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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 22 - (2) New International -
Refers (2) Used International - Refers ... local 11/18/03 - This was supposed to be one of our local shuttles where we get a two hour ride in a van and drive vehicles back to the office so they are easier for other drivers to pickup after hours. Not today ... same shuttle, but they wanted me to deliver a truck a couple hundred miles away and bring back a used one ... and pick up another driver ... AND then bring one back to the office. I need a little road atlas type program with the time on it ... they had logged out all the miles on one sheet showing 10+ hours ... and we were getting going close to 9 am ... so no problem, right? It always seems to take a little while for my brain to kick in ... unless its 'hind-sight' then it works fairly quickly. No one really to blame but myself ... and dispatch for 'suggesting' that I can do this run in a day. Lots of trucks, very few drivers ... today there is only three of us in the shuttle, and the other two are leaving with their vehicles in the AM ... must not have been anyone to get them down here yesterday for them, both drivers are going west, as will be my last truck today. It also helps things move faster when there are fewer drivers, instead of 10:30, we are out of there before 9:30 ... every little bit helps. I have plenty of time to look at my paperwork, and I do, but the reality of it doesn't hit me yet. Always hear lots of stories on these two hour shuttles ... today's winner is a driver who (claims) to have dropped his truck at a customers rural location, and not wanting to wait for dispatch to get the shuttle down there to pick him and other drivers up decided to start walking. (Seems he got tired of running with the other drivers and went on ahead. Dispatch didn't have anyone that night to pick him up, so they had scheduled for them all to be picked up the following morning.) The first stretch of road is a one lane gravel road about a mile long which he has to walk. When he gets to the county road he starts hitchhiking ... and gets a ride up to the four lane. Not sure if I'd pick this guy up, he's got the 'biker' look to him. This stretch of highway is four lane, but not Interstate, some traffic, but no luck ... by now it's about 5 pm and dark. He's walking with his thumb out when a cop goes past ... opps ... but the cop keeps going. Soon he sees a cop going the other way and making a U-turn ... now he knows they've seen him. The cop stop and asks him the basics ... ID, where you from, where you going ... cop goes back to his car to run his licence (not sure if hitchhiking is illegal in that area or not). Cop comes back and tells him "he's clean" and states that 'they're not supposed to do this, but you seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place so would you like a ride?' He offered to get him to the closest town and call him a cab from there. The cop calls the cab and makes the arrangements and they get to the next town. When they pull in where the driver is to get out, there is another cop there ... the two cops start talking and the new one is giving the driver, who is out of ear-shot, a 'once over.' Then they all start talking and finally the new cop says to the driver "let's go .... I'll give you a ride to the bus depot (30 miles away)." "Thanks, but I need to call the cab back and cancel." "No problem, we've already done that." The second cop was a county officer and was heading back to town and dropped him right off at the door to the bus depot ... and waiting to make sure he would still be able to catch a bus that night (buses don't stop every hour in rural America) ... the bus would be there in about an hour, so he thanked the cop again ... It is nice to know that there are a few cops out there who will bend the rules ... for the right reasons. As soon as we get to our depot, I leave the other two drivers to their business and head out, every second I can save will be much needed today. Inspect, fuel and GO ... pedal to the metal ... except through small towns of course. The first hour and a half went well, not much traffic, just make sure you slow down for every small town ... then 30 miles out I get behind someone going the speed limit ... down hill. Up hill and on curves it's down to 40 ... and no way to pass, there is enough oncoming traffic so that passing isn't an option with these gutless wonders I'm driving today. Finally after two hour I'm to my first drop ... I'm made good time, but the customer is deep in conversation with someone, two other employee's remind him I'm waiting and finally about 10 minutes later he's ready ... normally I don't care, but today 'every second counts.' I'm going to be pulling two trucks out of here today so I inspect and sign for both now and am pulling out when the other two drivers show up with their trucks ... I'm still making fairly good time. Trying to make it all work, I'm rounding to use the least amount of driving hours ... by now it is already 3:30 pm and I've just picked up and fueled my second truck, two more to go ... I hit the highway and start to do the math ... 