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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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211220 MN-MN 1 truck to Bloomington MN (towed) ... spending the night at home We got to the office about 9 AM, I was expecting to see the bus crew but no one else was in the office except our safety man interviewing yet another new driver. My paperwork is laying on the counter so I grab it and talk to no one. We aren't in a big rush today and it is a good thing. 1st I couldn't find the dip stick on the truck, it was behind one of the air pipes. Then the truck wouldn't start. I figured it had a battery shut off somewhere but I couldn't find it. Then BB sat in the drivers seat while I was looking on the outside of the truck and she found it, it was under the passenger seat. So I got the truck started but their were two red 'stop engine' lights on. So I stopped it and called dispatch. They said let the truck run to warm up and see if it goes off. It didn't. At some point I realized the DEF gauge was flashing, it is off to the side under where the radio would be if there was one. These trucks can not be run without DEF. All it takes is the computer to THINK there is no DEF and they will not run. Well they do run, but they run slow and at some point it will ruin the engine. Dispatch said to 'stick the tank' so I did, with the oil stick. It is hard to see clear water on a metal stick. So we decided the next best way was to drive it down to the fuel station and put in more DEF. Our safety man gave me the OK to drive it. But when I went to leave the truck would not go over 5 mph. I drive faster than that in a parking lot so I parked it and drove with the car to get DEF. I poured in one gallon and it was full. It is a 10 gallon tank. So no DEF was not the problem. Oh, 2nd problem was that the passenger door would not stay shut. But the seat belt is long enough so that I put that through the door handle and buckled the seat belt :) A few more phone calls to dispatch and a couple of dozen pictures later I was done for the day. -0- miles in under three hours. The pictures were taken at the request of the drop, they want to make sure nothing is damaged between our lot and theirs. They must have really had an issue as we don't have to take that many pictures when we get a bus towed. Later in the day I get a call asking if I want to go to Duluth on Thursday, a week from this Thursday. I told them no, I hope to be looking at waves and palm trees by then. It isn't often they know more than a day ahead of time, this was unusual. It is also unusual that they have no work, it is the end of the quarter and end of the year. But on our load board there is nothing coming out of MN either. Maybe they are out of parts? Load board US - 288 IA - 59/56 MN -0- WI - 11 The load board does have one RV going to St Cloud if we wanted to work. We don't yet. |
