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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 26 - New GMC - Refer ... to Syracuse, NY 12/15/03 - Instead of Cortland, NY, I'm going to Syracuse ... and instead there being three of us, there is now going to be four of us ... not bad. One more way to split the rental car and it works better to get two motel rooms than try fit three guys in on room. No shuttle today, the boss has a couple of used trucks to get back to our remote depot, three of us climb in one truck, our fourth driver is gong to ride with a couple of other drivers going somewhere else. This leg is uneventful and are ready to head out shortly after 11 ... one problem, the other truck wouldn't start and they are going to be an hour behind us. Being the good guy I am, I find out which truck our fourth is taking and get it shoveled out and started so we'll be ready to roll when the driver does get here. The other driver pulls in around noon, the other drivers had to be shuttled up ... not sure where they found a driver on such short notice. The other two drivers are already on there way ... which is fine, we plan on spending the night at the same motel and know when and generally when we will meet ... its much easier to wait for only one other driver. My traveling partner for this trip has to make an early pit stop, so I am expecting the other two drivers are now a full hour ahead of us ... so I'm a little surprised when we hit a little road construction and spot the them ... behind us. This gets us to our 'pro-pain' stop first ... which means we will be a good half hour ahead of the other guys the rest of the day ... or should be. Everyone but me wants to go around Chicago which adds about an extra 45 miles ... I was hoping that one set would go through and the other around so we would finally know which is faster. Flying J - Gary, IN ... a place to be avoided if possible ... have never been there when there hasn't been a line, today semi's are backed up most of the way to the freeway exit. I have dual tanks and wouldn't have had to stop but we try to stick together ... I'm not getting any fuel and only one vehicle ahead of us, but that's where the good luck ends. First the other driver picks the 'wrong' cashier to wait for, then switches lines only to pick a second wrong line for an even longer wait. THEN the cashier rings up the pro-pain wrong, not once but twice ... then, even after talking to the manager for over an hour they still claim they can not do a void on the spot, it must be done at 'corporate.' By this time the other two drivers had eaten at a buffet, caught up to us, fueled and now passed us. I had a little surprise while standing there waiting ... "Jim? Is that you?" ... here was a driver that used to run OTR (over the road) for us while I was the operations manager of a local LTL (less than truckload) terminal. He had since retired from driving ... sort of, he was now delivering trailers for Jayco and sometimes a motor-home. Both him and his wife are traveling, sometimes just using his pickup, sometimes she'll be driving a motor home, or sometimes they both get a motor-home and they have to catch a ride home. Today they had just come through Chicago and it sounds like we wasted an hour going around town ... they sailed right through ... "It's a small world." Pulling back on I-80, there is a semi on the shoulder ... the front rim is right on the ground, no rubber in sight ... and I could see what looked like a truck driver walking behind the truck looking in the ditch ... wonder if he was humming the old Kenny Rogers song ... "You picked a fine time to leave me LooseWheel...." A couple of hours before, just before we got to this exit there was a wheel laying on an exit ram and a few vehicles sitting on the shoulders ... couldn't tell which one may have lost the tire, which ones may have hit it and who had just stopped. The other drivers all wanted to stop at OH exit 13, at a Ramada ... plenty of room to park, and only $50 a room for two ... by the time we got there the first two drivers were just parking their trucks. 12/16/03 - Not sure what I'm going to do next month, shutting down for 10 hours a night, but the first night out always seems a little short ... would have been nice if the other drivers first truck hadn't broken down ... would have been nice if we hadn't wasted an hour going around Chicago ... would have been nice if the cashier hadn't messed up the other guys fuel receipt ... would have been nice ... to have sent those three plus hours sleeping. We were given the name of pro-pain dealer by Toledo, but they were are only open 8-10 AM (before they head out on their routes) and we were not going to wait around ... we had miles to go before we sleep ... about 600 miles ... plus another 1,800 miles home. I usually drive 'within 5' of the speed limit with the trucks ... this guy had other idea's and he was in the lead. Ohio is one state where even our most aggressive drivers tow the line, most of them ... this guy was in a rush, he found a guy with Sitton who was pushing 70 (in a 55) ... he got us from Toledo to Cleveland in short order. I wasn't about to push past 65 so I'd drop behind once in a while, but with the hills and the traffic I was able to keep them in view. Somewhere about half way across the state we picked up a Coca Cola driver with a full set of trailers ... we'd lost the Sitton driver on the last hill, but he was now passing us in the center lane ... just as we reached one of the tollway maintenance buildings a patrol pull up to the road and points at the drivers ... I've been hanging back so I'm not worried unless he's going to pull over the whole bunch. The patrol waits and pulls around behind me ... then pulls in behind the Sitton driver who is no longer in the lead and hits the lights ... we sail past without any motion for us to pull over ... whew ... I hear later that when our other two drivers came across, the were on the CB and were hearing "Hold it at an even 60" ... our one driver said "Never had a problem at 62" to which the other driver said "See ya later" ... good choice. This time it's I who have to stop for fuel, I've got another two hours to go beyond the other drivers drop and with pro-pain we stop where we know where the fuel is ... Flying-J, Austinburg, OH. We finally can make our first drop ... the other driver had been here before which always helps. This was an easy to find, take the exit, turn left, go one straight one block and you are in the lot. Progress ... for us ... we have now heard from the