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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2023 06 14 IA-MO 1 RV to St Louis MO (delivered) 1 box truck to Fridley MN (Thursday) ... spending the night at Janesville WI BB had crashed early last night so she was up at 5 AM, I was up closer to our usual but still a little early. Breakfast for me was two cups of yogurt, when one will do. Big trucks are supposed to park in the back of the hotel which was right outside the breakfast area. There was a vac truck parked there being driven by a carrier I have not heard of before today. But now I can add it to my list. By the time we left a half hour later it was gone. Must not have zipped my backpack enough. Halfway down the stairs and I feel it open and fall off of my back. Lucky I have all papers in pouches and am no longer storing my laptop in that area. It did fall slow enough that I was able to slide it off my back so there was no 'crash.' Crops, yesterday and today. Most seem to be hurting for water. Even the areas that were flooded out. Lots of curled corn in IA yesterday. I didn't see corn covering the rows until we got into MO today. Some crops have just been planted and barely up. I saw a few bean fields today that looked like they were no-till and are a very poor stand so far. Can see enough beans on the ends to know they have been planted but the rest of the field doesn't look like they have come up. One field almost looked like only one row had been working but other areas all rows were coming up so the rest had been working at some point. 1st stop of the day was the Flying J in Wayland. My fuel mileage and range is going down. When I started this AM I thought I was going to be way over on range at the drop. 2nd stop was in Bowling Green at a Hardees, it is at a truck stop but not in the truck stop. I don't get any food as it is not noon yet but BB is hungry. They don't have what she wants from their 'Red Burrito' menu or her first choice of burger. So she orders something else and they asked what she wanted/didn't want on it so we thought it was correct. When she bit into it, it had bacon and cheese. Not what she ordered, but what she paid for based on the receipt in the bag. So I left, she sat and ate part of it because it was too big to eat and drive. No real issues in St Lois traffic. Easy route, the road we are on turns into freeway. Take one turn onto the beltway. One beltway ends, the other starts and then the next exit. Gas station is two buildings before the drop on all the right side of the road. But I get to the drop at lunch so I do have to wait a little, and they do wash part of it so I have to wait a little more. But between the fuel and the delivery it was only about 45 minutes. While I am waiting I call on two trips. The WI trip to MN and leave a message. And the MN to IL and find out some info but not how old the truck is. It is going back to the refurb place so I was thinking it was old. It may just be a rental. We could head straight back to Dodge Center and then we would go the way we came, but we decide to take the fastest way to home, up I-55 and I-39. I thought we would catch I-55 right here, one exit back, but the computer says to take the beltway to the east until we cross it again. There wasn't any food right by the drop that I wanted so we'll wait until we are out of the cities. Food stop for me was in Hamel at a Loves. When we get there, I call on the WI to MN trip again. By now we have decided to take it no matter what the pay. See if it is worth it. I get the trip. It will be worth it :) We wonder how much the shipper is paying for this move. I'm getting paid well, so the carrier is also getting paid well. And when I call the shipper and the drop, both places I get a 3rd party carrier so they are also taking a cut. $$$ I need to call the shipper two hours before pickup and they close at 4 PM and I want to pick up when they open. That all goes OK. Then as I am leaving BB says she can't find the drop location from the address they gave us on the paperwork. So I call the drop. As we talk we realize the whole street address is wrong. At least now I know where I am going. But we can't pick up until 8 AM and the drop closes at 4 PM. Not being able to pick up tonight changes what else we can do this week. IF we have not issues we should drop about 3 PM but that is likely too late for us to get to the next shipper and pick up the next trip. We might be able to pick up the MN to IL trip but that would leave us in CGO on a Friday night. And that location leaves at 2 PM. After all that, the only food I want is a chicken salad sandwich off the shelf :( I don't feel like waiting for a McD's or Subway and the only other things they have are roller food that is not ready yet. Next stop is at a rest area that we have to go under the freeway to the rest area on the other side, not sure how that was cheaper to build. BB needs one more stop before the hotel so we stop just south of Rockford at another Loves and this time get GodFather's pizza ... and a Oreo ice cream sandwich for me. We split the pizza, that is enough. Final stop is the Quality Inn in Janesville. Nice new lot next door, between the Super 8 and the Quality. I ask. It is a local car dealer storing cars there as needed. There is also a Road Dawg restaurant across that lot, I guess