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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 27 - New IH - Refer ... to Cinci, OH I did do a 'quick' shuttle last week, was supposed to take eight hours ... it took twelve. One of the trucks was leaking power steering fluid ... the customers solution after some consulting among themselves was to give the driver a couple of quarts of oil, and some advice "Check it often ... and stop and get it repaired before it is delivered to the final customer." (Luckily one of the drivers held out for 50% more than we were first offered, so we all got the extra. Being up against the holiday and they had to get them moved.) Had thought they might offer me one of the trucks we shuttled last week, but they are still sitting there ... waiting to get moved to Spokane ... but first they offered me a Tampa run, then called back and said the trucks wouldn't be ready until Monday and would I like to move one Monday and could I also run Friday 12/26 to Cincinnati? I told them yes on both thinking that it would be one day down and back to Cinci ... and then two days to FL and one day back ... that's what I get for thinking 1) the boss adds two more legs to the Cinci trip ... so I won't make it back for a 'family' thing on Saturday, 2) it's really three days to FL so I won't be home for New Years Eve or New Years Day. 12/26/03 - (We first have to move a couple of used IH refers to the customer where we pick up our new trucks) The office is closed today so we will be on our own ... I'm there early, our shuttle driver is there on time but no sign of the third driver so we go fuel the shuttle car while we wait ... after my 'post Thanksgiving trip,' I'm not overly optimistic, but by the time we get back the driver is there ... so only a half hour late we are on our way. Two hours later we are picking up our trucks ... Oh, the first thing the other driver says when he gets in the car ... "Can I borrow some money until they can get money on my ComCheck?" ... "You already have money on your ComCheck ... I made sure of that Wednesday" ... How do you show up for this kind of work with NO cash, no credit ... and never have your money, knowing that the office will be closed your whole trip ???? Or trying to ... problem one, my key does not unlock either door, so we have to try and break in. With a couple of screwdrivers we are able to force open the little / vent window on the passenger side, but not before we chipped some glass of the window ... some of it hitting one of the drivers in the face. Problem two ... This is a '94 IH which has the safety feature of shutting off after 30 seconds if the fluids are low, and this one is low on anti-freeze. So I have to catch a ride with the shuttle driver to pick up a couple of gallons. Problem three ... By the time we get back the third driver has been spinning his wheels for a good 15-20 minutes ... literally ... these trucks are froze to the ground / stuck in a snow bank. I am now able to get mine started, but I get stuck also ... the front tires are froze in and the back ones spin in the snow. I pour in one gallon so that it looks full, but still no luck ... I let the shuttle driver keep cranking on my truck while I converse with the other driver on how to 'unfreeze' these trucks. Problem three and a half - the other (third) drivers truck is parked two deep ... so if he can't back it out through the snowbank, we have to move the truck ahead of it to get it to the street. So he gets that one started, but it too is frozen ... so he starts a fourth truck, this one with tandems ... but by the time he gets it started, I have rocked mine back and forth long enough to get to the street. Now to try and push the other trucks off their spots far enough so they can move on their own. The first truck I try to push is not the same model, but the bumpers are close enough so it doesn't look like we'll do any body damage. We also have to be careful because these trucks are only parked a couple of feet apart ... once the other driver starts to move backward, he has to hit the breaks or his liftgate will be mounted on the hood of the truck behind it. We get him back a foot and with me backing out of the way he makes a run for it ... a few feet and starts spinning ... so he backs back into his hole ??? Aaaahhhh. So I push again and this time he's out ... now he wants to try and push the next truck loose. He pulls in and starts to spin, at one point almost sliding into the truck to the left of him ... I suggest he hits the truck from a different angle where the traction looks better but I can't tell if he even touches the bumper of the truck he's supposed to be pushing ... so he backs out again to go and get the fourth truck with the tandems ... but by the time he's got this truck parked out of the way I have managed to rock this truck loose (that magic touch must come from being a farm boy ... either not wanting to walk home or having to explain to Dad why I got it stuck in the first place.) Just thought of this ... with all this going on, I don't remember seeing anyone go and shut off that fourth truck ;) guess we'll hear if we didn't. Finally, we're free, inspections are done, trucks are fueled and we are on our way ... and five miles down the road I have to slow to make a left turn ... and the truck stops ... the 'low fluid' light is on again. I add another 2 quarts and we are going again ... for another hour until I have to stop at a four-way stop ... it stalls ... and it 30 second intervals's, I am able to get another block to a gas station. They allow me to fill up the now empty anti-freeze container and I add another 3 quarts. I should have re-filled both containers at this point, but I didn't ... and luckily didn't have anymore problems. When they first offered me this run, I was ever the optimist ... the computer rates it as under 11 hours so we should be able to do it in 10 