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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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The trip home ... July 4th Not too often you get a round trip run in the business ... and each of these runs would have paid good on their own. But I have to keep doing the math to make sure that when they all average out that I'm making enough to get by. I pick up my second truck where I drop the first, same company. They didn't want me to sign anything. AND they fueled the truck before I got there for me ... a tank and a half of free fuel in one week ... and two trucks I can sleep in. This wasn't a new truck, it was a 1995 with over 200,000 miles on it, but it was one they were using daily so we knew it still ran. Tonight was a motel night, at least every other night I need to get a good nights sleep ... and a shower. My wife had checked the internet and the closest Motel 6 was full, but the one further north had openings. I had also seen a few motels under $40 a few miles back, a few also advertising "truck parking." Thought I had seen a Dury Inn on my side of the highway on the way down, but couldn't find it again on the way back. But I did see a Motel 6 so I pulled in even tho there was a Delta Inn claiming $27 a night next door. The Motel 6 would cost $32 before taxes. (My wife told me LATER that we could have saved $4 by making the reservations on-line.) When I get a room the shower is always the first thing on my list. Depending on the hour, food is second. It's only eight o'clock so I walk a quarter mile down the highway to the 'Neighbor Cafe' ... the building looked like it had been there 50 years, both inside and out. Inside it looked like an old hall, with the original hanging ceiling tiles faded from time and the grease in the air. Probably the original booths and tables, but the TV in the corner looked like it was only about 40 years old ... and they did have a touch tone phone. Other than the (city) water, the food was good, a patty melt and fries, with a little piece of watermelon. After tasting the water I had to order something without water in it, so it was either milk or juice. I ordered the juice but instead of what I ordered they brought grapefruit juice, it was all they had left. I drank it but it didn't exactly go with the meal, especially not the watermelon. Besides the half dozen old truckers there were a couple sitting in the booth next to me. Couldn't quite figure them out, he looked about 70 and very clean cut and nicely dressed. She was about 50 and looked pretty rough. Looked like someone who had spent the last 30 years on drugs ... she also looked like she had weighted more than her current 130#. Her clothes were oversized and all of her tatoo's were blotches. After watching them for the half hour I think they must have been father and daughter. By the time I leave it is dark ... days are getting shorter already. And I decide not to get an early start, I'm paying for this motel I can at least spend 8-10 hours in it and I have no deadline. I did the math later, and if I had only allowed my self my eight hours off each night, I would have made this round trip in 3 days / 72 hours, which make the pay on this trip look really good. July 4th I slept better last night in the truck the night before... not sure why. And I'm fairly sure I would not have slept better in the this weather / 90+ degrees ... not sure what it drops to at night. After getting up a couple of times during the night to see if it was light out (I can't read the clock on my cell phone at night, it takes too long for my eyes to adjust.), Motel 6's do not have clock's in the room, it is finally light and time to go. I also didn't want to leave too early or I would be sitting at a truckstop somewhere this afternoon, out of hours. Back in my truck and rolling, down the exact highway for the next 20 hours that I was just on the last couple of days. Traffic shouldn't be too bad this early in the AM, it's the 4th of July. That does make a big difference going through Fort Worth. The I35 / I20 intersection is quite a sight, lanes stacked five high. After my little adventure with the garbage truck recently, I pay more attention to the bridge height signs ... at what point do they stop putting the signs on? I saw one that said 23 feet, some inches. Didn't' notice if they had signs on all 4 bridges at the I20 intersection or not ... and would they label only the difference between the closest highways ... or between each set of highways??? I'm sure if they were labeled I would have noticed. On this leg of the trip I could spend less time watching the signs, I knew where I35 E/W would come together and to be watch closely in KC. So I did see a few things on the way back that I missed on the way down. Like at Denton, there was a lot with semi tractors stacked ready to deliver. Each stack had the driver plus two on the back, each row had two stacks. And they were rows as far as I could count, there were at least a dozen rows, maybe two dozen or more. Guess our company used to move some of these stacks from somewhere. Talked to a driver about taking the class on how to stack, un-stack them. Not something I want to do, not if we aren't going to be doing it on a regular basis. Had another driveaway driver pass me somewhere north of Dallas, with is tow vehicle behind. This person was prepared, they had a conversion / travel van ... one of the tall ones you can stand in, and they had an electric generator on the rear bumper. Suppose all that weight does limit what runs you can take. Also notices they worked out of TN, but the tow vehicle plates were from FL. Any chance that was for tax reasons?? Not sure what is on some of these drivers minds ... they come sailing by you at well over the speed limit and when they get along side the stay there for miles and miles. Or you try to pass them and they suddenly decide to drive as fast or faster than you. Some drivers I've tried to pass a half dozen times and then they speed up so I have to pull back in behind them. And my favorite, you need to switch lanes to exit but someone is beside you, as soon as you turn your blinker on the hang right there ... had one where I dropped from 65 to 40 before I could finally get behind them ... with a truck you can't beat them, so you don't have much choice. Did have to slow for one construction area in TX or OK, may have cost me 15 minutes or so but that would be it