3:30 now, three hours to my drop ... another two and a half to pickup the other driver ... the math isn't working. And what time does the my last pick / drop close?? They have a fenced yard and I took the key so no way for them to park it on the street ... problem is I told the customer I'd be back "about 9" to pickup my second truck. IF all goes like clock work, I may be back by 11 ... by now I realize that this nice little schedule they gave me with the miles and hours on it ... didn't include my final leg ... how convenient ... for them. Dispatch says they don't know when the customer closes (??? we only have five 'regular' customers ... and you don't know their hours???), so they call and check. "Nine PM" Ouch worse than I thought "But someone should be there tonight until ten." Not that that is going to help ... I'd have to average 15 miles over the speed limit to make it and this truck has a governor on it, the next truck will have 100,000 to 300,000 miles on it and may be lucky to do 55 mph. I resign myself to reality and keep driving. The scale is closed so that helps, and I've got all but 10 miles as four lane on this leg of the run. I call ahead to my drop and someone is there ... hasn't happened much lately. When I headed out this morning the owner was telling myself and another driver why we had to do some new paperwork ... signatures on paperwork, ect ... and I realized all my drops for the last 4 - 6 weeks have been blind drops, and a few blind pickups. Anyhow, as the customer was giving me directions I realized I had been here before, a couple of weeks after I started ... that time it was one truck out of three for the day and we were coming from a different direction ... but it still helps to know the layout. I found the drop, found the guy, found the next truck AND the station next door has diesel. I do my inspection and find I've got a headlight out and a rear marker out ... but decide to run with it. The rest of the truck looks good, it has to be a newer used truck than I've seen lately, it only has 90,000 and is an automatic. I hate these short (under 500 miles) runs, I can't ever seem to judge how much fuel to put in ... and never seem to have time to make extra stops to chance running it on 'E.' The truck I just dropped was closer to 1/2 than 1/4 ... and we can leave then as low as 1/8, so I left at least $20 in that one and will end up leaving as much in this one ... so $40, may $60 of fuel out of my pocket got left in these trucks in one day ... not good. I'm only back on the road a couple of minutes when the other driver calls ... he's ready and waiting, and I'm still a good two hours away. He gives me directions as I'm driving ... I'm sure I'll be calling him again. Mostly four lane on this stretch also ... then a few of the cars I've passed manage to pass me just as we get to the two lane / road construction ... and they follow the 'suggested' speed limit. I've been this route before so I know not to follow the computers directions ... detour, this is the one where I got off the four lane, only to get routed back to the four lane a few miles later due to a detour ... something they could let you BEFORE you get off the four lane. Still making good time and soon I see the exit the other driver mentioned ... and the Home Depot ... now to find him, said he was at a BP next to a Country Kitchen. As soon as I exit I call him, I don't want to waste any time ... sounds easy enough, why can't I find it? Ten minutes later I'm back at the exit calling him again, seems I turned around about two blocks too soon, I had thought it was to be the 'first right,' the 'first left' ... but not really. I did find him, had to go into the BP to get him and then back into the BP to ask directions. Ours are only from a 'city,' and you have not idea where in that city ... are you north or south of the first highway listed on the directions? Easy enough, go to the 'T,' go left about 5 miles to your highway "can't miss it." It is now after 9 pm and we have at least two hours to go ... the other driver calls the customer where I was earlier today but no one answers ... not a good sign. (Dispatch hadn't bothered to tell him the good news, he has 5 + legal hours of driving he could have done tonight.) The first hour will be two lane highway ... and I mange to get in the business lane at one split, our little tour through town had to cost us a good 10 minutes ... finally we are on the four lane, and down to an hour left. By now I've been driving for 9 hours and up for 16 ... I see the cop sitting