The (Almost) Great Escape

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Had an interesting go 'round with dispatch yesterday.They called to see if I was available to take a truck to Chattanooga from Daleville, VA. I had told them I would not be available again until January 9, but it's started to get boring around here so I really wanted to consider the run. However, my wife is off from teaching for the holiday vacation and wasn't thrilled about me heading out. So I told dispatch I'd go if she could ride along, then we'd get a rental car and tour around a bit.

I'd already inquired previously about whether your wife can go along on trips and been told what I expected - no, can't go due to insurance. So, as expected, they decided she would not be able to travel with me. However, they did offer the choice of her driving a rental car along and just doing a round trip rental, which was actually going to save them money. My wife decided she really didn't want to do that, but it was OK for me to escape for a day or so, so I made the plans to go. Dispatch shortly called back and said to just plan to stay home. They'd found it would be too expensive to put me in a one-way rental and pay me to drive straight back home. So, guess I'm in for the duration.

I know it seems a bit odd to actually want to take your wife along, since many of us probably started driveaway work in order to get away (just kidding, honey). Just wondered if any of you have included the wife on any of your trips, and if you did, did you let dispatch know?

Have a happy rest of the holiday.

PS - The company must really be hopping this holiday season. They called again this morning to see if I'd be available next Monday, but this time I stuck to my guns. Not going out again until January 9.

Trip 17 and 18 - Forest to Shelby to Suitland, MD

Trip 17

12/20/05 - Tuesday

I received a call from dispatch asking if I'd be interested in taking a quick trip from Forest to Shelby, then pick up a truck there at Southco and take to Suitland, MD, which is on the eastern outskirts of Washington, DC. Initially, I said no since I had decided that I was going to stay in until after the first of the new year, but the trip sounded good enough, planned out enough by dispatch, and with their pleading I decided to take it.

I left early Tuesday morning. Since my personal vehicle will be left at the Forest Equipment bullpen for a couple of days, I like to drive the old Saturn I have. But, with the temperature less than 20 degrees, and it sitting for more than a week, the battery was too far gone for it to start. So, took my truck and headed to Forest a little after 7:00 am.

There were several trucks staged and ready to go, and I found mine on the first try. It was a typical configuration that I've driven on this trip before - an International 7300 with 6-speed, no radio. Since it was cold, I wondered if it would start, but no problems. I pre-tripped it, with nothing unusual, fueled up, and was on the road by around 8:15 am. Trip to Shelby went smoothly, and this time, upon delivery, didn't have any concerns with scratches or scrapes. Note that the bucket cover almost blew off (in the picture). We're instructed to check it, which I did at each stop, but it barely made it.

Trip 18

Since each trip has to have a complication, mine started at this point. A fellow at Forestry Equipment was kind enough to take me on the 2 mile ride over to Southco, where I was to pick up the next truck bound for Suitland, MD. Naturally, upon checking their bullpen, it was not there. After going inside and flagging down a few people, I found that they had not been told that anyone would be picking it up soon, so it was not scheduled to be finished until Thursday, but it was currently being worked on. I've found that sweet-talking people can really help, and after a bit of discussion, it was determined that the truck should be ready by 6:30 pm. It was currently 2:00 pm. So I had to kill some time by doing paperwork for the previous trip, eating at the Waffle House up the road, and reading the newspaper. Turned out that at 4:30 pm, the truck was ready and placed in the bull pen.

This truck was a new one for me, a Ford F750 automatic, radio. It basically drove like a car. While I was pre-tripping it, I met two guys from Mamo. They seemed real nice. None of us took the time to whine about our companies, which is the usual fare, and we traded a few findings about where to mount your plates. Each of us had a different idea. One had been stopped at a weigh station in Florida and told they wanted them on the front or in the windshield. The other said the company manual says to mount them on the back, which is what I usually do. So, it's still a mystery where the plates are supposed to go.

