 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
220110 NE-MN 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN (Tuesday) ... spending the night at Worthington MN Breakfast was eggs and bacon, with yogurt to go. We have been in town since Friday night, the 1st night we spent at a hotel by the airport. In the morning BB still didn't feel up to driving so we moved to a hotel closer to our house for the next two nights. On Saturday we got a late check out and an early check in. On Sunday we did a quick trip to Walmart for a half dozen items. Other than that we have been hotel bound. At 8 AM I call my dentist and get my appointment moved from Tuesday to today. I also email my local dispatcher about the phone call from last week. I never heard back from the dispatcher so I assume they had the load covered. BB wants to get some things from our house so I drop her off before my appointment. Nothing new/good on the load board yet but she will call and either take the trips or will put them on hold if something comes up. I'm in and out of my appointment within an hour. Two CA trips did come up but today is Monday and for us that is a four plus day trip. Meaning we would have to leave out on Tuesday and get there on Saturday, but can't deliver until Monday. Better sitting in CA than here but we didn't take them. Also they were not 'no-tow' so they would have paid $300 less that the last trips. Finally at 2 PM a new trip out of Bemidji shows up and we finally make a decision. Nebraska. It should be 32 degrees when we pick up in NE instead of 10 degrees in Bemidji. I call the dispatcher and we head out within the hour. I was home for about two hours, BB for three. She did get a few loads of clothes done in that time so we are good for another couple of weeks. Sometime after we are on the road we get the email that I did get the trip. We want to get as far as we can tonight before dark so we can get the res to of the way plus back to the drop in daylight hours tomorrow. 1st stop is Owatonna for fuel at the Fleet Farm. Gas is $.25 cheaper than most places. While we are there, I call the shipper. No one answers and it goes to voicemail, the mail box is full. At past locations that means that my contact is no longer with the company. Then I get a call from my log department. I don't have what they are talking about in front of me so I have to look at it later and now I have no idea why they called me. We prefer not to drive after dark but we also want to get as far as we can tonight. We plan on getting to Worthington. After that there is not another large hotel until Sioux City IA another hour and a half from Worthington. BB orders online from the Hickory Lodge. It is inside a ma and pa hotel. It was built as a Holidome but has had lots of names over the last 10 years. I think the last chain name it had was a Rodeway Inn. But the restaurant has stayed and still has good food. 2nd and final stop is Worthington. First at the Hickory Inn to pick up our food and then the Comfort Inn for the night. The Comfort Inn is supposed to have drinks and snacks M-Th but we didn't see them and didn't ask. Good food. I had a Philly and loaded hashbrowns. Unfortunately a lot of places use PepperJack cheese on Philly's, as this one did. Way too much kick for me. But the hash browns did help cut the burn. BB had some kind of shrimp. Load board US - 251 IA - 56/50 Plan is to pick up tomorrow around 10 AM and drop back in Shakopee around 5 PM. If no good RV trips show up, there right now is still the Bemidji and also another one coming out of NE, but the next one is going to IA. It is roughly the same number of paid miles but leaves up another hour from the RV's compared to Shakopee. But new trips are added daily. LOG (like) 2:00 - Call dispatch 3:00 - Leave home 4:15 - Fuel in Owatonna 6:30 - Arrive in Worthington for food and Comfort Inn 220111 NE-MN 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN (delivered) ... spending the night at Plymouth MN Breakfast, they had the 'bacon sausage' patties so I went the egg route this AM, then I nuked the rest of my loaded hash browns from last night. This place slips the bill under the door and I just grabbed it and didn't look at it until later. They billed me for a safe. Another $1.50 wasted. Take that times 200+ hotel stays a year and it does add up. Four lane highway all the way to Sioux City. 1st stop was a Casey's in Sioux City for restroom and fuel before we head into the great beyond. The computer gave us two routes, one had lots of turns and the other was pretty much one right turn in the next 50 miles. We did the one right turn route. Opps :) That one right turn route was 20 miles of gravel road up, down and around hills. Lots of 20 mph driving. On the plus side we did not have to slow down for any towns. The only other traffic we saw was one road grader, he waved at us :) Not sure how much extra time that added to our day, computer said it was only 15 minutes more. Seemed like another half hour or more. 2nd stop was the shipper. I didn't pull in far enough before I parked to see all the signs and ended up in the wrong office the first time. When I got to the correct office they wondered why I had not called, they would have had the pickup ready and waiting. I showed them the number on my paperwork. 