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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2023 09 27 MN-WI 1 trash truck to Muskego WI (failed) 1 tanker to Urbana IL (Thursday) ... spending the night at Wisconsin Rapids WI We were both up early, almost. The person here in charge of breakfast has way to much energy for this time in the AM. I noticed she was putting butter from the little individual cups on the biscuits and sausage to keep them moist. Plenty of yogurt and fruit. I had two egg patties and sausage. We get to Dodge Center before 8 AM, there is one driver from the local company just pulling out but we don't see the shuttle driver. Not sure what time they left the office to be gone from here already. Then there was another driver looking for his truck after I found mine who was also from my local company, but he, like me, finds his own ride. BB found my truck almost right away. It was not what I was told so I might not have looked at it. It still was not 8 AM when I was done with my inspection and calling the office. Our lock box was down to three sets of keys so they might not need me to come back from this trip. When I did talk to the office I told them the truck was not what I was told, and then asked about scaling the truck. It is supposed to be scaled when full, but the CNG fuel is past the scale. And there was a warning light on. That light was an easy one, I was still at the shipper so they got it to go off. While I was talking to them, I found out which un-marked buttons were the windows. Later I counted. This truck has 31 un-marked buttons on the dash ... and I don't touch anything unless I already know what it does. Scale 1st, at Kasson, at the Kwik Trip. Almost 3,000# under. Then off to get fuel. When we are getting off the four lane to get fuel, there was a truck trying to turn on-to the entrance ramp. But his light turned red so he sat. Blocking the cross traffic until I blew my horn at him. We had no where to go, it was a semi. Fueled at the Kwik Trip in Rochester. Still no receipts at the pump, still no ink on the copy inside. Other copies are carbon so they show up fine. Less than 10 miles down the road, when I bounce over the overpass, an alarm and warning light come on. This is from the trash truck part of the controls but it doesn't say why the alarm is going off. 24 other lights are usually going off so I know what the issue is. I don't, so I pull off and call dispatch. Dispatch has me call the shippers help line, not the easiest to understand but after a few questions they tell me to return to the shipper. I call and give dispatch an update and head back. Dispatch calls back a couple of minutes later but I am already driving so I have to pull over to talk to them. Now the actual shipper wants to talk to me. They want me to trouble shoot the truck on the side of the road. Opps, I can't see up from down so I open the tailgate instead of close. Well, now we know it's closed and the alarm is still going off. A few more questions and they want me to meet them at the Mack dealer in Rochester. So we head back, I tell the dealer why we are here and ask where out of the way they want me to park. It is close to another half hour before someone from the shipper arrives. To me it would have been faster for me to have just gone back to the shipper. The guy tries all his known issues and then has to call someone for help a couple of times. Then as he is showing me why it won't work, it must have clicked how he could fix it so he borrows tools from the dealer and finally has it fixed in 10 minutes or so ... once he found the issue. Because this truck is CNG, it has four censor's instead of two on the rear door. (?) We are off ... again. BB is hungry and needs the restroom so she stops at the closest Kwik Trip and I get ahead of her. For about a half hour. ... then the check engine light with a wrench come on on the dash board. I pull over and call dispatch again. After BB gets there and I still haven't heard anything, we pull into the Loves at St Charles to be off the freeway. And wait. I guess it takes a while to find out of which dealers can work on CNG's and can fix them inside their shop. West Salem can. They have been called before I get to the shop so fewer questions for me. And they don't even go out and look at my truck. They just go online and all the issues are showing up under that VIN. All kinds of info including the current mileage. After an hour or so they pull it into the shop. And I go next door to get a Subway but I see pizza by the slice. I bought two and then realized that it is mid-afternoon so I don't need to eat that much ... BB took care of that problem. Finally at 4 PM I got to get an update ... Oh, they should have come and told me ... "if it is what we think ... we don't have the part, but we are still looking at other possible issues." I talk to dispatch and we agree, I am off the truck. This is a cab-over so I have to get someone to jack the cab back down so I can get in and get my stuff. And we are off ... or not. We are ready to go and then