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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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220625 MN-MO 1 trash truck to Springfield MO ... spending the night at Story City IA Change of plans due to someone else's illness. We are heading to MO today instead of Sunday. That will give us a half day head start on the trip and spit the miles over three days if the ride is too rough. We got that message about 7:30 AM so we adjusted. We had things that we had planned on doing this afternoon that needed to be done this AM. We finally pulled out about 11 AM, then needed to stop at the office and pick up the paperwork. 2nd stop is the shipper in Dodge Center. Lots of keys for other drivers. Found the truck in a few minutes. No issues. Before I get done with my paperwork, BB calls and says the security guard wants to lock up? Didn't know this place ever locked up. I had been told someone should be around until 3-4 PM, it's only 1 PM. 3rd stop is the Kwik Trip in Kasson for fuel and scale. This place is in the wrong direction, but if the front axle is overweight, we need to bring the truck back to the shop. No issues. I've never had an issue. My guess is one chassis and one box model even can be overweight and no one has done the research to find out which one. So we continue to weight all the trucks. :( We talk about where to stop next and BB decides to check the cost of motels. NONE of the hotels we stay at in the Des Moines area still have rooms. And the low end hotels are 50% more tonight than the higher end motels usual are. ... and there are only three rooms left at the hotel in Story City ... for 50% more than usual. It's a cabover. Governor is set at 60 mph. BB stops at the rest area in Northwood and for fuel at the Pilot in Williams. 3rd stop for me is the rest area in Dows. Just for a stretch, it's a rough ride. 4th and final stop is another half hour down the road at the Comfort Inn in Story City. ... the lot is almost full at 5 PM. I don't see that soon enough and I drive in. There is room to turn around with a few forwards and backwards but it likely would have been faster to back all the way from the street. I back in beside the other two trucks and BB pulls in front of me. There is a former driveway that I can use the pavement of if I need to swing tight to get out. We used to be able to park in the 'outlet mall' next door but now it is an unused business center that will not let us park there and there are 'no truck parking' signs on the street. Food is another leftover sandwich from yesterday's graduation party. When I had gotten out of my truck I noticed I am missing one document that I need. I had noticed earlier that I had one document that I shouldn't have but hadn't looked further. I have texted weekend dispatch but have not heard back. It should be something the can email to me, then I just need to get it printed before delivery. I hadn't expected this, I can delivery on Saturday and Sunday. If we had known that earlier we could have gotten going earlier. Not sure if we will make it by 5 on Sunday now. Load board (Friday) US - 260 IA - 118 MN - 12 Load board (weekend) US - 251 IA - 105 MN - 12 One fuel stop should be all I need tomorrow, about 400 miles to go to the drop. 220626 MN-MO 1 trash truck to Springfield MO (delivered) ... spending the night at Grandview MO BEEP - BEEP - BEEP - BEEP ... it is 12 midnight and the fire alarm is going off. I get up and use the bathroom and go back to bed ... BB gets up and looks out in the hall. People are leaving their rooms, others are looking out there doors. The alarm does not stop so we head down. By the time we get to the 1st floor the alarm goes off and we start meeting people. Not sure why the alarm went off but the desk clerk did not know how to shut it off so they had to call someone to walk them through it. We went back to our room and turned off the alarm. 6:45 we wake up without an alarm. Great bacon for breakfast, the kind that melts in your mouth with lots of flavor. We end up leaving only a half hour later than usual. The truck next to me has gone so I would have been able to get out if everyone else was still there but there are empty spots. BB moved our car so I would not have sound the backup alarm. My truck must be ghost this AM near Des Moines. First a van passes me and pulls back in my lane with only a couple of feet between their back bumper and mine ... which meant I had to make room for the trailer they were pulling. I laid on the horn and they kept coming over ... watching me in their mirror ??? A few miles later an old lady came over the white line as she was passing me ... and before I left town a young guy typing on his cell phone came over on me. So I was sounding my horn today. Also sounded it once at a deer that was standing in the ditch, used the truck horn for that one. 1st stop was the Loves in Eagleville for fuel. Fuel pump keypad wasn't working so I had to pay inside. When it was time to leave the people ahead of me hadn't left so I needed to back out. BB had stopped somewhere at a rest area and then was waiting by my truck when I came back out of Loves. Two recent incidents before Kansas City. At the 1st one there were two vehicles in the ditch and two people hugging. No officers on the scene yet. At the 2nd there was someone backwards in the median. By the time BB went past the officers were on the scene. As I am on the ramp from one freeway to the other in south Kansas City I am taking the ramp to fast and one of the alarms starts going off. There are alarms for all kinds of things on these trash trucks, for just about everything that is not 'in place' at highway speeds. This icon looks like it is something on the roof that is out of position. The alarm goes off a couple of minutes and then when I hit a bump it