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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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The last trip out … Trip ?? - New City Bus … to San Rafael, CA (SFO) Monday I had a job interview in the AM so that ment I would be doing a Tues thru Friday run. For the last few weeks I had been turning down any runs that would run over the weekend … and turning them down, and down … Thursday/Friday dispatch hadn't had any runs and by Monday they offered an 'articulating' bus to San Francisco and I had taken it without question. Later in the day I get a call from another driver who will be going to the same location … "What do (I) know about the problem with the buses?" By the time I called him back, he said dispatch had told him the problems were taken care of … I asked if he knew which driver was having problems, he did, so I said I'd call to follow up. "If the problem has been taken care of, I wish someone would tell me …" was the response I got from the driver already on the road. He had gotten flagged in at a scale in California on Sunday and was still at the scale Monday PM … so I called dispatch and asked 'again' if I was still set to go on Tuesday … "Yes" … and that all the problems would be resolved by the time I got to the scale … "Yes" … so I could go ahead and buy a ticket for my flight home … "Aaaah, I wouldn't go that far." 5/8/07 - Tuesday Dispatch is set for 8:30, but we are short a car so my wife has dropped me off at 7 AM. The office is still locked so I spread out on the floor and start working on my laptop … closer to 8 one of the staff showsup and lets me in so I can do last weeks paperwork before we head out. Slowly the drivers show up … 12 in all this AM. Two head out to do local work using the little car which they may end up towing between locations … the fact there are 10 of us left means we won't all fit in one vehical, it's a real pain to try and fit seven big guys in a seven passenger van … plus all the luggage. If dispatch hadn't needed the little car for local work we most likely would have had to put six in the van and three in the little car, eliminating one driver and having the driver of the van tow the other car back to the office … so this did work out good five and five. Two of the guys are just going to be shuttle drivers today, they will return to the office as soon as they drop us off ... Two are going to Seattle, two are going directly to Phoenix, two more are bringing vehicals back to the office to go to Phoenix via other drivers ... and I am going to San Rafael ... so far. Before we head out this AM, I ask dispatch again ... "When I get to the customer, will I be good to go?" ... he assured me I would be. We now have a remote storage lot to stage vehicals so a couple of drivers want to spot their cars there this AM so the vehical will be where they end up tonight … when we get to the lot there is a mechanic working on a bus … or trying to. I happen to be out of the vehical and he motions to me to come over … "Can you hold the starter while I listen, this thing won't start … " the asks me. I ask if he knows that this engine has a 'pre-lube' … he didn't and crawls under the bus to listen to the starter anyhow. I press the starter button and after a few seconds of pre-lube the bus starts … just like it is supposed to. Now that the bus is started, he can work on the real problem … the tranny. We are only on the road a couple of minutes when I get a call from the guy I was planning on running with ... "My bus isn't ready, they are taking me back to the office ..." it did save him from a 10 hour round trip wasted ride ... I used to see new drivers all the time when I was doing a lot of local work, now I've been doing mostly two week runs and haven't seen much of anyone ... but this trip we do have one new guy along with five that have been around anywhere from a few months to many years. With the usual swapping of stories I'm sure he got an ear full ... but insisted he wouldn't quit until he saw that first paycheck. Somewhere during the ride I get a call from dispatch saying my run is on hold as the first driver is still sitting at the scale ... for two days now ... On the first call they don't know what they want me to do ... the next call then want me to go to Winnipeg, Calgary, Quebec and California ... "No, I'm still not going to be gone over the weekend." I offer to bump someone and go directly to Phoenix (I run I'd have taken over SFO, if I'd have been offered) ... then it's back to just Winnipeg, Calgary and home ... and I loose cell service for an hour before getting to the customer. A few miles from the customer its ... "Back to plan 'A' ... you are going to SFO," but when we do get to the customer they don't have any paperwork with my name on it so now I really don't know where I'm going. A couple of phone calls and I realise they do have my paperwork, it just doesn't have my name on it ... By the time all the drivers are checked out and ready to go it's been about an hour ... once the other SFO driver had dropped out I had planned on running solo, but suddenly I'm leading the two drivers heading to Seattle ... but not for long ... about 30 miles down the road I get a call "You need to go back to the shipper ..." so the other drivers were on their