decide to wait until we know where we are going. Local dispatch does not have any more work for me, other than to WY. That town is still over 500 miles. It hasn't moved since they asked me a week ago. As we are looking, another RV trip shows up for Indiana but before we can make the math work, it is gone. East coast dispatchers are gone. While we are sitting there, Janesville trucks show up and are gone before we can do the math on them. Then I call on a WI trip even though it says 'trash truck.' It is not :) It is a tanker. We have a trip and we are on our way. We were going to get all the way to the shipper tonight but it will be almost dark and most of the trip will be on back roads, lots of possible wildlife. Hotel would have been 1/2 what we ended up paying. We end up at the Sleep Inn in Wisconsin Rapids. At first BB doesn't really want to eat, then decides on a family restaurant. Really good food, and too much of it. Four Star ? Family Restaurant. We both had chicken soup and I had a turkey philly with fruit. I didn't ask what the fruit was ... PEACHES. Fresh peaches. So BB had fruit. And I could still only eat half my philly. Back at the hotel, I try to print out tomorrows paperwork. They are out of black ink on the guest printer and security has them locked out to print from what I can give them. We will try again in the AM. Load board US - 90 IA - 5/3 (CN) MN - 2 WI - 5 Shipper opens at 8 AM, about the time we will get there. They want a 24-notice, that is not happening. Then it is 6-8 hours to the drop and they close at 4:30 so we may/may not get this dropped tomorrow. There are two trips within 2-3 hours of the drop right now that would work. Then ? |
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2023 09 28 WI-IL 1 tanker to Urbana IL (delivered) 1 vac truck to Bridgeton MO (Friday) ... spending the night at Bloomington IL It took the alarm to wake us this AM. So everything seemed to move a little slower. Breakfast was eggs and the leftover philly minus the bread. For juice they actually had service size cups instead of the small juice cups or some locations even use the syrup cups for juice. It takes us close to an hour to get to the drop, and we didn't get going quite on time. We have three addresses for the shipper, I only looked at the one on their BL. I didn't realize that BB had put in one of the others into the GPS until after I called the shipper. No wonder things didn't look the same as I had seen online. Things change, but sometimes we are just in a different location. " ... that truck shipped in August ..." was what I heard when I told them which truck I was here to pickup. But they asked someone else, no, it is back but it is still in the shop. Doesn't sound good. More checking on their part found it was ready to go. It just wasn't being handled by the shipping department. But they were good enough to lead me over to the correct location, grab the keys and sign off for me. :) It has fuel. I was hoping it had enough to get to the station five blocks away. It likely has enough to get to the drop, but I hate to leave them on 'E' when I pick them up almost on full. 3/4 in this case. Or something close. The fuel bar only has one cross line and it doesn't seem to be at the halfway point. 25,000 miles and fuel. This one will get run at the speed limit. I call the drop, they are missing this truck so they will stay as long as needed. Hopefully that won't be needed. It is about 9 AM and it is about a 6 hour trip. Plus a couple of stops. BB stops more often, but my first stop is at the TA in De Forest for fuel. I guess how much fuel I have left to get down to 1/4 tank, about 60 miles. Then I have gotten the fuel range up to 6-7 mpg from the 4.4 when I started. So I use 8 mpg so I don't leave extra fuel in the truck. BB gets to the station before I am leaving. When we are both running the speed limit she doesn't get a chance to get ahead of me. Next stop for me is Bloomington at the Pilot. Three hours. The drop wanted me to let them know when I was an hour out so they would know how long someone had to stay. And by then I should know how much more fuel to put in. None. The mileage went up to 8+ mpg and I ended up leaving close to a half a tank of fuel by the time I got it dropped. I put in 25 gallons, could have put in 12 and still been good. While I was stopped, I decided to wash the windows. There is washer fluid but it doesn't work. I don't like hogging a pump so I pulled past and then carried the bucket up to the truck. When I carried the bucked back, one of the staff was there emptying garbage and thanked me for bringing the bucket back ... huh? ... then they said most drivers wouldn't have :( The garbage there was full, partly because the driver parked at the next island filled it. He moved the can over to his truck and was just grabbing hand fulls of trash and filling the can. This location is being redone so only Wendy's and the fuel desk are open. Plus about two rows of goods and a couple of coolers. Restrooms are outside. I guessed I would be there in an hour and texted that to