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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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230216 MN Another day of watching the load board. We did have some morning excitement. At some point BB noticed out the kitchen window that there was a truck on our cul de sac. So I headed out to ask them what they needed. Ended up bringing out a shovel, and ice pick and some sand. The snow is well frozen and hard to chop so it took a while. Before I got out there the person was under the trailer with their ice scraper trying to chip at the ice. It ended up taking 3-4 tries before they finally got going. the trailer tires were climbing the inside pile of snow from the cul de sac. I was out there but quickly tired. I've been limiting myself to about a half hour with the snow but today I was out about four times that and most of that just watching. At some point I landed on my knees on the ice, it is mostly solid ice after the recent rains. I was holding either the pick or the shovel at the time so I didn't go 'face first.' And no soreness. I see that later in the day that the city has come through and put down sand on the ice. Because of our pine trees, in front of our house is about the only place on the street that still has ice. Nothing new on the load board until closer to noon. Lots of pairs now that the load board is about 50. There was one CA run early and then one more at the end of the day going to the same place but they were each grabbed within the hour. We looked at going to the northwest but there forecast for a two day snow storm on the passes that we can't beat. There briefly was two FL trips but we were hoping for something better. Lots of math and looking at the weather. As of now ... Thursday evening ... we will grab two RV's going to OH and leave on Saturday. We could wait and see what happens. And if it is like this past week, nothing happens and we sit home another week. Weekend. The OH are not our best trips but we do make money on them. But they are short enough that we make more money deadheading home instead of taking a 2nd leg. Which has also been more math. Load board (Wednesday) US - 173 IA - 55/54 MN - 4 WI -0- Load board (Thursday) US - 188 IA - 48/47 MN - 5 WI -0- 230217 SD-MN 1 pickup to Shakopee MN (delivered) 2 RV's to North Canton OH (Saturday) ... spending the night at Lakeville MN 7 AM I try to call an east coast dispatcher. It went to voicemail, and then BB says there is a message that that dispatcher is out of the office. So I message their co-dispatcher who is in a different time zone. They called me right away, but ... Their contact doesn't start until 8 AM on our time, so all I am doing by calling is getting ahead of the other drivers, not ahead of the drivers from other companies. Then the 1st dispatcher calls me back, he is not happy. Not with me, with most everyone. It seems that about 90% of the trips have had the paperwork done wrong and the shipper is looking at replacing us. Without this account, these two dispatchers don't have a job. BB and I are still talking about this first trip when we decide we should just get our weekend work lined up. Take the sure thing. By then it is a few minutes after 8 AM and I am surprised I get right in ... AND we get the two RV's we are looking for. There were seven so we weren't worried that they would all be gone, just surprised it was that quiet on a Friday AM. By 8:30 I get a message from the 2nd dispatcher, I have today's trip so we start loading up the car. We had guessed that we'd be out of the house by 9 AM and we were pretty close. Another surprise. The city had come through yesterday after the semi got stuck and sanded our street. It was -0- this AM but the sand (and salt?) are already working their magic. BB puts the GPS on for the first hour of the trip so I don't go into auto pilot and head to Forest City. BB has changed the voice on her GPS to a male voice ... that's interesting. 1st stop is in St Peter for fuel and food at a Kwik Trip. Once we started talking about where we were going to eat later, I realized I hadn't eaten anything so we stopped here. It was about 10 AM. 2nd (kind of stop) We pulled off the road in Mankato to call the shipper. The number I have is for someone who is off site so they will call to make sure someone is at the truck mid-day. 2nd stop was the truckstop in Worthington for a rest room break. Usually I wait until I am at a Loves to email them my paperwork. Today I realized that I can send it before I get there so it is ready. All I need is their store number and I know the rest of the email address. So I do that before we leave Worthington. 