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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Airfare's 4PM + LAX/ONT 6PM + LAS Here is a sample of how the airline prices went up over five days. I have watched them go up faster, farther, but this is the first time I have logged the prices. Due to our late arrival in LA, our only option ended up being LAS / Las Vegas ... we also checked Loflin / Bullhead City, one day the tickets were $120, the next day they were gone. Ended up flying Sun Country for $200. The driver I ran with from the previous trip had gotten an $87 ticket on AmWest, but we were delayed 8 hours at PU and he had to let the ticket go ... the chances you take buying early, cheap tickets.
Trip 77 - New Pete - Cement Truck ... to Fontana, CA ( LA ) Got in from the last trip at midnight ... fast weekend of family stuff and it's off to LA again. 2/28/05 8:30 dispatch, or so we were told. One driver is running a little late so nothing happens right away, then we are told they are waiting on something. And waiting ... at one point early on they are short drivers for a local run and I agree to fill in to kill time. As soon as I do, with the help of the other drivers, I realize what I have done ... the extra hours may not allow me to deliver on Thursday, and will not allow me to run with the other drivers. Just to kill time we did move a couple of local trucks, ate out at a Chinese place next door ... and waited. Finally the trucks are ready, one of the drivers has taken a different run and a third driver is found to run with us. After the other drivers front mirror fell off last week, I checked all the mirrors before we were ready to go ... all loose. No one had any tools so I just unscrewed them and put them in each of the trucks. We all fuel at the customer before heading out. Last weeks truck had 1,000 miles on at pickup ... today's had about 30 so I checked the other two drivers trucks, one had -0- ... told him his speedometer wasn't working. Sitting around this AM, one of the topics was milage ... the difference between 55 mph and 75 mph is about $70 a day. One driver was supposed to go on this run so he bought a ticket last week for $87 but because of our eight hour delay wouldn't be able to use it ... he would come out ahead loosing the ticket and buying a new one, rather than driving 75 mph. By now its rush hour ... 4 PM ... looks like one of the other drivers wants to take the lead ... his truck was first in line, fine with me. This truck isn't quite as rough of a ride ... US 52 in Saint Paul is more time off the seat than on, but I-35E doesn't seem as bad this run. Wasn't sure how far these guys would want to run ... turned out to be 250 miles / five hours / Des Moines. That leaves 600 miles a day for the next three days. Before the second driver I was going to run with wanted to drop down to NM, didn't want to take the Denver route. So when we got a new third driver, we pretty much told him that's the route we were going to take ... it will be after the first of March by the time we get to the mountain passes but I may give it to the first of May before taking that route ... With three drivers running together the idea was to get one motel room with two beds and a cot. Motel 6's don't have cot's so we tried another motel first ... the clerk comes out crying ... "I just found out my parents are getting divorced ..." This place doesn't have cot's either ... two rooms will cost $100+. Red Roof next door will cost about $90 for one room with a cot, we end up spending $81 at Motel 6 for two rooms, splitting the total bill three ways. In about two minutes I'm in bed, the other two are watching TV first in our room, then in both rooms with the adjacent door open. Then they kept turning up the volume so they could hear over the sound from the next room ... why not just shut the door?? At some point they must have gone to sleep ... I did. 3/1/05 Could have been ready to roll at 7 AM ... we left at 8. Stopped next door at the QT, fuel gauge was laying on 'E' and only could get in 33 gallons in a 40 (usable) gallon tank .. that means about 50 less miles per tank ... and 7 gallons / $15 more in fuel left at the customer. Didn't run the tank down again until the end of the day ... stopped at Kearny, MO and again at an Oasis in KS. Most of our drivers, including all three on this trip usually take US 50 out of Emporia when going to Tucumcarri ... today the lead driver pulled on to the tollway as the other two of us stopped ... Ahhh ... the difference between 'leading' and just being the first one in line / first one to the destination. At this point we could just ditch him, or follow ... we followed ... cost us $5.50 plus a couple of dollars in fuel for the extra miles. Another case of 'just being first,' going through Wichita is out of route so we have to make our own ... not really sure which way the other two drivers took ... it was miles before I saw them again. Just west on Wichita on US 54 we saw a car with all doors and the trunk open, and three squads doing a search ... ??? This is a nice stretch of road, they have completed more of the four lane since the last time I was on it, but is it worth the extra money ... toll, extra miles? We know we need to make 600 miles a day and today that will get us to Liberal. One of the drivers has stayed there before and says there are no cheap motels ... I suggest a couple but he's in the lead and chooses the Super 8. Big bucks (for truck drivers), think they started out at about $120 for two rooms, the lady came down a little ... a little at a time and by the time we were ready to walk out the door she was down to $100. Still comes to $33 per driver ... and we had to pay cash, and we'd get no points on our 'TripRewards' cards. Still not a cheap night ... problem is the older motels don't have big enough lots to get a cement truck in ... let alone three trucks. Two of us walked next door to the Stockman's II ... thought we'd have a good steak. Nothing looked that good on the menu, I ended up with the meatloaf and the other driver got a salad. Good food ... I was just hoping for something different on the menu. This has been another long day ... 14 hours to get 600 miles ... at 55 mph. I'd do better running alone at 50 mph ... not used to taking 45 minute fuel breaks. I want to go, go, go ... Before we turn in for the night I call Sun Country (airline) ... after the usual 20 minutes on hold I get to talk to a real person and check out the flights ... prices are going up but we need to confirm our drop time. Bill of Lading says 7 A to Midnight, but last Friday they said I had to be there before 4 PM ... need to confirm before I put any monies on a ticket. 3/2/05 6 AM ... could have been rolling by now, but again we take more than our 10 hours off. We were allowed to eat their breakfast for our discount price ... the other two chowed down, my stomach said no. Yesterday we made one fuel stop I wouldn't have made, we stopped at the first Oasis on I-35 ... had we gone a few more miles and stopped at the second Oasis, we wouldn't have had to stop in Meade last night and could have made it all the way to Hooker, OK. Also last night, we didn't get an agreement on if we were going to stop at Hooker or Guymon, so I had to put in enough fuel for Guymon. And this AM we stop in Hooker ... not a big deal, but it was maybe 7 gallons of fuel that we could have paid 20 cents less for ... add up a dollar or two every stop on a 2,000 mile trip and it's another $20. The nuts are out this trip ... on the two lane there are a few 'passing lanes' ... problem for us is that the passing lane becomes the main travel lane and no-one want to let us back in the flow of traffic. And then there are the truckers who pass as long as they can get their rig in the on-coming lane ... doesn't make a difference if there are cars coming, if its a no passing lane on a hill ... if there is enough room to get out, they don't worry about getting back into the right lane. Must have slept wrong or something ... too much driving with my right arm yesterday. I am stiff this morning, painful to reach up and adjust the radio so I don't ... for a lot of the day I use my right arm to pull on something low and to the right in the truck, trying to stretch out the mussels. Today we stop in Delhart, TX to check on our drop and flights ... drop says they always cut off receiving at 4, and we aren't going to make it Thursday (at this rate). Next we call the travel agent, flights are all up to <> $200. They aren't sure what to do, I say no to the tickets ... at that price there's no gain to buying they ahead of time, unless you think the flights are going to fill up. Back on the road again, we've killed most of another hour, which is going to make it even harder to drop by 4 PM Thursday. Day hours, NM scale is open ... no problem for us, I've done the routine and am prepared. The guys in the scale-house are giving some driver a rough time. He is carrying a copy of some time of NM permit ... and it clearly states 'Do not Duplicate.' He offers to have his office fax a copy ... the guys repeat 'Do not Duplicate' and make him buy a daily permit. They also say that the NM DOT may start charging companies with fraud for every copy they see. Last week when I came this way, fuel at the Tucumcarri Loves was ten cents cheaper than the Santa Rosa Loves ... but today we can't get into the driveway, trucks are backed up onto the street. We pull off on the shoulder and make sure we all have enough fuel to get another 50 miles. We do, so off to Santa Rosa ... where fuel is cheaper today, and there is more room. Add the Tucumcarri Loves to the list of truck stops to avoid ... first on the list is the Gary, IN Flying J, then the TA in Denver, I think the Tucumcarri Loves is now third. No one has said anything about food so I grab a quick burger from Carl Jr's ... not my favorite, but its what's here. And then follow the drivers across the street to a Subway at the TA ... I waited in my truck, I should have left and driven 50 mph, we are not making the milage I thought we would on this trip. Back on the interstate the drivers aren't any better, I'm guessing over a dozen drivers on this trip came down the freeway ramp at about 40 mph, once they were fully in the lane and they had slowed traffic to that speed, they take off at the speed limit plus. Or they come down the ramp at 40 mph and then STOP. Merge? what does that mean? In one case a guy in a fairly new 4WD comes down the ramp and stops, he had plenty of room to merge ahead or behind me IF he had changed his speed on the ramp ... once I'm past him, he is able to pull around and pass me in a matter of 10 seconds ... why not do that coming down the ramp? Another case was where the driver did not stop, but didn't get into the lane ahead of me so he drove on the shoulder for a while ... I couldn't get over, traffic was passing me like I was standing still ... and he has the merge sign, not I. He did finally pull in behind me and ... in seconds passed me. Earlier today I had called dispatch and complained about the notes on our paperwork ... 