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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1st trip of the new year ... Next week I'll be in the office at 8 AM Monday morning, I don't have any work/a run lined up, so I'll go and sit in the dispatch office for a few hours ... just in case. Last week I did know where I was going before the weekend ... FLORIDA. Beats just about anywhere we can drive this time of year. Knowing ahead of time where I was going, I spent a little time over the weekend booking my flight, looking at maps, writting down cab numbers, etc ... unfortunatly, sometimes I spend way too much of my weekend doing that. Tuesday Morning Late dispatch ... 9 AM. Good. I had a lot of things to do ... get to the bank, shop for toys (for myself), etc ... so I didn't sleep in. Good thing too. My car was froze shut ... I knew it had been frozen shut over the weekend, but then I tried it again later and the doors had thawed ... AND re-frozen I guess. Tried to find a hair-dryer, I guess they all left with the kids so I was left to pour hot water on the door. Two gallons before the door opened ... by now I thought the other drivers would be waiting for me. And they were ... 'all' sitting in the transport van to take us to our trucks, so I threw my bags in, got my paperwork and hopped in. As I'm looking at the guys in the van ... CLICK ... I remembered one of the drivers last week said he was going with us and he wasn't here ... (When I did see him, I forgot to tell him that he'd have been left if it weren't for me.) Even dispatch didn't remember over the long weekend who who was going. An hour later, he finally shows up ... he had dentist appointment that lasted longer than he had thought ... sounds like me a couple of weeks ago. That trip we didn't get going until noon ... the guys weren't waiting for me, but I was the reason it was a noon dispatch ... Now I was doing the math to see how much this was going to mess up my week ... every minute counts. The ride in the van to our trucks was the usual swapping of tall tales ... who lost money on which run, who paid what fines, who broke down with which kind of truck. At least for January it is warm ... somewhere around freezing. All the trucks start and we are heading our seprate ways ... two drivers are just moving trucks back to the office ... two are heading to Alabama ... one is going to North carolina and then to Miami, and I'm going to Orlando and then Miami. From Miami back to Orlando and then Miami back to Orlando again. It takes about 15 minutes to check the truck to make sure that it's legal to be on the road ... check the fluids, lights, tires. This one is low on fuel, so I'll need to stop at the first truckstop about 15 miles down the road. Quick make sure that everyone else is good to go (old habits are hard to break.) It's been a while since I've been in one of these ... one that will actually do the speed limit. At the truckstop I see our driver who's heading for NC ... and that's the last I'll see anyone I know for three days. I have been this route before, once last month and maybe a dozen more times in the prior four years. I roughly know where the fuelstops are and exactly where I'm going to stay. We can only drive a set numbers of hours/miles a day ... so as long as I don't break down, I know where I'll be each night. And I pretty much know where I'll stop for fuel, running by myself I will only stop every 240-270 miles ... for fuel ... I don't make any additional stops this trip ... kind of nice for a change. I'll be on the Insterstate for the next 1,600 miles with my drop about 5 miles off the Florida Turpike. WI's speed limit is 65 but then IL drops to 55 ... makes for a long day and cuts into the number of miles we can drive for the day. Another bad part about getting going so late is that to maximize my hours/miles ... I have to run until midnight ... makes for a long day especially when I was up around six and awake before that. So today I'm ready to shut down long before I do. I've narrowed down tonights motels to two ... a Motel 6 and an America's Best Inns ... both are supposed to be $25 (plus another $5 to get the good rate). Knowing the Best Inns usually have wireless and breakfast, they are my choice for the night. But their price is $33 ... I'll have to check on that ... but I stay anyways. I do my usual sixty second check of the room ... bed has been made, shower cleaned ... so I go to find something to eat. Up until now I've only had what I carry with me ... juice, nuts, jerky ... not even any breakfast bars, forgot them. So it's time for 'real' food ... the closest open food is the 'Steak and Shake.' I order a patty melt to go and head back to the motel. I try for most of an hour to get the internet to work, my computer shows full