1 tanker heading to MI (stagged)

1 bus heading to IL (Failed inspection)

... spending the night at home

This place does not serve breakfast ;) so we will eat an early lunch.

1st stop is the office to pick up paperwork. I see the 'senior driver,' he has been there 20+ years. He is the only driver who has been there longer than I. He is about 85 years old and looks better than lots of people in their 60-70's. His Mom made it past 100.

We chatted a bit before I got my paperwork. I got to meet the newest dispatcher. This is the 3+ 3rd dispatcher since one quit during Covid.

We decide to pickup the Plymouth truck first. No slowdowns for the end of rush hour traffic.

2nd stop is the shipper in Plymouth. The have my paperwork, they have my ... no, they do not have my keys. Or my truck. At one time there was seven people looking for it and this is a very small place. Within a half hour they did find it. It is not ready. But should be soon enough that there isn't a reason to leave and do the bus first.

It would have saved us time today if we had done the St Cloud first and then the Plymouth but who knew ...

The shipper still needs to put a few more decals on before I can have it. They also say it will just be a few minutes. Someone said I could start inspecting it but I'd rather not touch it while they are working on it.

While I am waiting I have time to call dispatch. The bus I am picking up today is going to Rock Island. That is less than 500 miles from home so I ask if they need a driver, they do.

When the shipper is done applying the decals, they ask if they should back it out for me. I said they could, we are not supposed to be driving into/out of buildings. And this way I got to check the break lights and backup lights myself, I don't need BB to do it this time.

When the guy is done backing it out I ask him how long he has been there. My neighbor was their freight salesman 40 years ago. No, this guy had only been there 10 years (I would have guessed longer, I always remember him being there.) We talk a couple of minutes and he says today is his last day. He is going into the tree trimming business.

3rd stop was the Kwik Trip in S St Paul. This truck needs to be fueled and scaled before it leaves town. It also needs washer fluid and DEF. I remember there being a scale here, dispatch said there was a scale here but I don't see one. I even asked the person doing the trash if there was a scale here, they didn't know (I realized right away I should not have asked them) Then I called BB and she said there was one here.

So I pulled away from the diesel pump and then I saw it. instead of a huge overhead sign there was a four foot high sign. But it worked.

4th stop is back at the carrier in Lake Elmo where I parked the first truck and left the paperwork need for the next driver.

I talk to the #2 dispatcher about the bus, she hasn't talked to the #1 dispatcher ... she wants me to do her trucks instead :) (and the other dispatcher has been kind of busy today)

5th stop is the Culvers at about 11 AM. No line? This is the first custard I have had in weeks.

6th stop is for fuel at the Holiday in Monticello. I am in the wrong lane coming off the freeway so I miss the cross street and have to take a u-turn at the next street.

7th stop is the shipper in St Cloud. As I am ringing the buzzer to get in the building a security agent walks past. We need to see them 24-7 now instead of going to the front desk. Since when, I ask. He doesn't know but it has been that way since he's worked here, two years. I didn't realize it had been that long.

I need safety glasses but other than that he seems assured that I know where I am going. As I walk through the building I see that all the lunch tables now have glass/plastic dividing them into halves or quarters.

I find the shipping clerk at the same desk she has been at for the last 10+ years. She is the only face I remember here. She signs off and says the bus is parked outside her door.

She follows me out to have a smoke and a quick look shows there are only four buses, all NYC. So back in we go and she makes calls to the other end of the building. And then she sends me on my way. I walk through their whole building and without an ID and no one asks me a thing.

At the other end I find the person who should know, he is talking to a could of other workers and when they are done one says 'Today is my last day ...' (another one)

At first the person I came to see says I need to go to the other end of the building, when I tell him that is where I came from he takes me to look out the windows where we are and he finds it. I am good to take it.

... or not. I know why it came here so I am looking for warning lights. Even before I start the bus I see the light is on, maybe it will go off when I start it. It does not. Also there is an alarm on. I've driven these buses enough that I know there is an alarm that goes off if you override the system. I shut the override off and can't move the bus. They had to override the alarm to get the bus to park it here. They knew it was not fixed but I was sent here anyways.

A quick call to dispatch and they pull me off the trip. We are not waiting for them to fix it. I get paid the same for bringing back a bus or coming back empty.

Non-stop back to Lake Elmo

8th stop is the carrier. The bus dispatcher comes to talk to me but I ask more questions than they can answer without the paperwork in front of them. So they go get it and do not come back for quite a while.

... and when they do? There is no bus. So BB and I are not going to Rock Island on Sunday. We had worked on all the time and ways to tie in extra work. We have even rented a car for the next week to keep the miles off of our car. Now we have gone from four trips to one for sure. Two more are a maybe still. I have the paperwork but they may give the trip to someone else before I get to it. I know the what and the why.

During all this I am trying to do my paperwork from today but can not find it. I had receipts from the first truck for fuel and DEF and then when I dropped that truck here earlier I came in and made copies. Finally it starts to fall into place. I walk out to the truck and can see my receipts through the window, so I have to asks dispatch for the keys back. Because I had given them everything they needed the paperwork is sitting out for the next driver.

I do talk to this, dispatcher #3, for a bit. He already knows my story, that I tried dispatching, that I have been here forever, etc. Not sure if that is good or bad.

I finally finish my paperwork and am done for the day. BB has had a lot of time sitting in the car today waiting.

There are six trucks in the lot going to Elkhart IN. I told dispatch that my limit is 500 miles. Elkhart is 511 miles. So I told them if they bring the truck to my house, it would be under 500 miles because I live about 15 miles away :)

They also had three DC buses and one other bus, plus one refer truck. With more buses coming down today and I also heard a dispatcher lining up more drivers to bring down more of the Elkhart trucks. No shortage of work.

Load board

US - 567

IA - 332/329

With one St Cloud trip out of IA. There is also a short trip that would have worked out great if we had been able to do the bus, we could go right past the pick up and the drop coming back to our next trip. Easy money, but plans change quickly.

LOG

8:00 - leave home

8:30 - Lake Elmo MN - pick up paperwork

9:15 - Plymouth MN - pick up truck

10:30 - S St Paul MN - Kwik Trip - fuel, scale

11:00- Lake Elmo MN - drop truck

11:30 - Maplewood MN - Culvers

1:00 - Monticello MN - Holiday - fuel

1:15 - St Cloud MN - shipper

3:00 - Lake Elmo MN - drop paperwork

Plan for tomorrow is pick up our rental car for the week. Sunday we will leave for the Milwaukee area via Dodge Center. Not my favorite brand of truck but it's a shorter trip.