Ladytruckers Heartships of a Driveaway Driver

Today is Saturday, October 25th, 2025. I am presently sitting at the TA Truck stop. My 34 hour reset is about up. I was originally scheduled to come out here and pick up a truck going to Laredo, Texas I’m in Colorado. Commerce Coty, Colorado.

I was here to pick up truck in Commerce City, Colorado going to Laredo, Texas.. When I get to my pick up location and the gentleman, there was very kind,; I gave him my paperwork and so we sat there and started to talk. He says well you know that this truck is a manual I said, huh, a manual my license says automatic only, I’m sorry I can’t this truck. But this is a private sale so by this time the client had contacted me and I had spoken with them and promised them that I would have their truck there by Saturday. This was on Wednesday no Thursday. I called my Dispatch and reminded them again that this truck is a manual and when they receive private owners, they need to ask them is the truck automatic or is it manual because now I’ve made a trip to Colorado for no reason, I was lucky though, they had another truck at Nextran Truck Center about 15 minutes from my Location. So that was great I got into my rental car which was supposed to be back that day. it is presently on Wednesday , 3 PM so I got an hour to get the rental car back so I won’t be charged for another day and at least the next truck is only 15 minutes away, so I hopped into the rental takeoff down the road and come to Nextran Truck Center.

I am elated. I’m losing a little money but not as much as I had anticipated. This truck is going from commerce city Colorado to. Kohima, MO. I’m going to lose about $300 on this one, but it gets me out of Colorado except there’s a problem with the truck. When I get to Nextran I see two gentlemen walking, and I stopped them and asked them where the office is. One of the gentleman asked me am I here to pick up truck 05015 I say yes he said oh that’s the truck that we’re having a problem getting the battery started but don’t worry. He’s on his way to start the battery now. I am happy again because it’s a sleeper. It’s a full tractor.

So I’m thing to myself finally on the road again .

Truck 05015

So they get battery started the tech moves the truck to their staging area, and as he gets out of the truck, he informs me that none of the gauges are working on the truck. So I said that’s not good. I can’t drive a truck and none of the gauges are working.. So we call Dispatch back and informed them that none of the gauges are working on the truck. They informed me that I need to call Mack since this is a Mack truck in the meanwhile the attendant and the supervisor tells me that they’re going to move the truck out to the Driveaway area. I get back in the Rent-A-Car Drive around to where they staged the truck, after I drop off the Rent-A-Car, I can come back and pick up the truck but before I can take the Rent-A-Car back, I need to know what we’re going to do about the gauges not working. I call my dispatcher again.

Dispatch states call Mack, I call Mack : Mack said call my dispatch. This goes on for about 20 minutes. Dispatch finally tells me to call a tow truck service. I call Mack back and inform them we need to call a tow service. The tow service arrived at about 7:00PM.

Battery box under the step on driver side

Tow truck drive said “what’s the problem, I got call said you need some help.” I say it had a batteryproblem when I arrived now they me tell the gauges aren’t working. (The tow truck guy is a young lanky tall cute young man( I’m getting close to 70 years old so I noticed things like this). But kind and polite , he ask “did they change the battey( put a new in) or jump start it. They jump started it. He said okay let see if your gauge are working now. I am adamant. that those gauge aren’t working. He opens the door looks around for the key starts it up and I’ll be dang if whole dashboard didn’t light up including the gauges. I felt like an idiot. Mine youI ‘ve been with this truck since about 3:45 pm and it is now close to 8:00pm am I haven’t dropped off the rental car. It should have been back to Hertz by4:00pm. The rental car is 12 mins away but they close at 6:00PM.

Then the tow truck guys said to me “ you know they have over 30 mechanics in there anyone of them could have told to give it a minutes or turn off the power completely, wait about 5 minutes and then start it. That resets the hole system. Now you”ll get a $250 tow bill.

We’ll, I’m finally on my.