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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Today was my first time in a non-grocery store in six months. I had to make an appointment to get a new phone. The stores we have gone to in the past were full up so I ended up in WI. I forgot what time I had made it for and then forgot what time it was today. When I finally looked at the clock, I should have left already. Got to the store a few minutes late. 6 staff already helping customers, within a minute or so someone walks over to check me in. I am an hour early ... but someone should be with me in a few minutes. And they were. That part went quick. This person was good. I told them what I wanted, didn't want and they never tired to up sell me. The first phone I wanted, the computer said they had in stock but didn't. Then I asked about a Google phone. The one that was closest to what I wanted had just been released on Thursday and was not in stock yet. So I went with the next non-Google phone up. They had one. Most of the next hour and a half was spent trying to get their computer changed so that they could sell me that phone. It seems that someone was going to buy it so that phone ID got attached to a sales order. When the sale didn't happen, the phone stayed attached. On a Saturday, they could not reach anyone who could correct the problem. When I finally left the store, the plan is that this phone will either be available. Or I will travel to a different store in MN to pick up a different phone of the same model. Because of covid, no one from the WI store can pick up the phone for me. I ended up with a note pad, we'll see how much I use this one :) I left the store with a note book, we'll see how much I use this one. :) That was way to long in a small store, but I needed a phone ... could have just gone to WalMart and gotten a flip phone to use until this all blows over. MN Covid numbers are still staying under 10, except one day this week where it hit 17. That was the only day in months that it has been over 10. Schools are getting ready to start, going through the motions anyhow. Not sure how much anyone will learn or how much it will cost. Fridays Load board US - 266 IA - 99 MN - 3 WI - 12 Saturdays Load board US - 268 IA - 90 MN - 2 WI - 5 Not sure why / what happened. Usually nothing gets added on Saturdays. Now there are 53 that show they were added Saturday. It is possible for them to change dates and put future ship dates on runs but most of these are new orders. And not from one place or even one state. They are from all over to all over. Best runs for us are two to Sandy OR or two to Tucson AZ. We aren't working, yet, on Monday. There are two MN runs that would be one day runs if we wanted to work. But Saturday wasn't really a day off for me. Out the door 15 minutes after I wake up for family, not home long enough to finish my food for lunch. Then gone to get my phone, home for a few minutes before leaving for family again. Then not home until almost dark. So Sunday, Monday will be our two days 'off.' DOT appointment on Tuesday and then ... ??? 200824 Covid Not a work day. But I did play with the ELD / Electronic Log Devise. Except it is not, there is some other name for the ones that are not hard wired to the trucks and that is what we use. The ones we can use are not tied to anything, not even reality. We can change times, cities reasons, anytime we want. My issue at the moment is that I work for two companies. This program is tied to the federally issued DOT # that each carrier gets. Once we key in that number, we can not change anything about the carrier. Some drivers say they can, but I have seen both the drive version and the carrier version and it can't now be done. I have an email in to the company that makes them, we'll see if I get a response. And today I could go back and get my new cell phone. They were supposed to call or message me at 10 AM when they opened, they didn't. Finally about 11 AM I tried to call and was on hold for 15 minutes. I hung up. Still no contact I headed to the store at 11:45. They had the phone sitting on the counter waiting for me. It took another half hour today, and because they sold me what they could yesterday, I have to put the protective screen on my self. BB ended up putting it on for me. After I delete what I can and hide or disable what I can I go out to mow and work in the garden. I come back in an hour later and look at my phone which has been in my back pocket. Screen is broken. Back to the store I go. Turns out it is the protective screen that is broken and I need to take care of that myself (sometime.) BP has been WAY down the last two days, hopefully it stays there tomorrow AM and my BP can go up when I see the white coats and I will still be good. Covid. Found out one person I knew who died last spring had covid. She was so bad with dementia that she hasn't known anyone for quite some time. She was in a nursing home and was 92. Another person we know that was 88 had it pretty bad but she recovered. I think she was living with her son who also had it and recovered. So the more people get it, the more likely to know someone who had it. Load board US - 261 IA - 109 MN - 5 WI - 8 Two runs