1 truck in New Brighton, 1 truck in Bloomington both to Lake Elmo MN (delivered)

... spending the night at home

9 AM this morning we get a call from the local dispatch about two local trucks. One will not be ready until mid-afternoon so that leaves us time to get our planned items done first.

One of those things to do was stop at the bank. The person ahead of us was trying to make a withdrawal without their check book or any form if ID. (I don't leave my yard without ID)

Quiet day at the office, I only saw one person.

1st truck is in New Brighton, I've known where the place is forever but don't think I have ever been there. When I got there I first told the people what kind of truck and part of the VIN. That didn't help. So I told them it was going to a dairy ... then they knew what I was talking about.

There are similar to the ones we used to move on a daily basis when I first started. Fuel shows at 3/8 but the carrier now wants us to fill and the closest fuel station so I will.

All goes well with the inspection, the truck is behind a fence so BB doesn't drive in to help.

Next stop is a mile and a half away at the Holiday station. I put 29.5 gallons in a tank that held 30 gallons. The gauge isn't working. I wouldn't have made it to any other stations. Good thing I followed directions or I would have been on the side of the road until roadside service got there and likely would have had to pay for that for not following directions. Whew.

Back at the office / lot I park the truck and drop the keys. And I see the dispatcher that has been giving me some longer runs. She asks how I feel about St Louis or Chicago. I say I like Fargo and Sioux Falls better. But now both dispatchers know that I am available next week.

2nd truck is in Bloomington. I've picked up here a few times so I know the routine. The truck shows a yellow icon on the dash but the person signing me out shows me it is just one of the options that can be scrolled past looking for other info :)

Before I leave the lot I call dispatch. (I assume that I will not get two trucks in a row without a working fuel gauge) The two closest gas stations are small and congested, this truck is 30 feet long and needs 40 acres to turn around. Dispatch OK's me getting to a truckstop to fuel, they are about 10 miles away.

When I leave I get kind of close to a power pole, on the other side of the road. This truck does not make short turns. It is a railroad truck and I don't know if that makes any difference or not. But some trucks do not turn as short as others.

Fuel stop is the Kwik Trip in South Saint Paul. There also is a ma-pa truckstop but this one is newer and cleaner. 70+ gallons of fuel in this one. I added anti-gel to both trucks. It is not a warm day and I wasn't told how long these trucks will sit.

Back at the lot. Easy money but not much of it. I think I've gotten paid more when the company was providing the shuttle. Dispatch was on the phone so I didn't ask about it. A few weeks ago I made about 3x as much working local for the same company for close to the same amount of hours.

Load board Thursday

US - 288

IA - 66/58

MN - 1

WI - 9

Load board Friday

US - 291

WI - 55/46

MN - 1

WI - 10

IN - 22

Local dispatch is open tomorrow to give us our yearly updates for driving. So I will likely take care of that tomorrow.

Then we'll see what happens. The auction dispatcher has one 200 mile trip but I'd like to get one long, for me, trip in with the local company. The local company has a half dozen non-CDL trucks in the lot again today. They were to be done with those before Dec 1. I will ask to see where these are going now.