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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1 - New Pickup 20180116 - NC-FL Got going before sun up, good breakfast, bacon, real eggs, even the juice tasted like juice. Third time to this location, first time we've had to unlock the gate. We had stopped in last night so we knew where the pickup was. We had to scrape frost off of our car this AM but not off the pickup. It's a light one so I won't even put up my plaq's, but have to use my plate. Small cab but all of our stuff fits behind the seat. Low tire air icon is on on the dash. Still before 8 AM when we leave so I have to wait and call in until we stop. I had looked at a map on how to get back to Spartanburg but missed a turn. Realized it right away and we made U-turns. Then I thought I was missing where we were going to stop for fuel so I got off an exit too early. But that was it for the day :) Fueled at Pilot in Gaffney. There was over a quarter tank of fuel when I picked the unit up so that will help. Next stop was dropping the rental car back off in Spartanburg. Cheap rental, $35 for the day, plus three gallons of gas. Called into dispatch and left a message. I need to let them know I have picked up. I also asked how much fuel to leave in the pickup, about the customer name being different than the paperwork and the tire light is on. By the time they called back, we had found on the paperwork where it says how much fuel to leave, on the internet that the two names are the same company and when I hit the breaks to take dispatch's call ... the tire light went off. BB couldn't wait until a rest area so we stopped at a Pilot in Prosperity for a break. Then two hours later at a Pilot in St George to eat. Wendys was being remodeled so DQ was our only choice. (I had a mini and) a KC BBQ, BB had their chicken sandwich. Phone number on the paperwork was wrong for the drop ... and it said that it was wrong on the email. (If I would only read my emails.) Customer and his wife will be NA at 9 am when I wanted to drop. We got the OK to leave the pickup without a signature. We never discussed dropping it at a different time. Another break at the Loves in Richmond Hill at Loves, then Jacksonville traffic. Stopped just past at Saint Augustine for four gallons of fuel. BB needed a rest stop and I would need fuel before delivery. Flying J. Doing good on fuel, I'm spending about half of what they gave me, that helps. I've got the mpg of to 26. I'm running at 65 mph today. It's tacking at about 16 rpms. I try to keep the rpms under 20. Yesterday it was tacking over 20 at 40 mph. Side note: I'm saying how we haven't been making much money. We haven't been working much either.Today is the first day in two weeks that I've worked over 10 hours a day and BB hasn't worked since last week. During the summer we are doing 11-12 hour days when it's light longer. Food was at a Fieste Grande. Really good. I ordered just TWO enchiladas this time. They messed up my order and I got three. Last night I ordered the chicken salad sandwich, they were out. Pretty normal in my life. The night is at the Quality Inn also in Orange City. We are about an hour from my drop in the AM. Need to pick up a rental car and stop and put in 5 gallon final fuel. After that I'm not sure. Dispatch did add a few orders to the board but nothing we want. They usually at 3-5 a day out of NC. So far this week only 1 Monday and 1 Tuesday. So we are hopeful, and if they do we can be back there within 24 hours. There are five trucks in FL right now to move but we don't want them for different reasons. Time may change that. IA is down below 50 RV's for the first time this year so lots of choices if we do get back. Or WHEN we get back ;) We'll try to find something to do tomorrow after we drop, we have a local rental for two days. It's supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow and only in the 50's on Thursday. Driving was pretty un-eventful. We've been on I-95 four out of the last five days. Not much has changed. .... But there is no snow. 20180117 - NC-FL A bit chilly here in FL this AM, before too late in the morning we received emails from dispatch that they were closed due to the weather. They are based out of GA. We spent most of the day today on the back roads, only a twice did we get on the freeway only to get off at the next exit. Much more interesting :) Why all the couches on the shoulders of the roads and in yards? Also lots of greenhouses that were long ago abandoned. I thought I had put in enough fuel but once the low fuel light came on, it gave me the range (which didn't match the gauge.) So I stopped and put in $2. THEN I find out we go past my final fuel stop before we get to the rental car. I didn't need to had the $2. Only one person at the rental car place so it took a while, but to five people waiting for cars and it was taking a long time for each. Our car wasn't ready until 10 AM, when we had requested it. But for