'I have told them before to change that number, I'll tell them again.' We were in and out of the shipper in a half hour. This place had more paperwork for me to sign and they did their own 'exit' inspection. Other than three chips in the windshield and being almost on empty the truck was empty, clean (?) and good to go. 3rd stop was the closest gas station about five miles down the road. Casey's. It showed I had a range of 31 miles and it was about 55 back to Sioux City. We were taking a different way back and we didn't look on that route for fuel. It was cheaper here than most places so BB did the math and guessed I would make about 20 mpg. We took the road with all the turns heading back. The turns were curves in the road. It was one NE state highway and then US-20 back into IA. And it didn't take us nearly as long. 4th stop(s) were for food in Sioux City. First I got off at the same exit we had fueled at this morning, I thought I had seen food there. Yes, there was one Burger King that was closed, it was being remodeled. Second stop for food was McD's at the next exit. Drive thru only, there was a long line and we both wanted to use the restroom before we headed across IA. Third stop was Arby's, finally food. I was walking out with my food by the time BB was walking in. 5th stop was in Windom MN to check for work. I had thought we were going to decide by 3 PM what work we wanted for tomorrow. 6th stop was in St James MN to call BB, I guess we didn't get the same line of though from our conversation. BB wants to wait and decide until 5 PM / 7 AM. 7th stop was the drop in Shakopee. Different crew this time of might. We got there just after dark which is 5 PM now. Local dispatch is now closed and eastern dispatchers have been closed an hour. While BB is waiting for me she gets a call from home. The person at our house that two weeks ago had to get their car jumped twice and then got a new battery ... then had two friends test positive for Covid, and got non-Covid sick themselves ... today had a 'noise' in their car and was told to drive directly to the shop without stopping. Had a pulley bearing go. Makes it hard to add money to that 'new car' fund. We decide to get a local hotel. 8th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Plymouth. There was a closer, cheaper one but this one has good food next door. Lucky's. BB is so hungry tonight that SHE actually called our food order in and then we picked it up and ate it in our room before carrying the rest of our luggage in. Turkey wild rice soup. Good soup. We each got a half a sandwich besides. Load board US - 283 IA - 63/56 Nothing good on the load board so we will likely call in for another 'auction truck.' There is one coming back from Bemidji and another one from Carroll NE but this one goes to IA. We will likely do the Bemidji one tomorrow. MAYBE the IA after that if nothing still shows up. Snow forecast for Friday, I'd like to be gone. LOG 7:30 - Leave Comfort Inn in Worthington MN 9:30 - Fuel at Casey's in Sioux City IA 11:00 - Pre-trip at shipper in Carroll NE 11:45 - Fuel at Casey's in Wayne NE 12:30 - Food at Arbey's in Sioux City IA 3:00 - Stop to text in Windom MN 3:30 - Stop to call in St James MN 5:15 - Drop at Shakopee MN
220112 MN-MN 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN (delivered) ... spending the night at Mankato MN I call the east coast dispatcher at 7 AM local to get the Bemidji trip. It is gone. He knew that last night but did not post the updated list because ... he didn't think anyone wanted the last NE trip and that was the only truck left. We had talked about taking that truck but at the moment I passed. Breakfast was yogurt and an orange. No hot food, just some stuff to nuke. We had looked at taking a Dodge Center truck to Lincoln NE and then up to pickup the last NE auction truck but that might keep us out long enough to get caught in the next winter storm. Inches of snow is forecast for SW MN, IA, SD, NE with other areas not getting as much. The area of high snow fall has grown through out the day. But we don't want to sit all day so we set 9 AM as when we will call and take the last NE auction trip if nothing better shows up on the load board. Nothing shows up so I call the dispatcher and say I will take the last NE trip ... 'if nothing else is coming.' As I am talking to him the next batch of trips shows up. I hang up and then call back after BB and I have looked at it. There are now eight trucks out of Worthington MN all coming back to Shakopee. When I call the dispatcher back, he wants me to take at least two. If we were not coming up on that storm and the weekend I'd be willing to take them all. Two we can get done before the storm so we agree and head out before getting the paperwork. 1st stop is Mankato to print paperwork. We have gotten both sets of paperwork emailed to us. First stop is Kwik Trip but they can only accept faxes and I can't email to fax on my phone and do not want to bug dispatch to fax to the truckstop. Second stop is the FedEx listed online, they only do packages. Third is a Walgreens that also shows as a FedEx site, they are clueless as to anything about FedEx. So after wasting 15-30 minutes we head out of town. That is the biggest town before Worthington, no more truck stops, no Walmart's, no other place we can think of to print paperwork. There is one truckstop in Worthington but we have tried to print stuff there before and then it was the same as Kwik Trip, fax only. So ... 