 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
2023 06 25 MN-IL 1 trash truck to Rock Falls IL (Monday) ... spending the night at home It's the weekend and we had plans for both days so no work. Then I looked closer and both plans are for Saturday so we can leave Sunday. I email dispatch but they do not reply so we will wait and leave out Monday. We had thought and talked about leaving out Sunday but ... we don't know what hours we can pick up, and really nothing can be down if there is an issue which is fairly common on these. And these need to be weighed, but if overweight there is no one to adjust the weight. So we wait. When I stopped and picked up my paperwork there were 14 sets of paperwork waiting to be picked up. Plus another set of paperwork in the bus in the lot so lots of work. There were also five trucks in the lot waiting to head out. Someone else had picked those up. Saturday we went both to a Cheese Curd Festival and a birthday party so plenty of food. That left nothing for Sunday but be ready for Monday. We have time to get to the drop if we leave at our 'normal time' but we've talked about leaving earlier. Another plus of waiting until Monday to head out is that gives dispatch all day Monday to put out a good trip heading back to MN. If we had left out Sunday, we would deliver first thing on Monday and with nothing new on the loadboard we would just head back home. Shortly after I woke up on Sunday AM, I get a FaceBook message from someone wanting me to call them. New driver, first breakdown, I think they were panicking. So I called and could only tell them what was likely to happen. With our major shippers we know <> the routine as we know who pays and for what and how. This is a used unit going to a private party and now they no longer want it because it has already broken down before it gets to them. Even without that, on used units it's an issue of who is going to pay for what. One of the reasons I didn't like taking those. Loadboard US - 126 IA - 0 MN - 4 WI - 0 2023 06 26 MN-IL 1 trash truck to Rock Falls IL (delivered) 1 trash truck to Hartland WI (Tuesday) ... spending the night at Portage WI BB was up early, I thought I was too. But I tried to shower and eat breakfast the same morning and we ended up getting out at our usual time. Which meant we got to the shipper at our usual time. Finding the truck was easy, we know some of them by their colors now. This seemed to be the only one on the lot for this customer. About the time I am in the truck, I get a call from dispatch wondering if I picked up yesterday. I had sent them a message but no one replied so I spent the day doing yard work (and can feel it) instead. This is a front loader so I need to scale it for this carrier. This one is under by over 1,000# so I am good to go. This one only goes 60 mph so it'll take an extra half hour to get to the drop from what we had planned. BB stops other places, she does not like following me at anything less than 65 mph. I stop and get a bottle of juice at the Flying J in Evansdale. Plan was for me to stop again at the TA I-80 truckstop in Walcott but I'm not going to need anymore fuel. This truck likes 60 mph. But ... we are going on I-88 so I need to stop and see if I need an I-pass. I don't have one with me, they are all in BB's car. After checking a couple of places I feel assured I don't need one. I had stopped at a rest area to do that checking. I have looked at a map of my drop, but something didn't look right on the ground. I get about where I should be and there is a street with no sign going into the industrial park. I turn but realize this is not right. Then I look at the company's printed map. It shows a side street going to where I need to be. Nope, no street there. So I look at Google Maps. I turned one street too soon. I thought I should have been able to see the customer from the main street and I can. Just a few minutes lost. But ... those few minutes mean I can not call on any east coast based shipments as they leave at 4 PM (central time.) Just as I am pulling into the drop, my phone rings. It is local dispatch checking to see if I am available for another trip tomorrow. I tell them I will call them back in a few. By the time I collect some of my stuff, the person who will check the truck in is walking in my direction. He askes where I came from, I tell him, he says "that's far enough in that truck." :) He knows ... As soon as I am signed off, BB and I talk and then call local dispatch back. It is a trip from Menomonie to MLW. And it is not a cab over trash truck. It would have worked nicer if we were already home, but it is better than anything on the OTR load board. The IL to KS trip is still there ... maybe next time. We stop at Arthur's Deli in town. They are out of chicken salad :( So I get a ham and cheese. Great bread. Deserts looked good too but we have enough of that kind of food with us. We drive until Portage when it is almost 7 PM and we are down to 7 miles range on fuel. We had talked of driving another hour to Mouston but kind of glad we didn't. I was ready to crash when we got here and then when we get to our room we see a pile of towels by our door. Dirty towels. And only one clean bath towel in the room. So I have to find the help again, we had to wait when we