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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Dispatch opens at 8 AM and I called them at 9 AM to give them a chance to put out weekend fires before having to deal with me. 1st dispatcher had a bus to be taken a few miles to the shop and thought there may be a local pick up later. 2nd dispatcher calls a few minutes later as I was driving and my wife put her on the speaker phone. She has one going to Eau Claire that is sitting in the office lot. We were still at the store at the time so we headed home to put away our supplies and to give them time to get the paper work done. We get to the office at 10 AM and pick up the paperwork. The dispatcher tells me what the issues are. Bus starts but the issues are now preventing me from moving it at all. I spent about a half hour trying different bypasses but none worked today. Then dispatch told me they would call a tow truck and to leave with my send truck. It took about an hour and a half to get to Eau Claire. Crossed one scale, no issues. Drop was easy to find. I didn't take the (new) logical way in to the drop. I got off the expressway and took the roads I knew. Small shop. My contact was the person at the desk at the door. He came out, looked behind all the doors on the truck and signed for it. One issue it had was the wipers would come on every time I signaled, went over a bump or turned. He said that was common on this year and brand of truck :) By the time I had the tape pealed off the truck and my stuff collected, BB was there to pick me up. Next stop was Culvers for lunch and a reward for a job well done. I called the office and they had nothing else and didn't need the paperwork today so we headed home. Later in the afternoon BB is looking at the load board and sees one coming back to MN. She looks to see if her paperwork has processed and it hasn't so this one is mine. I call and it is still available. We will pick it up tomorrow AM and drop it early afternoon a little of an hour away from our house. It is a no-tow so it will pay pretty good for a few hour trip. Load board US - 125 IA - 21 MN - 2 WI - 2 If I hit the 'wrong' buttons on the screen, I can see the RV's that they are flat bedding to the customer. 6 to Davis CA :( And it is not just CA, it is also AZ and FL and maybe other locations. The longest two on the board are Jct City and Bend OR. It would add about 10 miles to the longer trip to do them this way. But it is also almost 300 miles of non-freeway, through on the mountains, in the winter, in the snow. Just looked at the forecast and it is supposed to be in the 60's for the next six days. We might just stay in town for the weekend. |
