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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 57 - New Mack - Cement Truck ... to Sarasota, FL I would have been ready to go Friday when I landed from LA but dispatch had some hot trucks to leave Saturday ... I said I was looking for something for Monday ... "Not 'til Monday?" "Well, I could leave Sunday" "Not 'til Sunday?" ... so Saturday it was ... 8 AM. Not sure why they couldn't find anyone else to head down to see Hurricane Jeanne ... not sure where it will hit, that changes by the hour. 9/25/04 - We both get to the office at 8 AM ... good thing I stopped by on Friday to get my paperwork ... as I was leaving I decided to check the VIN on my truck ... it checks ... as I'm walking around my truck I realized that I was blocked in ... and I wouldn't have the keys to move the other vehicle come Saturday. Sixth sense? Hadn't checked the fuel yesterday ... not full ... haven't gone a mile and I'm already behind $45 ... Made fairly good time until about 6-7 PM ... earlier when we were leaving a rest area, I thought the other guys truck sounded like it had an air leak somewhere but with all the other trucks around I didn't both to stop and check it out. Now when we stop for fuel I decide we better check it out ... takes only a minute to find, its coming from the air dryer but we don't come up with a fix and have to call dispatch and Mack. The local Mack dealer says they can have it towed right away, but could not get a mechanic on it until Monday (Today is Saturday), so we call Macks 800 number and they send a 'mobile repair service' out to fix or bypass the problem. Within two hours we are on our way and still under our 14 hours so no major damage done. Tonight will be spent in an Econo Lodge ... they now have a 'perks card' which can give you a free night after five paid nights ... 9/26/04 - This mornings forecast looks like Hurricane Jeanne should pass over us as we sleep tonight, hopefully somewhere south of Atlanta. FM radio is fairly consistent across the the country, AM on the other had varies a bit ... around Chicago seems to have a lot of sports and news stations ... the west seems to carry every talk show out there ... in the southeast you will find more religion stations than anything else ... and of course the southwest has a lot of Spanish stations ... and hear and there you will still find a truly independent station. Today is Sunday ... in the south ... Last fuel stop of the day ... Flying J ... turns out their card reader didn't work and I didn't get my three cent per gallon discount ... more money lost, but no enough that I want to waste an hour having them do all the paperwork to get the money to me. As the day goes on the hurricane path continues to change ... By the time we shut down tonight I finally realize that watching the Weather Channel tonight is a waste of time. Found a coupon for a Scottish Inn in Macon, GA which was about where we were going to stop ... When we got the the exit I couldn't see the motel and went left when I should have gone right ... had to call for directions (ouch). The motel was right at the exit, first building to my right as we had come down the ramp ... $25 double ... no worse a place than some of the Econo Lodges and Knights Inns I've stayed at. Walked to the Cracker Barrel 3-4 blocks away ... for a late meal. The guy I'm doing this run with is 73 ... he used to work for Bennett, but quit to go to Quality so he could drive smaller RV's ... problem was he quit first, Quality wouldn't hire him because he was over 70 ... so he ended up with us. Not sure if he's the oldest or not, know we have others 70+. 9/27/04 - The storm did not pass over us last night, and had come up the west coast instead of the east coast of FL ... when I took this run four days ago now, the path had been expected to follow the east coast and not effect any of the area's we are going to travel. The hurricane came across FL to Tampa and then headed north, covering every mile we have left to go. We should hit the hurricane in the first couple of hours this morning, we will head out and pull over if needed ... the good news, it has been down graded ... there is hardly enough left of it to show clearly on radar ... From where we fueled last night to our drop is <> two tanks of fuel so hopefully we can max out the first one and only fuel once more, that and I hate trying to guess and have to stop for an extra 5 gallons, and that far south they may not have power. Good plan ... The storm is pretty much a little rain with a lot of wind at times ... never had to put my wipers on high, but did slow a couple of times due to the wind. The only backup we had was where two of the three lanes we under water so traffic was backed up a few miles ... the last news report I heard later in the day said they