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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1 trash truck to St Louis MO ... spending the night at home Dentist appointment in the AM, then went to the DMV and waiting in line for 45 minutes so they could make a copy of some paperwork. Later in the day, local dispatch called. They had a shorter one and hadn't looked to see if I was available tomorrow. I am not. Last night when I was eating about 7 pm, I took one bite of a 'subway' type sandwich and heard crunch. A piece of my tooth had broken off. They couldn't work on it today, but had an early AM opening tomorrow. Except tomorrow we only have one car so BB will need to sit and wait while I am at my appointment and then I will sit and wait while I am at hers. Dispatch either wasn't in a rush for the truck to move or they are short of drivers. I can deliver it this week. We will likely leave Thursday AM and deliver Friday AM and be home Friday night. Depending on what work there is ... will depend on what we do next. One 500 mile trip for being available for the whole week. That was my issue. We were not available the whole week. We had dentist appointments in the middle of the week. I'll try not to let that happen again. But now we have work. Load board US - 430 IA - 170 MN - 7 WI - 9 NC - 20 NC has 20, including one that would go right past my house. IA, now that the short runs are going, they are starting to put long runs out again. CA, OR, WA, NV. And the weather is nicer? 210324 MN-MO 1 trash truck to St Louis MO ... spending the night at home Now a real early morning, yogurt for breakfast. We both had dentist appointments this AM and only have one car today. And that didn't go well. Dentist was OK, no novocaine so it went a little quicker, but not quick enough. The plan was that if I wasn't out when BB needed to leave, she would leave me there. I think that plan was made on a clear 60 degree day. BB checked with the front desk when she was ready to leave and they said another 30 minutes ... my guess is that if I had walked a little faster, I could have seen her tail lights. :( There were others sitting in the waiting area so I didn't want to stay in doors. And today it was raining and 40 degrees so I didn't want to be out doors. I decided to walk to CUB which is about three blocks away. The jacket I was wearing today is like a mop and made for a dry 40 degree day. So I was cold and wet when I got to CUB. I had hoped to stand outside under the overhang but I needed to get dry. So I went in doors and took off my jacket. I was still cold but at least I was dry. And for the next hour I walked and looked at my phone about every two minutes. I tried to stay clear of anyone who was moving slowly, the ones in a rush I just let past. Finally my coat was dry and BB 'should' be coming soon so I went back outside. Brrr. I had never really gotten warm inside so when I went back out it didn't take long to get a chilll. So back inside. FINALLY after almost 2 hours, (1 hour and 55 minutes,) BB sends me an email. She is done. It will still be almost another half hour before she gets to where I am. Email, because this time she forgot her phone. But our note/i pad's work with WiFi. That was the non-driving part of the day. While I am standing at CUB waiting, I get a call from dispatch. They give me the pay amounts and say the paperwork will be ready shortly. I head to the office sometime later and pick up my paperwork. It sounds like they can keep me busy next week also. We may just do that. Long haul has lots of work but we MAY be around for Easter. Dispatch gives me two routings. One is 70 miles less but takes an extra half hour to drive, at 65 mph. Not sure how that is possible by looking at the map. We will likely leave home around dawn, an hour and a half to the pickup. Then an hour inspection. Then about nine hours drive time, that would get us near our drop at 8 PM. We will see. Customer closes at 5 PM. Load board US - 442 IA - 172 - 3 MN - 12 WI - 10 NC - 19 WOW - NC, the trip back to MN is still there as are the two pickups going to MS. Never happens when we are down there. As of right now, there is a truck about 15 miles from my drop heading up to Chicago. IF we were making good time, we might be able to do that on Friday after we drop. Not sure I want to cut it that close against the weekend. But it would be a lot more money than dead heading back to MN. 210325 MN-MO 1 trash truck to St Louis MO ... spending the night at Hannibal MO Our goal was to pull out at 7 AM, we got going at 7:15. Very minimal traffic for rush hour. We spend part of the trip trying to find out which way we are going to leave town. BB with a map and me from memory. We ended up taking the longer route, but more familiar. Small towns, two lane road. One and a half hours later we are at my pickup. It takes me long enough in the office that someone asks if I needed help ... no, it's just been a while, the routine is coming back to me. Then I walk the lot looking for my truck. It was the 2nd to the last truck in line. Beep, Beep, Beep. So I call dispatch, then they call this location. We are not to talk to anyone here. I am to drive the truck to the office area and wait. As soon as I hang up, I see that I have a check engine light on so I call dispatch back. Beep, Bee ... as soon as start to move it stops beeping. Someone does come out of the office almost right away to look at the beeping. The truck just needs to build up pressure and the beeping will stop. Now I know. But I need to wait for someone else to look at the check engine light. And I waited ... an hour. More phone calls. The person looking at it said it was 'old codes,' and cleared them. Hmmm if they were old codes, then someone should have taken care of this before I got here. I found out real quick that this thing can not turn on a dime. A few times today I had to slow way down while turning to see if I was going to miss a sign or a pole. This shipper's competitor is just down the street a couple of miles. They have 50-100 mixer trucks sitting waiting to be moved. IOWA Because of our delay, all plans for stops have changed for today. 