us, all they needed to see was the drivers license, with others they were going over things line by line. Once we got our car we moved our stuff to it. We took off but I lost BB ... and she ended up following another white pickup :) At first I looked at a house with the number 251 then remembered the house number was 451. So I made it a point to take a picture of the house number when I did the drop. No one was home, didn't want to leave it in the wrong driveway. Didn't take long to do the drop. We had talked about going back to the Circle B nature center so we headed that direction ... on back roads. BB had picked out a diner but five minutes before we got there, she decided that 5 Guys was where we would eat. After 5 Guys we went to the Circle B. Lots of tents set up so I asked about them. 2,500 2nd graders will be at the nature center tomorrow. Today was much better than last month. We were prepared, hats, water and cooler weather. We saw a wild hog and her little ones, lots of gator's and birds. Also lots of dead fish, they didn't freeze but died because of the cold water. Vulcher's seemed to be enjoying them. Took pictures of gators and the eagles and just about anything else that was moving. We walked for over an hour but that was our limit. We had thought of walking a little further but once we stopped, that was it. Before we left the park we were deciding on where to go. We pretty much need to get to the southeast corner of FL by Miami to stay out of the freeze warning / wind chill advisory. And that is four hours away. And we may be leaving tomorrow so why drive hours just to turn around and come back? We decided to stay in Lakeland where we have in the past and eat next door at the Cracker Barrel. Sleep Inn is in the same parking lot. Late in the day dispatch added three units coming out of FL. But they are in the middle of no where so we would have to shuttle them back to the area of the rental car and that would take all day Thursday. And the runs are over 500 miles so we wouldn't get them delivered Friday. AND dispatch said they were CDL (so they should be over 26,000#) but they had them listed as 10,000# so they may have been pickups. But the brand wasn't listed. Used stuff. We passed for now. Almost nothing in the south east was added to the board but a lot of things were taken off so someone was working. Iowa is still putting RV's on the board. Watched the weather and sitting in FL seems like a really good idea. They are advising no travel in the area's we would have to drive through if we did take something. We will have to get back to work ... soon.  1 - Used Tree truck 20180118 - FL-AL After getting up this AM we decided to take one of the runs out of FL. The ones to TN were about two hours further so I took the AL run so that we could easily make delivery on Friday. A few minutes after 8 AM we called dispatch and got the run, as soon as they emailed my paperwork we went down to the computer, printed out the paperwork and checked out. I also called the pickup location and said we would be there in about two hours. They didn't know anyone was coming and didn't have anyone close. We got to the pickup in about an hour and a half so we waited for a half hour thinking someone would show up. Nope. So I called and then they told me now to get into the gate (They couldn't have told me that earlier?) The trucks were being stored in someone's pasture so we needed to make sure we closed the gate. :) Three trucks way in the back of a 10 (?) acre wooded lot. Good news is it started. Bad news was that it was hooked up to a wood chipper without a jack. After spending lots of time trying to decide what to do or how to do it, I found a 2x6 and lifted while BB pulled the truck ahead. Then I let it drop. Oh yeah, lots of kids around but they were just curious. As were Billy and mama. A couple nibbled on my pants where I was checking the fluids but they soon lost interest and grazed elsewhere. Once we were in the pasture, we were in and out in a half hour. BB took off to find something to eat and I headed down the road, I wouldn't need fuel for an hour or so. An hour down the road the check engine light came on and stayed on. So I stopped and called dispatch who called the shipper. After an hour no one had gotten back to me so I called again. Finally someone called me back and found a location who could check the computer today. The first place they were going to send me could check it next week. The shipper also mentioned that this model truck needed to be full of coolant or it could throw an error code. It wasn't quite full so I walked to Napa and bought coolant. Sure enough, after adding the coolant the light went off. So I called dispatch and told them I was not going to stop and a dealer to get checked. Less than an hour down the road, the check engine light was back on. I called dispatch back and said I was heading to the dealer. By now it was more miles to the dealer than if I had headed there to start