may have to close I-75 southbound if the water continues to raise ... good thing we didn't wait any later in the day ... Our good plan has a problem, I max out the fuel and exit ... no truckstop, but I see on with diesel pumps but someone is blocking the pump ... I ask the driver how long it will be before he can move his truck ... "When we find fuel ... no one has power" That's when I realize that the station is dark, as are the other three at this exit ... and that's why those traffic lights weren't working ... This guy's truck is out of fuel but the pickup he's running with is still good so they are going to head north until the find fuel. I go update the other driver on the status ... he doesn't have enough fuel to chance the 60 miles back to GA, and who knows if they still have power. I had choose this exit because of signs advertising a Peterbuilt dealer ... if there's a truck dealer there should be a truck stop ... wrong, but in addition to the Peterbuilt dealer there was also a Mack and Cat dealer so, not finding any locals at the filling stations we headed to the truck dealers in hopes of finding where the next fuel OPEN fuel stop is ... and some dealers do have diesel pumps. Mack was closed but we met a Cat service vehicle and were able to find people at the Cat dealer, running their lights with Cat generators ... They had just come from the north and the next exit, four miles back had power ... no one in the near south had power ... 'Thank you' ... one exit too far. We had left the other drivers truck at the station until we found fuel, so back to the station we went ... now there was someone else sitting there with a U-haul. They had over shot this exit going south before they stopped for fuel and got this far back before stopping and sending only one vehicle to look for fuel (and bring some back depending on how far it was). As I'm standing there talking the other driver is turning his truck around so we are ready to go as soon as we know where ... we know the next exit has power, but do they have fuel. The guys who first told us there was no power are back, "Next exit has power ... and fuel." Mad dash for the highway ... I want to stop at the closest station but miss ... divided highway with median and these cement trucks do NOT do U-turns ... on less than 40 acres. Had to take a side street and turn around in someone's parking lot. By now it has stopped raining ... the price of fuel was ... cheap at any price (second highest we paid). This station only had diesel and premium, sold out of the other two grades ... attendant said it had been like this since the first hurricane, short of fuel. All pumps were busy the the whole time we were there ... Grabbed an Arby's from next door ... called dispatch ... tried to call the customer, shop is open / office is closed. Not sure how this all works in a hurricane, sounds like outsiders come in to different area's and stay there until damage is assessed before moving to other areas. Example Fort Meyers may have called in outsiders to help with re-establishing power ... those outsider stay in Fort Meyers until the power company who brought them there gives the all clear, which could be overnight if that's when the storm passes through. Once cleared to go ... then the outsiders can go to where the damage is the worst, does explain some of the delays ... Same with police ... Fort Meyers (example) is not going to send their police to help in other area's until they have been given the all clear. Which means the police and power companies in northern FL / southern GA have to wait until the storm passes over them before heading south. Did see a good example of those heading to help ... Hillsborough County ... sent more than a dozen patrols south to help ... quite a sight all those cars heading in formation, lights on ... back seats packed with supply's, clothes, sleeping bags ... didn't look light they expected to be put up at the Hilton. Clear Channel has a lot of billboards in the south ... is a great help for finding cheap motels ... but someone there planned ahead and took down all the canvas billboards, tying them to the poles ... leaving only the frames. Those who did not take down there canvas's or who had old / solid billboard, those were on the ground ... as were a lot of highway signs ... A little good news for us drivers and others expense ... scales have no power so they are closed ... tolls have no power so it's a free ride ... Find our drop, no problem ... they tell us most drivers 'stay at the Holiday Inn' and only give us that number. Holiday is full so then they offer to give us a ride the two miles to the airport ... Oh, our breakdown ... guys here say all you have to do is hold your finger over the hole ... until the air pressure builds up and the system re-sets (thought for a second he was going to