 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
210525 IA-MN Monday Load board US - 329 IA - 119 MN - 6 WI - 7 1 RV heading to St Cloud MN ... spending the night in Albert Lea MN I called dispatch from home as soon as they opened this AM. I took on RV for St Cloud MN. BB will follow in a rental car. There are two RV's going to St Cloud but we can not get a rental car back to IA. We would have to pick up the rental in St Cloud, drive to IA and pick up our car, and then drive back to St Paul to drop the rental. That adds about five hours to the trip. Dispatch calls back to make sure I know that this is a 'no-tow.' I know. We could have worked today too, but we wanted an extra day off. If the load board wasn't over 100 we likely would be taking the whole week off. Later in the afternoon dispatch calls again but we are on the phone so it goes to voice mail. Dispatch has a hot run that is paying about $1 a mile extra between the two RV's. But a quick look says there is no way out, no rental cars. By the time I call them back they have found other drivers. One of them has a tow car so they can get out. The 2nd St Cloud RV is still on the load board, we may call in tomorrow to get that one for Thursday ... and maybe the Milwaukee one for Friday and then home. We have a tentative plan for Saturday but not Sunday or Monday. No plan for next week yet. There are a few RV's out to CA but we haven't looked at cars for after the holiday weekend. The weekend is over but it is the start of summer vacation. Tuesday Load board US - 373 IA - 139 MN - 6 IA - 5 210526 IA-MN 1 RV heading to St Cloud MN (delivered) 1 RV heading to St Cloud MN ... spending the night in Owatonna MN Up without an alarm, breakfast is hot. Scrambled eggs and their sausage patties. Good sausage, they are more like 'Spam' than typical sausage. And grape juice. BB had a hard boiled egg and toast. Rolling at 7:30. At 8 AM BB calls in to dispatch and puts me on speaker. I want the same trip for tomorrow, no-tow to St Cloud. 1st stop is at 8:15 in Forest City to pick up my 1st RV. Small RV and we only have one so we get it done in a half hour. There were other drivers there but we didn't talk to any of them. It didn't look like anyone was there at 8 AM. We try not to be as there is usually a line. 2nd stop for me is Northfield at the Flying J for fuel. Easy in, easy out. Otherwise I will likely be running low about the time I am near Minneapolis. As I get near the Flying J, I see there is at truck backing up towards me. Then he stops backing and pulls ahead to where the entrance is for the cars and looks like he is going to take a U-turn on the street. Instead he pulls into the entrance and stops like he is going to try back out to get turned around. Finally he pulls into the auto fuel pump area and drives around the pumps and back out. Interesting watching other drivers. I fuel. Based on range and mpg, I need five gallons to get to the drop so I put in six gallons to give me 10 miles to spare. 3rd stop is the Pilot in St Cloud. I have almost 50 miles to spare. My mpg didn't change much but my range sure did. 4th stop is the drop less than a mile away. As I am taking my picture of my odometer, BB drives in. I bring in my paperwork to the office and wait, and wait. Shortly after I got there, someone came walking towards the RV with paperwork that looked like mine so I said Hi. Then I realized that the paperwork was their receipt for their purchase :) That same person came back past the RV and opened it up to look inside. 1st inspection is done. Then two salesmen came out and looked it over good, checking all the features. Then ... the inspector came out. Without paperwork but I think I have delivered here before and it was the same guy. It checked out OK for him, but he had to have his 'warranty' person look at in. And a third person with a camera came out to take pictures from all angles. Once I knew it was going to take a while, BB went back across the street and picked up Burger King. So once I had signed paperwork, we were ready to go. On the way north, just south of the cities, there was roadwork in the southbound lanes and traffic was backed up for miles. By the time we were heading south, they were working on the northbound lanes and traffic was again backed up for miles. And just south of the cities I get a call from dispatch. Different dispatcher than this AM. They were wondering about my paperwork because it was 2 PM and the paperwork said I was picking up and delivering the 2nd RV today. Nope, 1st dispatcher wrote it down wrong. But because everything was going like clock work, other than the wait at the dealer which was still shorter than we had allowed for, we will be picking up the 2nd RV today. And to help make that happen, somehow we were able to drive three hours without a restroom break. 5th stop, back in Forest City to pick up the 2nd RV with a half hour to spare. Still other drivers getting ready to leave. Did ask one where she was going ... FL. Somehow the topic switched to her tow car that she just got. I understood her to say she spent $49,000 on transportation last year. I've looked at our numbers and we spent $6,000 for the two of us. The math doesn't sound right but ... with poor planning it is possible. Before I left the lot I got a call from the terminal manage, that is another story ... about somewhere he wanted us to go. He keeps asking but 'it never works' for us. As long as he was on the phone I asked him who in town had outdoor seating. Nope. no one in this town ever had it. Even at Subway you had to walk across the street to the court house and sit on the ledges. 6th stop - we ended up at the Borderline Pizza/Jerry's tacos and ate in our car. Ordered two enchiladas each and ate one each. Too much food. 7th and final stop - Comfort Inn in Owatonna. We made reservations before we left Forest City. The net price between Albert Lea and here was close. Albert Lea was cheaper, but we wouldn't get rewards points for tonight's stay. From here we have two hours before my drop and this RV MAY have enough fuel to get to the drop without fueling. So we could be in St Cloud by 10 AM. Plan for tomorrow is to call at 8 AM and get a 3rd RV, this one going to Milwaukee. I didn't call on it today in hopes dispatch put something better on the load board. They did not. They did add about 75 more RV's to the board this afternoon but nothing better. We also did the math on some semi tractors that are in Des Moines. I could do two of the tractors in a day and make about the same amount of money and get home about an hour earlier. The RV is new and a much better ride. We choose the RV. Load board US - 438 IA - 172 MN - 8 WI - 11 No thoughts on after Memorial Weekend yet. |
