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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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For flights after 6 PM - 3/23/05
Trip 81 - New Serling - Garbage Truck ... from Phoenix, AZ Trip 81b - New Freightliner - Garbage Truck ... from Kansas City to Davenport, IA No running this week end ... almost. Got home at 5 AM Saturday morning and was back at the office before 6 AM Monday ... 48 hours off ... and then rolling. 3/21/05 Thought I was ready last night, but everything takes longer than I think in the morning ... have been checking the flights (ABOVE) all weekend and had to check one more time at 5 AM before I leave for the office. prices are back up, but I don't dare by until I am in the truck which will be about noon. Running late but am still at the office before the 6 AM dispatch, barely ... my 'co-driver' is still parking his car, but our shuttle driver has the vehical fueled and running. Was going to double check with dispatch last week, we are being shuttled in one of the propane trucks and if it's on 'E' we weren't going anywhere until 8 AM ... but someone was thinking ahead ... thank you. Close to a four hour trip to IA ... used to be, now 3-1/2, now that US 18/US 218 is done between Clear Lake and Waterloo. Not much exciting and too much talking for this early in the AM ... still not caught up on my sleep from my all nighter maybe. Did see my first wolf in the wild this AM ... southern MN walking down a frozen river just about to go under the freeway. I took this run because I knew it could be done in three days ... 2-1/2 ... now it looks like one of us drivers is supposed to help out our shuttle driver. I had thought he was doing a round trip and we'd be out of the loop ... but with nothing in writing he called dispatch. They couldn't / didn't want to make a decesion on which driver should help him out so they got the customer to do the running ... sounded good to me (as it was my suggestion). Truck were supposed to have been ready last week, we get to the customer about 10 AM and they are still not sitting out for us, takes about a half hour ... not bad, but another half hour wasted. Good news ... for me ... I have a 1/4 of fuel, at this customer we are alwasy hoping we have enough to get to the station a mile away. Only one driver that I know of has run out getting there ... so far. And it was good news that we didn't have to spend any time returning a rental car, etc. Fuel at Wal-mart is still $2.11, about eight cents cheaper than the Flying J's in Williams and Des Moines, IA ... should have enough to get to Kearny, MO or the QT at exit 14 where fuel has been cheaper again the last couple of trips. The other driver wanted to stop for coffee 'somewhere' so I said he could lead, always feel like I'm picking the wrong place when someone says they need to stop ... but don't want to lead. This driver just got burned his last trip, ran with someone who wanted to run 65 mph and it cost him close to an extra $100 so he is going to hold it between 50-55. And he does ... some of these drivers talk the talk, but once they get behind the wheel, it's pedle to the medal. Have my wife check airfares, they are still $200+ so I hold off, the prices on America West were dropping in the evenings for a couple of hours so I planed on checking later in the day. After about 200 miles, which put us about 70 miles south of Des Moines, the driver in the lead pulls off at an exit with no services ... he's having electrical problems. His truck is cutting in and out. So far his engine has been re-starting before he comes to a stop, and now that we are stopped he is able to re-start his truck. After close to an hour on the phone with dispatch we get the 'GO' ... go as far as you can, until it dies ... or to the shop in KC. After another hour we are pulling off again, this time to a gas station ... not sure why, I still have 1/4 tank of fuel, plenty to get us to our usual stops. ... BAD NEWS ... when I hit the breaks on the exit ramp, my ABS light comes on ... used to be 'no worries' until our driver burnt up one of these trucks a couple of weeks ago, now it has my attention. Lead driver pulls into the pumps to fuel ... just to be safe, I park as far away as I can in this little station and get out to check my breaks ... they are smoking ... PANIC ... the other driver is already fueling and I can't get his attention ... no flames yet so I grab my bag out of the truck and then the fire extingisher ... still no flames, but I can hear what sounds like the cracking of a fire coming from the breaks ... PANIC ... (not sure what good I thought this would do, but) I hit the breaks from ever angle with the extingisher ... by now I have finally gotten the other drivers attention. Didn't want to leave the area of the truck ... should have right away ... 20/20 hindsight. Yell for the other driver to call '911' Before the other driver gets back to my truck from the station ... 200 feet ... a patrol is already there ... and another ... I'm trying to call our dispatch in panic and they keep hanging up on me ... don't have a good enough signal ... that's as close as I've come to loosing it with the office ... I give up on them. By now the fire department is there looking for a fire ... still no flames, but they hose it down ... two hoses 5+ minutes and steam is a rising ... this is now may 20 minutes after I've stopped the truck and the axel is still that hot ... another hour after the fire department leaves, the hub is still so hot I couldn't hold my hand on it for more than two seconds. In all 2 police and 7 firemen showed up, I thought they were quick, my truck didn't end up in flames ... and then they were gone ... no paperwork, no reports, no names ... small town USA. So far I have talked to no-one, the other driver was doing all my leg work ... there ARE perks to running with other drivers (now if I could just complete a trip with this drivers ...) Normally I try to do all the leg work and then let dispatch know what is happening ... this time they are doing the work ... finally get the update that a tow is on the way. So the other driver takes off, if he can get his truck in the shop early enough maybe one of us can keep rolling ... I have plans for Thursday, so he has offered to switch trucks ... dispatch has offered two other trucks in KS if this one isn't going anywhere. Now time starts to drag ... we had pulled off the highway at <> 4 PM, it will be 7 before the tow shows up ... We hadn't taken anytime to stop yet today ... no food, no restroom breaks ... that was supposed to happen when we fueled ... ate some chips, the restruant is only open until 2 ... at first I sat outside, then it started to rain so I sat in the closed restrant area ... the cashiers couldn't see me, but I could hear them. Sheriff came in and they had to give him an update ... now I know why everyone got there so quick ... The clerk is telling the Sheriff that there was a truck on fire ... at the pump ... next to a tanker ... which is how I'm guessing it was called in ... the reality was, the other driver had gone in and asked them to call 911 ... and that there was a garbage truck ...?? on fire ?? (not sure how he worded it) ... what they see is his at the pump, mine is parked roughly 200 feet behind their building where they can't see it ... and the tanker, it pulled in after we did ... I think it was hauling 'food stuffs' ... I know there was not any haz mat labeling on it ... wonder how it will be reported in their paper? By the time the tow gets there it is dark and raining ... 35 degree's, maybe. We move the truck to where he can hook it ... dispatch had asked if I could drive it (could yes, would no). Had to back up to get the brakes to release. This driver hooked up a whole different way than the last one ... still took him a good hour. Then 40 miles to the shop ... just as we are pulling on the Interstate, all his dash lights go out ... not good. But he gets out and checks all of his other lights ... all are still working so we roll on ... his ABS light is on ... they've spent big bucks trying to find the problem, no luck so they keep running with it, I wasn't so lucky. At the shop I find out that it may be a day or two ... and opps. All that time waiting for the tow, I never packed my stuff, now I'm waiting in the rain for him to unhook the truck so I can get my stuff out ... I am soaked. He had looped his wires through the door handle so I couldn't get in ... Other drivers truck hasn't made it in the shop either, maybe tomorrow on his. Shop has the phone number of a motel that will come and pick us up no charge and a room for $38 so that's where the other driver has gone ... and they come back for me. How do they make any money? Three trips ... <> 4-5 miles and breakfast for $38 ... Nope, no breakfast, some problems with the state??? so they have knocked the price down to $29 ... for the two of us ... too bad the boss is paying for this one. The other driver had the motel shuttle driver stop at McD's ... I didn't ... thought we might walk to the Waffle House but he wasn't hungry and I was tired ... lights out before 10 PM. 3/22/05 |