Running on empty

(Just so you know I haven't retired, here's a little something that's been waiting for Copious Free Time. I'll try to find some more…)

2012/07/16
This last trip covered about 900 miles. This was a good thing.

You're paid bt the mile, not by the hour, so any time you spend on paperwork, tiptoeing around a parking lot, backing into dock doors, waiting on your next assignment, etc, is time you didn't spend driving (i.e. making money). It follows, then, that one long trip is better than two or three short ones that add up to the same mileage. Thousand-mile runs are good.

I was downright cheerful when I started out this morning. Then I looked at my fuel gauge.

As I said, this was about a 900-mile run. I fueled up right after loading up.

These trucks have a range of, oh, let's say about--

900 miles.

My fuel reserve was below 25%.

Strictly speaking, this was not my fault. The Company decides when and where I fuel, based on some sweetheart deals it has with certain truck stop chains. The Home Office computer looks at how much fuel I report having and where I've been told to go, and picks out a Favored Truck Stop for me to visit.

Or two. This trip, it should have been two. The computer choked, apparently.

So, strictly speaking, it was their fault. But they speak VERY strictly to drivers who run out of fuel. For whatever reason. The first sentence tends to be something like, "You're fired." And other petential employers tend not to be sympathetic. They'd've said the same thing if it'd been them. You're supposed to be paying attention…

In this case, I wasn't too worried. According to my Handy Truck Stop Guide, there was an Approved Fuel Supplier within ten miles of the customer. I'd deliver the load, hop back an exit, and request a fuel stop. No problem.

Then I passed the mile marker where the Approved Fuel Supplier was.

It was a mile marker.

No exit. Much less a truck stop. Least of all an Approved Fuel Supplier.

Oh, boy.

When I got to the customer I pulled out my Handy Truck Stop Guide. And sure enough, there was the Approved Fuel Supplier. At the exit I remembered.

On the facing page. In the listing for a different Interstate.

On THIS Interstate, the nearest Approved Fuel Supplier was over fifty miles away.

And my fuel gauge was below 1/8 and dropping fast.

In the end I lost my nerve. I stopped at a Non-Approved Fuel Supplier and bought 10-12 gallons with my own money. That got me to a place where the Company would buy the rest.

You're not gonna tell on me, are you?