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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 74b - Used Ford - Semi Tractor
wo/sleeper ... from Dallas, TX 2/10/05 Now the next set of excitement begins. Before I call a cab I check with my next pickup to make sure everything is A-OK today ... no answer. So I call dispatch ... 'Yep, everything was taken care of the morning.' So I call the cab ... no sense wasting time on the bus if I'm ready to go. Had my wife check earlier and it was less than 13 miles between drops so a cab should be under $25 ... for some reason dispatch had put the Greyhound schedule from Dallas to Fort Worth in my paperwork. Haven't figured that one out. About the time I'm off the phone with the cab company, my pick-up calls back ... "I don't have a release on that truck, and as fast as these people work you may as well get a motel." Back to calling dispatch ... they tell me to stay on plan, everything should be cleared by the time I get to the customer. The cab does cost $25 with a tip ... As I pull into the customer someone comes running out "Which airport did you come from? ... How much did he charge you?" I assured him all was OK. "Well, you have to watch these guys ... they like to take the long way and charge $40 for a $20 ride." Another surprise ... my contact is not here. My truck is being stored at this address but no-one here has anything to do with this. Nice folks ... tried to stay out of there way as much as possible. Paced the floor, wondered their lot. They close the building for lunch so I walked across the street to Theo's Drive In ... good food. Burger, onion rings and a pop for under $7. Once I had ordered I realized that everyone else was just getting their food ... the place had filled, and then emptied again in under 30 minutes. Fast food. Knowing I was locked out I killed most of an hour eating, not hard for me to do. I started calling dispatch before 11 AM ... and called them at least once an hour until the paperwork finally showed up at 4 PM. Five hours ... and the truck was ready ... yah, right. Had this problem once before, everybody says everything is a go ... except for the guy with the keys. No one bothers to ask him ... So I spent five hours ... staring at the walls ... watching traffic ... watching helicopters ... watching cars being loaded on semi-trucks. All in all a real exciting day ... did find out at some point that I would not be moving the trailer. Now that they did have a release on ... figures. Finally had to tell dispatch that if I didn't have the keys between 3-4 PM, I would not be able to delivery the truck on Friday and it would have to be done on Monday ... "Why haven't you logged as off duty?" Doesn't make a difference, with the new hours of service, I have 14 hours from when I came on duty at 6:30 ... doesn't make any difference if I log those five hours as on duty or off. But by 4 PM I had my paperwork ... and my truck. A quick inspections showed it was OK ... except for it was missing mud flaps. I found out where the closest Ford / Sterling dealer was, figured I could get them to make it legal. But I called dispatch just to check if it was OK to run 5 miles with out them, or if I should have someone come to the yard. "Go to a Home Depot and buy some carpet samples and a 2 x 2 ..." Sounds funny, but knowing this company I think they were serious. By now the customer is back by the truck wondering why I having left ... I remember spending a day in this area at a Chevy dealer. The guy says they are less than a mile away ... I'll try there first before the other dealers. I start at their truck shop ... nope, trucks are inspected across the street ... nope, they throw them away as soon as the trucks arrive. But as I'm walking back to the truck I spot two sets of mud flaps laying by their fence ... I go back and ask if its OK that I take them. They don't care ... so I'm halfway there ... I do have a couple of very short cable ties but I don't think they will work on this frame ... No, this company no longer sells either cable ties or bungy cords. As I'm walking back to my truck I see a U-Haul place about a block away ... and they sell bungy cords ... cheap ones for a big price. But I need something now, they just have to last until I get to the first truck stop. $20 for two packages ... all eight from the first case go on, the second case is for insurance if they start popping. As I'm walking back to my truck I pickup one more cheap one on the highway ... I'm set. It's now 4:30, the latest I can leave and still make it look legal ... and that means traffic ... somehow the log book shows I averaged over 65 during rush hour in Dallas rush hour traffic?? This truck has two 100 gallon tanks ... shows less than 1/8 but that means <> 20 gallon ... I make it to Denton and put in 20 gallons, at 10 mpg that should get me to OKC where I can purchase the rest of the fuel for this trip. The closest stations in Dallas we selling diesel for $1.99 ... Denton was $1.84 ... OKC should still be $1.67. But by stopping twice for fuel tonight I am going to have to be creative with my log book ... don't want to short my downtime or I won't get paid for it. Also purchased a couple more bungy cords at the truck stop ... real ones this time ... another $4 down the drain. A couple more things this little delay threw off ... I had been logging exits for my website and needed to do ones north of OKC on the way home ... would have liked to have done a few more by Dallas too, but I don't do any logging if the traffic is bad ... or if its dark. Second thing is, had I gotten going on time I could have spent the night at the Motel 6 in Emporia for $29 ... instead I'll be paying about $10 more in Tonkawa, OK ... no sleeper on this one. Not that it would make a difference, I need a good nights sleep tonight. The big debate with myself tonight is how much fuel to put in in OKC ... 800 miles to go ... not having filled the truck, I'm guessing I'm making about 10 mpg ... again. Hard to tell on 200 gallons of fuel. 60? 65? 70 gallons? ... If I put in 70 I may just make it without stopping again. I settle on 70, doesn't take long to fill with two hoses going. Flying J was a mess ... remodeling ... half the pumps closed, a line at each one. About 30 miles south of Tonkawa is a town called Seward?? says the truckstop has rooms for $19 ... maybe next time. This time I wanted to make sure everything looked legal at 700 miles ... and this place in Tonkawa always looked so ... homey?? Nice looking restaurant next to it. Motel is open, rooms to spare ... restaurant is closed ... owner had heart surgery. Guess you know you're in a small town when a business closes when the boss is out. 2/10/05 I'm legal at 6: 30 so I'm rolling at 6:30 ... Oh, luckily the scales were all closed last night, one of the mud flaps keeps catching on the tire and wrapping around the 2 x 2. Tried a couple of different things last night, nothing worked. This AM I try one of my fixes again, this time with a bigger bungy cord. When I first tried putting the mud flaps on, I didn't think there was enough frame to do it ... actually put them on the tapered end of the frame, so I not only had to hold them down, I also had to hold them forward. Well now being that close to the end of the frame and having all those bungy cords is coming in helpful. I am able to wrap one cord around the shock on the truck and poke the two hooks on the bungy through the mud flap ... don't know what else to try ... and I know there is a scale coming up soon. Even if it only holds going across the scale ... I can put another bungy on at the next scale ... and the next. Scale was coming up soon ... right at the top of the ramp was the first sign for the scale ... and I'm flagged in ... again. He wants to see my plate, IFTA, proof of insurance and title/cab card ... don't have one so I show him my BL ... good enough. Do hear the guy next to me getting asked 'How's your log book looking.' But I'm free to go. What is going on???? I get to the MO scale and I'm flagged in again ... Ahhhh. Wasn't really paying attention on this one ... I was still on the phone on the ramp and didn't have time to get my window open so I couldn't hear what he said ... but I could read the arrow. He wants to see my plate and IFTA ... so I ask why I'm getting flagged in... "Your truck has all the markings but no IFTA sticker ... so I didn't bother looking in the window for any transport stuff." Well, now I know ... Aaaahhhhhh Gggrrrrr .... looking over my shoulder this AM at my mud flaps I see ... two bungy cords hooked to the back of the exhaust stack ... I wouldn't have had to spend an hour or $25 for bungies. (But had I not had the extra bungies, I could have gotten sited for 'improper' mup flaps.) Lucky for me the rest of the scales northbound are closed ... the fuel doesn't drop at all for hours then drops fast. About 10 miles from the MN/IA border the freeway is closed, all traffic must exit ... no clue as to where they routed us ... just off. And not everyone was going the same route 15-20 minutes later we are back on the interstate. Somehow I was able to make it home right at 6:30, even after spending the last hour in rush hour traffic ... looks legal ... is legal. When I get to the drop ... no one in the 'used' department is there so the guy at the desk signs the BL with this notation "Subject to Inspection." Really?? You guys just bought this truck site unseen from a 'repo' lot and now the truck is 'subject to inspection?' Didn't stop again for fuel ... left between 1/8 and 1/4 ... maybe 10-15 extra gallons. Coulda' ... Shoulda' only put in 60 gallons. STATS 2,000 miles round trip 3 days $1,100 - pay based on $.55 per mile ..$200 - fuel surcharge based on $.10 per mile .....$50 - Transportation (to get from truck A to truck B) $1,350 TOTAL PAY $360 - fuel ..$15 - KS tolls ..$25 - Cab (truck A to truck B) ..$40 - Motel ..$25 - Bungy cords $465 TOTAL EXPENSES $885 TOTAL NET PAY But it could have been even better ... $60 - extra fuel left in first truck $20 - Extra fuel left in second truck $20 - riding bus most of the way to second drop $10 - staying at a cheaper motel $25 - seeing bungy cords before buying new ones $135 - OVERSPENT |