signal ... but the computer won't connect. I finally give up. Now is when I finally start to notice things ... A closer look shows the tolet wasn't cleaned above the water line ... and the shower still has a few hairs from the last customer ... and the towels, are they just stained or not clean? So now I look closely at the bed ... it's well made, but the sheets don't have that 'crisp' feel. I have asked for new rooms in the past, but it's been over an hour since I checked in and it's now one in the morning ... I go to bed. Wednesday. I'm not ready to get up ... Still no internet. I decide against taking a shower and decide to just wash up in the sink ... I see I few spots in the sink so I wash it down before using it. I had a motel once that was sooo bad that after I washed out the sink, I gave the washcloth to the desk clerk ... who wouldn't touch it ... or give me my money back. Looking around the room it looked old, well in need of a paint job and new hooks for the curtains ... I've stayed at other Best Inns and they were a world apart from this one, if I remember they'll be getting a letter from me. Then ... I went down for breakfast ... nothing special, but what was there looked OK. Then I saw the garbage can ... the outside of it was caked with weeks of spills ... I had seen enough, I was no longer hungry. On the road, I'm finally out of IL and into KY and then TN ... Nashville, home of WSM and the Grand Ol Opry ... ah, one of the reasons I don't listen to much radio, an hour or so and it fades and I'm searching for another one. No problem finding country music in this area ... no shortage of preachers either ... they even have commercial stations playing 'Gospel' music ... this area is a realy treat on Sunday's ... After TN it's GA ... lot's of open road, no bad weather, no snow ... all in all a pretty boring run so far. Because my fuel tank was empty yesterday I had to make three fuel stops ... and I try to keep them under 15 minutes each. Today I'll only have two stops in my 11 hour day. This part beats running with others, it always seems to take a half hour to 45 minutes per stop, plus all the extra stops. Running with others I usually stop every two hours, alone it's every four hours. (Both my doctor and chiro recomend the stopping every two hours) Tonight my choice is between a Motel 6 and a 'Guest House' and again I've stayed at both and both were good ... with the Guest House winning because of the free breakfast and wireless internet. Tonight I check my room closer ... it checks out. I've been wanting to stop at a 'Stuckeys' and get some nuts and there is one within a few blocks of the motel. I was disapointed, been wanting to stop for weeks and once I get there it's less than I remember. Part of the problem is that I didn't remember to bring any plastic bags and the good nuts are all in cans, which I can't carry onto the plane home. I leave without buying anything. By the time I walk back to the IHOP, it's closed ... it looks like another meal at the 'Waffle House' ... not my idea of good food but it'll have to do. Tonight instead of a pattymelt I get a breakfast to go. Ham and cheese omlet, plus toast, bacon and hashbrowns ... it's amazing what a big differce having them add a little onion to their hashbrowns does. I walk next door to the convience store to get something to drink with my meal, but as I walk in the door I remember that I've packed enough liquids for four days and need to finish it in 2-1/2 ... I forgot about having to FLY on my third day. So I go back to my truck and get a couple more bottles of juice. Sometime around now is when I realise that the boss ... who is buying my flights between trucks ... has me flying into Ft Lauderdale instead of Miami ... from Ft Lauderdale I will need to take a cab, bus or train to get to my vehicals. Actually I end up taking all three ... bus, train and cab to get to my truck. Thursday The good news is ... the motel still looks as good in the morning as it did last night (Ever hear Willie Nelsons song 10 with a 2?) ... and the internet still works. Actually that turns out to be part of the bad news. I tend get up and start on the internet and THEN shower and get ready ... well, again today I spend too much time online and end up running late. And I don't have any extra time. Now that I know I'm flying into Ft Lauderdale, I need to be on the 1 PM flight out of Orlando ... when I left yesterday I estimated that I would deliver truck one 20 minutes before liftoff. Not good. By last night I was estimating I'd deliver 1-1/2 hours before liftoff. Now I've just blown 15 minutes of that online ... doing tech work for an 'unpaying boss.' Breakfast looked good as I checked out ... the basic's ... toast, donuts, two kinds of ceral and some fruit. FL is like CA and WA, you