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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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We worked! Now that has to hold us for a couple of weeks. Got a call this AM about 10:30 wanting me to go to St Cloud and pick up a truck. 75 miles each way. Not quite metro, but close and it is the first thing this week and it is heading into the weekend. New (to me) dispatcher. Once I said yes, they said they now had to find a shuttle driver ... whoa. I supply my own driver, this one didn't know that. We got to the office in about a half hour. Two dump trucks just pulling into the lot. And later when I got back I saw that there were four trucks total besides mine. Saw a couple of drivers I hadn't seen before as I was walking in. They asked if I had seen someone and I hadn't. That was it. Paperwork wasn't quite ready. Five minutes are less. Dispatcher handed me the paperwork and said a couple of words and I was on my way. Less than a half hour down the road and we see the highway signs saying 'crash, major delay.' So I jumped off at the next exit before BB had a chance to see what or where. I wouldn't have had to get off that soon but I didn't want to wait until we were too close when everyone is trying to get off. After we were off the freeway it still said my way was going to be a half hour less than staying on the freeway. I had a general idea of where I was going and the computer was now suggesting it. The road we took took us into Rogers. And it is time to eat so we stopped at Wendy's. Last chance for choices of fast food before St Cloud. I think there is now road construction about 90% of the way from the Twin Cities loop to St Cloud. Should be nice, some day. Got to the dealer about 1 PM. Everyone 'has to' wear a mask and come in through one door. Some of the staff is wearing a mask, some are not. Same with customers. My guy is not in today but I found the guy that had my paperwork and knew where to find the keys. He took me out to the truck and wanted to back it out from it's parking spot. (Not sure why) I did my inspection and got my logs up to date and we were ready to roll. 13 speed. Forgot where the next gear should be on my 2nd shift and needed to start over. After that no issues. The truck was down to 1/8th of a tank of fuel but with two 100-150? gallon tanks I wasn't too worried about it. But I decided I should bring it up to a 1/4 for the road driver so I stopped at the Kwik Trip at St Michael. This company has really been pushing the 'fill at pickup' after a few drivers had run out of fuel. I hadn't even opened the tank at pickup to look to see if the gauge was correct. Opps. BB had been following me until we got to the first rest area, she pulled off and I didn't. Then I pulled off to fuel and she past me. I did text her so she would know when she got to the office why I wasn't there. Lots of road construction on the way back. More highway signs saying 'crash ahead,' but it was just past our exit. I get to the lot and BB is sitting there. Luckily she walked over as I was getting out of my truck and reminded me of my plate :) Locked it up, did my paperwork in the car as to not be standing in the office any longer than needed. I did need to use the copier and the stapler so I was in a few minutes. Didn't talk to anyone so that sped things up. I usually ask if there is anything else. I forgot and then after I was to our car realized that it was after 3:30 and if there was anything they would have been calling me ... That's it. No work for most or all of next week. Load board US - 114 IA - 17 MN - 5 WI - 2 Wow. 3 of the 5 in MN are going to Omaha and both of the runs in WI are coming back to MN. Nice short runs. Shortest thing in IA is going to ON, 900 miles. Longest is Sandy OR at 1,800 from IA. Longest on the total board is 2,700 miles from PA to CA. 200928 MN BB's surgery in the AM. All is going well. Spent some time on the phone trying to get billed for a truck I took through the toll booth close to a month ago. I tried to tell them I could ID my truck by time and sight but that is another department and they will bill me ... some day. I made two phone calls, talked to two different people. The second one explained that they would bill my account so I would not be getting a violation. Local company sent out an update on the up coming log changes. The new law says you must take a break after 8 hours of driving. They are going to stay with 8 hours on duty, the old rule. But they are going to allow the break to be on-duty instead of off-duty. Meaning you can be fueling, inspection, anything but the truck moving. Watched the board off and on yesterday. Not much chance of us taking a trip if we could. Ran the math for a few, doesn't look like it would be worth the time. Load board US - 110 IA - 12 MN - 5 WI - 3 |
