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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2023 12 27 - MN-WI Wednesday - No work ... but three contacts with dispatch. 1st the RV dispatcher calls about a trip from a few months ago where my windshield busted. Sounds like it was road debris the carrier has to pay for the $5,000 windshield, if it was a rock, then the shipper pays. I have no way of knowing and neither do they. It' happens so fast that I couldn't see what it was. My GUESS had been that it was not a rock because of how high it hit on the RV. And rocks don't bounce. But that is just my logic, not what actually happened. Then I contacted the bus dispatcher again and I finally have an email address to send a copy of the paperwork to. 3rd was calling the local dispatcher to see if there was local/metro work for Thursday and Friday. Right now all there was was one truck to WI. I'll try again Friday for next week if they do not call back. Load board - Wednesday US - 169 IA - 9/8 MN - 2 WI - 9 Thurssday - Finally called the bus dispatcher again. I delivered on Monday and now it is Thursday and I still am not released or paid. Not being released would be an issue if I was trying to work again, I can only be on one trip at a time. There is a truck in River Falls which is very close to us, heading to WI. Also short trash truck trips. with the long haul carrier. The local carrier did not call today looking for a Friday driver. Load board - Thursday US - 205 IA - 5/4 MN - 8 WI - 9 Friday - Dispatch never called me, I never called them. Load board - Friday US - 190 IA - 3/2 MN - 6 WI - 10 Load board - 3 day weekend US - 194 IA - 3/2 MN - 5 WI - 10 I tried calling in the AM to the local dispatcher, no answer. Finally around mid-day we drove past the lot. Closed. Load board - Monday US - 162 IA -0- MN -0- WI - 6 This AM, dispatch called me mid-morning asking if I/we could do a WI trip. Short, but it works for us. In the PM I drive in to get my paperwork. The truck and the bus that were there yesterday are still there. And in the office there was still a sign that said the office would be closed Christmas and New Years. Nothing about being closed the day after Christmas. Plan is to head out tomorrow AM and get the truck dropped by close time. Load board - Tuesday US - 197 IA - 4 MN - 2 WI - 11 2023 12 28 MN-WI I trash truck to Berlin WI ... spending the night at Plover WI Up before 6 without an alarm, this place was not serving breakfast today (we were at home) Pulled out at 7:30, got to the shipper in Dodge Center at 9 AM. This is the first time we have been here since the paved the lot. No more slip sliding the the clay mud. Our lock box still has a half dozen keys in it. I'm assuming they are for longer trips and we are coming up on a three day weekend. Not too many trucks and the weather is <> warm so it did not take us long to find my truck. CNG. That was not listed on my paperwork, no issue other than I need more info from dispatch. ... and the truck has a check engine and a wrench light on. I call dispatch, when they call back they say to go to an in-town shop. Not their own shop, I'm not sure the plant is working today. Shop clears the code and says it has a 50-50 chance of coming back on. By the time I get to the bottom of the freeway ramp, the lights are back on. I call dispatch and get the OK to get the truck scaled while they decide what to do with my truck. It is now 'our problem,' as we have left the shipper. So dispatch calls the manufacture ... take it to their closest shop. Dispatch calls the shipper and the shipper says no, take it back to the in town shop. ??? I was confused about that one so I called dispatch back before dropping the keys at the in town shop. But that is where they want it ... The in town shop has dozens of trucks waiting to get worked on, so I go inside to find out where to park it ... they want to look at it right now. So I have to call dispatch back to get the OK to stay with it. While I am waiting, the other carrier puts out two RV's to CA. I call BB ... she doesn't believe me and by the time she looks at it ... one of them is gone. I COULD HAVE called on the RV's before calling BB. But ... not knowing when or if this truck is going to be done we really don't like committing to other trips. And then they were both gone. :( That would have been a great trip for over New Years. The shop decides it is not what the computer says it is the issue and find something else to fix. This takes about two hours. Then they ask if I am OK with doing the test drive, if it is fixed ... I keep going. If not, I return. I make it to the bottom of the ramp again and the warning lights are one. Back to the shop. But ... something is different. When I get to the shop, the repair man wants to know how it acted ... mmm ... He clears the code one more time and I pull out again. No more issues today. Usually we stop at Rochester first, today I go another hour to West Salem before fueling. And eating lunch. No rush now. The drop closes at 4 PM and we won't even get to the next fueling station before 4 PM. See a few eagles today, flying, sitting, eating. And a few turkeys. Had to cross two scales today, no issues. The first place had me sit for a couple of minutes before I got the OK to go sign. The second one put up the OK to go sign ... But ... there is a stop sign before the scale and the OK to go sign is after I am on the scale. I stopped at the stop sign and I can see him inside the scalehouse waving at me to keep moving. 