I got on the road about 5:00 pm towards Suitland via Charlotte and up I-85. I figured the traffic would be bad in Charlotte, but actually got through there quickly. But for some reason (still unkown) got in an awful jam around Concord, which added at least 30 minutes to the drive. I ended up calling it a day at Henderson, NC, exit 212 I-85. I stayed at a Sleep Inn. With their stay two nights, get one night free deal, I figured it would be worth the little extra price above the Days Inn. Unfortunately, upon checking out the next morning, I noticed that offer expired on 11/30, so that didn't do me any good, and at extra cost.

12/21/05 - Wednesday

OK, so I think each trip has something come up and was hoping the truck not being ready was it for this one. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I guess it's ending up that each day has a challenge to keep you going. Today's challenge was to be the truck wouldn't start. It was very cold, probably below 20 degrees, and it cranked and cranked, but no go. Since it was 7:30 am, I had to wait a while to reach dispatch to figure out what to do. In the meantime, I borrowed an extension cord from the motel and plugged it in, and continued to try to start it every few minutes.

At 8:00 am, I called dispatch and really didn't get much help from them. They just said to call the contact number I had - didn't even have a last name. Since this truck was to go to Sheehy Ford, I wanted their number, but dispatch didn't have it. I called the Ford 800 number, but since the vehicle was not owned, they said they couldn't help. It would be up to the dealership. However, they did give me the number for the dealership, so I started trying to reach someone there. After a while, I was able to reach the original contact, but he didn't really know what to do and instructed me to call back in about 20 minutes. In the meantime, I continued to try to start it.

This truck has the best batteries I've ever seen. I didn't want to crank them clear down, but they hung in there, and finally, it started. So, about 9:00 am, I was on the road again, a bit aggravated because I had wanted to get on to Washington and on the way home.

I'm still not sure why the truck didn't start. Some would speculate that the fuel jelled, but I haven't had trouble with the other trucks so far, and several have started in equal or more cold. So, for the experts, I'd like to know if you definitely need to put in an additive, or do you think something else was going on?

I made good time to DC, and arrived at the dealership around 1:30 pm. I lucked out with the traffic. I was caught in a jam for the last 20 miles, but it kept moving at a steady pace. The south-bound lanes of I-95 were a parking lot, with no movement, for over 15 miles.

Caught a ride to the nearby Metro, took the subway to Reagan National Airport, where I picked up a Hertz Mustang (no compacts available, but at the compact rate) and I was zooming out of Washington - for at least 3 miles. Then, the usual Washington traffic took over, and for the next 30 miles, an hour and a half, it was stop and go. I just simply don't see how they stand it.

Really pushed it the rest of the way, swerved through the 18 wheelers on I-81, and was back home by about 7:45 pm. Was a pretty good trip, with the usual number of challenges, and I'm definitely in for the holidays this time.

Trip 16 - Beckley, WV to Indianapolis

December 8 - Thursday

The school bus trip scheduled for this past Tuesday was cancelled due to snow, so that took away a few days that could have gone to driveaway this week. Dispatch did call Weds to see if I could be available to take a truck from Beckley, WV to Indianapolis. It would involve a bus trip (not my favorite) from Roanoke to Beckley, cab to Appalachian Power, where the truck is supposed to be staged, then on to Altec in Indianapolis. Of course, no idea what happens at that point.

I initially said yes and would be able to head out this morning (Thursday). However, while dispatch was lining up the details, I made the mistake of checking the weather forecasts for the area and they looked really bleak. Snow and ice projected across the entire trip from Beckley to Indianapolis at the same time I should be picking the truck up in Beckley. So I called dispatch and told them I had second thoughts. They sort of stuck with me and I agreed I'd take it beginning on Friday, after the storm cleared, if that was OK. I don't like to be gone over the weekend if I can help it, but I'd already gotten committed with dispatch and didn't want to let them down either, so I'm currently lined up to leave tomorrow (Friday). I really want to concentrate on not letting myself get caught in dangerous driving conditions, which I'm sure will be hard once I'm on the road. You tend to want to push on, but I want to avoid that. I also don't yet have any experience in what to expect from these trucks in driving in slick conditions. Don't know whether they handle fairly well due to their weight or whether that might cause them to be even tougher to drive.