the drop. As I am pulling back on the freeway, I realize I have not looked at the drop address. So halfway to the drop I stop at a rest area to see where I am going. Four turns so I should be OK. I text BB and we are at the same rest area. All my paperwork has mis-spelled the street address. But I can see the out houses from the street I'm on so it has to be right, but I don't know for sure until I see the name on the side of another truck. The person who signs is walking across the lot so he directs be where to park. Then the driver comes and looks the truck over before the main guy signs. Sounds like this truck has been back twice. Once the driver took it back up as he said he got 8 mpg going up and only used a half a tank of fuel. And the main guy was asking if I worked for the shipper because they had sent one of their own drivers down to get the truck this time. Then the main guy had a few more questions about our line of work. BB followed her GPS so she came in a different way. When I'm done, we look at the load board. I had thought the main office closed at 5 PM but BB convinced me to call. They are open until 5:30. We get a trip from a shipper two hours away and this trip is only four hours to the drop. The others we were looking at were four hours to the shipper and six hours to the drop. Kind of tight for a Friday. And there is a truck just a few miles from our next drop. It is now HOT ... and not ready until 10/5. I'll call on that one tomorrow. If it is hot, if it is something I will drive and if they will take a Saturday delivery, we will likely take it. Tomorrows trip is not paying great but todays sure did. Earlier I had called local dispatch to see if they having anything coming back from MO ... MS ? Is that kind of like MO ? :) So no, they don't. The hotels in Bloomington are the last before the shipper so we end up at the Comfort Inn, but first we stop at Bob Evans for food. Breakfast. We get to-go boxes for three strips of bacon and a couple of pieces of banana bread. Then we go for a short walk before sunset. It is getting dark early now. Load board US - 149 IA - 2/0 MN - 5 WI - 4 Tomorrow we should be at the shipper by 8 AM and to the drop by 1 PM. Then we are up against the weekend. We might have to make some calls to see if anyone will take their stuff on Saturday. 2023 09 29 IL-MO 1 vac truck to Bridgeton MO (delivered) ... spending the night at Cedar Rapids IA Awaken by the alarm again. Breakfast was eggs and left over bacon from last night. Still too much, I will be taking one piece with me for later. The GPS took us to the shipper on a route I will not be taking back with a truck. 10 or so miles there was no center line, very narrow, but black topped road. I've been here a couple of times before, I remembered the building once I saw it. I go inside and someone at the desk needs to call to have my truck brought out as I had not called ahead. It looks like some have called ahead as there are a row of trucks outside the fence. As long as they bring out the truck, I give them the paperwork instead of going back to the office. ??? The truck is full of fuel? They used to be on fumes. I'll take it. Not sure what was going on with the electronics. When we were trying to do our pre-trip the lights didn't want to go on, the 4-ways didn't want to work. They all did at some point but not right away. All's good and I should have enough fuel to get to the drop on their fuel. Once stop for a break. I call the drop and the number on my paperwork is for Kansas City, not Saint Louis. And I find out they close at 3 PM. Hmmm. Not an issue today, but that is kind of early. Lots of fog this AM, sometimes we could only see three high line poles along side the road. About an hour into the trip I get two back to back calls. I usually ignore them but with some info wrong on my paperwork I'm not taking chances. It is dispatch, the can see I will be in STL, they want to know if I can take a truck from the next town over to Kansas City ... NEXT THURSDAY. Sorry, when I drop this truck the wheels keep turning. I had called on that trip from the hotel this AM because it was close to my drop. And it showed hot ... and a future date. Something did not add up. Both were right, they want it moved on that day. Then I stop again when I get to the halfway point at a rest area near Springfield. When I am stopped I look at the load board and see trucks in KS coming back to MN. So I call and find out we can pick up 24/7. I text BB and ask her to see if the trip makes sense. She calls back before I get back on the freeway in a panic ... what if she hadn't seen my text ... what if ... what if ... If it needed to be done right away, I would have called. Calling twice means we need to talk right now. That is how our dispatchers do it. I looked at a map this AM and didn't write down directions. We have almost been to this place before except coming from the other direction. I've dropped a trash truck or two across the street from todays drop and we dropped a tanker about a mile from this drop. Today I also see there is