1 trash truck to Foristell MO
... spending the night at home
We have 10 hours to go today so we are ready to go by 7 AM. No breakfast, I didn't even look at it.
Less than 10 miles down the road, the check engine light comes on. I know there is a truck dealer in this area but don't remember the road layout. I had thought it was all over passes so I am in the right lane when I see the entrance to the dealer was at a cross street.
I check my mirrors and quickly cut across, hitting the breaks as I go. BB wasn't ready for that and someone was blocking her in so she went sailing past.
It is not even 7:30 yet when I start calling dispatch. There used to be a dispatcher that started by then. The one that is gone.
When no one picks up, I call the after hours number. Again no answer, but I get a text back that they are already helping someone on breakdown.
So I keep calling the office. Someone 'newer,' picks up and says the two I want to talk to will not be in until 8:30 and the other person even later. When no one calls back by 8:30 I try again and get a different person.
Finally closer to 9 AM I finally get ahold of someone ... who has six other breakdowns ahead of me. So we wait.
Then my number comes up, this location will look at it 'within the hour.' So I pull it over to the service area and go inside. Someone comes out and gets the info they need right away and then we wait for a tech.
Within minutes of the hour, someone goes out to run a check. At about the same time, the afterhours person finally calls back. They had worked on four other breakdowns before having their dentist appointment. Glad I hadn't waited for that dispatcher.
Minutes later the shop foreman comes over to us with the bad news. They don't have the parts, even if they did ... they are behind a week. There look to be about a dozen new trash trucks waiting to go back to the shipper, plus about that many waiting in an area that looks like the 'to do' area.
Now we have nothing. This dispatcher doesn't have anything under 500 miles. All the load board trips are gone that we were looking at.
We are a couple of hours from home so we are kind of waiting for something to show up. We decide to go eat breakfast at the 5 West. That is where we often get our evening to go meals. Food was good, twice as much as we could eat.
Once done, I finally decide to call on a local trip that has been on our load board for weeks. ??? They are paying half of what we guessed and what we guessed was less than what we had been willing to do it for. When I say no, the dispatcher quickly rattles off other trips. No ... I don't do your truck going more than 500 miles. They understood.
So we head home. I do paperwork and then drop it off at the local dispatcher. One issue we still have is that my tolls have not shown up yet. Monday's did, but not Tuesday's. So I will not be getting paid for those.
They do have three dump trucks and one tanker in the parking lot waiting for drivers. This tanker is going to FL. The OH tanker that BB and I have been talking about is gone.
Later in the evening, that dispatcher calls and wants me to commit to doing a local on Friday. I pass.
RV dispatch has finally put trips out. A couple of pairs that will work if the weather works. There is also one RV to NE that works, but it didn't show up until after we are home. If it had shown up earlier we would have headed out today.
Load board
US - 228
IA - 21/20
MN - 3
WI - 4
(I don't see how the load board jumped by 100 when the midwest is still lower than usual)
As of now, we may do the NE tomorrow. Then either do the SC or CO over the weekend.