I had gone to bed last night thinking I'd probably go ahead and take the bus to Beckley even if it snowed so, at least, I'd be in the area and as soon as it cleared I'd be ready to pick up the truck and head out. But the forecast this morning didn't look any better and I decided that by going on to Beckley it would only encourage me to get out on the road too early in very bad conditions and I'd be better off just waiting, getting to Beckley late Friday afternoon, pick up the truck, then head out on the 400 mile trip. That should help give time for I-64, and I-65 to be cleared. So, I wait.

December 9 - Friday

The storm blew through on Thursday and I was glad I waited. My son dropped me off at the bus station on his way to work. Found out that the bus to Beckley was 2 hours late. They didn't tell me, and I'm glad I asked, but by leaving 2 hours late I would miss my connection in Wythville and be stuck there until 10:00 pm before heading to Beckley. A 10 hour wait in the Wythville bus station and Beckley in the middle of the night was much too much for me to consider, so I called dispatch, told them the situation, and suggested they assign this truck to another driver. They really didn't want to do that, and after a little delay, they called back and said they had reserved a rental car at the Roanoke airport for me to drive to the Beckley airport, then taxi to the pickup location. I didn't know Beckley had an airport, much less a rental car location.

So, the next challenge became getting to the Roanoke Airport from downtown. Should have been simple since Yellow Cab is practically within walking distance from the bus station, but an hour later, after several phone calls with the dispatcher promising the cab was pulling in right now, I moved over to the Smartway bus that came through and was on the way to the airport. So, I lost about an hour and a half, time that will become important later in this day.

Got the rental car at about noon and headed straight to Beckley, which is about a 130 mile drive through the mountains. Arrived about 2:30 pm and decided that with all the ice and snow it might be a good idea to go check out the truck, make sure I could find it and the location, before proceeding to the airport to drop off the car and hail a taxi. I lucked out, and found the Appalachian Power location. Lucked out, because the address I was given didn't have any exact location, only Robert Seabird Dr. off I-77. For those of you non-politicals, it's Robert C. Byrd, who is the most distinquished (perhaps crooked) Senator from WV. Given that I found the location, I thought the directions were kind of funny.

Got my first look at the ice-covered behemeth that I was to drive to Indianapolis - a 10-sp Sterling Altec crane truck with 2100 miles on it. Dispatch is never able to describe what type of truck you're picking up other than the make. It didn't register with me at the time that the one breakdown I've had so far was with the only other Sterling I've driven, and that was a blown head gasket. That will come later in this story.....

I had to flag down some of the crew there to get a scraper to try to get the ice off of it and do some pre-tripping before I headed to the airport. Thought it would be a good idea to make sure it would start and everything looked OK. It was very cold that day and I almost busted my a__ three times while working around the truck, but it did start. It was missing the triangles, which again one of the crew was willing to provide, and the boom was not tied down. I don't really think this truck is designed to have the boom tied down, but my company insists that it is. After calling dispatch, who insisted I stop and buy a strap, climb high atop that thing and tie it down, I did find a strap I could throw over it and act like it was tied down. I really don't think this crane is designed with a tie-down strap to be placed over it.

Since things now looked pretty good, I headed to the airport to try to quickly return the rental car, get a taxi and get on the road while still some daylight. This Sterling had a 10 speed Eaton Fuller transmission that was going to be a first for me. My previous experience with the well drilling rig had an 8 speed and it and I fought all the way to New York. I wanted to get out on winding, hilly, I-64 and start west before dark. Got the car gassed on the way to the airport, found the rental return, the only one, in the Beckley airport, then proceeded to wait on the town's only cab. About 30 minutes later, I was on the way back to the truck. By the time I headed out, it was about 4:45 pm, so that gave me dim light and 5:00 pm traffic to learn my way around this triple-axle challenge.