are not supposed to bring fruit in, and we truckers have to go through an inspection station as we enter the state. It had been so long since I had driven a truck that would go the speedlimit that I had mis-estimated how far I could go yesterday. I actually could have gone another 1/2 hour last night, but this was where I checked on motels and didn't want to get down the road and have to pay $50 ... last night was actually the $25 I had expected. The other reason I had stopped when I did last night was that I was running on 'E' ... low on fuel and didn't want to log another stop on that day. This morning I will just lump the fuel stop in with my morning inspection time. Opps, the truckstop at this exit has all their pumps blocked ... no fuel ... so back on the highway, another six miles to the next truckstop. I was hoping to see a friendly face here, not so ... I wanted to ask about when I was here two weeks ago. Across the street is another truckstop ... (Duh, I could have just stopped at the other truckstop, just thought of that now) ... and last time when we left, there was a FedEx truck burried in the side of an RV and someone was leaving in an ambulance. But this morning the lines were long and I didn't want to hold things up. Not hungry enough to buy anything ... I forgot my ceral bars, so it's more nuts and jerky and head on down the highway. That was it, my last fuelstop for this trip ... and the other reason I ran so low, I knew from here I could make it to the customer and leave the recomended 1/8-1/4 tank of fuel. It's easier to do that based on getting knowing I'm getting 250 miles per tankful than to try to run it down to 'E' and then fidgure out ... I've got 'X' number of miles to go, and am getting 'Y' miles per gallon ... I try to keep it simple, for me anyways. I've talked to the guy at my drop yesterday and he said he'd be at the office by noon and should be able to give me a ride to the airport, every little freebie helps ... but now I'm here at noon and he's not. No one else wants to sign for the truck or give me a ride and he's not answering his phone. So I wait ... I wait too long, not a good plan 'B' ... I finally go back and ask where I can leave the truck ... as I'm coming back twice more to this location in the next 24 hours. Now I find someone to sign, but no ride. So ... I have to call a cab ... we were just in this town a couple of weeks ago and a driver waited for over an hour for one ... so I asked how long ... "As soon as we can." ... Sorry, not good enough, I told them I'd call someone else. Taxi #2 said they'd have someone there in 15 minutes ... it was 20, but almost close enough. This drop is only about five miles from the airport, but now I'm down to 20 minutes until liftoff ... Ahhhhhhhhggggggg. Cabbie does good, but traffic is heavy at the airport and it takes a while to get to the right door ... then he can't find a receipt ... tick, tick, tick. Walking in to the airport I see dozens of people ahead of me at check-in ... then I see the self-checkins in another area ... YES ... then I find a lesser used security area ... tick, tick, tick. Of couse today is the day security decides they need to look closer at my bag ... maybe because I was feeling a little edgy?? I quickly hop on the tram to the gate ... it's not until I get to the other end of the tram that I hear ... "Gates 60-90 ..." and I'm at gate 121, I forgot this area had two trams, now I'm down to 10 minutes ... I finally end up at my gate one minute after departure. BUT ... my flight had been delayed a half hour ... they haven't started boarding yet ... I've made it. Now for some food, it's been a while since a McDonalds tasted this good ... This really wasn't my flight ... dispatch bought one ticket for each day, refundable/changeable ... my flight was for later in the day. They just sort of guessed when I'd be there and didn't look at at whate time my customers close ... opps. But no problem getting on this flight and somehow got bumped up a class. Now is when things start to get interesting ... I try to only take trips where I drive to a city and then fly home, I don't really like going from one truck to the next, but here I am. Stange city and I do know the how I'm getting where I'm going, just not where or when. So off I go to find way to get to the train ... It's a couple blocks walk to a bus that will take me there. Well first I find the bus stop and some people who know about as much as I do ... so after failing to get the attention of the first bus that stopped, I do talk to the next one and find out what to look for, it only runs every hour or so ... I'm starting to like my original plan better. Before the boss decided to pay for my airfare, I was going to drive from Orlando to Miami ... and I'd be in Miami ... not Ft