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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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200501 VI R US Wasn't watching the load board today but at the end of the day there were still 5 RV's out of IA heading to the places in CA we like to go. One of those routes would have taken us through Gallup NM, which is on a complete lock down. No one in or out. State patrol and National Guard at all 11 entrances. Total load board is at around 30 still. Locally we have a rest home that has had 47 deaths and 130 sickened. Same rest home that my uncle was at during rehab ... and I had visited him there. That was six weeks before the first death. My uncle was moved elsewhere about that same time. So far 270 of the 34 (340 maybe) deaths in MN have been at care centers. 99+% of the deaths have had pre-existing conditions. Yet the who state has been locked down. The RV plant in IA is planning on opening up again on Monday. I have an online appointment with my Dr on Monday. I'll be asking how soon they think I can go back to work. No company meetings this week. 200504 VI R US I had another remote Dr visit this AM. Blood pressure is staying down so I should be good for my next DOT unless they find something new to focus on. I did ask my Dr about my working because of all the people we are coming in passing contact with on the road. Their guideline puts people into three groups 1) live your life as you have 2) take precautions. masks, hand sanitizer, stay away from large groups. 3) stay home I fall in the middle group and they have letters that they could give me if I needed one. I don't need one. But as of today we will wait until our MN stay-in-place order expires mid-May. So we'll know more in another couple of weeks. And as far as we can tell, the CA bus company is not open so no big money to be made. That will also give us an early idea of how the states are doing that have started to open up. Oregon has just extended one of it's orders until sometime after the 4th of July. I don't think CA and NY have open dates yet. Locally our 2nd new dispatcher seems to have lasted less than a month. And masks are now required at all pick-up and delivery locations AND in their company shuttle van. The shuttle van is out for me for a long time yet. I think most of these drivers are in group 1). Living their life's as usual ... and then would be exposing me. No thanks. There had been a few RV's on the board Friday at the close of day and two different ones on Monday. So either they are starting to put out a lot more runs or no one wants to move yet. So two out of IA and twenty on the whole board. IF we were going to start moving anytime soon it would be to stay busy, not for the money. On the FB group people are posting and one was that the FL toll booths are closed ... they will bill you based on our plate. That gets expensive if you are in a rental car because they tack on a handling fee. 200506 VI R US Now, what do we do? We, my wife and I, are doing lots of talking about getting back on the road. But ... Our death numbers in MN are still going up ... We, and half the country, are still under stay at home orders ... ... the only upside is that the RV side is trying to open up this week. There now has been something left at the RV location every day for the last week. Today, Thursday, there were five. There were also 15 out of our usual shipper in MN and another seven a few miles from our house. The ones closer to our house are a one time move of tree trucks and there has been maybe 20+ in the last few days. Right now over half the moves in the whole country are within 100 miles of my house. We are starting to do the math on the runs again. :) Cars are still cheap so we can make money on one way runs. We are also starting to look at how we would make money IF only one of us could drive. We know of two people, one at each company, where one follows the other with a car and they still make money. I think we'd have to talk to a tax person to see the how. My wife has to pass her test in 30 days to be able to keep driving. Not sure we'll be back on the road by then. But right now we are looking at mid-month when our stay at home order expires again. We can still drive, drivers are essential workers, we are just using that as a gauge as to how safe it is out there. Even with the Dr saying the antibody isn't worth much I'd likely still be more ready to drive if I could take one. No matter what the results. 11 more 'stay at home' days for us. Starting to see pictures on FB of people in other states out and about. Sometime next week we should start hearing how much the bump is going to be from the early states opening up. 200508 VI R US We listened in on a phone meeting with work and then the state of MN update today. Sounds like our RV location in IA is up to about 1/3 of normal. And our CA buses should start ... soon. Other places are closing down because they have run themselves out of parts. So it doesn't look to be steady for the next month. Sounds like our OTR company wants to test everyone before they come back to work at the home terminal and maybe other terminals to see if you currently have the virus. But the test will only be done one day at each location and drivers don't have to take the test but can and the company will pay. Nothing left out of IA today, a few out of MN, nothing out of WI. A few are showing up out of Rice Lake but they are going quickly. We used to move some from there for my other company so I know the trucks and the location. Most are the kind of truck that BB took her CDL in ... now she just have to re-pass her basic drivers license. Then it will be my turn. No major charges for MN, just the numbers. Still mostly old people dying. But more younger ones testing positive. 