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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 06 03 CO-NE 1 tractor to Kimball NE (FAILED) ... spending the night at Lincoln NE We were up at our usual 6 AM central, so it was 5 AM here. No one answered the phone at the shipper until 8 AM mountain time so that is when we left the hotel. Breakfast? Was a cup of yogurt and a hard boiled egg. No hot food. And when I checked out I saw that the 'safe charge' is up to $2.95 from $1.50 and this location also adds another $3 for a service charge. Grrr. Just include it all in your base price. By now I was in a rush so I didn't go back and complain about the safe fee. 1st stop was about 10 miles down the road at Buc-ees for fuel. No semi's but something semi like really ripped up the sod because they don't make the entrance/exits wide enough for semi's. We get to the shipper, the semi is already running ... Hmmm that is NOT always a good sign. Did they have to make sure it would start before I got there because it takes a jump? First thing I do is look at the dash ... full tank of fuel. All pay is MINE :) Then I look up ... the windshield is cracked. So I call dispatch, I am <> legal as it is not in my 'line of sight.' While I am waiting for a call back, BB and I check the lights. ... no back up lights, no back up alarm and a very load air leak. I call dispatch again. By then I have gotten the OK to run with the cracked windshield. With the mechanical stuff we have to give the shipper time to fix it. After a half hour I'm told the shipper does not have time to fix it. While the shipper is telling me that, my phone is ringing. Dispatch has not heard from the shipper and dispatch is taking me off the trip. I will get 1/3 of the pay I was expecting ... for a half day lost. I call my local dispatcher who is NA. No work anywhere in the west so we head home. 3rd stop of the day is at the Loves in Hudson for the restroom. While I am there, I do talk to my local dispatch ... IF I had called them on Friday when I was told there were no buses ... Local dispatch was still open and they had a truck in NV coming back to MN ... opps. Now the only two they have is one in MO going to CT and one in GA going somewhere. Not something I can do by Friday. So we are still heading home. We watch all load boards and keep driving. 4th stop is at the J&L Cafe. Crowded little parking lot. Lots of people. Good food, couldn't eat it all. I had a 'pot roast' french dip and onion rings. BB had a BLT and slaw. All good. I was thinking of a different place we had eaten at here in town so after we ate, we drove up and down a couple of streets before we both realized ... maybe I'm thinking of Gothenburg NE (I've looked it up now, and yes, I was) 5th stop is the rest area near Ogallala. 6th stop is the rest area near Grand Island. We still are not hungry but need to eat before too late, so ... 7th stop is the Runza in York. We both get mushroom and swiss. BB gets a burger and I get a Runza and a malt. Too much, I do not finish the malt. That is rare. BB and I have had plenty of time to talk today, looking at current options and past years. Last year we did not take two RV's anywhere from June until after Thanksgiving. And looking at the numbers, this year is slower than last year so we will likely be doing a lot of short trips. Right now the closest work is in KC. There are two that will be mimi's for pay. I will call on them in the AM. But they are non-CDL so it is not likely they will pay enough to make it worth our time. Other than that there is nothing short in the midwest. And that work is only about three hours from our hotel, so we will want to decide before we leave in the AM. 8th stop is the Quality Inn in Lincoln. We had looked at Grand Island again but we still were not hungry and Lincoln was $20 less. Load board US - 138 IA -0- MN - 2 WI - 5 IF the KC trips do not pay enough for us to do them, then we will head to Forest City in the AM and watch the load board. If we leave at our usual time we will have a couple of extra hours to kill before Forest City closes for the day. Once they close and there is no more option for work tomorrow, we will head home and save a nights hotel. Otherwise we do have this rental car already paid for for the rest of the week. 2024 06 04 MO-MO 1 van to Springfield MO (delivered) 1 van to Dallas City IL (Wednesday) ... spending the night at Kansas City MO 7 AM local, we call an east coast dispatcher. Eventually we get a hold of them and find out the pay. It is slightly better than we had said we'd do it for so we decide to take both of them. This hotel does not have a printer that works so we have to have the front desk print it out. I was going to have them print both paperwork but I messed up the 2nd trip so we only took time for the one set and that is all we needed for today. 1st stop is Percival at the Pilot for break and fuel. We did have to back track this AM about five miles but that was faster than going through the city streets. The shipper will be easy to find, right off of the beltway behind Oceans/Worlds of Fun. And there is a gas station right at the exit so when I pick them up on fumes ... We find the shipper, no where to park so we park blocking the electronic gate. When I go inside their mobile office, everyone is eating lunch, all five plus of them. Five desks side by side fill one wall of the office, floor to ceiling cabinets full of keys fill the other long wall. As soon as they bring my van around, I am ready to go. But I can't. And BB can't get out of the car. Vans are coming in bumper to bumper and the gate is too narrow. I'm guessing 20+ of them before there was a break and then only a brief break. I called BB while sitting there and said I'd do my inspection when