with. Also needed to stop for fuel, I was down below 1/8. RaceTrak in Lakeland was my fuel stop. I hadn't really done the math on the time as I thought I had plenty of it. I did when I first called, hours ago. I had looked at a map so I knew about where the dealer was, but I turned one street too soon. By the time I got to the dealer they were locked up and dispatch had been leaving me messages. One shop guy saw me and told me where to park and drop the keys, but about that time someone walked out of the office and offered to check it right then. As soon as they were done checking they were headed home. That was a much needed, and appreciated, act of kindness on their part. No charge. The code says a part isn't working properly, but it's ok to run it as is for a while. Also those calls from dispatch said I didn't need to stop and have it looked at because it was going to be after 5 when I got to the shop. Grrrrr.... Now it's going to be dark shortly and we need to go out of route to drop off the rental car AND we have 550 mile to tomorrows drop. We got 60 miles today, all day. We are back at the same motel in Lakeland, FL. But tonight we went to Applebee's instead of Cracker Barrel. I now noticed that dispatch called after we were to the motel. Didn't leave a message and it's the office number so could have been anyone there. Nothing good new on the board so we may just head home tomorrow after we drop. We will likely be dropping after hours but it may be dark by then so we may be dropping on Saturday. We'll see. Coming from the south, we will likely get a rental car in Mobil, about an hour from the drop. From there it is about two days back home. Long day for little progress. 20180119 - FL-AL Early, we got up early today to try to make delivery before close of business (and dark.) Just barely getting light out as we checked out of the motel. We had checked fuel prices and the cheapest fuel was 20 miles down the road. As I start out from the stop light to get on the freeway, the gauge drops almost to 'E' and I'm right across from a gas station ... but the gauge will come back up ... right? The gauge does come back up but not enough that I am going to trust it 20 miles. That first station would have been cheaper than what I pay. Even after I get my $.05 discount at Shell. Which is cheaper than across the street at Loves. It is about an hour down the road to drop the rental car and it doesn't take very long to realize that we likely are not going to make delivery today. No break down pay and lots of extra hours, in part because we are returning our rental car where we picked it up and that was no longer on the route after the service stop last night. Today will be mostly off the freeway highway driving. It might have saved us about five minutes to get on the toll road but instead we took other roads. Ended up taking longer than five minutes. We got behind an accident where the road was closed. Police was out directing traffic so that we could make U-turns in the median. Not sure why they didn't just use the existing cones to make a two lane out of the on-coming traffic. The wait and new route slowed us down a little. As did one of our fuel stops. Wal-mart's Murphy, none of they pumps were working, so not only was it a waste of time, the fuel was also 15 cents a gallon more where we did stop. Before that we had stopped at a rest area in Gainsville and again a few miles down the road at Lake City to have enough fuel to get to Valdosta where fuel was cheaper, if the pumps had been working. Thought I would make it to Valdosta without stopping but the gauge drops fast below 1/4. After fueling in Valdosta at a Sunoco, we parked the truck in their lot and walked next door to Pizza Hut. Sign was still up that there was a Blimpies at the gas station but it was not there. Pizza Hut was all you can eat lunch, so we did. At Tifton we are back off the freeway for the rest of the day. US 82 most of the way. A lot of it is four lane but not all. Coolant is staying up so no issues there, but the wipers are on more now than yesterday. Must be a short somewhere, hope I don't ware the blades out before I get this thing dropped. Stopped in Gerogetown, GA at a gas station to use the restroom. Interesting place. bars on all the windows, plus bars over the doors when they close up at night. Busy place, cars, trucks. My drop had finally called me back and left a message so now I called him back. No problem with the drop, so we are going to drop Saturday AM. Once we got that call we started making plans. We had thought of getting a local car by the drop and using that to get a one way. But as we realized we wouldn't make delivery tonight we decided to get a car in Montgomery, only to change it from a local to a one way within the hours. We stopped in a vacant lot in Union Springs to call dispatch about a truck in Birmingham. It was listed as a tractor, but it was a straight truck. I had to call the pickup to find out if we could pick