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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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220718 MN-ND 1 trash truck to Fargo ND (Wednesday) ... spending the night ... on vacation Local dispatch had contacted me last week about a couple of trips, I told them I would let them know Monday. Early this AM they messaged me to say the truck has been moved to the office, so that COULD make this a one day trip. I let them know we will do it Wednesday. No good trips from the rental dispatcher for near us. My 'long haul' dispatchers have a couple of short ones that will keep us busy ... if they are still there when we have time. It looks like we will be staying local for a while. Appt's, etc. Tomorrow we will head home so we are ready to go Wednesday AM. Load board Tuesday US - 126 IA - 3 MN - 7 Load board - Wednesday US - 111 IA - 7 Load board - Thursday US - 107 IA - 10 Load board - Firday US - 91 IA -0- MN - 6 - Load board - Weekend US - 83 IA - 0 Load board - Monday US - 111 IA - 19 MN - 5 220720 MN-ND 1 trash truck to Fargo ND (delivered) 1 bus to staging (Thursday) ... spending the night at Grand Forks ND We were up and ready to go, sort of. I was not really prepared, I just kind of threw everything together and got out a little later than planned. So far it looks like I only forgot my clipboard. My truck is the only one at the lot. Everything checks out but it takes us a half hour. 1st stop for me is the Pilot in Alexandria. I am using more fuel than I expected. I guess that I am getting 5 mpg and add enough fuel to get me to the drop with a quarter of a tank. I thought. When I get back, I realize that it was not enough fuel, I will need to stop again. The truck runs at 65 mph, it is a cabover and rides like one. The only issue was that twice the radar saw the overhead bridge, the front radar never did see a car and some were within a half a car length of me when they pulled back over. 2nd stop was the Petro in Fargo for five gallons more fuel. I had looked at a map but when I went out the marked exit I was heading the wrong way from what I wanted. I had written down the turns but they weren't there. So I take what is close. The signs say 'no trucks,' but I am a trash truck and today is a trash day :) After a few trips around where the streets were not, I finally realized that I was near '9th St E' not '9th St NE.' Opps. That cost me a half hour on what should have been a five minute trip. Good thing I added more fuel. BB is waiting and texting me before I get there. When I get there, the first person I talk to is a female dispatcher that wants to give me a huge. This is the first new truck she has gotten at this location since she has been there ... when I go in the office later I see the sign by her door. Something like 'Boss Mama.' I'm signed off clear, I'm free to go. Dispatch had called me earlier and left a message, they have a bus ... I call and set it up. The bus will not be ready until tomorrow at 10 AM. We need to get a hotel. 1st we head to McCallister's. BB is driving, but the GPS doesn't keep up and we have to take another trip around the block. The weather is not too hot so we eat outside. Before we leave the parking lot, we make a reservation at Grand Forks. The high end hotel there is the same price as the mid-grade hotel in Crookston and we will get more rewards points. Final stop for the day is the Sleep Inn in Grand Forks. There are not any blue highway signs so I miss our turn and it takes a couple of extra miles to get there. Later we head to the Erbert and Gerberts, but they are closed for the day. So we walk next door to the Noodles and Company. Not the same place I remember. We got it to go. We will be back. We did go for a walk later, at almost sunset so it had started getting cooler. Dispatch had sent me a bill of lading, this place has a computer and everything worked to get it printed easily. Load board - Tuesday US - 131 IA - 26 MN - 8 Load board - Friday US - 186 IA - 55 MN - 9 IF the bus is ready at 10 AM, we should be back to the home office by 4 PM. Not sure what are plans are for Friday. The rental dispatcher did have a Thief River Falls to the cities trip. There also had been a Duluth trip out of IA and others trash trucks. It all depends on what is still there Thursday PM. I have a meeting on Tuesday and an appt on Wednesday ... then I need to get my DOT physical within a month. 