for the trip home ... a small perk for working a holiday weekend. The free fuel would get me into OK, where I would fuel twice. It was the cheapest fuel and helped make the money I did on this trip. I fueled a total of three times paying $1.28 each time, compare that to where I picked up the trucks in the midwest, saw it up to $1.75 ... and on a trip where you use 150-200 gallons we're talking big bucks. Did see diesel fuel as low as $1.23 and $1.25 in some area's but not where I needed it. My second stop was just before the KS tollway, I knew from my trip down that fuel was at least four cents higher so I topped off my tank. My new plan for not leaving any extra fuel in the tanks was to check how many miles I was getting to the tankful, and then make my last stop that many miles from my drop. But so far I was going to be over halfway home and hadn't let the gauge drop to 1/4 yet ... over reacting from the last run? The truck seemed to be getting better milage and I was down to stopping every two hours either for fuel or just a break. After three days in a truck it gets closer to a necessity. I haven't been listening to the radio so I don't know how warm it is today ... without the search feature on the radio, it's a pain to keep finding stations. I ask a Mayflower driver at the rest area the temp ... says it's in the low 90's ... and that he has to pack out a house yet today. Told him he'd better be drinking a lot. I have been, usually two bottles of water and three of juice a day, these days. Trying to get the best milage possible, I have opted not to use the air so far and don't until well afternoon ... I will have to check to see if it makes a difference, or enough of a difference. My other thought for better milage was to set the cruise at 65 on the way home even though the speed limit most of the way was 70 (plus). But the cruise was one of the things that didn't work on this truck, and going 70 I don't think was an option, although I didn't spend a lot of time trying. Kansas City, this time I was ready ... but would it really have been that hard to make a freeway where you could stay in the same lane for twenty miles thru town? For a while going thru town I was next to / behind a couple of motorcycles ... one had a 8-10 year old girl on the back, sort of looked like she wasn't enjoying herself ... I know I wouldn't have been. Zooming in and out of traffic at 70 mph, and then there are there are the other drivers who think that by hugging there back tire the motorcycles are going to disappear. Finally after I fuel again, I turn the air on, that was a long hot last hour. And this was the tank I had to run down to 1/4 ... poor timing on my part. This would be my only tankful this trip, my next stop would be 280 miles from my drop. These tanks seem to have at least 10 gallons left after you're on 'E.' I was now doing all kinds of math in my head. When would I be over hours? When would I be over miles? Could I make it past the IA scales before I shut down? The log books do leave a lot of room to be creative, which is why a lot of drivers are now using the loose leave books. You can log accurate all day and at the end of the day, just replace the page so you can start when you want the next day, the next day you do the same thing for the prior two days ... Even with the old books, if you are going over the speed limit, you round your minutes down and if you are going under the speed limit you can round your minutes up ... if you are driving a really slow truck, you could stop every hour for five minutes, log it as fifteen (the smallest allowed) and at the end of your ten hours you would have gained another hour and a half 'driving hours.' But is it worth it? Found my truck stop just short of the IA border. No restaurant or showers but fuel and a place to park ... with McD's and chicken and taco's across the street ... and fireworks everywhere. After all, it is the 4th of July. The parking area has more trailers than tractor / trailers ... drop and run for the holiday. I find a spot in the back that won't be blocked in ... and go get food ... the morning Poptart and a single chicken sandwich has been the only food today. It's 9 PM and McD's is closed, aarrrggg ... small towns. So to my second / only choice ... this place is also closing by 10, so I ask which is easier for them the chicken or taco ... she suggested the chicken sandwich. As long as I was sitting down, I should have had the meal, it looked pretty good on other peoples plates. Time for some shut eye ... I had notices a couple of times today when I would get back in my cab there were 'crawly' things on the floor. Now as I'm doing my log book, I kill one on the seat next to me ... then I moved my stuff off the seat so I could lay down, two other kinds of bugs when ... somewhere. That 'budget motel' sign across the street was starting to look pretty good. But I'm cheep, but if they start biting me, I'm gone. It had been nice in the cab with the air one, but as soon as the truck was off the 210 degrees from the engine filled the cab. Hot, bugs and ... fireworks. Sometime after I tried to go to sleep, someone started shooting off fireworks in row between the trucks. July 5th I didn't think I would ever fall asleep ... but the few times I thought I felt something moving on me, I would swat it and then realize it was just sweat running down me. I must have slept at some point because I was planning on leaving as early as 4:30 but didn't look at the clock until 5:30 ... time to roll. The bugs hadn't bothered me, it was only the thought that would make my skin crawl. When I got out of the truck to do my morning inspection, it felt 20 degree's cooler outside than inside my cab. Not much air moving between the trucks or anywhere else. What is the cost of a ticket for going past a scale? Being the only truck on the highway I couldn't follow anyone in ... the entry one to IA didn't say if it was open or closed ... the sign must not have been working. So I went past. I went past at least a dozen scales, all closed on this holiday weekend. Breakfast today would be another poptart, after a couple of days in my back they are in a lot of pieces. And after seeing the bugs all over the seat last night, I looked at every piece very closely before eating it ... and didn't try to eat the smallest pieces ... As I pull into the office I can see they have a half dozen trucks waiting to go Monday ... and that I was the only one still out ... |