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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210624 MN-IA 1 trash truck heading to Davenport IA Moving it on Monday ... spending the night at home Didn't get any calls for work for today. We did get one call late today that we could do either tomorrow (Friday) or next week. BB and I quick talked about it and decided next week. We will do it on Monday and do any metro moves Friday if they have any. As long as they gave us a choice, we took it. The trip is 700 miles so we might not do it in one day. And we would rather not be up against the weekend if something goes wrong. There had been a truck on the long haul load board from near Fargo back to the cities but that didn't stay on the board long. Right now there is nothing short that pays great. Everything is over one day. BB is still working on the rental car problem. Their first reply was that the mileage in her picture was not the same as on the receipt. It wasn't, it was off by one mile. We had left the lot before she took the picture. Even if we do metro tomorrow, we will still have the weekend off :) Load board US - 317 IA - 104 MN - 5 WI - 9 210627 MN-IA 1 trash truck heading to Davenport IA Moving it on Monday ... spending the night at home We stopped by the office today to pick up my paperwork. Four other drivers had paperwork waiting for them. One truck in the lot with a ND plate on it so that likely was the one they offered me. No Regrets. Plan is to pull out of home by 8 AM, that should get us to my truck and inspected by 10 AM. From there it is about five hours so that will put me there at 3 PM and they are open until 5 PM. If we have no issues. Then another five and a half hours home. Load board US - 271 IA - 93 / 92 MN -0- WI - 8 Right now there is nothing that ties in the the Davenport truck. Maybe tomorrow? 210628 MN-IA 1 trash truck heading to Davenport IA (delivered) ... spending the night at home We had done the math and thought that if we left the house at 8 AM we could deliver by 3 PM. We got going about 7:30. 90 miles non-stop to the shipper. It takes almost exactly 90 minutes. Before I get to the shipper, I have gotten a text from one of the long haul dispatchers. They have a truck near our house going to IN. But we are busy the through the middle of July. 1-2 days at a time is the most we have open to work. 1st stop - Doge Center - BB drops me off, I grab the keys from the lock box. There is only one other set of keys for us. I look at the other lock boxes and the only name I know is my other company. They have two lock boxes (and tonight they have -0- loads on the load board from here.) This time I walk down one row and as soon as I am walking back on the next row I am at my truck. It helps that their address is on the side of the truck, and then both the unit number and the VIN matched. It all checks out good but I am not doing anything in a hurry today, it ends up taking me almost 45 minutes for a basic inspection. When I am done, I go in the office to drop off their paperwork. I don't see a label where I want to drop it so I pause, then someone from the office says they will take the paperwork. And they ask if I am going to Gary (IN.) So that is where the other truck is going. The only 'issue' I have is that the fuel tank is 1/4 so I call dispatch to see if that is OK to leave the yard that way. It is, sometimes the trucks are full, some times empty. Hit or miss. There are a few routes we can take and have taken to Iowa from Dodge Center. Today we take US-63 out of Rochester. When we get to Lime Springs there is a four way stop and a wide spot in the road, my fuel gauge has started going up ??? So I get out and open the tank. I can not tell how full the fuel tank is, but now that the truck is running I can see ripples on the fuel so I know I have a lot of fuel. Original plat was for me to stop at the rest area near Cedar Falls. But being I didn't have a full tank of fuel, I hope I can make it to the Flying J near Waterloo. If not, anywhere that has diesel. Up to this point BB had been following me, but at the next town it was time for her bathroom break. 2nd (real) stop was in Evansdale at the Flying J for a rest break for me. While there I also properly placed my placards for the up coming scale. Scale was open with two drivers out back. I got the green light so I just crossed and back on the freeway. At the on coming scale one of the officers was outside talking to the truck on the scale. I didn't have that pleasure ... today. Not sure what short circuited in my find today ... but I watched the fuel gauge gradually coming up as I drove, and it wasn't until it was up to the RED that the light in my head went on. RED is empty. I need to get fuel before I drop. And then it was even later that I realized that the DEF and the fuel, being on the same gauge, should have, and were, showing the same. I knew the DEF was almost full based on the gauge, but the fuel was almost empty because it showed the same thing? 3rd stop as at the Pilot in Walcott for fuel. We don't usually stop here because it is the smaller of the three stations at this exit but today it was empty. One car and the car islands and only half the diesel pumps were being used. 12 gallons should get me to the drop above the required 1/4 of fuel. And it does. Another 10 miles down the road and ... 4th stop as at the Mack dealer in Davenport. Almost right across the freeway from the Flying J and Loves we stop at. Not a fan of this truck. When I left the shipper, I thought I was going to end up in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. This thing needs 40 acres to get turned around. I do not remember any truck being this bad. Then when I stopped at the Flying J, I was turning around in the parking lot and had to back up so I didn't hit the cars at the front of the building. And getting back on the freeway there I thought I would hit the light post ... and at the Pilot I had to back up to get into the fuel island ... and at the dealer it took twice as many times to get parked as it usually does. 5th stop. It is now 4 PM and we have not eaten anything since breakfast. We stop at the I-80 truckstop and get shelf food. :) Great food for our our 25th anniversary. BB got a salad and I got a wrap. This place has four fast food options but there were lines. We tried calling local dispatch but only got voicemail. I only tried the dispatcher that gave me this trip, usually the phone will roll to the next dispatcher but not this time. So we may or may not have work for Tuesday. Coming back on I-380 we see a straight truck sitting out in the ditch with it's hood up. Neither of us remembered seeing it there on the way down, and someone was still sitting in it so it likely just happened. Not sure what happened. 6th stop was back at the Flying J in Evansdale. BB used the restroom and I fueled. 7th stop was the Culvers in Clear Lake. It was going to double as some food and a restroom. The lot looked empty so we thought it would be quick. Lot was empty because the lobby was closed. Drive thru only. And based on the line, we guessed it would be a half hour. We left. Coming home the freeway is about five minutes fast than going back up US-63 and it has more food and rest areas. My guess had been that we would drop at 3 PM and be home by 8 PM. Now our goal is 9 PM ... later it will be before 10 PM. It does end up being over a 14 hour day for us. 8th stop - Culvers in Owatonna - one car in line at the drive thru ahead of us, no cars behind us. 9th and final stop is home. BB is beat, after a few minutes relaxing, she is out and doesn't move for 9+ hours. We wouldn't have had to push it to get home it was just the original plan. Load board US - 262 IA - 98 / 97 MN -0- WI - 6 On the load board the IA trip to ND is gone but now there is one to NE. We'll see. Last night the MN board was at -0-, this AM the truck to IN is back on the load board. It's a 'tractor' so I am not sure I would be interested. Pay was good, and it would have gotten us within a few miles of the RV's in IN. |
