and we find the correct exit, take our two lefts ... but again no building ... we back track ... it's well after dark and I'm walking in the middle of an intersection trying to find the street signs ... when I do the names don't match the address ... but the address does look formiliar ... I'm parked next to a sign with an arrow that says "Cody Ave --->" ... finally ... two building down and we are there ... it butts right up against the interstate ... if only it were daylight ... as much as I hated to spend the time, I had to show the driver how to to a 'blind drop' ... and finally we are on our way again. By now I have the phone number of the Avis location and call ... seems they are waiting for a flight and can't leave until that customer arrives ... too bad someone else is having a bad day, but it may just saving spending the night in Albany. Not the most pleasant person I've talked too, but at least they know we're coming ... we lost the half hour we had gained plus more, trying to find that last drop, but now that I know the rental agent 'could' be open past midnight, I decide to chance it. We make it with 15 minutes to spare ... and the one bright spot on this trip ... we have a Park Avenue for our trip home ... at least we won't be cramped in some spec (very small car). did get a marked dollar at one of the toll booths in NY ... www. george more to come .... |