I found that it drove a little easier than the well drilling rig, but still had a lot of gear changing (should I say scraping) as I took the WV mountains. But made it to KY, and was well inland, when the trip's big problem hit (I'm finding most of these trips have to have at least one significant problem). The air valve that you usually hear on trucks with air brakes started going off about every 30 seconds. I realized that didn't seem right, but the air pressure was holding, it was 8:30 pm, and I was heading west. After about 20 minutes of that, the valve quit sounding and the air pressure pegged to the top - about 150 PSI. Now that got my attention. I was just entering a construction zone and had little space to pull off I-64, but I did. Naturally, for the first time I'd noticed on any of these trips, my cell phone was out of range, so I was stuck. I got under the truck and tried to see if I could come up with anything, but a few 18 wheelers later I decided this million dollar body needed to be somewhere safer, so I scampered back into the cab, cranked it up and headed out just to see what would happen.

The air pressure stayed almost at the top, I'd pump the brakes as much as I could to get it down, and luckily I came upon a Welcome Center where I could pull in and use the public phones to call my emergency number. The tech guy told me to bleed the brakes and if that didn't fix it just keep on driving because it wouldn't hurt anything. So I did - and it didn't fix it.

I had decided that I was going to try to make it to I-64 exit 110 at Mt. Sterling (an ironic name) and stay the night at a Days Inn there. Just as I approached the exit, I heard a bit of a bang and a lot of air escaping. Luckily, the air pressure was holding, so I had brakes, but there was a lot of commotion as I steered into the Days Inn. I tend to have good luck that equates out the bad luck, so I got to the motel, which had a nice big parking area to place the truck and checked in for the night.

I called my emergency number to let them know I was down and they said to call back the next morning around 8:00 am and we'd work on the problem. I was assuming they'd call road service to come fix it, but that wasn't necessarily a good guess on my part.

December 10 - Saturday

The next morning, with the benefit of daylight, I was able to see the problem. I didn't know it was the air compressor governor at the time, but it is attached to the air compressor with two bolts. One had fallen completely out and the other was barely still attached, and the air was escaping around that. So, at least, I felt I knew what the problem was. The emergency contact looked up a few numbers for me. I called, lucked out, and got a mechanic there within about 15 minutes. He replaced the two bolts, got things working again, charged a reasonable $50, and I was back on the road to Indianapolis by about 10:00 am.

I made it to the delivery point at Altec around 2:30 pm. No weigh stations open the entire trip. All were still snow covered. Dispatch had a rental car lined up at the airport, so a taxi ride there and I was on my way back toward home by about 4:30 pm. I didn't see much of Indianapolis but the skyline. The cabbie was very high on it, saying he had lived all over the country and chosen Indianapolis as his abode.

PCMiler had recommended a route to deliver the truck that I had concerns about that would have taken me off I-64 using rt. 52, 73, and 32 to Cincinnatti, then I-74 to Indianapolis. Instead, I had taken the I-64 to Louisville, then I-65 to Indianapolis route. I think it might have been 25 miles longer, but it was well worth it. I decided to use the PCMiler recommended trip on my return, which turned out to be a mistake. It might have been an interesting trip through southern Ohio if I had been in the daylight, but I couldn't imagine having taken the triple axle Sterling through the towns, over the Ohio river, along the refineries, and up through the two-lane rt 73 to Cincinnatti.

It took me longer to get back to WV than I expected, so about 9:00 pm I called it a day and checked in at the Days Inn just east of Huntington WV in Teays Valley. Up fairly early this morning (Sunday) and home by 11:30 am. My wife met me at the airport where I returned the rental and we did lunch at Olive Garden. Nothing like being dressed like a truck driver coming off the road and having a nice meal with a glass of wine.

Looking back, I guess this trip was sort of fun, given that everything worked out OK, but I think I may take a break now until after the first of the new year. Will enjoy the Christm...ah, holiday, season, and start driving again in 2006. There's a school bus trip or two in the meantime to keep the driving skills sharp.