Lauderdale ... and I'd be in control. Finally our bus comes, it's full ... full of people and luggage. A few minutes later we are at the train station, and today there is a live person selling tickets, and answering questions for us newbies. Train ride it's self was uneventful ... just a high number of law on that train, compared with none on the next. The first leg is about 30 minutes with 5 or 6 stops ... did see the usual train sights ... hobo villages, yards stacked knee deep with trash, storage area's. Once at my transfer point I 'opps' ... not knowing the area I started walking ... the wrong direction. Then when I realised it, I decided to take the stairs. A very long stairs, up and over the train, and back down. By then I could see my next train leaving, I'd missed it. But in about two minutes I could see another one heading my way. Only spend about 10 minutes on this one, not really sure if it's worth it. Dispatch had suggeseted we go into Miami and catch a cab from there ... this second train showed up on a map of the first train's route so I fidgured it would do two things, get me a couple of miles closer to my pickup location, and not have to pay any airport taxi fees. But I did find a down side ... I called a cab that I had found on the internet ... they didn't answer, so I called the first one written on the wall ... and waited an hour before telling them to cancel. I then asked the guard ... who of course couldn't recomend anyone, but did finally look to see what number he had on his phone ... they said they'd be there in 10 minutes and were ... about 2 minutes after the first one showed up. Sorry, I hold a grudge and ignored the first one ... I had canceled it. I got a call inroute to the customer from the North Carolina driver. I thought he would have been here this AM so I hadn't tried to call him. He had delivered on Wednesday and had a flight out Thursday AM ... which took most of the day to get to FL. Now he's two hours behind me ... at one point I had offered to sign out his truck, but that was when we thought the customer closed at 6 PM ... but service is open until 12 AM. I did gave the driver the insights on how/where to catch transportation and which cab to call. He was supposed to be able to deliver one truck today and his third on Friday ... he was going to try by running all night ... Finally, three hours after getting off the plane, I was at our customer ... I had estimated 20 minutes from Miami ... VS three hours from Ft Lauderdale. More fun ... it's now dark. And my truck is burried behind four others so I said I'd take tommorrows truck today and deal with the extra trucks in the daylight. That didn't work the way I'd planned, the second truck was dead ... it didn't help that these trucks were a couple of blocks from the office and every time I went back to the office I had to wait in line again ... Yes, this is why 90% of my runs are deliver one NEW truck and fly home. I finally get one mechanic to help jumpstart my truck ... but the jumper cables are too short, and he thinks the battery's need to be replaced. Back to digging out truck one. My plan had been to sign out both of my trucks tonight to save time ... I didn't get them both signed out, but at least I could get someone working on tommorrows problems today. Finally, finally, I'm on my way back to Orlando. And, oh lucky me ... this truck is flat on 'E' ... these guys have been rumored to empty all the fuel out of their trucks and then pour back in five gallons ... just enough to get us to the closest station. So I didn't want to waste any more time ... time to roll. The truckstop a few blocks away was being remodeled and closed, so lucky for me I paid attention in the cab, there is another truckstop about a couple of miles in the wrong direction ... but none for 45 miles once I'm on the tollway ... fuel and food ... pizza, it looked and tasted like it had been there all day, but it was hot food.Yesterday I had been doing the math in my head ... would I be able to move both of these trucks yet tonight? Not now ... now it was going to have to be pedal to the medal and hope it's close. More fun ... my left mirrors were worthless. So I spent the next three hours passing people ... and estimating when I was past them so I could pull back in the right lane ... not a good ... or safe ... way to drive. Then for about half the trip I had a hemroid ... that's what I call those people who follow for hours, a car lenght off my rear reguardless of what speed I'm driving. Lots of thoughts going through my head that I need a different line of work ... not my best run, too long of day, too many issues. But finally I'm back in Orlando and into my motel ... a Days Inn about five miles from where I drop my truck. Not sure why I chose this one ... two weeks ago we