it has been there. Didn't know until today and we have already eaten. I try to print out paperwork in there business center but I can't get it to work. Hotel help can't get it to work even though someone else had just printed with it five minutes ago. Finally the help brings me behind their desk to use the main computer. (I'd rather they didn't, but it's happened a few times) Loadboard US - 116 IA - 1 MN - 4 WI - 14 MN load board has four trips, we would do them all. There had been a Proctor MN that was the one I most wanted to do but that one is now gone. What I am thinking is do one of the trash trucks on Friday after we get back and then do the tanker to IL on Monday. IA only put out three RV's again today. If we do head to CGO with the tanker, BB may ride with instead of chase. Not much work anywhere but if something shows up, then we can both drive ... or head further than our 500 mile limit for chasing. 2023 06 15 WI-MN 1 box truck to Fridley MN (delivered) 1 mixer to Gilbert MN (Friday) ... spending the night at Owatonna MN Almost all the truckers are gone by the time we get down for breakfast. Such as it is. People were taking a very long time to do the most basic things. I got my eggs and sausage and we went back to our room. They did have a toaster, but no bread so BB had cereal. Sausage was good, different. Links were moist but not greasy. About two miles to the shipper and were are in their lot. I asked a guy hooking up his tow car where the office was ... park here and walk through the fence. So I did, and then went to where other cars were driving in and dropping off other drivers. One driver ahead of me, one behind me. Office didn't have the paperwork ready for either so they must not have called. Mine was ready. The driver behind me works for our company so I waited to see where his truck was. Mine was 10 minutes west of the office, his was 20 minutes south of the office. I had thought we could drop him off if his was close but this would have cost us most of an hour and that could cause us to miss delivery today and change what we can get done tomorrow. We parted ways. But when we were leaving it looked like the drivers cab was already there. I'm guessing some of them know the routine and just wait once they drop off a driver as there is a good chance they will need another ride. We don't see my truck in the first lot we pull into, it is on the other side of the building ... and dead. We wondered as the person in the office gave me a card with his number on it ... just in case the battery is dead. It was so dead that the dash lights wouldn't come on. Called the number and someone was there in about a half hour. They connected the jump and I started it and revved the engine. Even with the engine revved the truck died once. Then the second time it stayed running and I never shut it off again today. This was one of the cab-over trucks where we had to flip the cab to check the fluids before starting it. Seemed to be off balance as BB had to help push it back down. All else was good, mirrors had been pushed in because of how close together things were parked. And there was fuel. I was expecting fumes. But the cheapest fuel of the day was right here in town so I put in fuel before having any idea what kind of mileage I would get. I didn't want to over fill so I guessed 20 mpg, BB guessed 10 mpg. I stop at the closest station and put in some fuel and then we are off. What I had hoped would take 15 minutes this AM took an hour and a half. I had hoped when the shipper needed to know what time we would be there it was because they would have the trucks pulled out for us. Nope. A few miles down the road my right mirror blows out of position. The left one did too but I was able to move that one while I was driving. The right one I left until I stopped a couple of hours down the road. I did still have the wide angle distorted mirror so I wasn't completely blind on that side. And I only passed three things. BB was at the rest area when I got there. Not sure who got there first. I called my drop contact and left a message. He called back just as I was leaving so I pulled on to the shoulder in the rest area and took the call. I had hoped I would make it to Menomonie where fuel was cheaper but Eau Claire was the limit of my feeling safe so I stopped at a Holiday. First I was going to put in 12 gallons which would cover the 10 mpg. Then I decided an extra gallon would be good insurance and then another gallon to put in and make it an even $50. I had run the tank down under 1/8 and the low fuel light still had not come on. That is the rule on this one, no low fuel light on at delivery. When I got to into MN, I was about 20 miles from the drop and I was down to 1/4 tank of fuel. For a short time I was wondering if I had put in enough. But somehow I was still at 1/4 when I dropped it. I doubt it will be the next time they start it. First person I found had no idea about a truck but found the correct person. Once we signed off he asked me a little about our driving work before we left. Then I called the 3rd party that is lining all this up and they asked if 'Joe ... ' had signed the paperwork. No, no one had ever given me a name for this drop. I did also send them, the 3rd party, my paperwork direct and now they are asking for more. Not sure what they are looking for and it was after hours before I saw their message. Once that was done I called on a trip to north of DUL. Dispatch says it is a mixer. And that is what the paperwork says. But I looked at the drop's website and they are all about trash. So I'm guessing it is a trash truck. :) We'll see in the AM. We can't pick up after 4 PM and it was almost that when I called dispatch so tomorrow AM. Not much for rush hour traffic slow downs. 