2nd fuel stop was in Plover. It adds another 30 miles to my trip. Plus the <> three hours down time is why this isn't a one day trip today. I usually use the small nozzle but today neither small nozzle would fit on my truck. So I had to use the large one, not a big deal, you get a slightly better fill with a small nozzle but that isn't an issue today. Only when the pumps are far apart. We decide to stay at the Best Western across the street from the fuel stop. Both fuels were Kwik Trips today. There was a family restaurant at a third corner but they close a 2 PM daily. Kwik Trip was handing out samples and BB took some so she was no longer hungry. I got something different for a sample but still I wanted food. So we split a chicken tender box and I also had some soup. Load board US - 159 IA -0- MN -0- WI - 11 Tomorrow we plan on delivering by 9 AM. Could be back home by 1 PM. We need to get drugs before we head out for too long. We'll keep looking for work. There is some in WI that could keep us busy but won't pay because tomorrow is Friday and the trips would get us further from home with no work that can deliver over the weekend. 2023 12 29 MN-WI I trash truck to Berlin WI (delivered) ... spending the night at home No alarm, small breakfast. OJ part of machine did not work and I tossed the apple juice I did take ... and I drink some pretty ??? stuff. Last week I was drinking eggnog that was a few weeks past it's 'best by' date. We are ready to head out by 7:30 AM. Today we have to scrape the frost off the windshields on both units. There is a breakfast and lunch place across the street from the hotel, closes at 2 PM so we couldn't eat there last night. This AM there was only one customer at 6 AM and four customers by 7:30. The weigh scale I crossed last night is in the center of the freeway so if open, I would have had to cross it again today. Luckily it was not. Glad we/I decided to add a few miles and stay on the most major roads, after the drop we took the shorter route. Not bad but not as wide. The street the drop is on did not have a street sign but I knew about where it was. At the drop I walk into the office and ask where to drop their truck. They didn't know but others had seen me drive in and were already at the truck when I got back to it. They didn't know they even had a new one coming. A quick walk around and they signed. Good to go. We pull across the street to a larger parking lot to do our paperwork. It is for a rail trail. Over a dozen plus cars today with room for another two dozen. So, larger, for being out in the country. But no port-a-potty? We've seen places with only a couple of parking spots with port-a-potties. We look online and the RV board has a dozen plus going to FL. Plus other places ... they are going to be dumping more on so we decide to wait ... and wait ... and wait ... and spend the weekend at home because the dump never came. Berlin. Named after a city in Germany. Lots of old (original?) store fronts along main street. Most are in use. Busy town for what seems as an out of the way place. No work yet so we head home. Was there more work and we missed it? Maybe. Stuff can come and go pretty quickly. Seconds, depending on when someone sees the trip. Our first stop after the drop was in Tomah WI at Arby's. If we had taken another suggested route, we could have eaten at one of the two deli's we like, but we were not thinking that far ahead. Food was to-go and I got something 'driver friendly.' Next stop is about a half hour down the road, cheapest fuel we will find in WI. Almost. Flying J is where we stopped, Kwik Trip across the street was cheaper but there was also a line. 100 miles later we stop in Baldwin WI at a Culvers for a treat. And then home. We had talked about when we should 'take the best of what is left,' but never picked a time. I dropped off BB at the house and then went to drop off paperwork for this last trip. While there, they wanted to update my plate/book/etc for the new year. As I'm waiting, I actually look at the new book and see an error, turns out the error is likely in all 100+ that they plan on handing out. Not sure why/how I caught it, I usually don't look at what they give me. I had lab work that I needed to get done, way past due but not worried about it. I look at the load board before I go it ... had thought of calling BB before going in but there was still time left in the day. ... and when I come out 10 minutes later the load board is empty. No work for us. Glad we were not trying to get away from the cold. And now we can't do any work for our long haul company until we get new plate/book/etc for the new year. We get that from the RV location so no local pickup moves ... there is/was one about 30 miles from our house for Wednesday, if it is still there. Load board US - 130 IA - 1/0 MN -0- WI - 9 |