Trip 14 and 15 - Forest Ending in Birmingham

Trip 14 and 15 – Forest, VA to Shelby, NC to Garner (Raleigh), NC to Birmingham, AL

December 1 – Thursday

I wasn’t planning on going out this week, just after Thanksgiving. I had a school bus trip on Weds. evening and then another one scheduled for Tuesday, so didn’t feel I had enough time to get caught out. But dispatch had called to see if I could be available, and I told them I could do a short trip. This was on Weds. and as usual, they didn’t have all the info together and asked that I call back that afternoon. Since I would be on the bus trip, I told them to just go ahead and fax the info and I would get it when I returned that night.

The school bus trip was to take the William Byrd HS swim team to a meet in Blacksburg, a trip of about 50 miles one way. I found that’s a fairly long trip in the older activity bus they use, with the throttle taking about all my right leg can offer to keep it going for the full hour trip. Had a semi-close call on the way up the mountain on I-81. A car carrier came over on me as he was passing and I actually had to head toward the emergency lane and slow down in order to avoid him hitting me on the front left side. I’ve often thought those guys that drive the car carriers seem to be a bit more aggressive than the average nutty truck driver, but I thought it unusually stupid to mess with a school bus half loaded with high school kids.

After getting in that evening (Weds.), checked the fax and dispatch had me lined up to take a new International 4300 chipper/boom truck from Forest, VA to Shelby, NC. That’s starting to become a regular run for me it seems. Went to Forest early Thursday morning, pre-tripped in the dim light (perhaps a significant event to be explained later), and was on the road by 8:30 am. This was the sharpest looking truck I’d driven yet - fire engine red, drove nicely.

Had an uneventful 250 mile trip to Shelby and delivered around 2:30 pm. After turning the truck over to the guy there, he came to me and asked if I’d seen the scratches on the top corner of the chipper bin. Sure enough, there were scratches that looked like it likely had been brushed by a tree limb. Nothing real bad, but enough for them to get the bosses out, inspect, re-inspect, take pictures, etc. Since there were literally no trees for me to hit on route 29, I-85, and route 40, I just couldn’t imagine any way I hit a tree limb, but had to admit the scratch was there and I didn’t notice it in pre-trip. I let dispatch know, but at this stage, they didn’t seem to be concerned.

As always, the big mystery when delivering a truck is what dispatch is going to do with you then. They never let me know ahead of time, and I think that may be the part of the work that bothers me the most, since I’m a planner by nature – not a good trait for driveaway work. Dispatch apologetically told me I’d need to get a cab to Charlotte (about 50 miles east), take a bus to Raleigh, cab to Garner, and a truck would be staged at Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) for me to take to Birmingham. Of course, I always try to avoid the Hound and, since I wanted this to be a short trip out, at the time I wasn’t real thrilled with heading to Birmingham, but since I’d done that trip before didn’t really mind.

I had to wait about 30 minutes for the cab to get to Shelby to start the $70 trip to the Charlotte bus station. That gave time to watch the local crew sweat over the scratches on the truck, check out whether I’d hit a tree on the corner of their lot, etc. It will be interesting, I’m sure, to see how that all ends up.

The bus trip to Raleigh, and I can’t be quoted on this, was actually not too bad. The Charlotte bus station wasn’t overflowing with the usual crowd, and the bus was an express, so arrived Raleigh about 8:00 pm.

Buses and airplanes always have at least one character that dominates the trip. This bus trip, since it was after dark, was supposed to be quiet with lights out, according to the driver. For the most part it was, but that one character naturally sat opposite me and regaled his seating companion with his philosophies of family management. This went on non-stop for two hours until she said something, one of the few words she could get in edgewise other than “yes”, “no”, and “oh”, that offended him, at which time he cussed her out and dug out his cold chicken from his bag. At least he was quiet for the remainder of the trip.

The station in Raleigh also didn’t have the usual crowd and I was able to get a helpful cabbie to Garner, which luckily wasn’t more than about 5 miles away. He knew how to get me directly to CP&L and seemed to take that direct route, but we had trouble locating the truck. CP&L is a big outfit, and after checking several locked gates with no answer from the guard telephone, we were just about to give up, when I found the truck parked just off an entry road into the place. It was a used International 7400, but only had 6400 miles on it and was still in pretty good shape. It was the largest Altec boom truck I’d yet driven. I wasn’t looking forward to having to pre-trip a used truck in the dark, but this time it went much better than the last. It was parked under pretty good lighting, and everything seemed to be in good shape. I had some question about the level of water in the overflow tank, but decided to head on and I’d check it under better conditions later.

