Trip 10 - Roanoke to Deposit, NY

11/7/05 - Monday

Called dispatch on Friday to see if I could get a ride for today (Monday). At the time, they didn't have anything, so they asked me to call back today. Called back and they had a truck leaving Roanoke for the company office at Deposit, NY. Hadn't been there, yet, so thought it would be a good trip. Didn't ask what the truck was and dispatch tends not to have too much info anyway on the specifics of the truck. Turned out it was my first used truck, a 97 Ford 700 (I think) well digger. Very dirty, with a tranny I haven't tried before, 8 speed hi-lo, Jake brake, but runs pretty well. There was some question whether it was over weight, but the sender and my company agreed it was OK. So I headed toward NY a bit nervous.

I had just pulled up on I-581 leaving Roanoke, when my cell phone rang. It was my dispatcher asking if everything was OK. I said I was in traffic and couldn't talk, but was doing OK. Asked her why she called. Her response was the man at the company where I picked up the truck had called them and said they weren't sure about me driving this thing - a real confidence boost for me as I headed out. There had been a nice mechanic working on the truck when I arrived for the pickup, and he had been very friendly offering information about the truck, etc. Since I had not driven a truck with this particular transmission, I had some questions and he took plenty of time to show me the ropes. I guess that left the boss uneasy, and for all I know, he may have been right with me behind the wheel.

The first weight station is only about 10 miles from my pickup on I-81 at Cloverdale, VA. Sure enough, after sitting on the scale for what seemed an eternity sweating, they told me to pull around back for inspection - my first time being called in the scale house. Glad I inspected the truck pretty thoroughly in pre-trip and got them to fix the burned out brake/signal light. Got the good going over by Roanoke County's finest. They went down in the pit below the truck and checked it all. Turned out they only found one brake out of adjustment and a broken marker lens. The two inspectors had never heard of driveaway and were a bit confused the whole time about the fact I was delivering the truck. Also, the fire extinguisher was missing, but I found that on pre-trip and that had already been explained in a previous trip - driveaway transporters have to have the triangles, but not a fire extinguisher. The inspector didn't really believe that, went to his manual, and sure enough, section 393.95 para A has a disclaimer for driveaway. The inspectors actually were quite nice and let me head on after about 30 minutes.

Thought that would be it, but the next weight station up I-81, about 100 miles, pulled me in to "see my permit". Pulled in, went in and explained it had been inspected and approved at the previous weight station, and for whatever reason, they let me go on - sweating again. One odd thing about this station was you didn't actually see anyone. You went into a room with a camera to view documents and an intercom. I guess they figure a guy driving a well digger might be up to no good.

Made it about 40 miles past Harrisburg, PA and found a Days Inn for the night (really racking up those TripReward points). So I'm about 190 miles from my drop tomorrow and don't know how many more weight stations I have to pass thru. Dispatch says I'm definitely legal, but I don't feel like spending however long it takes when one of them decides I'm not. This rig is big enough that I feel like I may be reaching my driving ability limit. In the meantime, continuing to jam those gears (literally) and head on down the road.