and be home for a post-Christmas Saturday brunch with the family. But when we have to move these old trucks it burns two hours of our driving time, so now it's a two day run ... and due to our little problems this AM we are going to bump into our 11 PM curfew before our 10 hours is up. The rest of today goes well ... we by-pass Chicago, something we probably shouldn't have done and probably won't do again until next years road construction ... it adds another 40 miles to our trip and we are paying for the fuel, which is more than the tolls would have been. My only complaint is that this guy drinks coffee ... and has to stop at just about every Rest Area. After seven months, I am finally running with the same driver twice ... The other driver had done three runs to Cinci last month picking up cement trucks, so he knew where the motels were. We ended up in Danville at the Redwood motel ... interesting place, instead of one building there are dozens ... each have two 'rooms,' each with it's own car port. For $39 ($29 single) we got a huge room with two little 'fridges ... and a sunken bath tub. Not the cleanest place ... the motel is at the edge of miles of fields and looked like dirt, etc had blown in since the last time the room was used ... that and a couple of holes in the walls ... and mattress. Did a quick search on their phone number and old listings refer to it as a Knights Inn and also a Budget Inn ... 12/27/03 - I must be getting older, I used to be able to sleep through anything ... no more, the other driver turned on the TV and I tried to fall asleep ... tried to ... I kept drifting in and out with the sounds of the TV, thought it was only an hour or so, but when I finally woke up enough to realize the guy was sleeping it was after three in the morning ... so I must have gotten some sleep before that, just not restful sleep ... and then couldn't get back to sleep ... makes for a long day two. Day two ... I had told the other driver when we stopped for fuel in Beloit that we should have waited another 50+ miles and we would have plenty of fuel to get to Indy ... but this way we end up in the no-man's land between the IL border and Indy where there are only two truck stops in 80 (?) miles. When we head out this AM we have about a 1/4 of a tank and I've made it to Indy on a prior trip, but I always top off my tank. The other driver is in the lead and misses the Pilot at exit 4 and the second truck stop is completely unmarked from the Interstate so we miss that one also ... the other driver pulls off at one exit, then another ... at this one he pulls through one of four stations and then back on the freeway ... not sure what he's up to, he hasn't bothered to stop or ask questions. As we re-enter the Interstate he pulls to side ... (if he wanted to talk, why not at a station where we could ask questions?) ... but I notice a couple of puffs of smoke before gets out of the truck ... "I think I'm out of fuel..." We had fueled at the same spot so I knew I wasn't far behind ... I did something I have never done before ... made a U-turn on the Interstate and went back for fuel. And I found one ... right across the street from the station we drove through ... it was $1.59 a gallon, but I can't afford to be thrifty right now. I also pick up a 2 gallon can and some fuel for the other driver. Try one - we pour in two gallons and try to re-start the truck ... no luck. On a run a month ago this driver was with someone who also ran out of fuel, he said they used ether to get the truck started. So back we go, this time instead of taking a U-turn we drive the eight miles into Indy and do it legal. Back to the same station for another 2 gallons of diesel and a can of starting fluid. Try two - we pour in the next two gallons and start spraying into the air-cleaner ... it fires a few times then nothing ... so he calls the IH eight hundred number ... they tell him to fill the two filters with diesel ... so we have to back to the station to get more fuel, and wrenches to remove the filters. 'Lucky' for us, there is also a Wal-Mart at this exit ... we head out, this time the other guy is driving my truck ... I'm not going to take any more U-turns and he doesn't want to waste any more time. At Wal-Mart I suggest he buy a couple of styles, just in case ... Try three - we can't get the filters off, one wrench is to small and the there is not enough room to use the other one ... So we have to call IH again ... this time the other driver gives the phone to me after being told it will cost $72 hr to come out ... this guy is more helpful, tells us where the air release valve is. (I'm someone who knows how to change the wiper blades and maybe the air in my tires but other than that I have -0- mechanical ability ... and today I'm the mechanical one of the two.) Try three - I find a paper clip and keep bleeding the valve ... then I find the pump (something they didn't tell us about) ... it takes another 10 plus minutes of bleeding, pumping and cranking ... after two hours ... it STARTS ! ! ! By now we have six gallons of fuel in his truck ... less what we bleed out ... so we head to the Indy Flying-J where he only has to pay $1.34 ... Ouch ... if only we could have made it that far. The boss had wanted us to pick up our next truck between 7-9 AM ... something that couldn't have legally been done, but now it is not even going to be an AM pickup ... maybe by 3 ... I had called them yesterday and again this AM and we had changed this to a 'blind pickup' ... we mis-guessed on the fuel and had to stop again about 10 miles from our drop for the refer trucks. The plan was to drop one refer, shuttle a driver to pickup the beverage truck then drop the second refer truck ... but here's what happened Page 2 - The trip home .... Hint --- I ended up making $46 for logging 24 hours 'on duty' and spending 50 hours away from home WELCOME to the great world of driveaway .... |