stayed at a Holiday Express just across the freeway ... real nice place, same price ... ahhh, the Days Inn will give me 'Trip Rewards' ... I earned three nights free lodging last year. Interesting place, the Days Inn ... they did check me in OK, but when someone called to ask a question, the desk clerk said "I don't know, I've only been here a week." Next question must have been if there was someone else working "... yes, but tonights her first night." Then there was the bad directions to my room ... I walked past all 150 rooms on the second floor before finding mine ... and the security guard circled the place a half dozen times during my walk. And no vending machines, only Coke machines which were 'sold out.' Too tired to walk anywhere for food, didn't even cross my mind ... I just drank some water and ate some more jerky ... I finished my ham jerky so now I'm working on a package of turkey jerky. My sixty second walk through found a clean room, but few lights. Of the four lights in the bed area, only one worked ... and only three of the four had lampshades. And the clock didn't work. Internet worked, sort of. Now that I knew how long this trip was going to take, I knew I needed to be on the first flight out tomorrow ... Friday Oh how I wanted to go back to sleep when the alarm went off ... instead I got up and onto the computer. But the internet was not working this AM so it was all wasted time ... too much wasted time. I blew 15 minutes I didn't have. Next time I'll stay at the Holiday Express again ... the Days Inn breakfast wouldn't start until after I was gone so I don't know how good it might be ... but the Holiday ... mmm ... Omlets, biscuts and gravy, hot and cold ceral, a half dozen kinds of bread and pasteries, yogurt, etc. Called the same cab as yesterday and again they were there within 20 minutes ... gotta keep their number. And again I'm getting to the airport within a half hour of my flight, but this time I know where to go ... I knew the best place to get my ticket, which security area to hit, which TRAM to ride and I get to the gate with ... oh 2-3 minutes to spare. Flight was a rough one, pilot would only let the staff serve water ... up / down in under an hour. Things actually start out worse in Ft Lauderdale this time ... last time I had about a 20 minute wait, this time it's 45 ... I think I could have cabbed it and made the earlier train but I need to at least not loose any money on these last two legs of my trip. Bus was aleady jammed when our stop got on but this time of the day they were people who where getting off and the other terminals. One of the confused travelers was asking me about the train, thinking he was going to walk from the airport to the train ... actually headlines today were that that is something they are working ... for 2012 ... in Miami ... where he has to take a second bus to get back to the other airport where he was going to fly to Trinidad. At the train station this same guy was asking lots of questions so I told him I was the expert ... "I have done this run once ... yesterday." We ended up talking for most of the next hour as we waited for the train and then sat together until I had to get off ... couldn't tell you what was out the window today. He just got his papers to bring his family here from Trinidad and was going home to tie up some loose ends ... interesting conversation. A few weeks ago, after 2/3's of a bus ride I started talking to my seatmate and found out her life's story ... living in norther Canada, heading to Costa Rice to meet her 'partners' family. Spooky thing was that I almost aske her her name ... EVERYTHING about her looked/acted like an ex-girlfriend of 20 years ago ... build, hair, facial expressions ... spooky. Back at the train station where we got on there was a gal trying to trade dollar coins for dollar bills ... she had put in a $20 and gotten $17 in coins ... I traded three and then used my credit card instead ??? not sure why. This time when I switch trains I knew where I was going, didn't help, this time the next train was a 15 minute wait. Now that I had cab numbers I decided to do the same routine ... called the same taxi, but got a different dispatcher who could not understand where I was ... he was listing off every train station but the one I was at. I finally had to walk until I found the address and he repeated what I'd been saying ... with his accent. 