1st stop is the Loves in Floyd for Subway. We order and then eat in the car. 2nd stop is the rest area near Cedar Rapids. Somewhere after the 2nd stop it starts to rain harder. This truck does not have good mirrors and now with the rain I can see very little in the mirrors so I only pass when I have to. Between the water on the mirror and the road spray I feel like I am almost driving blind except for what is in front of me. MISSOURI 3rd stop is the Flying J in Wayland for fuel. I call the drop, but the phone rolls to a customer service location somewhere. They take a message and will let the delivery location know. When we are done fueling I talk to BB. We decide to stop in Hannibal instead of pushing on to St Louis. When leaving, when I get to the stop sign I realize that I am missing one of my placards. I decide to make a U-turn and the road was clear ... when I start. When I am done someone passes behind me at highway speed. I re-traced my path and found my placard next to the fuel pump. I had put the placard in the side window today because I am almost out of tape. I usually tape them to the outside of the truck. On this truck the glass is so tight to the frame I couldn't wedge it into the window and the glass must have gotten too damp for the tape to stick. But Whewww. All that is lost is a couple of minutes. I find out later that this had made BB confused. She was making reservations and had seen me leave. Then when she was ready to leave she sees me again leaving. But doesn't know it is me, I have already left once and the second time she sees the truck does not have a placard on. She doesn't know until we get to the hotel that she was following the correct truck. For a while this AM I thought that maybe the reason this fuel tank was not full was that they had put in enough fuel to get to the drop. But by the time I got to Wayland I was just about in the red, so I filled the 80 gallon tank. All fuel is billed back to the shipper so no incentive to bring the trucks in on fumes. Another hour down the road ... and we are at our 4th and final stop. The Quality Inn near Hannibal. Food is from Fiddlestiks. I have to call to order then we drive over. It is in the same parking lot as the hotel, but it is raining fairly heavy right then. The place is packed so we switch drivers and I go inside to pick up our order. Food is ready so I am back out before BB has time to drive around the building. Good food. BB saves half of hers for breakfast. I have a cookie for breakfast. I took one bite out of it a couple of days ago and it was so sweet that that was all I could eat then. We will try again tomorrow. We may or may not pick up their breakfast bags on the way out. We did see two other drivers picking up trucks this AM while we were there, plus a few trucks being dropped off. Then down the road we saw three transporters at a truckstop, but no placards so I don't know who they drive for. Load board US - 458 IA - 209-3 MN - 9 WI - 7 Today our state announce that anyone who wants a vaccine can get one, and BB wants one. So not sure how that is going to figure into when we work. We also have plans to be home for Easter in 10 days. So short trips for us. Plenty of long ones on the load board. 61 of the 209 trips are going to the west coast. CA, OR, WA and NV. All 61 are over 1,500 miles. ... and here we are doing a 500 mile run so I can keep my spot at my local company. Tomorrow we have two hours to go to the drop. We should be dropped by 10 AM and heading home. Most likely that is what we will do, head directly back. If we do, we should be home around sun set. 210326 MN-MO 1 trash truck to St Louis MO (delivered) ... spending the night at home BB had leftovers for breakfast, I had yogurt and a cup of packaged fruit. Last night they had said it was a 'to go bag.' Instead it was all packaged items. There were also burritos and pastries. Luckily BB and I BOTH look at our computers to see where my drop is. My computer found it right away, but the names on the trucks didn't match, which isn't unusual. But BB's wouldn't find the location and when we looked closer, mine was pegging 196 NW __ Drive next to buildings in the 13000 NW __ Drive range. Her computer insisted on using 196 NW __ Court. That location was about a mile away from what I had found and the names on the trucks did match. So a little after 7 AM I did call dispatch. They 1st insisted that the 'Drive' address was correct. When pushed, they said call the other number on the paperwork. So I did call, that person had been transferred and wanted to pass me off to someone else. But I insisted all I wanted was to know if the address I had, where he used to work, was correct. I gave him the 'Drive' address and he said that was correct. When I told him the names on the trucks didn't match, he THEN looked up the correct address. 