checked in because they were not at the desk then either. Now they gave us a whole set of clean towels. Then when I went down to print my paperwork for tomorrow, the computer does not have an extra port for me to plug into. And I tried to email it to myself but it wants to do a security check on me and I can see the names of the last few people who have used their accounts on this computer. I didn't try to see if I can hack them but I'm guessing at least one out of that list I could have. Not worth it to me. I ask the front desk to print from my jump drive but no. They will print if I email it to them so I do. And the print one copy the wrong way so it is very small print. I'm done for the night. Loadboard US - 127 IA - 1/0 MN - 12 WI - 2 Hope to pick up by 11 AM and drop by 3 PM. Customer is open until 5 PM. Then ? 2023 06 27 MN-WI 1 trash truck to Hartland WI (delivered) 1 trash truck to Rock Island IL (Wednesday) ... spending the night at La Crosse WI Up and down for breakfast. As we are leaving the hotel someone asks me something which I don't understand so I just say no and keep walking. When I go back in for my receipt, I see that that person is the desk clerk. He starts asking questions about what we do ... at the end of the conversation I see that he is asking because of the discount we got on the room. (It may be good to give more vague answers in the future) Because I didn't get a good copy of my paperwork last night, we stop at the Loves in Oakdale to have them printed. BB has emailed them ahead of time so they are ready to go. Traffic is not too bad in the usual slowdown places. Sometime this AM BB and I talked about not committing to any trips until we drop todays truck. A few minutes later ... ring ... it is dispatch wanting me to line up another trip to IL for tomorrow. As BB is answering the phone and putting it on speaker, traffic comes to a dead stop. Then a couple of squad cars go past us. Not a good sign. Google shows where the issue likely is based on the freeway being red there. It is less than a mile from where we stopped so our wait was not that long. It was right as the two lanes narrow to one lane because they are re-paving the other line. The issue was that a flat-bed semi lost part of it's load. Two of the rolls of steel are on the ground and the rest are in a mess on his trailer. Two hours later when we come back the same way, the rolls are still on the side of the road but the truck and back up are gone. BB needs to stop for a break at this Loves before we go to the shipper. Shipper is less than a mile away at a NAPA/something. Turns out they built this truck for this customer here. Brand new truck. They don't want to sign anything, not their truck. As soon as the air builds up we are good to go. Dispatch doesn't answer so I head back to Loves. I have to drop at 1/4 tank and that is where it is now. I guess 7-8 mpg and add that much fuel. When I call dispatch back they do answer. I tell them all is good and they say that is the best news, the only good news they have had so far today. Cruise is governed at 65 mph, but I can go faster not using the cruise. I go with 65 mph except when I try to pass someone and they speed up. My 1st stop is the rest area in Poynetta. When I walk back out I see BB getting out of our car. I try to hide but it is kind of hard when I am wearing a reflector jacket. Another hour to go from here. I will have enough fuel. If I had guessed 10 mph I would have had to stop again. So I guessed pretty close. When I get to the exit, I do not remember being here before. But as soon as I get down the street I remember almost everything. We dropped a Waste Management truck three doors down from where I will be dropping this one today. I find it with no issues. Take my pictures. Find someone to sign. They sign before seeing the truck. Later as I am walking away, they are still looking at it so I ask if all is OK "Looks like a truck" was their reply. Today BB is hungry also so we stop at a chick-fil-A before we get back on the freeway. Then 20 miles down the road we stop for fuel, it is $.40 cheaper here than by the drop. This truckstop has really good bakery goods but BB didn't buy any. We've been eating enough of that kind of food lately and will be again next week. 2-1/2 hours was too long for BB so we stop at a rest area 20 miles before the hotel. We are on the same time line as last night. Drop about 4 PM, drive until 7 PM. I did a lot of outdoor work this weekend and I was sore at the time and am still sore. Now I am wondering if it is because of the work or I am getting sick. Just achy. Loadboard US - 150 IA - 3/1 MN - 13 WI - 1 We have about 90 miles to go in the AM to get to the shipper, same as from home. The shuttle driver will be there about 7:30 and put my paperwork in the box for me. We will likely get there at 9 AM. I said I hoped the shuttled drivers were gone by then, dispatch said not to count on it. If we get to the shipper at 9 AM, we should be out of the truck stop down the road by 10 AM. Then four plus hours to the drop so we should be dropped by 3 PM. Hopefully something other than a trash truck for the next day. And hopefully I'm up for two more days. We likely won't work again after Friday until after the middle of the moth. . the trip continues HERE
|