goes off. From then on it is mostly off until I make the turn on to the final street by the drop. Then it comes on again, no more bumps so it stays on while moving. But it goes off when I stop so I'm good for delivery ... and that is why it goes to a dealer. Pre-delivery inspection. Actually I had an alarm going off when the road was rough ever since I picked this truck up but the beeps were so short that I couldn't see which icon it was. Most likely this one. 2nd stop was for lunch at the Loves in Harrisonville. I got there before BB and by the time BB got there a tour bus had pulled in. So that meant that there was a line at both McD's and Subway. So we had shelf/roller food. We still had sandwiches from Friday but these were the two on the top in the cooler and were warm when BB took them out last night. We brought them with ... and then between not having any mayo :) and them having been warm we decided on roller food. Loves didn't have any mayo either. Maybe could have got some at Subway but would have had to wait in line and if we did that we would have gotten a new sandwich. When I first got there and again when we were ready to leave I tried calling the drop but no answer. The rest of the trip was off interstate. I had not looked at a map so I expected two lane road and small towns. Turns out it was four lane all the way and only a couple of 45 mph zones. BB tried to stop at the Pilot in Collins but took the long way and had to stop and look at directions. That delay and a prior stop in Clinton to read text messages is why I got to the drop before her driving 10 mph slower. 3rd and final stop was the drop. Before I get there I can see open doors ... things are looking up. I get there and find the office. Someone finally looks up at me (no phones ringing, lots of help... no one answers on the weekends?) and mumbles something about weekend delivers and then tells me where to park it. He had mentioned 'inside the fence' but all that is there are semi tractors. What I have is already sold so I park it next to another new trash truck. He comes out and inspects the truck and I am in and out in under 15 minutes. I again forget to take pictures but I have the truck dropped and we can head back yet tonight. BB is about five minutes behind me. Once in the car we look at the trips on the load board and decide that none are worth doing from here. We will head back to KC and see what things look like in the AM. 4th stop is the BrakeTime gas station for a restroom. 5th stop is the McCallister for food, BB had ordered ahead on line. Then another block to the Comfort Inn for the night. 220627 NE-IA 1 trash truck to Guttenberg IA (Tuesday) ... spending the night at Gothenburg NE No timetable, no alarm. At 8:30 we head down for breakfast. There is still food but there are also 'No taking food from dining area' signs. So we only take what fits in our pockets, fruit cups and fruit ... and carry our juice/coffee in cups. When we get back to our room I call my local dispatcher, it was Monday morning and they were not ready to work of future trips but they asked the other dispatchers if they had anything. One did. In Gothenburg NE. I know that place, without doing the math, I agree to take it. I thought they were only building small trash trucks at this location but this is another large one. A Peterbilt. I still take it and we get ready to head out. We have just enough time to get to the shipper before they close today. Long miles between stops today and running at 70-75 mphs covers a lot of miles but makes for a long day. 1st stop is at the Trails End in Rock Port at the Subway for food. From there I tried calling the shipper but after the computer forwarding me a few times it hung up on me. This happened a couple of times before I called my dispatcher and gave me the 'how to' to get ahold of the remote location I was trying to reach. I got a voicemail there also so I left a message. An hour down the road I got a call back, they seemed to be unsure about my truck so they were going to call me back a 2nd time. By the time they had called back, we had checked motel prices and the cheapest hotel was in Gothenburg. No reason to rush to pick up the truck. So when the shipper called back, I asked if they would rather I picked up the truck tonight or tomorrow. "Tomorrow would be better." So we are heading to the hotel. WOW Near York NE three irrigation circles had been blown over a few months ago. Now there are dozens, and miles of corn that has been disked down. Likely because of hail damage. Most fields have a few rows of corn that were not disked down. Some have been re-seeded in beans. At least that is what I looked like, the crops are pretty small for the last days of June. BB decides we need to stop at a rest area so she looks in the book and sees we just past one ... might be why she thought of it? There was another rest area coming up but there was a Loves closer. 2nd stop was the Loves in Aurora for a rest break. I got out and stretched and then saw a transporter in the fuel islands. I went close enough to see that there wasn't a driver near it and to see who the carrier was. And then BB was back so we headed out again. 