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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 64c - Used Izuzu - Box ... to Manhiem, PA 11/18/04 - First truck out of this lot is a 40 mile run ... I call dispatch to see if we can run this truck later in the week, I want to get moving on the longer runs and use this as filler. Nope, it's been sitting there for ? weeks ? and needs to be moved ... then I need to call dispatch back, we can't find the keys ... this is the one the office didn't have keys for ... took a while, the last driver was creative. With us only moving it a few miles, this was a very quick 'pre-trip' ... it started, it runs, it goes forward. Good news, it has enough fuel ... One in the right town I had to stop once to re-read the address as by now it was long past dark and hard to read in a moving truck ... only a few blocks away. I pull back on the street, but someone must have thought I should have waited ... a couple blocks down someone passes me on the right shoulder blowing their horn ... (if they were that close, they would have past me within the first block) ... could have been a lot worse ... someone was making a left turn in front of me ... and they had plenty of run to do so as I was going the speed limit ... but the guy passing me on the shoulder was doing a few miles over and almost clipped the car ... 'course the guy blowing his horn at me wasn't looking at the cars ahead of me, he was watching to see how close he could get to me without hitting me ... I did a little opps soon after ... tried to pass a car taking a left turn ... and clipped the sign with my mirror and with the back of my truck ... but I couldn't find the drop ... not enough numbers on the buildings, I'm a couple of miles past when I find a place to turn around ... and look at the NAME on the bill of lading ... this truck isn't being moved between customer stores ... it's going to the auction lot ... huge auction lot. This location is not exactly on the main drag but being named Manheim Auto Auction and being in the town of Manheim we figured it was a local lot that had found a niche ... wrong ... Manheim Auctions has 115 lots world wide employing over 35,000 people. Talked a bit to the guy who showed me where to park ... said they can have up to 25,000 vehicles on this lot ... WOW ... it is something to see. But they are only open to dealers so our best shot of seeing one is dropping off vehicles ... I had no paperwork for the auction lot, but they were helpful and were able to find what they needed by the VIN ... good thing we did this truck tonight, it's on the list for tomorrow. In all our rush and confusion I didn't get a signature ... opps. By now we needed fuel in the rental car ... I had hoped to buy a gas can for diesel as insurance ... but the one gallon car was about $10 ... so I passed. Back on the toll way, back to the lot ... At a flat $20 for the run this will be the best paying of the three ... but take out the tolls and gas for the rental car and we are down to $15 for a couple hours work. Page 4 - The next leg .... |