'Court' was the correct address. So the paperwork was wrong, I was wrong, dispatch was wrong, he was wrong ... the 1st time. But I was persistent. All the other trucks in the hotel parking lot had left by the time we were ready to go. Two hours to the drop. BB's routing software didn't want us to stay on the freeway near our drop but we/she planned on over riding it so it would re-route. 10 miles from the drop, traffic comes to a standstill. I am in the former right lane and I know two lanes will exit shortly. But traffic keeps moving in the right lane and the white lines are do not indicate the new right lane will end, so I make a move. I'm good, this lane keeps moving and it splits in two at the exit. I could see the overhead sign almost right away so I knew I was good. Then a few miles down the road people are starting to move left. Once I have a clear sight line I can see there is an accident ahead. But I can also see an exit, then an over head sign showing a re-entrance. It looks like the re-entrance is past the accident so I 'make another move.' As soon as I am committed, I see that traffic is backed on on the frontage road to get back on the freeway BEFORE the accident. So I look to see if the frontage road continues, it does, so I decide to stay on the frontage. Had I looked closer at the accident instead of the frontage road, I would have seen the last of the people were getting into their emergency vehicles and leaving. Now I am stuck on the frontage road for another few miles. It moves at about 45 mph and only one stoplight. But by the time I am back on the freeway, traffic is coming in all four lanes again. The road is back open. To get to my drop, I had written down the street names, but not how far between each turn. Then I see a trash truck heading back to the shop. I just follow from there. Once I'm stopped, I go to the office, they find someone to sign. He does a quick walk around and signs everything I ask him too. I'm done in about 10 minutes. We pull back on the street and park so BB can send copies of the paperwork in. We aren't sure about work yet. We decide not to pick up the truck 20 miles from the drop and instead head home. Two hours down the road, we stop for lunch at Wendy's in Hannibal. Someone's kids are walking across the parking lot and I had missed the 1st open spot to park. By the time we got out of the car, half of the bus load of people from the DQ next door had gotten line ahead of us. We go in and use the bathroom (as did the couple with the kids) and then we both left after seeing the line inside. I called dispatch, they have included me in the count of available drivers to pick up in Dodge Center again so I am <> committed. We decide to do Wendy's drive thru. In about five minutes we have our food. I had hoped to do longer legs between stops but BB thinks the cheapest fuel is in Wayland. So our next stop is at the Flying J in Wayland ... again. For fuel and the restroom. Turns out fuel is one cent cheaper at the next Pilot in Iowa. IOWA Instead of stopping in Cedar Rapids, like the way down, we stop in Center Point like we do with the RV's. Quick restroom break. We look at our routing software and the suggested route is up US 63 via Rochester instead of getting out to I-35 so we try that route instead. We will likely do that again instead of heading out of Dodge Center though Austin. MINNESOTA 5:30 is meal time so we stop at the DQ in Spring Valley. We ordered ... Fish sandwich 6 piece chicken sticks Vanilla malt with whipped cream Oreo malt We got Fish sandwich with fries 4 pc chicken with fries Vanilla malt with no whipped cream Oreo malt Two hours left to home. We get home less than 49 hours after we left. In the last couple of hours, BB starts asking why we are pushing the long days. We don't need to, but if we were going to stop, I would have liked to do it before we are an hour from home. And now it is still daylight at that time of night. Local dispatch never did call me back so we have the weekend off ... again. This will mean we have worked 2 out of the last 11 days (another 2 of those we were NA.) Doesn't make us feel real good when we see 200+ trips on with the other company and we could have been working every day. I'm still in it for the long haul but maybe this 'being available for quarter end' is not going to work. We would be better off just checking in on days we are home anyways for local/metro work. We'll see what next quarter end brings. We don't notice it as much if the load board is empty but we may not see that again, this year. Next quarter is the end of June and then we are off for most of July anyway so not a big deal next time. The money per day on this trip will likely be in the top five for the year. Our last trip for this company was about the lowest of any trip for last year. Load board US - 486 IA - 219-3 MN - 5 WI - 5 486! I didn't remember seeing anything over 400 before this year, now we may be hitting 500 trips on the load board. Today, or yesterday, our state announced that starting Tuesday anyone can get the vaccine. So BB got online and got an appointment. One week from Thursday. So we have next week to work. Then home for Easter. Then 2-3 days we can work. Then an appointment. And somewhere in there I am going to start doing some non-road driving for about 14 random days. So we likely won't get back to the west coast until May ?? |