from IA back to MN but my appointment is tomorrow. Also two runs to where we like to go in Davis CA. Three more to near LA and the two for Sandy OR are still out there. Also a lot of runs to the SE where near where we like to go. And lots to Canada if you want to earn a little extra. The load board should stay near 100 for the rest of the month. Looks like we will miss the MN State Fair this year :( And yes, we will miss it. 200825 DOT Luck? Sympathy? Timing? I PASSED on my 1st visit. I had my annual DOT physical today. BP had been under 120 the last two days, then up this AM. Up more at the Dr but came back down. Opps, I thought I was doing good on my weight this year, but looking at my DOT cards, I am up 5# from last year. I had the same Dr I had two years ago and he was commenting on my weight then. I'm likely 10# heavier now. Not sure things will go as well next year if I am up on my weight again. Unless somehow the BP stays down. So this what they checked today Weight Height Hearing, they whisper as I cover 1st one ear and then the other. I was wondering about this one, but I'm doing fine. Sight, read the chart with both eyes, then one eye at a time. My only issue was with both eyes I started on line four and dropped down to line three :) I'm fine with glasses. Sight, they checked side vision, they did not check color contrast this year. BP, not good the 1st try Urine test, (blood sugar?) It's not a drug test. I passed, I had had enough to drink today. That was it for the nurse, now the Dr. Asks the usual questions as he reads over my sheet of questions that I have already answered. For my DOT earlier this year was the first time we answered the questions online. Close my eyes, stand Touch my toes (with eyes open) Walk heal to toe Listen to the lungs Look in the ears and mouth With arms out stretched, push against his. Out, in, up, down. Cough. 1 year. that is what I need. Had I known I would pass on the first visit, I would have done it before the last trip. Then we would have had three weeks open together. As soon as I am done, I call BB to let her know and then head to the DMV. Crash on road, one lane closed. I end up getting to the DMV at 4:20, they now take the last customer at 4:15. Computer still says open until 4:30. We thought maybe we could do it online but that can take "... up to 10 days." Nope, I need to work ASAP and still the long haul company won't OK me until it shows up on their computer. And they use a 3rd party who does it on an overnight batch basis. So if I call once and they can't see it, no reason to call back until the next day. Local company is in MN and does it live. They can see it as soon as the DMV hits enter. Because of BB's up coming appointments, we are down to 10 days ... from today. So no more buses until after her surgery. And recovery. So it will be October for that. Tomorrow I will try to get in the DMV where I did today. If not, there is one location that is walk in's only. So I will just have to plan on standing in line for an hour ... or two. Load board numbers US - 288 IA - 121 MN - 4 WI - 7 There are two to Davis CA (but we don't have time to do a trip back) ... and they are both the big 'class A.' BB sticks to B's and C's. And there are two to Marysville WA, but cars are not cheap and we didn't have fun there last time. Picky and not that friendly. Two RV's to Fort Meyers, rental cars are $13 a day coming back ... via SixT. That was earlier. Now SixT is $23. Alamo is $13, Enterprise is $17. Budget/Avis are over $200, Hertz doesn't even show. A few RV's going to Draper UT, but cars from there home are $250 for two days. Makes FL look good. But first I have to get all the legals taken care of, every day makes a difference on how far we can go and the board changes by the minute. Covid - Usual pre-cautions at the clinic. I walked in the wrong way at the DMV tonight and they said "YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SCREENED." Went to PU food, and the sign on their door said "Masks required when standing or walking." Didn't see any spacing of tables or people with masks sitting. The guy who walked in behind me didn't have a mask on and nothing was said. 8 deaths in MN yesterday. I was able to make contact with someone at the company who makes the paperless log software. There is not a good way to run for two companies. They suggest I run two sets of logs. I've looked at that and to do that I would need to download a 2nd App. The computer says the app is installed and will not install a 2nd one. Which means I need to have the app on two different devices. Next I am trying to get a hold of my long haul company. They are paying big $$ to this same company for their truck fleets, and their PU fleets. Maybe they either have more pull or know a work around. 