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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 69d - New IH - Garbage Truck ... to Philadelphia, PA Trip 69e - New Sterling - New Watertruck ... to Portland, OR 1/5/04 The guy who gives me the ride is not the guy who offered the ride ... and he sort of lets me know it, the customer is just 'on his way home' ... and he has been waiting over an hour for me, and it'll add another hour to his trip because of the traffic and going out of route. One look at the map and I realize I've been to this customer before, back in June, 03 http://www.geocities.com/jimonthewayhome/index0005.html ... a year and a half ago already. But right off I can see the bad news and I call dispatch ... the trip pays $191 ... the bus trip back will cost $91 ... and I won't be able to deliver tonight, will deliver first thing in the AM and then will have to spend the next day and night in Philadelphia and catch the 5 AM bus ... If I can find a cheap motel in Philadelphia I MAY make $30 for two days work. Not a happy camper ... dispatch says there is no place to drop a rental car near my customer in OH and this is the only bus ... great thanks for helping them out on a rush and not getting all the facts ... shame on me. The guy has me to my next pickup in less than a half hour and for free ... won't take any cash. I've gotten there just as they are closing but in time to get a signature. Some good news ... the truck has 3/4 of a tank of fuel ... bad news, I don't know how to get out of Pittsburgh, it wasn't the first thing on my mind and ... well I guess I should have done the usual and stopped at a gas station but I didn't ... I went back to I-79 and headed south knowing it would catch up with I-70 sooner or later and that will get me back to I-76. This would also keep me off the toll road longer, forgetting the boss was paying the tolls but not my fuel. Not sure how many miles out of my way I went ... am guessing <> 20-30 miles. It had started raining as I was inspecting my truck and doesn't let up the rest of the night. Will spend the night at the Carlisle Motel 6 ... know it well ... but again I will be too late to get food at the Hoss ... Petro will be tonight's meal location. Been through this town a dozen times or more in the last couple of years ... and north is still south ... never been here to see either the sunrise or sunset, not sure if that would get me straight or not. I have no intention of spending two days to earn $30 and spend tonight making phone calls ... I know there has to be another way into Marietta ... even if I have to cab it 50 miles ... but before I can come up with a plan using Greyhound I find that Hertz will do a one way rental car to a two about 20 miles from my customer. Now I can go to sleep. 1/6/04 Am going to need a little fuel to get to Philadelphia so I stop at the closest truckstop, a Pilot ... it doesn't register when I turn in ... trucks as far as I can see, in line waiting to leave ... and lines at every pump, not a good way to start the day. Not that it will make a huge difference today, I don't plan on picking up my next truck until tomorrow AM. Had told dispatch I would be dropping this truck 'when the customer opens' ... but I've been running hard and decided to catch another couple hours of sleep. Glad I'm not spending the night in Philadelphia ... the Motel 6 is $70+ ... took a few minutes to find my drop, the map showed it was right at the intersection of two 'major' roads but I turned the wrong way and couldn't find it, had to call ... was about 10 blocks from it when I stopped. Now how to get out of here all I know is I want to get to either downtown or the airport ... a train track goes right over my customers lot, I ask if that is the fastest way downtown. They say it's not ... the train is, but not on that track ... even though it's only a few blocks they offer to give me a ride. Good thing as the train only runs once an hour this time of the day. The train going the other direction boards right across the street, buses going somewhere board there too. I buy a ticket for downtown and wait ... the brochure only lists street and station names but no map ... 19th street is as close as I get number wise to downtown ... good thing the train wasn't on time, I would have gotten, but would not have seen the map on the wall. Getting off at 19th street would leave me miles away from downtown, there are three stops closer to downtown, now to pick the right one. Sometime today I had found out I could pickup the car downtown, so it would come down to which ever one was easier and cheaper to get to. ... My lucky day, I get off the train and by the time I'm on the street I can tell that I am only a block and a half from Hertz ... not bad for a shot in the dark. But ... they only have three vehicles in stock, two compacts which can't be used oneway and a SUV ... which they will give me for $10 more than I was quoted last night ... then the guy takes off the charge for their tracking / computer system and the price matches. Should have asked if I could use the system (Think it's called the Never Lost system) or if it was disabled ... Picking up the car downtown saved me about $20 in airport taxes. Getting out of town was easy, almost ... missed the first sign for the free way and then seen a second up ahead so I get in the left lane and wait to turn. Someone starts blowing their horn at me ... seems I wasn't in the turn lane, I was in the cab lane at a train station ... could have been there a while ... As soon as I was clear of town I stopped at an oasis and finally settled on a Roy Rogers and a malt ... food was good but the malt was nasty ... not even close to a DQ. Decided to stay off the I-76 toll so I dropped down to I-70 and across. For a while I thought I would make it the whole way one one tank ful ... but 60 miles from my customer I have to stop, kept thinking there would be a truck stop, then just a service station on my side of the highway, finally I had to stop and drive a couple of miles into a residential area to get fuel. This last 60 miles was cross country, all I knew was the road showed on a map and would / should save an hour or two over staying on the freeway. 60 miles later and the gas gauge hasn't moved ... find my Motel 6 and settle in, walk next door to a buffet ... still open when I stopped for the night, not sure why. This place is almost empty and when I leave there is only one customer in the places. It did get me started on something new though. I ordered the salad bar and a Philly Cheesesteak ... when the waitress asked what kind of potatoes I wanted, I started to say ..."That's all I need ..." and she walked away ... I was going to say 'That's all I need, more food.' Well I didn't get any potatoes that night, just the salad instead ... am guessing it's better for me. Not sure why I wanted to burn off more fuel or waste the time, but I wanted to check out the airport tonight so I knew where I was going in the AM. Good news, the airport is north of town, meaning closer to my customer, meaning a smaller cab fare. Dispatch had given me the number to a cab but no one was answering the phone tonight ... oh well. Page 5 - The next leg .... |