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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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201223`MN-NV 1 tanker, heading to Winnemucca NV ... spending the night at home 8:15 this AM we get a call for work. Winnemucca NV with a tanker. A Ford 550, a mini. We have blizzard warning starting today so we get ready and out of the house rather quickly. Could have left in two minutes but we were not in that much of a rush. We are at the dispatch office within the hour. Dispatch has a 2nd leg, a truck from NE to IA but we will get to the drop on New Years Eve and haven't heard of we can just do a blind drop or not. I have not committed to that trip but they did give me paperwork, just in case. BB and I kicked around all kinds of scenarios. The original was, what ever I got today, she would just follow and come back home. And that is what it looks like we will be doing. We also talked about her getting an RV out of IA and running with me and then finding work once we got to the west coast. But it is the holiday weekend so we need to make all of our plans today for the next four days. I think that may have been a big reason as to why we are just doing my truck. We also want to see what kind of money we can make if she just follows. It doesn't look like much. We did do a lot of that before we signed on with the RV's but looking back we were not making the money we make now. The shipper is about a half hour from the dispatch office. I know the main shop guys there but don't see them before someone else asks if they can help. They take down my info but can't find my keys. Then one of the main shop guys gets involved and is confused because he doesn't know the name of my drop. So we head out side and find the only truck that matches the truck brand. Right truck, different name on it. Truck checks out OK. Truck is half full of fuel and full of DEF. It doesn't make a difference as this company pays all the fuel. They use the WEX card but I rarely did, then my card was stolen last year and I told them I did not want another one. Had to explain that to them again today. The office has never mentioned it, but they may have some accounting reason they want everyone using the WEX. I don't like it mostly because dispatch does not leave it active. So every trip I have to remember to tell them to turn it to active. Otherwise I am standing at a pump waiting to fuel and they are in the middle of something else. I like simple. Truck runs good. Another half hour back to the office. Then I call dispatch to tell the I will buy my own WY permit on Saturday instead of trying to order one ahead of time. WY is not a routine permit. Normally we have to buy them at the POE but they are closed Christmas Day. We did the math. We can get to the drop Monday AM even if we buy that permit on Saturday AM. We've done this route many times. Just a little shorter this time. We have about two hours before the storm warnings become effective so we take a quick drive up to the farm. No issues, just a pre-empt. Snow got here before the warnings became effective but we made it back safe. At 1st look, we should make our minimum on this NV trip. BB has already used perk points to pay for most of the rental car. Without that we would have been under our mini. But this trip is for future good will. I want to stay on good terms with the local company for the day when Covid is over and if some day I want to keep doing local and been wants to be off the road. So I am not looking at this trip as how much money we can make. Once it is afternoon on the west coast, I call my drop. They wanted a call to make arrangements as it is delivering to someone's house. No, it turns out that it was to make arrangements so they could drive me the 150 miles to the Reno airport. :) Nope, I have my ride with me. The company is covering the 'transportation' but I don't think it is anything extra this time. I know yesterday they got a deal. Not sure what is going on at the local company. A couple of weeks ago they were saying how busy they were going to be. I was hoping to get a bus. There was one bus in the lot over the weekend. They didn't even go to the shipper yesterday and today I was told that my truck would be the only one in the lot tonight so no buses will be coming this way today. Possible they had some heading west that would not come through the lot but not many. And I got a call in the afternoon that the NE to IA truck had been covered. I likely pushed that issue when I said we would get it to the drop on New Years Eve or Day. The other issue we haven't talked about is my plate which will expire on the 31st. Five years ago we were in Los Angles and there was a truck there, but my plate was going to expire before I delivered the truck so they wouldn't let me move the truck. So we drove back empty. Seems like it would have paid to send me what I needed instead of getting someone else out there. The long haul company has something going from NE to UT, too bad it wasn't going the other way. We'll keep watching. Load board US - 317 IA - 101 MN - 13 IA - 5 Loads to CA 3 and they can't be run together. OR has 8 any can run together. WA - 6, a pair to Reno still, 4 to AZ, 7 to ID, 2 to FL and 5 to the Carolinas. Had some free time tonight so I watched a safety video for my local company and then was going to watch one for our long haul company. But the 2nd one wouldn't play so I will try again the next couple of nights. For the 2nd company we need an in person or on line safety 'event' every 100 days or we loose our bonus status. I am at 96 days right now. I missed out on a bit of money earlier this year because I was not watching. 