another trash company within a mile that we do work for, I just haven't been to this location yet. I come into the drop with a half a tank of fuel and didn't add any. That makes these trips pay better. I find someone to sign off on the truck, they do one walk around and sign. We are good to go. But where? I had called on the KS to MN trucks earlier so I knew where they were going. Even met the owner once. So I call to see if we can drop over the weekend, we can not. So that means we will have three hotels for a 600 mile trip. The math does not work. So I don't call the dispatcher back. I was looking forward to moving one of those trucks. Maybe next time. So we head home empty. RV dispatch does put a few RV's out today. Even a pair to PA but that trip hasn't worked for us in the past so BB blows it off. All other trips are solo trips. There were two RV's going to FL but both were CDL so that doesn't work for BB. I haven't eaten lunch and it is after 2 PM so I have a piece of yesterdays banana bread before we leave the drop lot. Then BB decides she is hungry so we head to the Love's. It is still in Bridgeton and only a couple of miles from the drop. We end up with Wendy's. I eat my last piece of bacon with my sandwich. At New London we stop again, and gas up. Should have looked online, gas was quite a bit cheaper at our next stop. At some point north of here, BB finally looks at hotels. Big bucks near Iowa City tonight. Mount Pleasant is too early and Cedar Rapids is kind of far. But Cedar Rapids it is. So that we don't have to be eating too late, we stop again. This time at the Pilot/Arby's in Mount Pleasant. PJ Fresh would sell more food if the staff would stay at the counter. Saw a few people look at the food, look around for someone and then leave. Arby's cheese stake is back. It is good. Not the easiest to eat in the car but no mess today. It is dark when we get to the hotel. 12 hour day. No walk tonight. It was still 80 degrees at 7 PM tonight. Comfort Inn in Cedar Rapids, been a month plus since we have been at this one. Load board US - 128 IA - 3/2 MN - 4 WI - 3 This is one trash truck going to Topeka from MN, not sure the math on that will be any better than having taken the trip from KS to MN. Don't know what we will do yet. Likely spend Saturday night at home, maybe Sunday night too. 2023 09 30 IL-MO ?1 vac truck to Bridgeton MO (delivered) ... spending the night at home Nowhere to go, yet, so no alarm. It is supposed to be hot and humid. They even canceled the marathon a half a day north of here by home. BB is trying to get walks in so we were out before breakfast. This hotel has a trail that runs next to the railroad tracks and freeway so there are not too many streets to cross. Basic breakfast. Then we got going about 8:30 instead of our usual 7:30. We spent a lot of time talking about working vs not working and when to work. There were two trips out of MN that would have worked and one trip back to MN. I even texted that dispatcher, not knowing what hours they answer the phone on the weekend. Dispatcher never got back to me, but by the end of the weekend, those two and all of his other trips were gone. We finally decide to just do local, metro for the two days next week. So that means we are in no rush to get home. So we stop by a cemetery in Waterloo that has one of my Dad's 1st cousins buried in it. Office is closed on the weekends and there are 1,000's of graves, all flat. So we don't even get out of the car. We have stopped here before but never when the office is open. I will need to contact them and try to get the location info another way. Because we took this little detour, it is now faster to go up through Rochester than going through Owatonna. No rest area's on these roads so we stop at the Kwik Star in New Hampton. Not going to be home by lunch time so BB finds us a place in Rochester to eat. Canadian Honkers. Highly rated, but not very busy today. It is close to the hospital and that may be their main clientele. Plenty of food, good food. But we had also heard about an ice cream shop in town. Flapdoodles. I got a malt and BB got two cones, upside down on a plater. They have a name for it. From there it was a straight ride home. Load board US - 121 IA - 1/0 MN - 1 WI - 3 After more talking later about all the what if's, we decided that taking the rental car for our trip is now plan 'A.' Plan A had been to get work going that direction, when there was still work. We now have other things lined up so we no longer have a huge window of time on either end of the trip. We are still home a couple of days, then gone for about a week. Then as soon as we are back one of us has an appointment. A total of four appointments and three lab checks are set for the following week. Then who knows ... One of those four is currently for two weeks later, but we are hoping to move it up if anyone has a cancelation. A week of following me around for BB is about her limit. It pays, but it has a different stress level than doing the cross country trips. |
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