I found a place to park. A block away there was an entrance that was blocked off but there was room enough for both BB and I to park so that is where we did the inspection. All good except for the low fuel light, that was on. Another few blocks and we are at the 3rd stop of the day. QT / Quick Trip for fuel. We guess, and this is not that rural so there will be plenty of places to stop if I need to. Drop change ... more Load board US - 112 IA -0- MN -0- WI - 4 2024 06 05 MO-MO 1 van to Fenton MO (delivered) 1 RV to Brainard MN (Thursday) ... spending the night at North Liberty IA Today we planned on running a little late. Yesterday after I dropped, I tried calling the drop for my second van which was also going to a residence. The number would not ring through so I called dispatch to let them know of the problem. This AM I was going to wait until either dispatch or I had made contact before heading out. BB suggested trying the number again this AM. Today it worked ?? But I got the person's boss that I was looking for. He gave me the correct persons number and for him I had to leave a message. But we had made contact with someone with the drop so we went ahead and headed to the pickup. This time we did not try to pull in the driveway, yesterday it was a zoo with trucks coming and going bumper to bumper. Today we pulled off at a barricaded drive and I walked the rest of the way. Today it was so slow that the gate was closed and I had to buzz to get in. Just as I was walking up the steps, the drop calls back. They do not want the van at their house either, but this time the shop is not 20 miles away from their house it is three hours. So I have to call dispatch so they can get their contact to change the contract. But I am good to drive with this one until the other one comes. I see another driver today who is driving the same customer van so I talk to him. Different company and he is going to Sioux Falls. Now that would have been a day closer to home if I had gotten that one. When we were still in CA there were some vans from here going to northern MN but those were gone within minutes of posting. There was a 2nd driver driving a Home Depot van to Tampa, another nice trip. Today when I go inside the office I know the routine. And I have my van within a few minutes. When I drive down to BB and start my inspection, the first thing I notice is a bird. Baby bird, the flat right in front of the front wheel. Not much of a nest but I put my gloves on and moved it into the shade of a barrier. It wasn't too long and there was a bird squawking real close to us. Not sure if it will live or die but at least I didn't kill it. All else looks good. This one also has the low fuel light on so I fuel ASAP. 2nd stop is the QT next to last nights hotel. I just moved one of these yesterday so I put in fuel based on that trip. I still need to get my paperwork before the drop so we plan on meeting about halfway at a Loves. 3rd stop today was at a Loves in Boonville for paperwork and the restrooms. Pretty uneventful trip. I did look at a map before leaving Loves and wrote down the last four turns. Computer suggested something else but the logic didn't work for me. I did miss my 2nd to last turn but by then I could see the last street so not an issue. BB was using GPS and she also missed the turn because it was not well marked and today was one way because of construction. 4th stop. I find someone to sign. I didn't realize it was the same person I had talked to this AM until I was almost ready to go. He was expecting paperwork with the van and I said I think your service driver has that at his house. I was to drop this in Dallas City about three hours north of here. I get paid <.> the same miles but am a few hours further from home. 5th stop is a few blocks down the street at a Lunchbox. That is also their decore. Food was nothing special but I think that is because of what we ordered. We'd try it again. No work and I decide not to call my local company but instead wait to see what shows up on the load board. There are two trucks in MN only going 50 miles but the dispatcher does not pick up and does not call me back. A few miles down the road and the RV dispatchers put trips on the loadboard so when BB sees the first one she is hitting refresh every few seconds. Then the put a IA to MN trip and she has to find her phone and dial. Not exactly ready for that but she got the trip. So now the MN-MN trips will wait for Monday if they are still there. The RV to MN will likely mean we spend tomorrow night in Brainard a few blocks from the drop. We would have to either drive until 9-10 PM tonight or get going at 5-6 AM tomorrow to deliver the unit tomorrow. And without knowing their close time it's only a guess until we see the paperwork. 6th stop is the Flying J in Wayland for the restrooms. We did eat a cookie we bought today at the Lunchbox. That was good, better than the week old Subway cookies we have been eating. Lunchbox, they did have a copy of my school bus lunch box in their display. They had that style lunch boxes all the way around the eating area. And it was a huge eating area. Sometimes these little cafe's only have a dozen tables. This one had dozens. Huge area. 7th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in North Liberty. After checking in we went for our first walk of the trip. Load board US - 87 IA - 6/0 MN - 3 WI - 3 Tomorrow we should be picked up and eating lunch by noon and then a four hour drive to the drop. Then we'll get a hotel and be back to Forest City by mid afternoon on Friday and home by Friday evening. Depending on work, we may head out again on Sunday. If no long trip, then we'll be working Monday. ... the trip continues HERE
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