PCMiler had the recommended 550 mile trip taking me back west on I-40, picking up I-85, and heading down past Charlotte through Atlanta. Since I’d just been through that route several times, I decided it would be about the same distance, and better drive, to head east on I-40, pick up I-95, then pick up I-20 in SC and go all the way to Birmingham.

By the time I headed out, it was around 9:30 pm, but the adrenaline or Mountain Dew caffeine was flowing, so I drove several hours before bunking down at Lumberton, NC for the night.

December 2 - Friday

Slept fitfully that night and was back on the road to Birmingham by 7:45 am. The trip went smoothly except for the usual developing mystery of what will dispatch do with you once you get there, since naturally you’re not going to know ahead of time so you can plan anything. Since I was going past the Talladega speedway again, I had thought about visiting the motor sports museum there if I had time on the return trip. Dispatch had told me to call at 3:00 pm and they’d have things lined up to fax me for the return trip. The idea was that I’d be picking up another truck out of Birmingham.

Friday afternoons are particularly hectic for dispatch, and of course the return info wasn’t ready after I had pulled off at the closest place I could think of that had a fax, a Ramada Inn just east of Atlanta. But since the info wasn’t ready, I had to get back on I-20 and plan to find another faxing spot around 4:00 pm. So I drove on to AL and stopped at their welcome center, where they were willing to receive a fax for me. Naturally, the info still wasn’t ready at 4:00 pm, but after several phone calls it was decided they’d just put me in a rental car to drive back home to VA. That was OK with me, since it appears the 2-3 day trips agree with me better.

I had originally debated whether to stop just short of Birmingham for a relaxed evening and delivering the next morning, but since they had a rental car lined up and I was still feeling fit, I decided to go ahead and deliver and get a few hours back towards VA.

Delivered the truck successfully around 6:45 pm. The Altec plant in Birmingham, while in a tough area, does have a 24-hour guard, although I noticed he doesn’t carry a gun. He called a cab for me, but it took a long time for it to show up. That gave the guard plenty of time to fill me in on his evangelical calling, his six daughters, etc. I must say he was a nice fellow and could tell I wasn’t worth evangelizing, so saved his good stuff for another day. He did mention how rude a lot of the driveaway drivers treat him, and I don't doubt his frustration. Don't know why some of us would act badly with people that are in a position to occasionally help us out.

The cab finally came about 7:45 pm, got to the airport Hertz, waited forever to get serviced, and was on the way out. I’d originally figured I’d be taking I-20 back through Atlanta, but the Altec guard and I agreed it would be more fun to head up I-59 through Chattanooga, so I did.

The adrenaline and caffeine were still working well, so I drove several hours, which got me to Cleveland, TN, just northeast of Chattanooga. Naturally, of the whole trip, the drive from Birmingham to Chattanooga was the only area I had never seen, but I still haven’t since it was dark. Don’t know if I missed anything, or not, but I’d suspect I’ll get another chance in this business. I’d driven around 650 miles that day, so around 11:30 pm decided I’d better call it a day and checked in at what’s becoming my regular stopping point – Days Inn.

December 3 - Saturday

I was back on the road before 8:00 am and home by about 1:30 pm on Saturday. The drive from Birmingham, for whatever reason, really didn’t seem that long. I think listening to Kim Komando, the digital goddess, most of the way home helped pass the time quickly.

I returned the rental car to the Lynchburg airport since my personal truck was still parked at Forest. My wife went with me and we did the first of Christmas by picking up the tree on the way home.

This was a good trip, given that I had to take the Hound and several cabs, and night pick-up, but all the pieces ended up fitting together. If I didn’t desire the ability to plan out my next move, I’d have no complaints. But since I’m a complainer, I’ll complain about that this time.