it up tomorrow being Saturday. We can, so I called dispatch back and grabbed the truck. It's going to NC almost down to Myrtle Beach. If there wasn't a storm coming into MN, we might have headed home. We need to be home by the 27th so now we have to take that into our math on what trips we can take. The truck I left in Jacksonville finally showed up on the board, wrong. It showed again as Greensboro to Dania. Next day it was corrected to Jacksonville to Dania. Now there is one from Jacksonville back to Greensboro, I wonder if that is all the same truck? With our ever changing plans, we stop short of the drop and stay in Montgomery instead. Quality Inn that was still a Comfort in on any reviews. Schlotzski's is right across the street, only one in town. Lucky us. They messed up BB's order this time and she got a whole salad instead of a half ... more than she needed. Seems like most of the houses down here have porches, and people are making use of them. Most have either rockers or chairs on the porches. Even noticed one house that half of the lower level was a porch, with a full 2nd level. Old houses, new houses, big, small, trailer houses all with porches. Don't think I mentioned yesterday all the fields we saw that were covered with ice. The farmers must have run the sprinklers overnight to prevent a killing frost. We also past a citrus plant with truck loads of citrus waiting to be processed. Today was lots of lesser viewed scenery but nothing to memorable.  1 - Used Cab over straight truck 20180120 - AL-NC Went to bed early last night, by 8:30. It was an 11 hour day but we didn't even make 500 miles, thanks to the back roads. We are up way before we have to be. The car rental place is not open until 8 AM. When I was dropping BB off at the airport, a cop pulled up beside me and rolled his window down. He never said a word, I just told him that I was dropping my wife off to get a rental car. As soon as BB was out, I pulled out, the cop stayed until he could see BB and then drove off. I stopped for fuel across the street from the airport. I guessed as to how much I would need and only left a gallon or two by the time I got to my final fuel stop. Not much traffic this AM on I-65. It was about 70 miles up to my drop in Alabaster. I hadn't seen on the computer that there was a fuel station right at the exit, but there was so I fueled there. By now I am within a mile or two of my drop. I don't like these address' that use road numbers, they are often wrong. The one thing the drop had told me that they had a orange mailbox. I saw that a block away. Good news, for some reason someone was at the drop. There didn't need to be, but it always helps. I can park the truck inside the fence, get a signature and leave the keys in the truck. Right next to where I park, I notice the paperwork in the pickup. It was just dropped off this AM, driven by one of our drivers and came out of Shelby. We hadn't seen it, so NC had put more items out this last week, they just didn't stay long enough for us to see them. Montgomery had given us a full sized SUV ... thanks, but no thanks. They should knock off the cost of some of fuel when they do that. Guess this person was less than helpful so that didn't happen. The SUV had all the new safety features, alarms for pedestrians, leaving enough room between cars, lane control, etc. We get near the drop and there is a train stopped blocking the street. The computer had put us on one of the only streets that doesn't have an underpass. Just a small adjustment. We got to our pickup, but I hadn't talked to anyone in the shop so the truck wasn't ready. I had asked if there was anyone I needed to talk to when I called yesterday and was told no, anyone could help. All they needed to do was clean it up, that took about a half hour. Turns out what was listed as a tractor is a little cab-over Izuzi. Now I need to find out how they decided on my pay when they didn't know what they were giving me ... My pickup location was a block off the one end of an airport avenue, the airport was on the other end of town at the other end. Pretty hard to get lost. BB had to stop and fuel but someone had left me a half a tank of fuel so I'm good for a while. I stop at a wide spot in the road near the airport until BB called that the drop was done. A few blocks later we are on I-20 for the next 500 miles. We stop within the hour at Pell City and a City Market Grill and Buffet. Lots of room to park and lots of good fresh food, potato casserole was great. Better than any chain buffets we've eaten at. And for $8. Fuel at the Walmart was $2.79, we didn't stop but we should have. That was the cheapest fuel we will see. Ended up paying $2.89 at a RaceTrac in Villi Rica. I ended up filling the tank, it only took 23 gallons when it was almost on empty. So far, traffic had been good, but once on the east side of downtown it was mostly stopped. Stopped, slow and go for the last 30 miles. But we are on no timetable so we just go