2nd stop is the hotel we stayed at the night before last. We just walk in like we belong there. Often there is no one around in the middle of the day. The desk clerk heads to the front desk when they see me, three other people are cleaning within feet of where the computer is. But I just used this hotel computer so I know how it works and things go quickly. No questions on the way in or on the way out. I print out paperwork for both of the next trips. The shipping location is another job site so the aerial maps are not of any help. Down another gravel road we go, but on this one we should be at the shipper in two miles. We get there and all there is is a pile of rocks in the corner of the field. But we know we are picking up from an electric company and we can see that someone is going to be replacing the blades and the motors on the windmills in this area so we know we are in the correct area. The freeway is behind us so I keep driving down the street name that we have. Yep, a half a block from the next blacktop road is our shipper. 3rd stop is the shipper in Worthington. My first truck is the first one in line, we also see my second truck. But all of the trucks are locked so I head to the office and find someone who knows the trucks are leaving. They tell me where the keys are and I hadn't looked in all the usual places. So I head back out to the trucks only to find out that BB HAD looked in all the usual places and the keys were not there. So back to the office. After a few text messages the person I have been talking to finds someone who knows. And they bring the keys from somewhere to us in a baggie. Good news, the fuel tank shows 3/4 and a range of 150 miles. I have 154 miles to go but I should gain some range. We do the rest of the pre-trip and all is OK so I get the paperwork signed and am good to go. When I stop back to talk to BB I notice there is a dent in the front bumper. Not sure how I miss those things. So far no issues with any damage on these trucks. I take more pictures of the damage and we are ready to head out. This time on the blacktop, not the gravel road and also not through Worthington so that saves another five miles. BB had been eating breakfast late lately, today it was closer to noon. So I just grab a box of Fruit Loops that we had from a prior hotel stay and that is today's lunch as I go. 4th stop is the drop in Shakopee. Two hours from the shipper so a nice short run. Same person as yesterday to check me in. This guy has more problems than most with his computer during check in but it gets done. The fuel I had a pickup was enough. I had a range of 150 miles at pickup. I drove 152 miles and now it shows a range of 340 MORE miles. While I was driving dispatchers from both companies called wanting me to move trucks out of Dodge Center. And both have short trips heading to Chicago which will keep us away from the Thursday/Friday snow. BB thinks one company pays better than the other, I would have to look at the math, later. We still have a second truck to move tomorrow so we head back in that direction. 5th stop is in Le Sueur at the rest area. 6th stop is in St Peter for food at Erbert and Gerbert's. It took a while to find online because it is listed under restaurants not under fast food. 7th and final stop was first at the BP for fuel and then the Comfort Inn in Worthington. To get to the Comfort Inn we drove past a bunch of fire trucks and smelled a very strong natural gas smell but two hours later we still haven't heard a big boom so I'm guessing it was taken care of. Non work news - The car I mentioned yesterday is done. We call the car 'crash' because it is pretty smashed up and the latest issue was it didn't sound right because a belt was loose. A closer look showed the belt was loose because something had broken off. And to replace what broke would cost about $1,000 in just labor to replace before starting on the other parts. So someone is going to have to buy a new car and we will have to be on the lookout for our next backup car. AND we just heard tonight that one of BB's uncles had died ... over a month ago. Once BB's Dad died the rest of the family just lost contact. Load board US - 296 IA - 62/55 There had been another CA RV but only one good one at a time and then it is gone by the time the next one shows up. We will likely call in for one of the three trash trucks heading to Chicago and leave out after we drop the 2nd pickup. We should get as far as La Crosse on Thursday night and deliver shortly after noon on Friday. Not sure what we'll do from there. LOG 9:30 - Plymouth MN - leave hotel 11:00 - Mankato MN - stop 3 places to try to print BL's 1:00 - Worthington MN - Comfort Inn to print BL's 1:30 - Worthington MN - shipper to pickup pickup 4:00 - Shakopee MN - drop pickup 5:00 - La Sueur MN - rest area 5:30 - St Peter MN - Erbert and Gerbert''s 5:45 - Mankato MN - BP for fuel 6:00 - Mankato MN - Comfort Inn 220113 MN-IL 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN (delivered) 1 trash truck to Wheeling IL ... spending the night at La Crosse WI Breakfast this AM was bacon, eggs and yogurt. BB took stuff to eat later. I had told the local dispatcher I would call them back at 9 AM, but I called before the office opened and said I had other plans. I had the car in gear at 7:30 this AM and rolling. At 8 AM BB dials and puts dispatch on speaker phone. I get a trash truck going to Northbrook IL. 1st stop is in Mountain Lake at a Casey's for the restroom and for me to call the shipper. Today they said to stop in the office for the keys, it must have been talked about yesterday. 