3rd stop is the Loves in Sioux Falls. They can't find my email so I need to send it again. Interesting because I just do a reply all and they get it. And I didn't change the email address. By then a manger is ringing me up so I decide to ask if they carry chains. And socks. And do returns. They do ... at the shop. :) So once I'm done in the main truck stop, I drive to the shop. They have never done a return. On anything. They call over to the truckstop and someone runs them through it, key stroke by key stroke. It doesn't work. SO someone walks over from the truckstop. They are the other manger on duty, before long they are talking to the manger I talked to at the truckstop. They can't get it to work. They are trying to over ride something and can't. Finally as they are explaining why the can't do it, I realize they can't get the numbers to match. I DON'T CARE. Give me back my $250 and I won't worry about the $9. I was expecting a 10% / $25 restocking fee. I talked to four different people today and none of them asked why I was returning them. :) This put me way later than I had told the shipper but I am done with the socks and don't have to carry them around any more. I only had 30 days to return them and I was 10 days in already with no trip planned yet to the west where they were more likely to stock them. 4th stop is the shipper. Same place as we picked the last one up in Sioux Falls. Today there is one person in the back corner with a computer. All other desks are empty, cleaned out. Last time the office was full of people. Only issue with the truck was there are two worn tires in the box. The shipper doesn't know where they came from and doesn't want them either but says I can throw them on the ground. I get all the paperwork done correctly and contact dispatch and leave a message. A few miles down the road I can see I got a message but I don't stop. Then dispatch calls. 5th stop is Beaver Creek on the shoulder of the exit. Dispatch can't dispatch me, I am already on another load. OK, my trip from last week is my first guess but this dispatcher says you won't get paid until you are released from a load. Ahhh. My next trip. They like dispatching people on Friday for anyone leaving over the weekend. So I call them, yep, they did it. No big issue but still takes time. BB and I had planned on stopping at the next rest area but as long as we stopped here, we agree on where to spend the night and will see each other at the drop. BB will stop at a rest area and fuel if needed. I will need to stop for fuel. Actually I don't. More on that later. Heading through Windom, there is a gal getting out of her car. She has driven on the snowmobile tracks for a block or so down near the creek and must have gotten off them and sunk in the looser snow. BB said when she went by the gal was outside the car and the tires were still spinning. That's going to cost a few $$$ I had planned on stopping in St Peter again for cheaper fuel but realized I would only be putting in a couple of gallons so price wasn't as big a deal as overfilling and leaving too much. We do not have a guide with this shipper on how much fuel to leave so I could leave it with the low fuel light on. But when they are paying me well over $100 for fuel I want to leave it on a quarter tank unless I pick it up on 'E,' then I leave it on an 1/8th at the drop. Somewhere north of Mankato there were too deer standing on top on a snow drift next to the road watching the cars go past. They were within a couple of feet of the barrier but six feet above it because of the drift. This is roughly the same area where on the way down I pointed out to BB that there were five deer within a quarter mile in the ditch on top of the snow. So recent kills. Snow. Lots of it in places. One place there was a house with a drift to the top of the roof. And another place there were four rows of plowed snow in the field to try to stop the drifting. Other place there were only 2-3. 6th stop is the Speedway in Shakopee for fuel. I put in 3-1/2 gallons to get the gauge up to a quarter. 7th stop is the drop, about a mile from the gas station. Traffic is backed up on the street for the light and I am wondering why until I see the train. It must have just cleared the intersection. No one else here but they are still open. Someone new doing the checking. Just about every time there is someone new so I'm guessing they have a very high turnover. Every month or so? They guy today knew his stuff. BB sends me a message that she is here when I am still at the gate, we've run pretty close to each other. As I am walking out of the lot, I notice their service truck. Ten 2 gallon gas cans and two large diesel pumps in the back of their pickup truck. The are ready for all the stuff that comes in on fumes. And I am worried about not having at least a quarter tank of fuel, I am likely the only one. 8th stop will be Smash Burger. The guy taking the order tonight knows what I want, it's not on the menu anymore. But he lets BB list it off for him so we get it right. Thanks to the one cashier somewhere that told us how to order it and to BB for putting it in her phone. 