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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 64 - New GMC - Refer ... to Lexington, KY Trip 64b - New GMC - Refer ... to Newport News, VA Trip 64c - Used Izuzu - Box ... to Manhiem, PA Trip 64d - New Chev - Box ... to Morehead, KY Trip 64e - New Izuzu - Box ... to Lewisburg, WV Trip 64f1 - New Chev - Box ... to Stockton, CA Trip 64g - New IH - chasis ... to Burnsville, MN Trip 64f2 - New Chev - Box ... to Stockton, CA Hadn't been much for runs lately ... the last two weeks I have had to take runs that I would usually pass on ... those under 1,000 miles. The company has had a lot of MS/LA moves lately and I was hoping to get one of those ... Yes, but ... everything going south or east now ends up in PA. On Monday when I took the run I knew I'd either get to do a nice CA run or have to do an east coast run ... 8 AM dispatch. 11/16/04 - 8 AM turns into 9 AM ... turns into 10 AM ... changes from an office dispatch to including a two hour shuttle prior to pickup. The LA moves are on hold, we / two of us are now going to be going to KY and VA ... but we can have the CA moves ... after we do back to back east coast runs. Dispatch remembers that I voiced my comments only two runs I have done for this customer ... my worst two runs in the last year. I'm thinking the boss has heard about it two, don't remember the last time both the dispatcher and the boss stood there to give us our paperwork ... ... and I'm running with a guy that likes to run alone ... seems like a nice guy, but he made it clear the first times we met months ago that he was doing this job because he he didn't have to run with anyone ... and now we will be together for the next two weeks. Yesterday when dispatch asked when how long I could stay out and I said '... I hoped to be home by Thanksgiving ...' They must have forgotten ... only if this run works like clock work, or we lie like crazy, will we make it home for Thanksgiving. Had thought we'd be driving paid miles by 8 AM ... it is 2 PM by the time I am fueled and ready to go. We start the trip ... apart ... the way I prefer to run ... not having to wait for each other to fuel, not having to watch what the other is doing ... Everything took more time ... changing paperwork ... dropping a vehicle in route ... actually out of route, which added miles ... picking our vehicles up at a different location ... having no one at the station to fuel, for about an hour. With these propane trucks and duel fuel tanks we can make 500 miles between stops, 300 miles to South Beloit ... I could make it to Gary, IN but I try to avoid it if we can ... at the last exit it before South Beloit, I see the other driver ahead of me ... thought he would have been long gone ... so here we are, waiting for the other to fuel ... and pay ... and get comcheck monies. It's been a while since I've run with a driver who wants to by-pass Chicago, this one does ... so it's I-39 to I-80, adds another 40+ miles to an already over hours trip ... did only take about three hours from Beloit to Gary ... this time. On a good day I can get through Chicago in about 2-1/2, so it only cost us a half hour and saved us a couple of bucks in tolls ... with the boss picking up the fuel. Not only do I hate sitting around for six hour because I hate to just sit ... now its two in the morning and we are up against our 14 hours but not our 11 hours driving ... we stop just past Indy at a Super 8. Had to stop an extra time for fuel this trip, at the first stop my truck had only been running on one tank which would only give me 350, but when we stopped the second time it was running on both .... 11/17/04 - When I get past a certain point of being up, I do not sleep well ... and I didn't ... somehow the log book looked OK and we were able to roll out early and dropped the first truck. I wasn't really wanting to push it last night, but I knew if we didn't make 500 miles the first day ... we couldn't drop the second truck on day two and we'd end up missing close times and quickly add another day to this trip. Finding my exit was easy, but I didn't realize I was looking at my map upside down ... the top is always north remember? but there was a long wait at the top of the ramp which gave me lots of time to compare the map to reality ... ended up taking a right turn out of the left turn lane. The guy at the drop wasn't really happy to see me, most of them are, this guy had had enough of the propane trucks and I was brining him another one, he was hoping to switch his location over to all diesel. Now to finish the rest of the 800 miles for today ... sharing a truck ... dead head miles, just so we can share a rental car. This gets me about 400 miles out of route, the other driver is about 200 miles out of route to follow me. But the directions are simple, both drops are about a mile off of I-64. We make it to Newport News but we are too late to pickup the rental car tonight so the drop will be in the AM ... I was surprised the customer had two locations this close together. Last trip this way I was told me drop was in Newport News, turns out it was in Suffix right across the bay. Our first Motel 6 of the trip ... second night of being a bad boy I guess ... had to go to bed without any supper ... everything is closed ... made it to the convince store with just minutes to spare before they closed. Page 2 - The next leg .... |