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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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201222 MN-MN No calls from the farm this AM so we are free to work. Local dispatch calls at 10:30 to check if I am still available, I am. They need to check with the customer and call me back at 11:00, it is a go. We get to the office to pick up paperwork. While I am waiting for the dispatcher, another driver comes in. We don't talk much, not sure if I know him or not, some people it is hard to tell with a mask on. But he is the guy who will be taking the truck in the AM. 6 AM. He wondered why I didn't want it. He also had another reason for being in the office. He got a ticket for being overweight on his last trip. The shipper had given him a weight ticket before he left showing he was legal and didn't need permits. Scale house said otherwise. They weighed him at 800# over legal on one axel. Our office said they would fight it. I'd like to hear how that turns out. SURPRISE. I won the drawing! But this drawing was for a drug test, and we must go direct, we can not pass 'go.' My issue is not that I will ever fail, it is that sometimes I can't give a big enough sample and then I am stuck there all day. That has happened at least twice so far. I lucked out, I didn't give as big a sample as they asked, but it was enough. Whew. But this still took an extra half hour that we are not paid for, plus the out of route driving time. Next stop is Arby's in Rogers for food but drive thru only. So the next stop is the rest area by Clearwater. I drank a couple of bottles of water and juice this AM to be able to take the drug test, now it is catching up to me. 2:30 PM we are at the shipper. I've been here many times and know the routine, the guy I should see is not in and his door is closed, so I go to the guy who helped me last time. He follows me out and hands me the keys. Today is a semi tractor with a sleeper, stick shift. Everything checks good, but the shipper has some questions for me. About how we move trucks, the ins and outs. This place usually gives us enough fuel to get to the drop, they do this time to. Clear sailing back to the office. I start out running at 65 mph, but this is a used truck with over 400,000 miles so I push it a little. 68 mph :) Back at the office I talk to the dispatcher about this weekend, they still don't give me any clue as to what they have in mind. If anything. So I will wait for tomorrow's call. I did tell them if they don't have work that we can find 'other work.' I didn't say it would be our other company. Load board US - 338 IA - 115 MN - 14 WI - 5 9 RV's to CA, 8 to OR, 9 to WA plus lots of other western areas. Only 2 to FL but 8 to the Carolinas. Interesting side note about Covid precautions. We saw a lot of our family this weekend, but for only 5-10 minutes each. Here is what happened at each 1) They invited me in, I hadn't planned on that so I didn't have my mask on. So neither was wearing a mask, but we did stay 6+ feet apart. At all places we stayed 6 feet apart so I won't repeat that info. 2) I did have my mask on when I went in the next house. None of them did. 3) They came outside when I got there, we both had masks on outside. 4) They invited me in, but we both had masks on. 5) They met us outside, then in the open garage because of the wind. But no masks. 6) Met us outside in the wind, no masks. All close family, every one was handling it differently. Deaths the last couple of days have dropped back to around 20 after being between 50 and 100 for a while. |