2+ in the HOV lane leaving town. We end up at the Comfort Inn in Owatonna. The side doors don't look like anyone has cleaned near them since the snow. Piles of bird droppings. Paint is coming off the building. Extra pieces laying on the ground like no one has looked anywhere except the front door. Elevator not working ... not long as a Comfort Inn ... too bad as it was nice. The Motel 6 next door is closed. Looked it up and the bank got it back. It had been a Holiday Inn with a conference, water park and a restaurant but the Motel 6 closed those other things down. We walked to El Loro for some Mexican food. Ate inside. Only two cars in the lot so we thought the place was empty. Almost, but by the time we left it had a lot more people. Our other choices were Famous Dave's and the last remaining Timberlodge Steakhouse. It took a while but I was able to print my own paperwork for tomorrow. Picking up from a different shipper in Dodge Center and we don't need 'their' paperwork. And I don't need to see anyone at pickup. Just find my truck and go. I have never been to this location so I don't know where the trucks are or if they come with fuel. I tried to call the drop but no answer and they did not return my call. Online it says they are open until 4 PM which is enough time if all goes well. I had thought this would be a great way to spend some extra time up north. But it is the weekend and most hotels are full and the others are $$$. So it looks like it will be a long day and we will be spending the night at home tomorrow night. Loadboard US - 125 IA - 2/0 MN - 9 WI - 11 Not likely we will work the weekend but there are still three trucks in MN going to IL and one in MN going to IA ... and one in Garner IA coming back to MN. And one truck in IL coming back to Superior WI. There is usually one tanker a week coming out of IL but we either missed it or they are running late. There are still trucks in WI like the one I moved. Good money if we were in the area. BB looked every time she stopped today and never saw any IA RV's. Maybe tomorrow? 2023 06 16 MN-MN 1 mixer (trash truck) to Gilbert MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home Bacon was good, egg patties were good, juice might have been 'enhanced water,' it was a hand written sign. We ended up getting going a little later than usual instead of a little earlier than usual. We could have gotten to the customer at 7 AM instead it was about 8:15. I was pretty sure after looking at the drop location that we were looking for a trash truck, not a mixer. But we drove past all the mixers first and the VIN in the window did not match any of them. But the first trash truck we got to, the VIN matched and the sign in the window was the name of my drop. Bingo. We did our inspection and found I had a light out. I asked the yard driver and he called service. My light is on the chassis. Not their problem. (It likely could have been fixed in five minutes.) I call dispatch and they say run with it, so I do. I also let dispatch know that I am moving a trash truck not a mixer, no real comment that they opps'ed. And I find out that I need to leave 1/4 tank of fuel in the truck and I am picking it up with about half of that. I do have enough fuel to get to Owatonna where the fuel is cheaper. It also gives me a slight idea of what the mileage will be. I'm guessing 10 mpg for the 300 miles plus another 8 gallons to bring it up the the 1/4 mark. No one seems to be in a rush here at the Kwik Trip. One guy is just blocking a pump, the truck ahead of him has long gone and he never does fuel when he gets back to his truck. Others have to pay inside first and then go back in after fueling before pulling ahead. Luckily there was just me in line. When I leave there is a half dozen people waiting for pumps ... Richie Bros auctions is just north of this Kwik Trip. They just had a two day auction ending yesterday. Not sure how that works now. Lots of stuff parked in their lot but do they have an auction truck like old style auctions? Do they drive the equipment past a set of bleachers? Is it all online? I have no idea. Yesterday, BB's map software had us going up county roads and via St Paul. But when I looked at mine this AM it had me getting to I-35 and going up through Minneapolis. That is what I did and why I was fueling in Owatonna. We were behind rush hour so no major slow downs. BB stopped a few times to look at the load board, I kept going. Plan was to meet BB at the Kwik Trip in Cloquet. As we pass Forest Lake, I see the southbound scale is open. Hmmm. The main scale from Hudson is closed so they may have more scales inland open. They do. And the sign before the scale in Cloquet says all trucks must stay on I-35 and cross scale, so that means no exit to Kwik Trip. As soon as I cross the scale and exit the freeway, I text BB and let her know. She had not caught up to me yet since we parted south of Minneapolis. Traffic