in the center median and don't bother to slow down, after all this truck can't go over 65 even when I want it to. But I've forgotten about the headlight ... sure enough, I can see him pull out and hit the lights ... the car behind me pulls off and the cop keeps coming ... now he's shining his spot light on my mirror ... I get the message. I pull over and wait ... looking for my licence (I've got way too much stuff in that pocket). He comes to the passenger side and the other driver opens the door ... "have some hot pizza's tonight?" he asks. "No." "Do you know what the speed limit is here?" "Seeing you are asking, I'm guessing it's not 65 mph anymore." I was right, the speed limit had dropped a few miles back and I hadn't seen the sign ... the other driver said that there wasn't any sign, but not to the cop ... the cop also asked if I knew I had a light out, which I admitted I did. Then asked why we weren't wearing seat belts ... Ouch, I wear mine 99% of the time, except last week when it took me 5 minutes to get it undone in one of these old trucks ... my mind must have though I was still in that old truck, I had worn my seatbelt earlier today in the new truck but none of this would help now. He asks for our licences and the truck registration and goes back to his squad. And we wait ... I quickly bring my log book up to date in the dark as best I could ... I'm still OK on hours, but I've been logging my self at, or over the speed limit all day and a few details are still missing. Today was my lucky day ... in 25 years of driving, I have NEVER gotten a warning, if they stop me, I get a ticket. And I did this time too ... $10 for not wearing a seat belt. But only a verbal warning for doing 10 over the speed limit, which is a minimum $150 fine. And another verbal warning for faulty equipment / headlight out, which would be another $100 fine ....AND ... he never asked to see my log book. He did tell me to take a good look at the 55 mph sign ahead ... because of the curve in the road, he could see it, I couldn't, it was blocked by another sign. We are on our way, another 15 minutes (or more) lost ... plus the minutes I continued to obey the speed limit ;) By now it will be 1 - 2 am by the time I get home even if the customer is still open ... and I've got two more scales to cross to get there or go another hour out of my way to avoid them ... and I'm supposed to do another shuttle by 9 am. As we pull up to the customer all looks dark and the gate we normally use is locked, then we see a pickup running so we pull over to the front gate and get out as the customer pulls up to the gate to leave ... "Can we please get our trucks out? We've already signed for them? It'll only take a minute?" "No problem" and he offered to sign for the one I was bringing in. I had suggested I could do it later the next day when I cam back, but this would take care of everything now. The gate opens automatically from the inside so he left us to exit when we were ready ... by now I was ready to hit the sack, and the other driver was willing to do the same and get an early start in the AM. We had seen the 'Home Motel' on the way in, and aimed for that one if the 'vacancy' light was still on. It was and for $20 each we shared a room. It was 32 degrees outside and 33 degrees inside ... I cranked the heat and hit the sack. Hours later I wake up and I am still freezing ... usually after a few minutes I've got a warm little spot in the bed and I try not to move. I try to read the setting in the dark and turn the knob ... it starts kicking heat so I must have done it right. 11/19/03 - Six o'clock wake-up call ... and it is still freezing ... seems I turned the heat down last night (and the heat still kicked on?). So I crank it up this time so it will be warm when I get out of the shower .. the other driver didn't have that luxury. A quick shower, truck inspection, fuel and we are on our separate ways ... and soon a message beeps in ... the driver who is delivering the truck I'm driving is at the office and waiting ... where am I? Then the driver who was with me last night called and said he told dispatch that we couldn't get the trucks last night ... that's why we were late. OK ... not what I've have told them, but they didn't ... and don't ask me. I would have said, 'Yes we did get the trucks ... sorry you scheduled me for over 10 hours ... and your insurance doesn't cover me after 11 pm so I'm not driving after 11. Back at the office, the shuttle has been canceled due to lack of drivers so I am off the rest of the day ... still lots of long runs going east ... lots of return cement trucks coming out of OH and SC, so anyone east with a class 'B' has a truck part of the way back. Orientation of new drivers and more drivers applying ... and the boss offers to pay last nights motel ... After all that I hope I made something for my day plus out. |