2nd stop is the shipper. I overhear that another transporter is about 45 minutes behind me. I never see them. The person with the keys meets me at my truck. Bad news, good news. The truck says it has a range of 39 miles, the good news is the tank is over half full. I do not find any issues with this truck and we are in and out in less than a half hour. But Opps, when I call in to get dispatched in the computer, they can not. Seems the first dispatcher I talked to today dispatched me already. So a quick call to them, yup, they oppsed. 3rd stop is the drop in Shakopee. Busy today, five people checking cars in and out instead just one or two. There is also an auction going on so the parking lot is full. 4th stop is the Honey Baked Ham in Burnsville for sandwiches. If it is close to time to eat and we are in the area, it is our 'to go' place. 5th stop is the Fleet Farm in Owatonna for fuel. Gas is often $.25 a gallon less here. For the less than 10 gallons our tank holds. 6th stop is Dodge Center. First the office, no one has shoveled the sidewalk to the office yet. I have to dig through over a dozen packets to find mine. Then to the shipper, all the keys are in a lock box and I can not find mine. Someone in the office hears me moving keys and walks out to help. There is a 2nd lock box for this company, both are almost full. 30-40 trucks waiting for drivers. (I didn't open my other companies box to see how many trips they have waiting) I was wearing my 'other company' jacket today but had put my reflector vest over it. But when I walked out I realized that the vest does not really cover the name part, Not sure if the office person noticed or cares. Found my truck, CNG. No issues. but it does take a half hour plus to check it out. We do the brake and backup light check as we are leaving. This place does not like extra people walking around so this time we do not. We had done the math and La Crosse will be close to dark. Mauston would be another hour ... and the deli has lasagna tonight. 7th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in La Crosse. This hotel's parking lot is laid out so that I fit across four spots. After checking in, we/I call Ciatti's for Italian food. :) When I picked up this truck we are not supposed to move them until we leave the lot. So when we got to the hotel I took better pictures, then I went to grab my stuff from the passenger side and notice I have lost my placard, blew off in the wind and BB didn't notice and she had been following me the whole way. I think this is the first one I have lost in 18 years. Luckily BB has her set which I will use until I can pick up a new set. I actually have extra placards, I just do not have the IFTA stickers on them, those the company has to give us. And they give us one set per person. ... and we get a call from home, the person who's car has died is using our other car and having issues with that. This time we were able to walk them through it over the phone. As I am typing this, BB and I are talking and I look up the company scheduled fuel stops. For CNG we need to stop where they say so that we do not run out of fuel. (and if we do, it is on them, not the driver) The 1st stop is here in town, just out of route. The 2nd one has numbers transposed. I have fueled there before so I knew right away it was wrong. The 3rd stop is 90 miles out of route ??? I email the dispatcher. Something is wrong. ... Oh, something was wrong at pickup but I let it go without a comment. This truck is going to a different place than I requested, only six miles difference so I let it go. I guess I should not have. When BB asked me a question now, I looked at a copy of what the shipper gives us instead of what the carrier gives us. I have two different addresses. That will be a phone call for the AM. I need to know which route I am supposed to take, the computer does not show 'my way' as an option. Load board US - 296 IA - 69/64 We don't know a plan for tomorrow yet. But once we drop we are looking for more work. So far the trips on the load board don't pay after a rental car. We are also watching the ever expanding storm watch area over MN/IA. LOG 7:30 - Leave Comfort Inn in Mankato MN 8:00 - Call dispatch while moving 8:30 - Mountain Lake - Casey's - call shipper 9:15 - Worthington MN - Pre-trip at shipper 12:15 - Shakopee MN - Post-trip at drop 12:45 - Burnsville MN - Honey Baked Ham 2:30 - Dodge Center - office and Pre-trip 4:45 - La Crosse MN - Arrive at Comfort Inn 5:30 - La Crosse MN - Ciatti's .. the trip continues HERE
|