201224`MN-NV 1 tanker, heading to Winnemucca NV ... spending the night at Ankeny IA Yesterday it had rained, and then snowed. Yesterday it was in the mid 40's, this AM it was near -0-. Makes for fun shoveling before we can leave. Both BB and I shoved for a half hour, took a break and then did another half hour. Interesting watching our neighbor trying to push his snow blower. Not much traction on the hard pack of ice under the snow. We may have done it the easy way today. Then just about when we are done, the snow plow comes through. But this is the best job I remember anyone doing in ... since we have been there? He plowed AWAY from our drive up to within a foot of our reflector posts. Some years they plow everything towards our posts and don't get within six feet of those posts. They plow the grass in the circle instead. So that saved us another half hour shoveling. As it was, we headed out the 1st time before 7:30 and finished about 9:30, in time to pickup our rental car at 10 AM. We rented it in Hudson instead of MN because it was cheaper. Someone brought the car down from Stillwater this AM so we could pick it up. All roads are not plowed yet at 10 AM. Lots of cars. We finish getting ready and get to my truck at 11:45. We brought along two shovels just in case. We didn't need them, the lot had been plowed and it looked like that area had likely been blown clean. Not sure if the driveway had needed to be plowed. Five cars in the lot, that is how busy they are the last weekend of the month of the year. On busy months there are 20-30 cars in the lot at any given time. I'm guessing dispatch could have found someone else to do this run ... and we'd be heading the same route, but with two RV's to Reno. Roads aren't bad to start with, only saw one car in the ditch in the first 30 miles, on a cloverleaf. I don't remember where the roads were bad and good but most of the day was spent driving at 20-30 mph. On hard pack / ice. Lots of cars in the ditch, most with the people still in them. Only noticed one the todays date written on the window by the cops. 1st stop was Owattona at the Kwik Trip for fuel. We hadn't said for sure where we were going to stop so BB had stopped both at a rest area and at Pilot in Northfield looking for me. The pump at Kwik Trip wasn't working right, I got a dollars worth after a dozen times of squeezing the nozzle. Roads are still the same. Bumper to bumper in both directions, some places the frontage roads are full also as people try to make up time. Noticed one semi on the frontage road ... where there is a low bridge. There he sat, too much traffic to back up and turn around. Somewhere in this area I see a cop coming up from behind, I am in the right lane, cars and a truck in the left lane in front of him. I pull to the shoulder but no one else moves in either lane. That cop followed that semi for over a mile, weaving back and forth behind him before finally taking his exit. Semi never did move over. About five miles before the truckstop the roads are finally clear enough to set the cruise. I still kick it on and off if I see a snow patch ahead. BB doesn't set the cruise on the car until she is in IA. 2nd stop was Loves in Albert Lea for fuel. This went much better, so it was their pump, not my truck. Also bought anti gel and put that in, but forgot to use the restroom. While I was here, I get a message from BB that she is ahead of me and is going to make a reservation in Ankeny. We should get there at last light. BB gets to the motel 10 minutes ahead of me. Our motel has cars in the lot. The Holiday Express next door has 1, plus one semi tractor. I look again an hour later, same thing. The Best Western was doing a little better with five cars. WOW good news. Supper was going to be shelf food from Casey's as it is Christmas Eve. We had mentioned having BB stop for Subway at a truck stop on the way down so we would have something 'fresh.' She didn't. And Outback is open ... and busy. So we get our usual and I have enough for breakfast. Good food. Tomorrow I am going to cut one stop from our trip. We usually stop at Adair and Gretna between Des Moines and York. There is a Loves in Shelby that is close to half way so I will only stop once. BB may stop more. She is running 70 (on clear roads) and I am running 65 mph. So far my mpg has gone from 9. something up to 12.2. Doesn't make a big difference, boss is pay all fuel. Sidney tomorrow night. Load board - (most locations closed) US - 304 IA - 97 MN - 9 WI - 5 IA got rid of four RV's today. Good thing we did not plan on grabbing one. With shoveling snow we didn't drive past our exit in IA until about 3 PM. We would have had to pick up our RV by 11 AM. Opps. 201225`MN-NV 1 tanker, heading to Winnemucca NV ... spending the night at Sidney NE I had plenty of leftovers for breakfast, but I went down with BB to get some juice. I had to find the help to get it turned on. The breakfast choices were yogurt, pastries and two kinds of cereal. We got going at about 7:30. Frost on the windows but not the sub -0- temps they were having at home. Our hotel has 10+ cars in the lot. The Holiday Express next door had 3, the Best Western had 2, the other two motels had a half dozen. About the same at the other motels we could see when we were leaving town. The Casey's was closed by our hotel, as was one other one we could see from the freeway. But that was it, the rest of the Casey's were open. Must be a store by store thing. Traffic today was about the same as about this time on a Sunday AM. Not completely empty, able to drive the posted. We went PAST the Adair rest area today. That is our usual stop. Instead we stopped at the Love's in Shelby for fuel. I'm going to have to check on using my fuel card at the gas