wasn't stop and go or even slow and go but it was Friday of a summer weekend leaving town. Lots of traffic, lots of packs where cars bunch together from one slow moving vehicle to the next. Just north of Cloquet there is a 2nd scale on Hwy 2. Both are open today so I get to scale again. No issues. Just a little lost time. I had called my drop both last night and the AM and got voicemail both times. When I called again after the 1st scale today and got no answer, I called the number listed for the company online. They did answer and got a message to the person who didn't answer my calls. They texted back and wanted me to call them 20 minutes out from the drop. It looks like I am getting closer to 7 mpg instead of 10 so I need to add more fuel. I was going to do that at Kwik Trip but I wouldn't have added enough. Now that I am closer I can see how much I do need to add. I do see one SA station but not soon enough, so when I see a Cenex near Evelyth I stop. One set of pumps and no canopy but it's the fuel I need. I did look at a map this AM and found which way was the most direct and wrote down those directions. Not the ones the computer wanted me to take. At one point BB did follow the GPS directions when we got closer to the drop. A few miles down the side road and it became a gravel road. Nope. She did a u-turn and went back to expressway. :) I found the right roads, but I forgot to look for the street number. I thought I would see the shop and other trucks from the road. But when I felt like I had gone too far, I realized the fire numbers were also their street numbers. I had gone too far by then so I had to turn around and come back a short ways. If I had seen this drive, I would have known where to turn, it looks the same as online but I must have been looking at something else right then or met someone right then. When I get to the drop there is one guy standing by his pickup. No one else is around so it is good I kept calling so he came in to meet me. Him and three grade school kids :) They all did a good look over of my truck and as soon as I had all of my stuff out of the truck ... they all climbed in and went for a ride. We saw them in town taking a tour with their new truck. (missed that picture) Dispatch never dispatched me this morning so I can't close out the trip myself. Neither of us have eaten a meal since breakfast so we decide to go to Gordy's Hi-Hat that we have heard about. That is about another hour back in the direction of home. By the time we get there it is almost 3 PM. ... and there is a line. I'm guessing most of the time we were there there were 20-30 people in line waiting to order. Busy, and it is the middle of the afternoon. We have never been here so we want to try as much as we can. We order a burger, rings, wildrice soup and a blackberry malt. The burger was good, we'll order that again. This time we split all of the above. The rings were OK, onion was good, batter was OK. Soup was not the best we've had, that is still Mystic Lake Casino. Malt was good, but may try a different flavor next time. We hadn't realized how long the line for food was so we had sat in the car at the restaurant while I called dispatch about my last truck and then a different dispatcher about my next truck. The truck to IA was gone so the best one now for sure is the vac truck to IL. I called on it before but we didn't want to end up in CGO for the weekend. Today I call again to line it up for Sunday and ... It is now not ready until Thursday. Not sure when that changed, BB and I had looked at that trip many times and the dispatcher I talked to earlier hadn't said anything about it. My guess is another driver called the shipper on the trip and the truck was not ready. So now we have no where to go. There is one truck going to Cicero but it is a trash truck so we don't want to pick up over the weekend (too many issues recently) and there is not enough room for BB to ride with and it is too close into CGO for comfort. We watch the load board for the rest of the day but nothing good. I did not call the local dispatchers, sometimes we have trips coming out of Duluth :) As we drove, we checked hotels again today. All of the chains that are in our price range ... usually in our price range, are either sold out or are 4x our price. We didn't see any cancelations, or they were gone as soon as someone else canceled. So we head home. We used to come up to the north shore more in the summer, before we had AC in our house. Now I guess we just sit indoors. We are stuffed, but we still stop at Tobies for donuts. All they have left is rolls. Caramel rolls, cinnamon rolls. And a few cookies and a few sugar donuts. So we go next door to the gas station :) And get their last lemon bismark, last glazed donut, last maple long john. Would have gotten the last blueberry bismark but it was already gone, only the sign was there. They could tell which kind they were by looking at them but we couldn't. They are better fresh but not when one is already stuffed. One more stop at the Loves in Forest Lake. Cheap gas, place is packed, line waiting. ... and home again, safe at last ... Loadboard US - 118 IA - 1/0 MN - 7 WI - 10 We still have two weeks to work before heading out on vacation so we will be watching the loadboard starting Monday AM.
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