own. Once at the shipper it only took a couple of minutes and I was back rolling, but with the miles involved the other drivers were now an hour and a half ahead of me ... the shipper did offer to re-fuel me but I said that it wasn't needed ... should have done it, for the next two days I was having to find new places to fuel ... if I'd have refueled I already knew where all the fueling stops were ... and of course I couldn't just fuel early to get me in that rotation ... nope, I had to run each and every tank to 300 miles. No big deal was made about these vehicals running on ULSD / Ultra Low Sulpher Diesel, but just to be safe I make it a point to find it ... luck was on my side, at 300 miles I was in Steele, ND ... and they had ULSD. I don't feel like walking anywhere tonight to find something to eat, so I grab a hotdog here ... first 'real' food of the day ... breakfast was a 'Krispy Kreme' ... the rest of the day has been fruit bits and jerky. Our company is on a big push to only have us run 'daylight hours' so as long as I can knock off two hundred miles today, I'll stick with the new rules ... that's two hundred PLUS the miles I wasted going back to the shipper ... tonight that puts me in Bismarck, ND ... I do call the other drivers and they are still 1-1/2 hours ahead of me ... sort of fidgured they would be ... one of those guys runs my speed, but somehow I've never run just the two of us ... and never will ... earlier today I got a call that I got the job I interviewed for. I've stayed in Bismarck before at the Select Inn, but that wasn't with a 60 foot vehical ... to make things more interesting the building is under construction with equipment parked in the lot ... and the streets are posted "No Truck Parking." I go inside and ask if that applies to buses also, they don't know but say a bus got into the lot a few days back. I circle the block looking for somewhere to park and decide to try get into the lot ... I make it ... looks like getting out may be the bigger problem. $36.60 plus $5 for Corp Lodging ... the Motel 6 is cheeper but I'm not sure there's a place to park, or that they have internet access ... and I'm pretty sure they don't have breakfast. Running with these 60 footers does limit the motel options ... it's hard enough to back around the 40 foot vehicals ... 5/9/07 - Wednesday As usual I stayed up too late last night on the computer so I take an extra half hour this AM to get going ... taking 10-1/2 hours off instead of the minimum 10 ... if I only take the 10 off each of the next two nights, I'll be rolling at 3 AM local time on Friday which didn't intrest me at the moment. Breakfast was a box of ceral to go, plus a roll and an apple ... which will have to be eaten before I get to teh CA line, can't be brining any fruit across the state lines ... Bismarck to the state line is a couple of hours and then will be my first scale. Montana will sell us a permit at the scalehouse ... unless it's an oversized permit. Those you have to have before crossing the state line so I have mine faxed to the Flying J in Beach ... I get there before the permits so I spend a few minutes scraping the bugs off the windshield, but the wait is short and I'm soon rolling. At the scale I get flagged in as expected ... he looks at my permits, telling me that I only have an 'overweight' permit, not an 'oversized' for the length. After looking at the permits a couple of minutes says they're OK and I'm free to go ... and then follows me out the door. It did cross my mind that I might be in trouble but he just came out to see what I was driving and get some fresh air ... and he said the other drivers were two hours ahead of me ... guess they didn't sleep in this AM ... no chance I'll be seeing them again now ... Enjoy watching the seasons change along these highways ... seeing the new farm equipment ... and some of the old. Saw my second 'Big Bud' this month, don't remember every seeing one before. A few times this trip I'd be driving along and think ... "should be coming up to ..." an old building, a bridge, something ... and in a few minutes I was. Guess it's time for some new roads ... Second fuel stop was the Cenex in Miles City, MT ... after having it take 45 minutes to fuel one of these vehicals a few months back I haven't gone back to the Pilot, and Cenex also has the ULSD ... and hot dogs ... had thought I'd walk to McD's or something but ... but. As expected, I get flagged in again at the next scale ... in Billings. This guy also notices that I don't have the oversized permit ... but he keeps reading ... like should have done ... and finally findes the oversized permit so I'm free to go. Weathers been good ... as if the normal splattering of bugs wasn't enough, I managed to hit a swarm of something ... I could hear them hitting, but only for a second or two. The day flys by and I'm at the second fuel stop of the day, this one the Flying J in Belgrade MT ... some truck driver comes up to me and asks what city we are in ... I tell him, and then realize ... just look at your fuel reciept ... This was a first for a Flying J where I haven't had to sign the receipt, they just handed it to me ... another 70 miles and I'm in Butte looking for a motel. Again, parking is a big issue ... I try the Motel 6 first, it's right across from the Pilot but they want $43 |