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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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200406 VI R US -0- left on the load board out of IA tonight. Earlier today there had been a couple of no-tows going to El Cajon ... and rental cars back are $50 a day ... or get one from CA to AZ and they come home with a rental for $15 a day. Not much for news today, company phone call is tomorrow. Longest run on the whole board tonight is a Non-CLD bus from KS to Portland OR. I'd like to do one of those some day. They are real random on when we get them, kind of like the WI service trucks. We did drive through my local lot to check things out yesterday. One bus. I'm guessing that was the one that had been in the shop as the shipper has been shut down for a couple of weeks already.* * * * In the news some of the death estimates are going down, but they are still saying the next two weeks could be the worst. We plan on heading out tomorrow to do our once a week shopping. One place now has a 'no kid' policy and other one has a 'one person per cart' policy to cut down on the number of people in the store. If that is the case we will just get two carts and buy twice as much. :) one of the younger living in our house went to Target today and was able to get TP :) We hadn't seen any since before we left on our trip five weeks ago. Back when we were planning on stocking up ... but once in the store said ... we can do it later :( Messaged one of the local shuttle drivers and he hasn't worked for a week. And our newsletter was missing two names but the shuttle driver said they were 'on vacation.' Did get a message on Face Book from our long haul company. Both BB and I just joined after we got off the road this last time. Message was that it is now a $1,000 fine if you get caught out of your house ANYWHERE in Loredo TX without a face mask on. This includes inside anything that is not your house. (Maybe not your motel room, but I haven't checked.) 200408 VI R US Another company phone call on Tuesday, now we are getting to the point where most questions have been answered before (but people may not have been listening) I was thinking about this and today it was confirmed. The companies that thought they were going to re-open are not. Too many parts are JIT, just in time, so they do not have enough parts in stock until everyone opens back up and starts shipping. Found out something that 'cost' me a little on Tuesday. Sometime last week I had called the long haul company to find out why I wasn't getting my Safety Bonus. I got my in Monday and BB's showed up on Tuesday. So we looked deeper at the numbers and found I only got paid for March, not Feb or Jan. BB looks closer at the requirements and they were changed Jan one. We now need to attend a safety meeting every 3 months instead of every six months. So I logged 10,000 miles this year and no bonus. No bonus for Dec either but I'm not sure why. Opps. Today on Face Book there was a post that now our IA shipper is not planning on opening until May 4 as are similar locations. We did try to fill out our MN unemployment forms online. Mine went through but said I would get -0-. BB's just sent her back to start, no error, no message. It's was a little bit of a challenge trying to convert how we record things to how others view things. Didn't help that we were only on the road less than six months last year. MN moved the stay at home out to May today so we will likely stay off the road until after that. Load board, nothing at the end of Tuesday from IA. There was five out of WI but all going to Canada. Still 45 on the board nation wide. 200413 VI R US Didn't do a write-up on Friday, not anything new. For the last two weeks there has only been four days (two of them the weekend) where there has been anything left on the IA board and that was only 1 or 2. The nation wide board is holding around 50 which might be close to normal. Some of the stuff has been out there for over a week so people are not real hungry. Sometime this afternoon the longest non Canada one was from NC back to MN. We missed an online meeting today as we had a family phone meeting set up for that time. But it was just about the 'loans' that are available. Tomorrow there is another update meeting that we will likely listen in on. Blood pressure has come down a little since I started on the new meds, would still like it lower and maybe it will be by the time I go back for my one month follow up. We did go out for our one trip to the store last week. Most people were wearing masks, mine wouldn't stay on so I took it off. And there was finally TP :) Just a few rolls so we only took one package. 200418 VI R US Wisconsin has extended their 'lock down' until May 26. (MN's is still May 4, it has not been extended yet.) There was a company phone meeting today but I was by myself and didn't have my phone ready. Call went right to voicemail, but no voicemail was left and I didn't have a call back number. BB was at home and did listen. Did listen to the 1st hour of the MN daily update and a few bits of the US daily update. Also was listening to a call-in show and someone asked about a situation like mine. "Stay home ... for the next couple of months." Even if your blood pressure is under control, if it would be high if you were not on meds you are at risk. Haven't seen any new runs out of IA but I haven't been looking very often. Nation wide the board is staying around 50. One run out of MN and the next closest runs are five out of Norway MI. I'm guessing company #1 isn't bidding on the Norway freight anymore. The next closest run is out of KS, that is also the longest run on the board, heading to ID, at 1,500 miles. 200422 VI R US Sounds like the two RV's locations are still planning on opening up the first part of May ... IF they can get parts. So likely not. AL is still shipping buses. CA is not. Sounded like NY was open but having issues getting parts. Locally our shuttle driver said he hadn't been taking anyone to get MN buses so I'm assuming they are closed. Still ending the day with -0- out of IA. Total board has been down to 30 the last couple of days. I did get in on the Tuesday phone meeting for work, but about the time they started taking driver calls I was not able to keep listening. 200424 VI R US School is canceled in MN for the rest of the year. Some states are starting to open up, relax restrictions while others are still adding some new restrictions. The big death numbers are going down but some smaller areas are still going up. MN was still going up as of Friday but I think the number was 21 as compared to NY was up to 800 a day. Heard some reports that anyone who dies WITH the virus is being counted not just those from the virus. Which means they could be even counting those from car accidents. California is going back as far as December to re-look at the reason for deaths. So the numbers could change even without more total people dying. Did see one of our buses at the local shop again. No way to tell if it was out of where we pick them up or out of St Cloud. Monthly newsletter says we are still moving buses but not sure how drivers are getting there to pick them up as the shuttle drivers aren't driving. Newsletter also said that we have another new dispatcher, the last one lasted less than a year. IA RV's actually has one on the load board, but the total load board is down to 20. ... and the MN State Fair was in the news. One thing they have said over and over is the fair with either be held without restrictions or not at all. Sounds like it has only be canceled 5 times in over a 100 years. The fair isn't until the end of August but the county fairs start in June in places. Just looked at California has canceled it's state fair the end of July. They are still on major lock down so not too surprising. 200429 VI R US Sounds like California (or at least parts of it) have extended the 'shelter in place' order through the end of May. 1st heard that from one of Dad's cousins that lives out there. She's over 90 but still drives and is still active, or was, in the community. Now watching the birds is the highlight of her day. As far as we know the bus company has not been allowed to open in California. Some states, some countries have started opening a little. But it will be a couple of weeks before we see if we get a rebound.* * * * In other driver news, farmers have had to start killing cattle because some of the packing plants either can't keep up or have completely closed. There had been one left on the IA load board over the weekend but it's now back down to -0-. Tuesday night there were nine left out of MN but that was one third of the total load board. We hadn't see this on the load board, but someone posted on our Facebook group asking if there were any restrictions on moving a lift truck from MN to CO. They didn't say where they picked it up. And this AM on Facebook someone post a picture of two RV's out of IA with mountains in the background so someone is getting work. We are getting antsy ready to go. What we may most likely do first is short/one day trips for either company so limited contact and no motels. ... and we are always talking about what we'll do when one or the other of us can't pass our tests and we are getting a good taste of that now. Listening to our state update today we heard something that had us look at our time line. I may have had the virus back in Feb, I know a lot of people that think they have had it but I have a real good indicator. I was going to ask my Dr, but since they have gone to not seeing patients every question have an appointment. I'm not that interested so I canceled the info I had typed into the computer. I will ask if I can get a test in a month when I see the Dr. |
