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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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We ended up taking today off. And the prior two days. The run that I had been looking at with the long haul company was gone early this AM and the local company never called. So we watched the board all day. Ran a lot of numbers. Dispatch called BB looking for drivers that is something they do not do very often. We can't find anything short that pays our minimum, so it would be working just to keep busy ... and help them out. And we listened in to the company meeting today that was started Friday but they had issues with the phone lines so cut it off. Long haul company wants to expand. Sounds like they just bought another trucking company which about doubles the number of trucks they have on the road. One thing I picked up on from my trucking days is they do not want any broker freight. That is freight the shipper gives to a broker because the broker charges less than the truck lines ... and then expects the truck lines to still move it after the broker takes their cut. Some trucking companies live on that freight, not these guys. And they are on a big push to switch over to 'cloud based' dash cams. That way the office can look at the footage as soon as the accident happens. Now that we are back home, WA has six runs back to IL and NC has 5 runs back to Circle Pines MN. Timing. BB has an appointment tomorrow, if we see anything we might leave right after ... or not. She has the appointment tomorrow, then one on Monday and Tuesday. And then again in two weeks on Monday and Tuesday. And then a month after the second one she has another two appointments. Load board US - 228 IA - 74 MN - 8 WI - 8 200909 MN BB had her appointment early this AM ... But she wasn't feeling up to driving for other reasons. And nothing new/good got put on the load board so that is likely it for us for the month. If something happens or I get bored, I may write updates. I spent the day running numbers, looking at loads. Nothing new got put on the load board for IA until shortly before close. And still nothing good enough to get us out the door. Now the run would have to be a one day or a solo run. I had already told the local company that I was off for the rest of the month so not too likely they will call tomorrow. Temps have dropped, daylight is down to close to 12 hours and dropping. We missed the summer when it is daylight for 15-1/2 hours. Load board US - 250 US - 71 MN - 9 WI - 3 200912 MN OK. No work but ... Friday we are watching the load board and we see all these interesting trips. Where are they when we are running? I think the answer to that is when we are running, we look at the load board once or so a day and then just out of IA or where we will end up. The interesting loads likely still show up. But they just aren't there the one time during the day when we look at the load board. Selina KS to LA ... short buses. Something BB can and would drive. IF they were not going to LA and there was no other work. Some day ? Gone before end of day. NC to MN? Gone before the end of day. Most of the good loads you have to be watching when they put the load on the load board. Somebody needs to automate the board so we can set it to send us a message when new loads are added :) We had worked on that when I was working on software. A way for truckers to get alerts when new freight was added to the load boards they use, so I know it can be done. BB is thinking she should be ready to drive again some time the week after her surgery, which is when I made a dentist appointment. Plan is to try to get that appointment changed on Monday. After her second appointment would be better because then we have the rest of the month to run. The way it is now, we can run Mon-Tues of that week and then Thu-Fri. Poor planning on my part. And that is the last full week of the quarter for the local company so I usually try to run for them. Still not planning on doing the bus/shuttle runs but we could do a couple of short runs for them if BB is up to following me. The last couple we have done paid OK, well over our minimum goal. I just need to make it more clear when I say 700 miles that that is 700 miles from my house. Not 700 miles from where ever the truck is. Friday night numbers US - 218 IA - 69 MN - 12 WI - 4 Saturday night numbers US - 202 IA - 57 MN - 12 WI - 4 21 - CA loads Saturday night. Many days it is zero, I don't know if I have ever seen it over 10 before. The buses do not show up on the load board ever. (AL and NY sometimes put them on the load board, but never CA) The CA runs almost always stay on the west coast, and these all do. But there are still a lot of them that are 800 to over 1,000 miles. Chassis out of OH. We hadn't been getting them for quite a while but now there are some on the load board again. Something I don't plan on driving. Ever. 200915 MN No driving yet. BB had eye surgery on Monday, we went back for a checkup today. Heading the right direction but don't want to push anything until all is OK again. It is driver appreciation week at both companies. The long haul company is doing once or twice a day calls on various topics. Not sure what as I don't pick up. Local company is giving away stuff. I finally went in today and exchanged my XLT / extra