with the flow. The motel tonight is a Sleep Inn in Conyers. Food is the McD's across the street. Neither of us our very hungry, if we had been, there was a Longhorn Steakhouse next to McD's. I did try to call the drop today but the phone rang about 15 miles then came off the hook and hung up, like a voice mail that wasn't working. Did get an answer back on my prior truck, they had paid me as if it was gas. They will correct on Monday to the diesel pay. 20180121 - AL-NC If I don't write these up the day of the trip ... almost all is lost. Stopped for a break in Thompson, GA Stopped for fuel in Lexington, SC Stopped to eat in Camden, SC at Fatz. I got the brunch burger. Stopped for a break in Rowland, NC Stopped for the night in Wilmington, NC at the Sleep Inn. Walked across the street to Jason's Deli. Really good food. Highlight of the day was after watching someone almost clip my rear bumper ... seeing the pulled over a few seconds later. Later in the trip I had noticed four cops on an on ramp, at the next exit there was a full sized van sitting crossways on the free way in the on coming travel lanes. All corners were well rounded, it looked like it had rolled a few times before landing back upright. Just one lone man standing in the travel lanes like he was dazed. Cop was just getting there from the other direction, the ones behind me hadn't caught up to us while we were in sight. 20180122 - AL-NC No reason to get up early, we don't pickup our car until 8 AM. Breakfast is a little lacking this morning. No hot items. Hard boiled eggs and biscut's that needed to be nuked. And all of their yogurt was out dated but they did take care of that right away. Dropped BB off at the airport and I was on my way. Knew there was a gas station where I was supposed to turn so I stopped there and added ONE gallon. I didn't need to yet, on this customer we just can not deliver with the low fuel light on. It wasn't, but I didn't want it to come on when I pulled in there lot. I stopped a mile before their lot thinking I had missed it. Looked at the map and by now BB followed me in. Found someone right away, unloaded our stuff and pulled around back. Guess the customer had bought this truck back in December, he wasn't sure why he wasn't getting it until now. They tried to ask me questions about the refer unit, sorry, no can help. For some reason I could not get a release number from our computer for this load so I had to call in. Dispatch said they would call me right back. We waited for a while at the customer and then left. Dispatch still hasn't called me back 12 hours later. On the last truck I think I was paid wrong based on all the trucks I have moved but the only answer I can get is 'different customers pay at different rates.' Yah, but the same customer should pay at the same rate, and I've moved other trucks for that customer and been paid a whole lot more. I'm dropping it for now ... We decided to go into Wilmington and walk on the river front. Then we headed down to Fort Fisher, an old Confederate fort. First we stopped at a Hang 10 place for food. Really good but I couldn't eat it all. Then we walked on the beach at Corolina Beach, all the shops are closed up. Then we drove down to Fort Fisher and walked around the old fort, it was closed for the day, or the season, but we could look around the grounds. Finally it started to rain. Really dumped for a while as we sat in the car looking at our work board for work. Nothing much new out of anywhere today. Finally we headed to the motel and parked in the Sleep Inn parking lot until the were going to close. Some time after four pm they put one run on the board. Then another. As I'm talking to dispatch I mention that BB is a driver too. So we grab another run for her. I said I wanted to look at the math but the dispatcher does the math and says we will be OK. We weren't. Dispatch didn't add in the miles for the 2nd pickup, only for the delivery location. So now we are going to keep our rental car from Wilmington, follow all the way to Shelby and back to Winston-Salem. To get this whole thing done in 24 we need to get going tonight. Lots of fast choices does not always make for good choices. We don't get a room in Wilmington, instead we go and pick up a car. Budget gives us grief for not reserving the car 24 hours in advance ... we'll have to check on that. I forget to go and fuel the first car until BB is done picking up the 2nd car. By now it is dark, BB gets lost at the airport ... too much pushing. Finally we are leaving Wilmington after six pm. We do a 'quick' stop at the Arbeys in Warsaw, it is so slow that they give us desert, no charge. Another hour down the road we stop at the Sleep in in Garner for the night. As we are walking in, BB hands me a bag of garbage from Arbey's which I throw away. Only to find out later that that was our bag of desert :( Tomorrow will be a push day. Lots of legs, pickups, store my truck, get the rental car, get to a motel before dark.  |