9th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Lakeville. We are less than an hour from home but it is past dark and we are heading out first thing in the AM. We had taken our trips about 8 AM this morning, by 10 AM all but two are gone so we are glad we didn't wait like we had planned. ... then ... by noon, there are new trips going all kinds of places we would like to go. So then we wish we would have waited. This evening BB looks at the weather and there is a storm coming in next week. There is a good chance that when we drop, we will head anywhere but back home :) Oh ... when we were in Grand Junction there was one short trip that we missed out on by calling too late. There had been longer nice trips the day(s) before that. And again now. three nice long trips that have been on the board for a few days ... just never when we are there. Load board US - 188 IA - 91/57 Lots of trips to Greer SC, where we like to go. Also trips to CA, OR, AZ, FL If all goes well, we should get to Peru IL tomorrow and then North Canton Saturday. 230218 IA-OH 2 RV's to North Canton OH ... spending the night at Ottawa IL Ouch ... it is 11 PM and I have a cramp in my foot I can't shake. Usually I can use my other foot and stretch my foot so it goes away in a few seconds. Or I stand up and stand on it, stretching it. That didn't work either, finally I was able to walk it off. It's been a while since I had one that bad. BB is up early but we don't really get going early. The day didn't start out well, we went down for the usual breakfast and partway back to our room, the sausage rolled off my plate and onto the floor. So eggs and yogurt it was. We do get going by 7:30. 1st stop is the Kwik Star/Trip in Forest City for fuel. Still not wanting to let the car sit on empty. 2nd stop is on the other end of town at the shipper. All three dispatchers are in today instead of the usual one on a Saturday. Plus our yard person doing inspections. Something is (?) or might be happening. We do our inspections and are out of there in 45 minutes. BB's RV had been parked on a hill ... as if they were expecting all other spots to be full. They have started parking RV's in the overflow lot. 3rd stop is the Loves in Floyd for fuel and food. BB has downloaded a new 'app' on her phone that will save us $.10 a gallon of gas. We tried a few times to get it to work here and then she typed in the number by hand. (I can do that) When I picked up my RV at the shipper, it had a different radio station on XM and as I was scrolling down I came across a truckers station. So I listened to that for a while. In one of the ads, I found out that one of my perks cards will be no more. They are handing out anymore. Apps only. For now, I have still not added any apps to my phone, only deleted the ones I can. For food we split a Godfather's personal pizza. 4th stop is the Casey's in Center Point. By now my 'hood' cover has come loose so I spend my time taping it down while BB uses the rest room. We are only allowed to use one kind of tape on the RV's and I still have some on a roll from a couple of years ago. It holds for at least the next 200 miles.] 5th stop is the Loves in Davenport. I forget and park by the their one pump that only has premium. Once BB reminds me, she has the app figured out. It seems we were trying to do it in the wrong order. No issues here and we get our discount. Our usual hotel is full so it will be the Quality Inn. We have stayed there before. OK, just not as nice. Somewhere on I-80 there was a pickup with an RV in the center median. I looked at it and noticed some things. But I didn't notice that someone was still in the pickup, BB noticed that. Weather isn't bad, wind isn't much. 6th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Ottawa. Food is two blocks down at the Culvers. Chili, cheese curds and a malt. Too much, hope I can sleep tonight. We spend a good hour plus talking about what if's. It looks like we can get back to IA before the storm but then we have four hours to return the rental car. Then the storm will be there. If we can't get a car to deliver closer from OH, but we could get a car from Davenport, but that would take time switching cars and cost more money. If we take a trip out of IN to NC, then we will be adding 75 miles to the trucks to return a rental car. Or get a 2nd rental car to return the 1st one. No great options. Load board US - 200 IA - 81/77 MN - 5 Now on the IA board, a pair to OR - Medford CA - Gilroy/Freemont OR - Bend (9) OR - Sandy (6) WA - Seattle (4) SC - (12) Lots of choices if the weather holds so we can get back to them. |
