1 trash truck to Germantown WI (delivered)

1 trash truck to Louisville KY (Canceled)

1 trash truck to Germantown WI

... spending the night at Rochester MN

Not much went as planned today.

This much was pretty much as usual ...

I ate left overs for breakfast. I delivered my truck this AM as planned.

Here is the rest of the story.

At 7 AM I called, and called, and called the dispatcher I wanted to contact. The calls went to auto-hold like it had done on Saturday. Finally someone picked up. By then I could see on the screen that the trip I wanted had already been taken. :(

We no longer have a plan.

As long as I had someone on the phone, I asked about weekend hours. None.

So we change our plans and decide to take a trip that we can pick up less than an hour from here going to Louisville. I call that dispatcher and BB will wait at the hotel until we receive the paperwork and then print it out.

It snowed ... it is still snowing. And it's cold. I do a quick walk around the truck to make sure it is all in one piece before I head out.

1st stop is a few miles away at a Kwik Trip for final fuel. Then I head on a 'truck route' to the drop. I haven't been this way before but it is easy enough that I don't use notes.

2nd stop is the drop. I've just been here in the last weeks so I remember the routine. The inspector notes that four marker lights and one blinker are not working. Not surprised for how badly the truck shakes going down the road. Everything was working at pickup. Something I could/should have noticed but not damage that I would have caused.

It's a good day :) , I did not walk into any glass walls today while I was here.

We do our paperwork while in the parking lot. I call the shipper but the call goes to voicemail. As soon as we start to move the shipper calls back, they know what I am talking about. Things should go smooth.

3rd stop is the 2nd shipper. The person I need to talk to is standing in the front customer service area. But as soon as we start to talk, someone asks us to move to the shop. (It sounds like one of the 'higher ups' is using the main area for their office and loud conversations disturb their phone calls.)

We have a problem. The truck has not been paid for. For the next 20 minutes we stand there and talk. Finally I give the person my phone number and excuse myself so they can get back to work.

We head to Culvers a couple of blocks away. I call dispatch and update them. Then we eat, sit and wait. Today I had their chili, soup, cheese curds ...

Then the shipper calls and says I will not be able to pick it up today. I call dispatch to be taken off the trip. Dispatch wants to make another call, they do, and then call me back. They want me to stay overnight. This will be taken care of tomorrow.

Without talking it over, I say no. They are willing to pay for the hotel, but we loose a day of work. It is only later that we do the math and realize we may have been money ahead to have gone to the hotel. Instead we head back to Dodge Center.

Sometime on Friday, the local dispatcher had emailed me about a trip to WI. I hadn't gotten back to them until we were sitting and eating at Culvers. I had emailed them and said I would be NA for the rest of the week.

Now I call back and and take the trip, no one else has yet. So we now we are heading back to Dodge Center.

4th stop is the rest area near Lyndon Station.

5th stop is Loves in St Charles for fuel.

6th stop was the shipper in Dodge Center. We do get there before 4 PM, but we were not sure if we would so we had the shipper put the paperwork in our box for me.

When I check out my truck, I find I have an alarm going off and two marker lights not working. It is only a few minutes before closing time here and I need to find the shop. I've never done that before and drive past it the first time, then I stop and ask someone who has no idea what I am talking about so I keep looking.

When I walk in a shop area, I ask the first person I see. Turns out someone who can help. He doesn't do the work, but finds someone who does and stays until the issue is fixed. The alarm is fixed. These people know nothing about the lights. They are extra's, not sure why they are put on there and they were not working on the truck I delivered today either.

The joys of picking up at closing time. The shippers dispatcher is going home, my dispatcher is going home, the work crew is going home. I want to leave ...

Before I leave someone does stop and ask what the issue was, they had seen me driving around ... sounds like they are the after hours repair person so they were wondering if it was an issue similar to others.

6th stop is the Kwik Trip to scale the truck. It is a front loader so it gets weighed. It's legal.

7th and final stops are in Rochester. First for fuel at Kwik Trip. My 2nd stop was down/broken on Sunday so I want to get a good fill here today in case it is still down.

Second stop is the hotel, Comfort Inn. There is still a large open spot so I take it.

Third stop is the Five West for food. I have more soup and some bread.

Load board

US - 163

IA - 3/0

MN - 7

WI - 2

Nothing good for a return trip on the load board. Plan is to stop for fuel and deliver by early afternoon. Not sure if we will try the KY trip if it comes back on the load board or not. That would leave us 700 miles from home.