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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1 RV to Ramsey MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home We were up around 5 AM and rolling a little after 7 AM. About the only good thing we can find to say about Covid is now there isn't much for rush hour traffic. As we pass Owatonna we see that gas is $1.60 a gallon but we are past. We end up paying $1.85 a gallon in Ellendale at a Casey's. Gas and a rest room break. Gas would be $1.79 in Forest City but that would be an extra stop. We get to Forest City in about 2-1/2 hours. No one else in the lot today. We find my RV with no issues. It takes a little over a half hour to do the inspection. Mostly because we are not in any rush. There are a few RV's in the lot and they seem to be piling up again at the mfg. I have over a quarter of a tank of fuel and my fuel gauge shows the range so I decide to make my fuel stop in Owatonna. At the Holiday Station as all stations are the same price. I 'should' be getting about 20 mpg on these so that is the fuel I put in. $5 of fuel expense on a $$$ for the run today. Once I am back on the road I realize that my fuel range did not go up like I had thought and found that I am currently getting 12 mpg, not 20 mpg. Delivering on the same day as pickup so no time to look at street views on my computer. But it is my home town so I have a good idea where everything is. Glad I am not following the route on my phone. Somehow my phone has be avoiding all four-lane highways. ??? My only option to change settings on my phone is to AVOID FERRIES. Hmmm I decide to follow the shippers routing for once. But they must be using a mailing address because they are shorting me about 20 miles. Not a big deal as I get paid a flat rate on the pay, but it does short me on the fuel miles. So once I get past the mailing address town, I am on my own. I've been in this area many times, but not from this direction. I end up taking a left on a city street instead of a right onto a cloverleaf to get on the express way. Opps. I fuel when I think I am close at a Holiday in Ramsey. Then I look at a map. I am close, a mile or so on the frontage road. I get to the customer and take my paperwork inside, they tell me where to park and I get my stuff out and off of the RV. And wait. Then two people come out to look at it. It takes them a half hour to look it over, I'm standing within 10 feet of the RV and they never say a word to me until they start walking back to the building. I follow but they don't even hold the door open for me. Finally when they are done with the paperwork and they have made a lot of notes on my copy I ask if any of it is driver damage. 'No.' was the first word they said to me. Then when I was leaving they did say 'have a good day.' It was a little after 1 PM and we are done for the day. BB has already eaten but I finally stop at a McD's when I don't find any other food than a couple of DQ's. It has gone from the 30's to the 70's today so we decide to go take a walk. We head another 30 miles in the wrong direction and take a walk. Another few days and we will be waiting until next spring for days like this. After our walk we head home in time for supper. I had thought of calling our local company to see if there was more work for today, but then we opted for a walk instead. Every once in a while I talk to someone in person or online who later comes to me when they have an issue with a truck or the company. Tonight was one of those nights. This person had lost their paperwork for the 1st trip and had never gotten paid. Now they aren't getting paid for anything they do ... BB send her DOT paperwork in a 2nd time because nothing had happened the 1st time she sent it in. So as of right now she can't drive. A lot of loads came and went today but here is how it ended. Load board US - 149 IA - 33 MN - 4 WI - 2 The longest pair is to Sandy OR and then three to WA. Cars aren't cheap out of Portland, but if we do a local rental and get a car out of Salem it will save us a few hundred dollars. But, still not sure when we are ready to leave over the road again so this run will be gone. 201104 - MN No work today. I called the local dispatcher and they were going to call me back if there was work. They never did. I've watched the board for some of the last two days and it hasn't changed much. WED AM 08:00 - 33 08:30 - 22 09:00 - 22 09:30 - 22 10:00 - 22 10:30 - 22 11:00 - 24 11:30 - 22 12:00 - 21 PM 3:00 - 24 3:30 - 23 4:00 - 22 4:15 - 36 5:00 - 36 THU AM 08:00 - 36 08:30 - 34 09:00 - 33 09:30 - 34 10:00 - 34 10:30 - 32 11:00 - 31 11:30 - 31 12:00 - 31 12:30 - 31 PM 2:00 - 28 3:30 - 31 4:00 - 30 4:15 - 30 5:00 - 30 It's better than looking at all -0's- There was a 2nd RV going to Ramsey MN that was on the board for a few minutes. We didn't act and it was gone. Plan is to wait for 'issues' to arrive at home until mid morning. And if none, we'll watch to grab by noon. Local dispatch may call too. Friday is the best day for local work. We can see the bus at the shop that I was supposed to have moved on Monday. It is still sitting where the tow dropped it. It hasn't made it into the shop yet. Looking at the board tonight there are a few that might work. 2 - WA but we don't want to go there 2 - VA but it is less than our goal, but by the time we are done we usually gain that much more on a run. 2 - NY We've been to that location before but nothing coming back unless we try to get a bus from a location I haven't before 3 - UT We'd do OK 2 - MT We'd do OK ... and there is a truck in Billings that has been sitting there for 3 weeks. Not sure we'd make money on the 2nd truck. 2 - Southeast. Less than our goal but right now there are almost 20 left on the board coming out of NC ... and 2 more that are too few miles to leave Saturday. Load Board US - 184 IA - 30 MN - 4 WI - 2 |