large tall jacket for something that will fit a little better. Work was handing these out over Christmas and I didn't take the time to try it on then. Then I didn't drive for them until after Covid. So six months later. Now I have one that fits. Next I need to work so I can wear it. Updated DOT rules going into effect. The company we used to work for sent out an update, explanation, on the rules. Nothing from either of the current companies. I asked the local company about the new rules and they have not decided but it sounds like they are leaning to operating under the old rules which were stricter than the new rules. Monday's load board numbers US - 175 IA - 45 MN - 9 WI - 3 Tuesday's load board numbers US - 177 IA - 33 MN - 8 WI - 2 200921 MN Over all the load board is up, locally they are all down. Hadn't really looked at the board until tonight when I writing this. I generally don't unless we are going to work. BB seems to spend a lot of time on it regardless. The local company had one bus for Boston in the lot. They often don't have anything staged so not that unusual. Available, but no work today. I had both emailed and talked to dispatch on Friday but they didn't have anything to line up for Monday. But lots of times there are trucks that come into the office/lot over the weekend and then dispatch needs someone to delivery them Monday morning. Office opens at 8 AM, but my plan is to wait until 9 or 9:30 to call them to give them time to deal with some of the issues that came up over the weekend. But at 8:55 I get a call from dispatch. They have a hot run they SHOULD be getting and it needs to be picked up and delivered today. For us it is about two hours to the pick up location, then two hours to the drop so it shouldn't be an issue. Money's good. They try to ask me what a good rate of pay would be but I remember before. If I don't say anything, they will give me a number that is higher that what I would have asked for. Same again today. Money is good. We agree to do the run. Dispatch calls back a few minutes later, they have the paperwork and want to know how soon I can be there. We have decided 'within the hour.' Before we get out the door we get another call. CANCELED. That doesn't surprise me, when everything is moving that quickly, not everyone has had their say and when they do ... I told them I was still available. That was it. The rest of the day I watched the load board for the other carrier. IA started the day at 10, spent most of the day at 7 and then late in the day it went up above 10 but ended the day with 10. No matches that work for us. MN and IA were -0- most of the day also. Now as I am writing this I look at phone to see how long it was between the 1st and cancel call. Dispatch has been trying to call me !?!?!? I was never more than a few feet from my phone and didn't hear it ring. As we are trying to figure out my phone, BB calls me and it rings on her end and goes to voice mail. I am six feet from her, have the phone in my hand and nothing. The next time it does work. And we seem to have the phone figured out to show how many missed calls, voice mails, texts now. It still does not show without swiping the screen but I no longer need to open each app. The old phone would show every few minutes without touching the screen. Load board US - 146 IA - 10 MN - 3 WI -0- 200924 MN Back to the prior update. I had missed a couple of calls because of my new phone and things not being set up correct. I called the next morning and they had gotten the load covered. I had 'clearly' said I was only available for metro, and they were checking to see if I would do a 800 mile trip to Tulsa OK. That would have been Tuesday AM that I called them back. No contact at all on Wednesday. Then today I had planned on calling them at 3 PM and at 2:50 they call me. Would I be willing to do a 400 mile trip. I told them to give me two minutes and I would call them back. BB and I talked. I called them back. No. But if you have anything local up to 100 miles ... I emailed all of the dispatchers shortly after that saying I was still available tomorrow, Friday. But would not be available the weekend, Mon, Tues or Weds. Based on the first operation, BB thinks she might be ready to drive local by next weekend and head out on Monday. If there is work. Then we will have three weeks before she needs to be back for a follow up for the surgery and also needs to pass her DOT. Spent some time watching the load board. Less than 10 out of IA on Tuesday, just over 10 on Wednesday. Now today it finally hit 26 before the close of the day. Nothing on the board we would take if there were 100 on the board to pick from. There are some doubles that we could take but would have to run the mileage. They are not going to area's where there is back haul. The closest we get to CA is one RV to ID. The closest to the SE is one RV to NC, Myrtle Beach. Loadboard US - 151 IA - 26 MN - 3 WI -0- The local company has now been staying on top of me to keep my logs current. With the log software, we have to sign a log for each day. And when we don't, the safety person gets a notice that I am out of compliance. Hopefully there is work tomorrow, I feel guilty not helping out at quarter end but still not ready to sit in a van with a half dozen other people for five hours. And with BB's surgeries it just didn't work this time. |