7-Midnight M-F, 7-Noon Sat ... Could dispatch PLEASE put the customers receiving hours on the paperwork instead of the office hours ... those are worthless to us. About 5 PM I get a call back and am told as long as we can keep the customer posted ... AND get there before 6 PM, the guy will wait. Based on our speedy travel time this trip, I had been estimating 6 PM drop ... now, to keep rolling ... no more extended stops ... Last chance for 'cheaper' fuel ... we stop in Gallup at Loves. As we are walking out after paying for fuel, I see a cop pull up, by the time I'm driving out of the lot, he has a guy in cuffs he's putting in his car ... not sure what that was about, didn't see / hear anything when I was in the store. By chance I got the last AZ plate the company had so I will not have to stop at the POE to buy one, the other drivers will. So I head out to Holbrook at 50 mph ... it takes the other two twenty miles just to catch up to me, another l-o-n-g fuel stop for them. I had thought they'd be done at the scale by the time I got there ... ha ... they finally catch me at the scale. For once I get the 'OK to bypass scale' sign and can, roll on. Today we had looked at our motel coupons (forgot to do that in Liberal), and we see a couple of under $30 that one driver won't stop at. There is also a coupon for $35 for a Econo Lodge where I said I would meet them ... unless there is a cheaper Motel 6. Before I get to Holbrook I see a sign for a Ramada for $29 ... its also the first motel coming into town. So I stop and ask hoping we can get the second room with for two for the same price. Nope, "$39 for a room with two people." Looks like it's Motel 6 again ... $29 for one, $35 for two, and an AARP discount off of that. Holbrook is another Santa Rosa, truck parking everywhere ... Tonight is my night for a room to myself ... and a night for pizza. Pizza Hut is our only choice. Ouch, last trip I wouldn't pay $8 for a pizza at the airport ... tonight's price, delivered, with tip ... $8 a piece. One driver had gone for 'refreshments' when the other two of us were checking in ... and when I'm coming over to their room he is pounding on the door between the rooms ... except I'm not in the next room, I'm two doors down ... Opps, at least it wasn't any later, only about 9 PM. 3/3/05 Finally, today we are rolling early and should only need to stop twice for fuel ... once in Winslow and once at the AZ/CA border ... that 'should' get us to our drop. Must have done some math wrong, so far we have been getting about 6.5 mpg to 7.5 mpg ... when I backed it down to 50 for a couple hundred miles I got 9 mpg??? We do stop in Kingman but after checking to make sure everyone has enough fuel we go another 60 miles before fueling ... this should get us to our drop, and fuel is two cents cheaper here ... Pilot at about mile marker 9 in AZ. The guys at the CA inspection station just wave us through ... Another beautiful day, did have a little rain for less than an hour one day but that was it. Mountains, desert, rivers, lakes, lava ... An hour short of our drop one of the drivers has to stop ... good news is that I was over on my estimate of miles by about 20 ... that should get us to our drop before 4 PM and with fuel to spare ... fuel looked like we might not make it without stopping again, but once we got on I-15 where I could watch the mile markers I knew we were OK. Now its my turn to lead ... been here before, let them know what's to come ... including rush hour traffic for the last three miles. At the drop I go in and have our contact paged ... no answer ... one guy even said they thought he had left for the day ... not good ... paged again after 10-15 minutes ... no answer. So I tell them that I'll be out by our trucks ... but the other two are gone. Seems our contact saw us coming and met the other two at the trucks as I was walking in ... he'd been out in the lot where he couldn't hear the pages, and the other driver never bothered to come back and let me know. Good news / bad news ... I was able to tell the customer we hadn't lost any mirrors ... bad news was that there was a tiny washer that I didn't know about that had fallen off of two of the mirrors. At first the guy was saying he'd have to buy a whole new mirror for $134 ... but after we had talked a while and he was done with the inspection, he admitted he thinks he has found a place to get the missing piece for ... 