15 minutes later the cab was there "Same lace today?" ... it was the same cabbie as yesterday. And yes, I do hold a grudge ... I could have left 10 minutes earlier, the same taxi that stiffed me yesterday was there dropping someone off and I could have just gotten in ... First thing I hear when I get to my pickup was "How many more of you are there?" ... three other drivers are already there picking up ... and then he tells me "Good luck" and hands me a box of keys ... for Freightliners ... and mines an International ... "Where's mine?" I ask "It was here last night." ... seems one of the other guys already took it ... so finding them is now on the very top of my list ... I find them and my key ... a half hour later we have a duplicate made ... nothing is easy ... we have to call dispatch who has to call the owner of the trucks who has to call the customer where we are picking them up at ... finally. One of the drivers is not happy, he's inching to go ... but, hey, that's my key and if yesterday had gone right, they'd be sitting without a key to make a copy of ... because at that time I didn't know we were short a key. Talked briefly to these drivers, they weren't happy about their flights either ... they got in to Ft Lauderdale last night ... after the train quits running. And none of the motels they called had any rooms so they slept at the airport ... by the time the found out all this they were on the wrong side of security so they didn't even have much for chairs to sleep on ... not sure what took so long but they had been at the airport all night and only got to the airport a little before noon. One thing I know is they called the taxi that left me waiting yesterday ... they too waited for over an hour ... hey, I would have warned them, but I didn't know they were coming. In all the mixup with the keys, I decided to call the driver I had talked yesterday, to see if he had been back already as planned ... "NO, and I'm not coming back." He was still in his second truck and had told dispatch to find someone else for number three ... we can do that, but usually don't once we have the paperwork. The other truck still sitting there was to be moved by the guy with the Alabama truck ... who knows when he'll get there. More delays ... no one looked at my truck last night ... that was just empty promises. So it's another two hours before I'm ready to go ... they finally put in three new batteries. Ah, but this truck is full of fuel so I'm ready to roll. Problem is, this trip is estimated at four hours ... yes I did it in three last night, but ... in four hours the customer will be closed for the weekend and my flight will be taxing on the runway ... pedal to the medal again. But this time I have cuise, mirrors and a much nicer riding truck. It does the speed limit plus ... a little extra for insurance. I call dispatch to check on plan 'B' with the customer and never hear back. I call the airline for over an hour before I hear somethin other than "All circuts are busy." No big deal if I miss my flight, there are three more tonight ... and the one I'm on is 30 minutes later than what I had remembered. Three hours and 15 minutes later I am back at the customer for the third time, still no ride but I get a signature for both this truck and the one I left there after hours ... I see it, and it's already loaded and ready for the road. Cab is there again within 20 minutes and I'm at the airport ... this cabbie gives me a hard time about the route I want him to take ... I'll have to do a MapQuest on it when I get home ... (I did check, he was right, his way would have been shorter) Different airline this time so I do have to wait in line, behind people who don't want to use the 'self-serve' machines ... and when I finally get one, first it can't find me, so I use a different ID, then if finds me but runs out of paper printing the ticket ... ahhhggggg ... I don't look at my ticket until I'm walking ... I'm NOT on this flight, I'm on a flight hours from now, oh well, I'll just change it at the gate ... Nope ... ALL flights have been delayed, and full. At one point I'm sitting there and I hear "We are waiting on 15 people for Atlanta ... if you do not make this flight, you will be in Orlando overnight." I (and others) quickly try to get in those seats ... Nope, they won't let anyone else on. Some flights to the east coast were delayed six plus hours and counting. My actual fligth was only delayed an hour. I did get time for my Atlanta airport Charlies ... Philly Cheesesteak. I bought a big one this time, last time I was still licking my chops when I finished the small. Finally found power to re-charge my laptop, most outlets were in use, one had a prong in one side ... I wasn't going to be the one to pull it out ... Flight the rest of the way home was uneventful, I was able to move to an exit row so that I could finish typing this ... instead of sleeping ... so by the time I got home I'd been up almost 24 hours. I've had time to do the final math now. I made $190 each of the first three days moving my first truck and $60 for the day and a half that it took to move the next two trucks ... it's a good thing it was so much fun ... |