220721 MN-MN 1 bus to Lake Elmo MN ... spending the night at Crookston MN Breakfast - eggs, sausage/bacon, hash browns and grape juice. Eggs were instant but everything else was good. We pulled out at 9 AM for a 10 AM pickup. It's been two plus years since I have been here and once upon I was up here five/six days a week. Things in the entry are still in Covid status. All lunch tables are dividing to to 'personal spaces' and there is no longer a place to sit. My contact just happened to be at the front desk when I walked in so that much went quickly. But with no where to sit and no marked place to stand, it seemed like a long wait until my contact came back and said the bus was ready. The paperwork went quickly, then they decided to send some 'freight' along with me to drop at their other location. That took a little while longer than it took me to inspect the bus. 20 miles down the road I slow as I enter the first town ... and notice that I have lost my speedometer. Not a major issue but I am still close to the shipper so I stop and call dispatch. I am told to do the usual, turn the battery switch off and wait 5 minutes. I wait 10 and restart. Now I have other issues, one is forgetting to put the bus back in park and that causes other issues. I call dispatch again and they say to turn the battery off a 2nd time and wait again. As I am walking back to shut the battery off, it clicks that the warning beeping is familiar. I re-check my bus and call dispatch back. Somewhere the 'shut the battery off again' got lost in the conversation and I am told to head back to the shipper. Once I am moving I call the dispatcher back to let them know I am moving without issues. Until I try to move again. it will not move. So I need to over-ride the system and listen to a warning beeper for 20 miles. About five miles down the road, the speedometer starts working again. But the beeping goes on. Back at the shipper, they are waiting for me. When the tech comes out to look at the bus the 2nd issue has cleared also. There is no computer record of an issue and no warning lights currently on. After checking a few things, he updates the computer system and sends me on my way. This time I am watching the dash closely. I make it past Beltrami (the 1st town) and no issues. Because of the delay we have decided to stop in Ada instead of Fergus Falls to eat. As I slow for Ada I loose my speedometer again. I just park near the Subway and shut off the battery. After eating I call dispatch to find out 'what if,' but they want me try starting the bus now. Same issue as last time. I am heading back to Crookston a 2nd time. And same as last time, the speedometer comes back about five miles out of town but the beeping goes on. Once I get to the lot, BB calls to tell me that my 4-way flasher quit flashing a few miles back. But they had keep flashing inside the bus. The 1st person I see this time says 'Welcome back' ... and then 'it's never a good thing to see you on this end of the building.' He did not know I was coming back (now,) he is one of the many employees that I had gotten to know well and hadn't seen for two years. Shortly they had a tech at my bus with a computer who wanted every detail I could remember. Another driver had had the same issue and he was never able to find the source and sent the driver back on the road. This time he want's to find the why. 3 hours later, dispatch calls and asks if I want to head to the hotel ... I'm guessing they do not want more after hours calls. I agree, I do not want to be on the side of the road after dark just starting to trouble shoot or wait for a tow truck. By this time the tech is setting up a computer to watch the bus computer and has one of their drivers lined up to drive the bus. I leave them my number but do not hear anything back. Tonight the hotel in Crookston is cheaper than Grand Forks. They have two rooms left vs one of 'our' hotels in hotel already being sold out. We opt for Crookston even thou the tech had given the name of a good place to eat in Grand Forks. The As we are bringing our luggage in, someone is carrying in their food, I ask where it is from ... the Irishman's Shanty. When I look it up I see that I have eaten there before, I just didn't remember the name. It is a block from the shipper. So after looking at the menu we head that way. But on the way we see a food truck. Oof-da Taco's. The used to have a truck in Ada drivers would stop at, then the city changed the rules on food trucks and they pulled out. They also have a booth at our State Fair. We stop here instead. They are making the food as fast as people are giving their orders. Sometimes the food is on the counter before the money changes hands. Good food for a Swede that likes mild food :) Closer to dark we go for a walk at the closest cemetery. I am looking for two flat stones in cemetery that has 9,000+ graves. We find