other drivers, they are two hours behind us ??? We never did hear why, they should have been dropping the same time we dropped the first truck. The other driver will be riding with me the next two hours until we get to the airport. That was another story ... we took a chance and drove the truck right up to the door, no problem ... the car is in the other drivers name so he hops out and I head back to the interstate to find a place to park ... those patrols get REAL nervous when trucks are sitting where they shouldn't be. The first place I find is the 'customer' area of the airport police (this was before the alert went back up to orange). I wait and wait and wait and ... finally he calls, I tell him I'll be on the shoulder on that half mile halfway between the airport and the interstate. And I wait and wait. Like most airports, this one has a limited amount of road ... you enter ... you drive past the front of the airport ... and then you have a choice, you either leave or return to the front of the airport. The driver got lost ... at the Syracuse airport ... for almost a half hour ??? It helps when the highway past our drop is also on the road map. And we are less then five miles from my drop ... I 'think' I know where I'm going so I go a little past my drop so that I don't have to take any left turns in rush hour traffic ... and can't find my side street ... so I take one close, then do a u-turn (about a block from my drop) and go back out on the main highway and end up trying to take the left turn anyhow. The guy I had talked to earlier today is now not answering any of his phones ... and I'm right on time, so he knew I was coming. Lucky for me, someone else was in the building and offered to sign ... two trucks down. We're in NY and with the other guy driving its my job to use my cell to locate the other drivers ... Opps ... I forgot ... its against the law in NY to talk on a cell while driving ... I was OK but not the driver I was talking to. And that driver was not happy, he had hoping to be delivering his truck by 4 PM ... it was now after 6 and he didn't know where he was ... "Somewhere by Albany" ... "If you're in Albany" I told him "you have overshot your drop by two hours." "$%^$*^%&" ... but I kept him on the line until he saw the next highway sign ... they were really just east of Buffalo ... but still two hours plus from their drop. So we headed to their drop and stopped at a little Pizza place .... first and only sit down meal this trip. By the time we are loading ourselves back in our van ... :) yes, we were able to get a one-way van, which works much better than an Alaro for four guys on a 20 hour road trip ... the other drivers call, they are finally here ... they give us directions and we head out ... and get pelted with snow balls from the kids next door to the pizza place. Three of us say to take I-86 home, the other says go back to I-90 ... majority rules. By the time he stops the first driver has driven over 300 miles ... we got paid for less than 1,200 so we are using that as our guide. Driver two takes over for about a hundred miles ... this opened up the center seat for me to sack out, when I hear the rumble strips for the toll booth I ask if he's OK for a few more miles "No, I was kinda ready to pull over." (find out later, two hours is a long stretch for him if he is sharing the driving.) Drivers one and two were saying for the first three hours how they can not sleep in a moving vehicle ... could have fooled me, with in minutes they were both out. The driver in the very back was still awake because he hadn't found a comfy position in that last seat yet. By the time I take over it's my FAVORITE time of night ... the middle ... when I have a hard job staying awake ... but no matter who I run with it always seems to become "my turn" ... and tonight there are a few flurries with forecast of snow OR all the way home. All the trucks were ready ... plowing / sanding trucks sitting on the side of the road, waiting. As long as they are sitting I felt I should be safe ... by the time we were getting close to Toledo, no one was using the third lane any more ... it was now snow covered ... and west of Toledo some of the trucks were on the move ... by the time we are in IN they are dropping salt. Time to slow down ... to the speed limit. On the road I always try to make as few stops as possible ... but by now I am way over my usual two hour overnight driving limit and it feels like it ... but I push on eating an apple, adjusting my sitting, anything to help me stay awake ... I'm not dozing off tired, but at night I will not use the cruise and I can tell by how much my speed varies how tired I am ... I'm tired ... but I want to finish all my driving in one set and don't want to waste time stopping, finally I decide to stop at the next rest area / oasis ... then I realize that the toll booth is only a few more miles ... everyone else is still sleeping so I push on ... finally at the toll booth I stick my head out the window as I drive away ... that cold air should keep me awake until Gary, IN ... it does ... we stop at 'the other Flying-J' and my shift is over. 12/15/03 - Sometime during my shift at the wheel it became Wednesday. Driver fours turn ... he hasn't offered, but ... it's his turn, lucky him, he gets to guide us through Chicago and it's after 6 AM ... I have climbed back in the middle seat to get some shut-eye and sit up as they pull into the second toll ... it's only then I realize the are going around Chicago ... again ... another 45 miles out of our way ... oh well. I lay down again ... and don't sit up until we are exiting IL and stopping for a bite to eat ... no fast food for these guys, it's a sit down breakfast ... oh well, we'll get home sometime today. We do have a moment of panic when we come back out and it looks like our van is leaking Anti-freeze ... it wasn't and we were on our way. Having left my car at the shop for the week, I had these guys drop me off on the Interstate exit ... living within a mile of the Interstate does have it's perks ... and after sitting for the last three days a little walking in the below freezing weather ... felt good Now that I'm home I've check the computer and found that we would have saved an hour and a half by following the directions were getting paid for ... via Syracuse. 1,118 miles - 18 hrs 10 min - via Syracuse - what the computers choice 1,200 miles - 19 hrs 45 min - via Binghamton - what 3 drivers say was shortest 1,209 miles - 19 hrs 45 min - via I-80 - fourth drivers choice ... but who can trust a computer??? |