200512 VI R US Same as the last post ... listened in on our company phone meeting and then to the MN update. But first bad news for me. For the last five days my blood pressure is back up to where it had been before they added the newest medication. I won't pass my DOT again if it doesn't come back down. OK, I will pass the DOT, just neither company I currently work for will let me drive. Nothing major on our company meeting. During the Q&A one driver was plugging the use of dash cams. Our company has an agreement with someone where the drivers get free dash cams if they are using some product. It doesn't apply to drive-away, it's a different division. But the driver was saying it has saved him FIVE times. Five accidents that were not his fault. I'm surprised that he is still working for us, even if they were not his fault. MN update, so far the stay-at-home is still going to expire on Monday. But personally I expect that date to change again. Los Angles area has extended their stay-at-home for another three months. That puts it into the end of July. Guess we will stay away from that area if we do get back on the road. Eight RV's left out of IA at the end of the day today. We aren't always staying home. We have taken to doing a 'Sunday drive' once a week to somewhere. A few days ago it was to Luverne MN which is as far as we could go without crossing the state lines. We did find a new Choice Hotel in Worthington, MN on I-90. Huge parking lot as it is attached to a convention center. There is also a very old former Holiday Inn building across the street. It has changed names many times over the years and as of the last couple of years it is now a Ma and Pa hotel. But it still does have a Bar and Grill inside and seems to have a fair amount of business. We are ready to get back to work ... but we also know that it is not any 'safer' than it has been for the last three months. The only difference is that places should be better prepared to handle the sick. So we may not be heading out next week. Drivers are considered 'essential workers' so if our health was better we could choose to work. 200518 VI R US Watching the daily numbers. Still waiting for the numbers to be coming down before we head out. But at least they don't seem to be going up, or going up much, in area's that have been open for a few weeks. First day re-opened in MN. Didn't change what I've been doing. The last three weekends we have taken a one-day road trip to get out of the house. Yesterday was the first time we have stopped at a truck stop and went inside to get food. That was the plan. Too many people too close to each other and we were out of there fairly quickly. So we might not be ready to head out yet. Still kind of jumpy. Was really looking forward to the food, I guess we should have ordered on-line and picked up curb site. Instead we had another burger. :( Received an email that my local company will be shutting down for five days for Memorial Weekend. Not sure our plans, guessing it will be like every other day. A Facebook post today was commenting that at that time, they were the only person in their 'terminal.' I'm guessing they meant at their gate, but they didn't comment again. But I've heard the same from others, very few are flying, me included. Load board hasn't been empty for over a week. Tonight there are two no-tows that we like going to SC, which is where we like to go. But, no. Not yet. I guess that had been a local, half day trip earlier. That might be where we start. Total load board is down under 20. I don't keep track of the total board as we seldom take anything on there other than IA, but ... IA today has 4 left, last year it was 6. In 2018 it was 153 and 2017 was 85. So wide range of units available. 200521 VI R US Weekly (or Monthly?) company meeting with our over the road company. We listened in for the hour and a half meeting. First they had the general info, then they had each division do an update. Our drive-away update was so short that BB missed it, she was 'listening' but her mind must have been elsewhere for the minute or two it lasted. One of the topic's for us was, because 'we' don't own the building in IA, we have to follow the owners rules. And for now that means no after hours pick-ups, only one person in the office at a time. Not an issue, not sure the last time we picked up after hours ... and we aren't working now. Other than that, most companies are back to work, but shut down for a few days if someone tests positive for Covid. Parts are going to be an issue, as is the fact that a lot of locations haven't opened up yet. But that we would know before we left so not a big deal for us. IA load board is back up over 60 the last couple of days. Lots of ones we would do if we were working. And we are talking about it every day. Trying to nail down our tolerance for risk. BB passed her basic driver renewal, so we can drive until October when she will have to pass the stricter DOT test. I haven't been following the numbers of deaths across the country, but I'm guessing things are staying the same even as the country opens up. If not, it would be all over the news. One of my guides was going to be when our local numbers start going down. They haven't. They seem to have stayed in the 20-30 range for a week plus. Roughly the same age group every day. Soon ?? we'll be ready ... 200529 VI R US Didn't realize it had been over a week since I did a write-up. We have done a lot of talking about going back on the road, but we also have to remember ... NOTHING HAS CHANGED, EXCEPT THEY NOW HAVE ENOUGH ICU BEDS A few nights ago we were talking about the 'lockdown' and going back to work and found out that one of our two house guests had started to go to large group gatherings again. And we didn't know about it :( Not real happy about that. But we, and everyone else, have started to do more and more with less and less precautions. So we are likely ready to go back on the road, maybe as soon as next week. We'll see.* * * * No work, phone meetings this week. And the state virus updates by our governor have been eclipsed by the protests turned riots. My wife is still watching all the virus numbers, anywhere she can find them. We are at the low end of the risk for deaths and we aren't in 'the home,' but do have other health issues. But how many months, years are we willing to stay locked in? For the last few days the load board has been around 100 with quite a large daily turnover of RV's. BB also got a phone call from dispatch to move a CDL load?? Not sure is she has been upgraded or it was an opps.(She is CDL, but not cleared with the long haul company.) But I never did get a phone call and the run was still on the board last night. And BB has had an eye issue that we hope clears by next week. Not sure why we picked next week and not this week. The work is there. But we are focusing on next week. |