them, not sure how. At one point I was looking for something on the phone and BB says to look down, we were standing right next to them. Load board US - 162 IA - 40 MN - 10 Tomorrow will be Friday, most likely we will be heading back sometime during the day. With or without a bus. Maybe by Friday they will have a different bus ready. They average about four buses a day and I have been the only bus since Wednesday. They are still re-starting after their two week shut down. 220722 MN-MN 1 bus Lake Elmo MN (staging) final delivery NYC ... spending the night at Crookston MN Up before the (late) alarm and down for breakfast. Pretty much like the breakfasts at the Quality/Sleep Inn's. Eggs, sausage, yogurt, juice. Not sure when we may have stayed at an AmericInn last. The only thing missing is the elevator. Shortly after 8 AM my dispatcher calls and says my bus is ready. They drove it 70+ miles and no issues (so no fix.) I was thinking it would be later in the AM so I was not ready. But within the hour we were at the shipper. I didn't get in right away and when an employee coming to work let me in, I asked at the desk if they had heard me buzzing in. Nope ... and then they looked, the sound was shut off ??? This time when I got there my contact was sitting in the lunch room instead of standing at the receptionist desk. We walk out to the bus and I start it ... it has a warning light on so my contact goes to send someone out. They look at codes for a while and then <> tell me to 'drive it off,' drive it until the light goes off. It is one of those that should re-set when I hit a certain speed or miles. It has now been about an hour delay this AM. I call dispatch and BB and let them know I am good to go. My plan is to drive around town until the light goes off. It goes off as soon as I have gone a half a block ... This time I am ready. We can not use our phones for any reason while driving and this bus has live camera's at all times. So I have my camera on and start videoing before I start slowing down in Beltrami. No issues. When we get near Ada I have my camera ready to start filming before I slow down ... but loose the speedometer before I start slowing. So I pull over as soon as I have slowed to a stop. I call dispatch and without any input from the shipper they tell me to keep going. About 10 miles later the speedometer starts working again. About 20 miles after the speedometer started again, it stopped working again. I pull over and call dispatch again. This time they call the shipper before giving me the OK to keep running ... as long as no warning lights come on. No need to call dispatch again if the speedometer quits again. When we get to the freeway in Barnesville, BB heads to the gas station and Subway. I head to St Cloud. No issues for the next two hours. When I get to the other shipping location, I want in to security. The guy was saying 'He's standing right here' :) Someone had seen me drive in. I sign in and go to the shop. Only one person in the office area, he had no idea why I was there. I gave him a name of what I overheard on the two-way radio. It was close enough that he figured out who it was. I was in and out in about 15 minutes. I did have to go around another bus that looked like mine, the guy I gave the stuff to said he thought the items might go to that bus. Maybe I will have work on Monday going to get this bus. BB and I had been texting whenever we stop. We usually stop at the Kwik Trip but today I decide to stop at the TA at the next exit. No one fueling but me. So I pull in backwards so that I can see the meter as I fuel. Before I got there I had been doing the math. Usually we drive the 250 miles before we fuel. This time I/we had put another 200 miles on this bus yesterday. 66 gallons of fuel. Another half hour of slow and go and I am at the storage lot. All there is today is one semi, that is rare. The semi, we do not move many of those. And there are only three drivers cars in the lot instead of dozens. I am surprised they have me working when their regulars are likely sitting home. It could be me sitting home. Around St Cloud the crops are worse than most areas. Large area's where the crops have already turned brown or corn is less than knee high ... kind of like my corn at home. We are done at 5 PM. Better than leaving Crookston at 5 PM. Too late to get work for this weekend. Rental dispatch has two trucks in Miles City coming back here but we do not have the time. That would be a good match up with the RV's heading out Kalispell. Those would still work, if they are still there. Load board US - 122 IA - 25 MN - 7
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