say 'hold your finger over the hole while some else drives, but he was serious). The other driver is flying out of Sarasota early tomorrow AM and I'm flying out of Orlando later tomorrow ... the bad news is that I won't be spliting the cost of the rental car to Orlando and have to stay in Sarasota if I want to split the motel. The other driver had called around for motels while I was taking care of 'personal matters' and settled on the Days Inn ... there was a Sleep Inn right across the street from the motel which had rooms available ... but they did make it clear that the price of the room did NOT include electricity ... they didn't have any, nor did they know when they would get it back, but they were still renting rooms ... Good news is that I checked Travelocity and found that Dollar Rent-a-Car is cheaper than Avis or my other usual's ... As long as you stay within the state of FL, there is not a drop charge for dropping at a different location ... half the price of Avis for this run. More good news, I had picked the bill at the Scottish Inn last night because they didn't know how to split the bill ... so tonight the other guy offers / insists on picking up the bill at the Days Inn Airport ... not exactly the same class motel ... and he also picks up the tab at Applebees, says it's 'cuz I won't get paid for his down time and he will ... and 'cuz I got stiffed on fuel at pickup and he didn't. Plan was to drop him off at the airport and head to Orlando, but it turns out that the Days Inn will pay for a cab to the airport, as they don't have a shuttle. Think the room was about $50 ... that includes cab to airport, two breakfasts <> three dollars each, plus the USA Today now 75 cents. We turn in at about dark ... it's been a long day ... the stress of other things going on in life make it feel even longer. 9/28/04 - Wake up call is at 2:30 / 3:30 AM local ... very short night ... the other driver still insists on taking the cab even though I'm awake ... I drift in and out for another hour or two before getting up and at 'em. The free breakfast is small and includes no meat so I order from the regular menu and use the discount, even without the discount it would be a good price. Waited too long to find fuel, then had to take a couple of different exits before finding some ... I'm used to a station at every exit in cities ... The worst damage I saw this trip was across from the airport, north I think, was a motel with the roof off, you could see right into the second floor rooms ... lots of trees down on the airport property. I am here a couple of hours before my flight ... good thing, it takes me an hour to get through security, and the line is twice as long by the time I am through ... I'm guessing there were a few people in that line who did not make their flights ... Direct flight, but noisy ... I was one of the first ones off and there was most of dozen strollers lining the walkway and I'd guess there were twice that many kids on the plane who were too big for strollers but too young for school ... welcome to family airlines ... This was a frustrating arrival home, if I can get a window seat, I like to ID where we are as soon as we start descending. Well I could not pick out where we were for the longest time ... for some reason we must have dropped over 150 miles from the airport. I did finally ID a town about 40 miles out and followed the route from there in. Does help I used to have a job delivering all over the country side so I can still remember some of the city layouts even those not on the main drag. More good news ... for me. The other driver who left a few hours ahead of me was able to make all his connections at is pulling up to the airport as I'm walking out ... how's that for service ... and he had to take a couple of buses from the airport to the office ... I would rather people owe me favors, but this guy I owe. Finding the truck not full of fuel did not put me in the best of moods so on this trip I was adding up all the 'extra's' ... where I was loosing money ... here they are. $45 - fuel - these trucks are supposed to be filled at the customer at pickup $10 - breakdown - not my truck, I won't get paid $10 - fuel - picked the wrong station, fuel was $.25 less a gallon five miles away $1 - perk - Flying J card reader not working, didn't get discount $15 - rental car - other driver doesn't fly based on price, so he's not going to Orlando But as the trip went on I had to remember to see the whole picture $10 - motel - I paid for the cheap one, other driver picked up the more costly one $10 - cab - customer gave us ride to airport saving money on cab $10 - meal - other driver picked up last meal $4 - meal - 'free' motel included breakfast / discount and paper. ??? - ride - free ride from airport $2 - toll - toll booths closed, no power due to Jeanne |