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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2024 04 26 MN-MI 1 trash truck to Battle Creek MI (Monday) ... spending the night at home ... this started yesterday. I was driving off road somewhere rural when the call came in. Local dispatch needed a driver for a trip because 'someone backed out.' It was a couple more miles than I usually do for that carrier and it is way beyond my '6 hour window' of accepting trips. But I checked with BB and we decided to take the trip. It needs to be there by Wednesday but things are still unknown as to other plans that haven't fallen in to place yet. I call back and accept the trip. Cell service is still 'iffy' but hopefully we got everything right. Later Thursday, I realize that I had <> committed to not being gone more than a day at a time ... Opps. But after that I looked at the weather forecast and it looks like it will be either raining or still wet for most of the next week so not really an issue. Then today, Friday, dispatch calls again to make sure what we had agreed on Thursday, I only played dumb for a few seconds ... Later dispatch calls back to see when I am leaving. I still do not know. There has been a couple of times where they have wanted me to shuttle other drivers because 'I am going that way anyways ...' but we are trying not to do that. But this time it is because the shipper has so many trucks in their lot that only the ones that are leaving will not be blocked in by other trucks. So I call it ... we will wait until Monday to leave. Late in the day I get a message, my other maybe plans will not happen this weekend. IF we hadn't had to tell the shipper I wasn't leaving, we could have left Sunday and been back a day earlier. Oh well. Now we have a three day weekend. There was work we could have done today but we may not have made it home today. Those trips are better when we can string a few like trips together. BB didn't want to work and I haven't been home for a day for three plus weeks so we sat. Load board US - 192 IA - 11/9 MN - 1 WI - 9 There are still one day trips that we could have done Monday if we hadn't taken the MI. IA has RV's going to WI and TX. There is another truck in KS coming back to MN. Right now there is not anything in the MI/IN coming back to WI or MN but those come and go quickly. We are running during the week so they will be adding stuff, we just have to look often enough to grab it. 2024 04 27 MN-MI 1 trash truck to Battle Creek MI (Monday) ... spending the night at home Went to pick up my paperwork today. Could have even left last night if I hadn't had to commit to an exact time ... so Monday it is. On the way to the office we stopped at a food truck that has been in a farmers yard for over a year now. Finally tried it. Good food, and enough for two meals. New ... now we need to take a half dozen pictures of each truck both at pickup and delivery. I've been taking some at pickup but often forget at delivery. Been doing that for the last four years so it should be too ... big of deal for me. Office parking lot has four buses heading to ON plus two other trucks. And paperwork for trucks that are not here so they do have work. Sometime after the noon closing of the office, the RV dispatchers put almost 60 trips on the load board. We could have had work a few places if we had not committed to this MI trip. At the end of the day Friday there were still three pickups from MN to Miles City MT that we could have done also. ... and lots of trips that we wouldn't have time to do IF we are going to get back for family on Saturday. 2024 04 29 MN-MI 1 trash truck to Battle Creek MI ... spending the night at DeForest WI Today the alarm woke us ... so we are dragging a little. Thought we might get out of the house early, and we did, but only by a couple of minutes. Road construction slows us down and then the phone rings. Dispatch is calling before the office opens wondering where I am. I give a vague reply. I don't want to head back to the office and pick up other drivers ... But that isn't it ... I've WON ... I've won a trip to the clinic for an alcohol test ... I pick Rochester instead of the clinic in St Paul. I'm guessing that it will take a while to get the paperwork taken care of once dispatch gets to the office and they can do that while I drive instead of while I am at the clinic waiting. So change of plans ... Dispatch tells me what forms to take to the clinic, we have to carry them with us and I have done this a dozen times before. Another reason for Rochester is that it gives me an hour to drink. Twice I have had to sit at the clinic because I could not fill their cup the first time. So I have to sit in a room and drink a gallon of water before I can take the test again. Then they need to send it to an off-site location because it is a deluded sample. 1st stop is the clinic. Four people ahead of me so it takes an hour at the clinic plus the out of route miles. The one guy who comes after me is there for a pre-employment clinic. Crossed my mind a couple of time that this guy is not going to pass ... after about a half hour sitting in the waiting room he just walks out the door ... (auto fail!) Just before I get called in, the desk clerk says I can have my form back. This is only an alcohol test, not a drug test ... so I've drank two bottles of water ... and held it for an hour ... and all I need to do is breath into a tube ??? I pass. I did ask if people ever fail. Yes, they do. And what I didn't know is that the clinic has to let them go. So anyone at a clinic that blows over on alcohol ... just walks out the door and drives home (???) Of the 60 RV's that were put on the load board on Saturday, 40 are gone within the hour. There are a whole lot of drivers who only do RV's ... We get to the shippers lot. Dispatch had this long story about how the shipper needed to know which trucks were leaving when ... that was why I had to pick a time. I don't think so. I think the only reason dispatch wanted to know was to get me into a clinic ... little white lies? Before I find my truck, another driver asks if I know where the shut off switch is. Must be their first time here. I show them and then go on my way and find mine. Mine checks good and I get my pictures taken. BB is really dragging today so plans will likely change again. 3rd stop is the Kwik Trip in Kasson to scale. Fuel gauge is on full and I check the tank, close enough so that I do not add fuel. ... maybe I should have added fuel. This truck is almost at the legal weight limit and the fuel may have put it over. Or having my luggage with plus having eaten breakfast may have put it over. Close. BB doesn't want to get to far apart today in case we shut down early. So instead of her following me and catching up, she will leave ahead of me and we should stay close. BB stops at the Loves in St Charles for fuel, cheap fuel. I get a call from local dispatch. Seeing I am delivering in MI, can I pick up a hot truck in MI coming back to the office. Sounds good ... almost. As in it is almost 500 miles from the drop to the next pickup. I'm still in MN, running late and likely will be running later. It is only about 300 miles from their office to that shipper. I pass. Not sure the trip would pay after a 500 mile dead head ... and I want to know what the fields look like before committing to any next leg. Passing through La Crosse I notice the old Gander Mountain building that has sat empty for years now is active again. Camping World ... they are the ones who bought most or all of the Gander Locations. They are putting in a Coachmen dealer, Coachmen by Camping World. Last week I went past one of their locations by Forest Lake. That was is now a Forest River by Camping World. (Both are major RV manufactures.) Can't find anything online yet about how those locations differ from Camping Worlds main locations. 4th stop is the rest area near New London. Yep, BB is dragging. We'll try another hour, or less. 5th stop is the rest area near Poynette. BB is done. She would have been willing to go to Janesville but that hotel is marginal. So DeForest it is. Before we get to DeForest my low DEF light comes on. The truck are usually full, this one one was not but it is still burning both DEF and fuel faster than expected. 6th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in DeForest. Norski Nook is closed on Mondays and the food we have at the Family Diner is way too much so we go through the drive through at Culvers and back to the room. Later I make a phone call. They got over two inches so that will take close to two weeks ... if it doesn't rain again. And the forecast is for more rain. So no reason for me to be around until the middle of next week for that. Wasn't sure how that was going to pay out. One less thing to worry about. Load board US - 1969 IA - 20/18 MN - 4 WI - 7 With the way BB was feeling today we were not going to commit to a next trip. Right now the focus is just on getting it there before close time tomorrow. ... the trip continues HERE |