3rd and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Gothenburg. After we checked in we were planning on going across the street for food but they are closed on Mondays. So we ended up at T Walker's instead. Little diner, we called ahead and the food would be ready in 10 minutes. We are out of vitamin C drops so we stopped at the local drug store on the way to pick up food. Small place with a drive thru. The only items for sale were on the far wall and under the counter, everything else was prescription but they had what we came for. For such a small place they had three times the staff our our local pharmacy near home at the grocery store. When I walked into the diner I was asked if I was (my name.) This is a 24 table diner with other customers, I must have been only stranger they had talked to today. I had thought maybe they had recognized my voice but they called me by name before I said anything. Food was good, we'll be back. (Better than the food across the street) When we went to get food, we drove past the shipper. I saw a truck that looked like it was set out for an 'after hours' pickup, something that was not offered to me. But we did not see my truck, hopefully we see it tomorrow. When we got to the hotel I saw that my local dispatch is already wanting me to do a ND trip next week. That is past when I have agreed to work. But ... We have spent time looking at the trips on the load board and the trips and rental cars do not make us money. It may just be like last summer where we stayed close to home and did short trips. The longest trip is to Medford OR. A rental car will cost us over $1,000. Other trips are not much better. Load board US - 252 IA - 105 MN - 11 Tomorrow we will pick up early and get most of the 500+ miles and then drop Wednesday AM. From there we are about three hours from either Forest City or Dodge Center, our most likely pick up locations. We have looked at renting a local car but prices are up even for locals over the 4th of July. 220628 NE-IA 1 trash truck to Guttenberg IA (Failed) 1 trash truck to Williston ND (Wednesday) ... spending the night at Story City IA Breakfast was mussy eggs and good bacon. Plan was to be at the shipper at 8 AM and we were slow enough this AM that that is about the time we got there. ... Just before their 8 AM meeting. Wished they had told me that, we could have been here sooner ... or later. Short meeting and then I signed the paperwork and someone walked the keys out. As soon as we got to the truck we noticed the chipped window. Other than that all looked good, I switched the battery and pulled the dip sticks before the keys got there. I'm used to switching the battery when I get to a truck, I expect them to be turned off, this one wasn't. No issues with the start up. But when we checked the lights, one headlight didn't have a high. And we had no back up lights or an alarm. After doing the rest of the pre-trip I head into the office. My original contact is quite surprised that I have found an issue. When they talk to the shop person ... they know all about it and are un-able to correct the problem. I tell them that I will talk to my company and wait for an answer. For most of the first hour the shop person stays with the truck and I, then after a few more phone calls we realize this will take a while. Finally the shop person takes the truck back into the shop to try a couple of more checks. Then he brings back the truck, no luck. That is my que to head out. Dispatch does not have any trips anywhere close so we are heading back to MN. We should have done the math before taking this trip. BB and I had looked at other trips for our long haul company and the deadhead miles on those was less than this one. Now we have even more deadhead miles. No idea what this trip will pay. Three hours of downtime and 600 miles out of route. We head back into town where gas had been 20 cents cheaper than those by the freeway, then we head out. 1st stop was for food in Kearney. Lots of choices, our top three were all within feet of each other. BB wanted FireHouse Subs. But the sign on their door said they were out of a few items ... and only had two people working today ... and other signs. So we went to the Pepper Jax next door. We have eaten at the one in Cedar Rapids a few times but didn't know they were a chain. Fast food, lots of help. I had them cut the sandwich in three so it would be easier to eat while I drove. It was easier to eat, and would have been easier if more of the items had made it on to the bun. 2nd stop is the rest area near York. BB had taken a few pictures of the overturned irrigation circles, when we stopped, I took a picture of the corn/now bean field. The disaster went on for about 35 miles near York NE. From here I call local dispatch and agree to take the Williston truck they wanted moved next week, we will do it this week. Then I asked about next week ... no plans. Everything is too expensive and un-predictable. They do not want anyone out over the holiday. We are going to try something different this trip, the company shuttle driver will drop my paperwork in my truck when they drop off drivers at 7:30. Usually my office has to fax paperwork to the shipper and have them hand it to me. So we will pick up the truck tomorrow/Wednesday AM. Drop Thursday. Home Friday. No plans for over the holiday weekend. Still watching the load board and travel options. 3rd stop was the Loves in Shelby. Short stop. We didn't really decide where to stop until we got past Ankeny. That narrowed our hotels down to Story City and Albert Lea. Albert Lea is not giving us a discount so that makes them about 50% more. We will be staying in Story City. 4th stop is the Kum and Go in Ankeny. BB wanted a rest area, we needed gas. BB had said all the cheap fuel was back in Des Moines but I had not mentioned I needed gas to her at that point. Fuel was cheaper here than anywhere except the WalMart that had already past. 5th stop was the Arbey's in Ames, better food than anything we wanted in Story City. Chicken Salad Sandwich? The don't have it anymore. Roasted chicken? The do not carry it anymore. We might be stopping at Arbey's less. 6th and final stop was back at the Comfort Inn in Story City. Not as crowded as last time. Hopefully no fire alarms tonight. Load board US - 258 IA - 97 MN - 16 Pickup should be about 10 AM, we have hopes to get to Jamestown. If we only make it to Fargo it will be tight to make it to the drop on Friday.
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