pumps out front. This place wanted to keep both my fuel card and my ID. I don't really like letting my ID out of sight unless it is with someone with a badge. Not sure I will be doing it again, we'll see. 1st stop was the Love's in Shelby for fuel. Menards has started knocking down the mall in Council Bluffs. I surprised that doesn't happen more places. A lot of the vacant malls are on prime real estate and they sit empty for years. Sailed through Omaha at the posted. I had put my NE plate in the window back in Shelby and just took the MN one down when I wasn't near traffic anymore. Both scales are closed today. Do see a few cops. And lots of remains from the crashes this past week. One place a semi was down in the ditch behind an over pass. The only reason I saw that one was a semi had stopped near it and the driver was still walking back to his own truck from the crashed one. 2nd stop was at the Petro in York for food. Free food, our long haul carrier is giving away free food over Thanksgiving and Christmas. We got our meal both times. This one was better that the Thanksgiving one. But we have eaten at this location many, many times and it is/was one of the best. They were all supposed to be replaced with IHops but I haven't seen any action, just some news in a paper. We ordered, I fueled, BB waited for the food, she was walking out with the food when I was walking in for my receipt. We got to eat in the car instead of standing outside in the cold. Actually it is not as cold as last trip. 55 degrees most of the day vs closer to 32 degrees last week. We each got a free meal with one coupon. (So we could have used two coupons, one per driver) And it was enough food that we each ate half and saved half for tonight. Food was the same as last time. Salad, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and pumpkin pie. 3rd stop was near Cozad at the rest area At this point, BB was tired of semi's flying up on her at 75-80 mph then realizing that she was only going 65. So she headed off at the speed limit to the next stop. 4th stop was near Ogallala at the rest area. Rare time it is not at the Walmart for fuel. But I have enough fuel to get to Laramie and rest area's are quicker than pulling into towns. It will still be daylight when we get to Sidney so we make reservations and keep going. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Sidney. The only car in the lot belongs to the staff. There is one semi, but he has his curtains pulled so he is likely sleeping in the truck. So just us. So far. We eat our left overs so we aren't sure what else is open in town. Last time we drove from Sidney past SLC to Tooele. That is over 55 miles, a longer day than today. That would only leave 330 for Sunday, so we likely will hole up somewhere before SLC. We did see one 'Dish TV' van pass us that was a transporter. And one coach bus that was a transporter. That was it for the whole day. The only other excitement was watching the cows in the fields and the geese on the ponds. Same pond as last week, still has 1,000's of geese and ducks on it. -0- on the next pond. Load board numbers should be the same as yesterday. Some of our family had a Zoom call today, but BB didn't want to stop and use up our 'data' and it was the middle of the day so we weren't at a motel. 201226`MN-NV 1 tanker, heading to Winnemucca NV ... spending the night at Evanston WY Breakfast, today was a nuked ham and cheese croissant. All they had was peach yogurt. Seems their last shipment came in already expired so they are putting out what no one wanted before. 7:30 we are ready to go. Still less than 10 cars in the lot but not totally empty. BB and I are not going to run together for the first leg. So goes to Loves to fuel and I head down the road. 1st stop is the WY Port of Entry. I guessed correct. I do not need a permit. I am under 20,000# and the rig is going direct to the user. But as a guy is explaining that to the new person taking care of me ... he says ... when you are done, come and see me. That usually is not a good thing. This time he just wanted to run my VIN to see what class Ford had this listed under. That was it :) 2nd stop - 10 miles down the road. I have enough range to get to Laramie, but the overhead sign says wind gusts to 65 mph. I am less worried about loosing mileage because of the wind. But if I get stuck behind an accident, I don't know how long I can idle on the few gallons I have left. And the only gas station between Cheyenne and Laramie WAS Buford, population 1. But he left in 2012 and the station has sat empty since then. It is only 50 miles, but it can be a very long 50 miles. I fuel at the Walmart for $2.17. The truckstops are $.70 a gallon more. I am not paying but I just can't see spending the extra money, even when it is not mine. Clear sailing to Laramie. 3rd stop is the Loves in Laramie, this is where we agreed to meet up. I had planned on fueling in Laramie, but even where we usually fuel is $2.39 so I did good. BB has been waiting for about 15 minutes. I don't need to run in, so we say 'hi' and plan on meeting again in Rawlins. 