200826 DOT DMV opens at 8 AM, I decided to wait until 9 AM and was kind of expecting that I would need an appointment or be sent elsewhere. The line looked long when I parked, but once I got to the line I found out that mot of those hanging around had already been checked in and were waiting their turn. Two people ahead of me. It surprised me, but both people I talked to today knew what I was talking about and how to handle it. It is now a three step process. The first person is standing inside the building, working through an open door. They have the appointment list and were pretty good at answering questions for walk-ups. The second person is inside the building and when it is your turn, they ask you questions and take your temp. The third step / person is the one person you normally would have talked to. Interesting that yesterday at the clinic my temp was not taken. They take it here, they take it at my work ... First the first person wanted me to scan myself in so I could get put in line. That is the normal way now. Then you will receive a text when it is your turn. When I said I had likely uninstalled my scanner, they looked at my paperwork. Then took it and walked it in for me. I did have to fill out one sheet there, but I had a copy of last years so I just filled this year out the same. I'm guessing they whole thing took about 30 minutes. As soon as it was submitted, BB sent the paperwork off to the long haul carrier and we headed to the local company to drop off a hard copy. The person I needed to see locally was out, but one of the dispatchers saw me and asked ... This dispatcher starts at the right place ... "Would you like to move a CHASSIS from Duluth to here tomorrow?" Other dispatchers either wouldn't know, wouldn't care or would intentionally hide the fact that it was a chassis. Very important to me. I stopped driving those after I got rear ended almost a dozen years ago. Now we have to wait overnight and hope that my info gets entered into the long haul system tomorrow. I have found where it shows on the computer so as soon as we see it, the dispatchers can see it and we are good to go ... but go where? Also spent some more time working on the paperless logs. I posted on our FaceBook work site about the issue and someone seemed to know what they were talking about. I now have everything IN the system the way I want it, but it doesn't show on the printed copy the way I want it. Even though I changed the carrier name and address, it is still pulling the info from a file I can't see or change. I might have to call the long haul carrier tomorrow to see how they are doing it :) Load board US - 287 IA - 119 MN - 5 WI - 6 1 Davis CA left, 1 WA left, 1 OR left, 1 southern CA left. 2 to Tu cson, cars are too much. 2 to Marysville WA ... no thanks. Now we are looking at runs that are 600 miles less, that's $600 less before expenses. Idaho Falls, Draper UT, Albuquerque. More likely we would look at the runs going to NC and SC. Sometimes we can get second leg trips out of there. That stuff doesn't stay on the board long but it is there. 200827 DOT Still waiting on my DOT, kind of. I watched my info on our long haul website and my info did not get updated. Late morning I finally called the office. They kept me on the phone while the looked everything up and got me cleared. I thought. As of tonight I am still not cleared to run. I would have pushed it harder if something good had come up. We would spend an hour at a time crunching the numbers then we would find that there was no money or that the trips had been taken. We have gotten spoiled with our trips to the west coast. We get something both ways and make enough in 10 days that we don't need to work the rest of the month. The trips we are looking at now that pay half that much at the most. Two runs that were 150 miles apart going to NC were are best option. But it could be tight making both drops in one day. 2nd best would be Draper UT, but there is nothing coming back. 3rd on the list would be OR. But because of the price of rental cars, we would make about half as much as we did last week. 4th and worst that we did the math on was Greer SC. On this run we are back to our minimum when we started driving. Before we learned how to really make money. Staying on the trips. Runs were being added and taken all day and we were watching all day. Sometimes hitting refresh every few seconds if they had been adding orders. Just before close, they added a Concord NC. I thought I tried to do they math and rental cars were NA. Now later tonight, BB has looked at rental cars and found one for about half the price that we can get to from anywhere in NC. We may need a local rental to get it, but it would be worth the money. So first choice in the AM is Mocksville and Concord. 40 miles apart, we've dropped at both. 2nd choice is two to Greer, with that one we would get a local and pick up the same rental in Concord. But if we watch the board there is usually trips coming out of NC. But they do not stay on the board long. I sent a message to my long haul company about the paperless logs. No response. Tomorrow I may try emailing the log company themselves and see if they can help. Load board US - 323 IA - 128 MN - 17 WI - 6 Because we had lots of time looking at the board trying to make anything work, we saw that there were 18 of the bus sized motor homes out of IN, plus 8 more of the smaller ones that we only get overflow of. The longest trip of the large RV's is going out to Junction City OR, 2,300 miles. The longest run on the board tonight is 2,600 miles. From north of Seattle to WV ... in a straight truck. We will both be on the phone tomorrow AM dialing at 8 AM. |