10 cents each. It's just been a big hassle for them ... about half the trucks prior to today had lost their mirrors ... the first one the shipper paid for, after that no one is willing to cough up the cash. Also find out one of the shippers drivers is about an hour behind us ... thought he might get there before our cab did, but he didn't. Cab only had room for three anyhow ... but first, as we are waiting, a guy comes over and asks if we want to buy any speakers or computer screens out of the back of his van ... store on wheels I guess. Not that I would anyway, but we told him we were flying out and would have no way to carry it ... so we didn't even bother to look ... I stay as far away from those deals as possible. Turns out the airport is closer to our customer than the train depot ... but cars weren't as easy to get as the computer had said a few days earlier. Budget ... one convertible ... but they couldn't get a price to come up (and I knew we couldn't afford) National ... $88 Hertz ... $90 Alamo ... $130 Thrifty ... $60 drop charge ... I stopped them there, that would put them out of our price range (drop charge did not show on the computer) Avis ... $70 ... $63 with my Wizard discount Five days earlier the computer had showed cars from $40 - $60 ... which was what I based our going to Las Vegas on ... at first ... now it was because the last flights leave LA at 5 PM and we could get out of LV until 1 AM. Something I have never had happen before when renting a car, when we got to the exit the guy says "Wrong car" ... and that we'd have to drive the lot until we found the correct one ... didn't take long. It was supposed to have been in A-19, it was in B-19. Roll on, didn't have any directions to get out of town but we found I-10 with no problem ... and the traffic. Took us most of an hour to get the first 23 miles then traffic loosened. We were just going to stop at a drive-thru, but then we realized that LV was on the same time zone and we had an extra hour ... maybe. I wanted a Casino Buffet, another guy wanted steak ... and the third wanted ... Denny's. We ended up at Denny's, I hadn't realized we were still over an hour from NV and I was hungry now. We thought we'd find fuel on the way into the airport, nope ... also couldn't find our way out ... tried not to get too short with the guy who was not driving ... We did exit and find fuel and then I hoped in to drive. "Didn't like me driving?" he asked when he got back to the car ... no ... we had only paid for one driver and I wanted to be back in the drivers seat when we pulled in to the lot. I took us once more around the airport before finding the return lot ... hadn't set my mirrors and no-one would let me over ... Sun Country was our cheapest / earliest option and they use the Delta counter in LV. After we had waited for about an half hour one of the drivers went and asked the counter if we were in the right line for BUYING a Sun Country ticket ... yes, we'd have to wait in line ... "But," he added "I think the flight is full." So I went to a pay phone to call their 800 # ... 'sorry, we are open from 6 AM to 11 PM CST.' They were closed ... the other drivers wanted to check out America West, but didn't make any moves do do so. Finally its our turn ... "Yes, I can sell you a ticket, but it will be after I wait on the rest of the people in line who came prepared." 'No, we asked asked the guy and the counter and we were told to wait in line' "Are you comfortable knowing that if I wait on you that some of those people are going to miss their flights" 'Yes' (I felt like telling her that this would not take any longer than some of the people we have watched to today, but didn't want to get her any more upset than she was. I should have timed them, but some of the people looked like they had taken 20 minutes.) A lot more was said along this line and finally the gal puts me on the phone with Sun Country so she can wait on other customers ... and this guy is s-l-o-w ... but we do get our tickets with 45 minutes let til lift off ... the latest their computer will allow them to check bags through. We are on ... Almost ... it takes us most of that 45 minutes to get to the gate ... lucky for us they are running late and have not started to board. But the flight is mostly empty and it doesn't take long to board once they start. Somehow we thought this flight would get in at 3 AM ... now I'm doing the math and realize that is not going to happen. Not real pleased with the service on this flight ... most of the people were sleeping so the crew made themselves scarce ... never did push the beverage cart through, had to catch them when they walked by so I only got one drink, then never saw them again until we were on our final approach. I may have gotten two hours sleep between the flight and the time I wasn't driving the rental car ... First time in two years that I've taken a cab to get back to my car ... with three of us it's $10 apiece. Now that we're not in at 3 AM we could have taken the bus for a couple of bucks ... and it would have taken at least twice as long. EARNINGS
FOOD
MILEAGE (Truck on trip 2/22 had 1,000 miles on at PU, trip 2/28 had 31 miles... and the worst MPG for each trip is the 2 line highway in KS.
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