4th stop is for food in Rawlins at the TA / Subway. We are still trying to stick to the truck stops as we don't know which places only allow drive thru and no inside orders or seating. A couple of times today when I would open my window I would smell diesel. And when I got out here I could smell it again. But nothing is leaking, it is not on my clothes and the tank is at the rear of the truck. Before we leave the TA I decide to put in the last of my diesel anti-gel. Opps. That is the smell. I had put the jug behind the passenger seat so it would stand up. When I bought the jug, the side panels on the truck were froze shut and I didn't think about it again until now. Not a huge spill, I was able to get it wiped up with the half a dozen left over Subway napkins. But the floor was still shiny. So for the next 100 miles I had the heat on full blast and the windows open for 10 minutes at a time and then closed for 10 minutes at a time trying to get the odor out. 5th stop is for a rest break at the Shell in Rock Springs. BB has a range of an extra 60 miles and decides not to fuel here. As I am getting into my truck I notice the hills to the north, and the snow coming down over them. I am thinking the air is so dry that the snow doesn't hit the ground. Kind of like the rain. Wrong. Before we get back on the freeway we can see the snow blowing across the road. I run with the cruise on until the road gets wet. Then I try to hold it at 65 mph without the cruise. Then 60 mph. Then 55 mph, then 50. Then I see the semi ahead of me hit his breaks so I do to. Now the variable speed limit sign has gone from 75 mph to 45 mph ... at the top of the hill. Everyone stays in line down the first hill, but traffic is soon back to passing me. At one point I pass a snow plow, I thought about following him but they usually run about 35 mph. He wasn't plowing, just dumping sand. A lot of us pass him, but most stay at 45 mph. Then there is a sign that says 'crash in 17 miles.' We are at mile marker 34 so it should be at mile marker 17. It wasn't, so I thought we were good to go. Nope. I wish I had turned on the video on my phone. As we start up a hill we can see flashing lights ahead. I assumed they were still clearing the wreck. Then we see semi's parked in the right travel lane. Waiting it out maybe? On this hill there are three lanes, the right one now has parked trucks. And everyone else seems to be getting in the left lane so we did too. Then we come to a complete stop. I can see people getting out of their trucks ahead of me to try to see what is going on. Then a few trucks start to pull up between us in the left lane and the parked trucks in the right lane. At first they stop but then they are moving, and people from the left lane start getting over to the middle lane. Then I can see traffic moving in our lane, some traffic. As the lane thins I can see that the two semi's in front of me are moving ... sideways. They are stuck on the ice. BB manages to get in the middle lane and I jump in front of her. Here is where I wish I had the camera. Freeway, three lanes wide. At different points there were semi's stuck in all three lanes and moving traffic was winding its way through the debris. One of the semi's that had been ahead of me was able to spin it's way free and stayed in line about two cars behind BB. A ways up the hill, we are in the left lane and a semi going about 2 mph is in the center lane, but a tanker is parked not too far ahead of him. I start flashing my lights for him to get over in front of me. He finally does and keeps moving. He never would have gotten moving again if he had stopped. I wasn't counting, so I will guess there were 2-3 maybe for dozen semi's that were stuck on the ice on that hill. Some were putting on chains, some were throwing sand under the tires. It looks like a sanding truck had dumped it's load in front of trucks in hopes that would help. Only one tow truck there when we went past. But no crashes. Just trucks and slow and go. And it was at mile marker 13 when we got there. I'm sure it likely built back to mile marker 17 before it was cleared. Asked BB later and she was worried about when to shut her car off to save fuel. But she got to the station with a range of 56 so not much range lost. 6th stop for me was the Mavrick in Evanston. BB went to the Flying J for gas. After I fueled this AM in Cheyenne my range was 401. When I fueled tonight in Evanston my range is 495. Just as many gallons of fuel in the tank both times. From here it is 430 miles to Winnemucca. So I may not have to fuel before Winnemucca but I need to leave 1/4 of a tank at the drop, which is around 125-150 mile range. 7th stop was a few miles down the road also in Evanston at the Comfort Inn. First time here, we usually stay across the street at the Quality Inn but the reviews have gotten better on this place. By people with only one review each which is always suspect. Once we are checked in we order food from the Best Western / Legal Tender. They had run out of noodles for my order so we go back to the car as they said they could bring it out. 10 minutes later BB goes in and our order is sitting there and the crew is all standing around talking. But good food. I had chicken alfredo. And I have enough for breakfast ... again. It should just be rest and food breaks tomorrow. Dispatch can text my permit. NV is the only state that allows the permit to be on a phone / device and not printed. Then a final top off for fuel and the motel. Load board US - 296 IA - 93 MN - 5 WI - 6 We saw a few crashes and burnt out trucks. Nothing recent. This AM BB had was looking at the weather and we are not going to make it back home without some delay. We were hoping to be home Wednesday night. Now we are looking at how to get around the storm, I-90 via MT? I-40 via OKC? And we have a local rental car so we need to get it back. They use different cars for local than they do for one-way. Most trips we would be looking for work on the way back, but if I work that means BB has to drive the car back. And after today she is talking about flying home and staying in the house until spring. Also this AM I contacted dispatch for my NV permit. I got it sometime during the day but didn't look at it until tonight. It is wrong. The time is correct but the highway and miles are wrong. ... the trip continues HERE |
