CONGRATS !!!! And the terrible miles your getting dont seem terrible at all, keep up the good work. DRIVE SAFE

Sorry about the mispelled word. It should have read wife. Just a little bit tired then just as I am now. It is a little strange that the only answer to my post was a critique on a word. No other comments? Come on knighton5, you usually have an answer for everything.

One poster was right that this is a thread about evertrucker and his experience. I was just replying to a dumb comment by knighton5.

I have to say that evertrucker makes pretty good money for an OTR driver. My hat is off to you sir. Judging by the other posts on this site, he seems to be the exception rather than the rule. He seems to be doing something right. He makes more than a lot of local drivers I know. In fact, sometimes he makes more than I do.

My question to the rest of you is, why can he do it and others cannot? Even the ones who drive for the same company fall short.

Evertrucker, your posts are very interesting and informative to read. Have you ever explained your secrets to the rest of the Crete drivers as well as other OTR drivers? If you ever put them into book form, you could probably quit driving altogether with the money you would make.

You've earned every penny you make. You should be proud of your accomplishment. I know I am.

Evertrucker,

Does Crete get confused on which house you want home time on? Also, which house gets freight the quickest?

Hunter

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Kinghunter: Truck Photographer, Airline Guru and Boat Guru

It's funny that you should ask. Time before last I put in for home time and forgot to mention Phoenix. When I was getting very close to home time I was sent a load that delivered 70 miles from the NC house. That's probably the closest I've ever been planned, I usually have closer to 200 miles deadhead to get me home once empty.

I sent off a message to dispatch telling them I would take the load if they needed it covered but explained the mix up and within 30 mins they had me on a two load preplan that got me to Phoenix. I make it a point to be more specific now and verify my destination as my hometime approaches.

As far as getting loads out, never a problem from either place, but loads out of NC often send me up into the northeast and loads out of Phoenix send me across the country. The loads to get me home can be a problem in both directions, I've been rather lucky the last couple of times though. I think they try a little harder when a driver has been out for 6-7 weeks. The few times that I do try to get back after 3 weeks doesn't seem to go as smoothly, but I was told when I hired on that freight into coastal southern NC wasn't always easy to come by and I should expect to be out longer than most OTR guys. So with that knowledge in mind before signing on, I can't really get upset when it does take a while to get me there.

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

BDUKE, please keep your negative behavior out of this thread, your obviously a local driver and throwing a monkey wrench into a OTR driving job isnt going to work. THX

Evertruckerr,

Congratulations. From your previous posts you have mentioned that you wouldn't want the negatives associated with being a trainer but I think this award is just one more reason to consider it someday. Crete along with the rest of us out here think you would do a great job. Again, congratulations.

And my personal apology for jumping into the recent detour on this thread. Just another bad week at my boring job...waiting for the chance to join you guys and gals!

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Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

removed for own sanity, peace and harmony

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Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

bduke wrote:

Thank you for your kind words.

I try to explain my reasoning and thought process through my posts without getting too long winded (ya, I know I've failed miserably, perhaps on both counts) to help other drivers maximize their miles. It really comes down to every little decision and every minute saved at any time can effect how many miles a driver can get.

It would often be easier to shut down for the night short of my destination and deliver first thing in the morning, but when I get it there the night before I find that I'm off on my next load while the other Crete drivers are putting in their MT calls and are waiting for their next load. I often push the limits of my logs and keep my breaks to a minimum at all times. Just because I have plenty of time to make a delivery today doesn't mean I can drag my feet. My decision to take back roads instead of the turnpike in my last weekly post seemed to make sense at the time, but the lost time on that run really came back to haunt me later in the week when I was trying to squeeze minutes out of everything I was doing to get in a reset.

Resets are another great tool that many drivers will argue about, but the absolute fact of the matter is you will get more miles on a consistent basis if you use them to you benefit. There have been uncountable times that I have passed up comfort of the moment and a more relaxed pace to make a reset happen and it almost always works out for the best.

I realize many drivers don't have the desire, or need to continually push the clock, but in the end it's what keeps the miles coming. I just happen to be the kind of person that feels better working under pressure, or at least some form of urgency. I tend to get fidgety when the pace slows down.

And I think the absolute most important thing, especially with this company is a thorough understanding of Log Book management and the ability to use it to your advantage. NEVER waist minutes on your logs, ever.

At Crete we must run 100% complaint, but that doesn't mean that there aren't a number of ways to stretch it out by using the gray areas to your advantage. For instance, let's say there are two drivers starting at the same place and going to the same destination.

Driver A starts at 4:53am, because he has started 8mins past the last 15 incriment on the log book he can legally start his log at 5am.

Driver B starts at 5:05am and also must log his start at 5am. Right from the start he is 12 miles behind the first driver and the day has just started and their logs are identical and both legal.

A few hours down the road driver A stops for fuel and arrives at 7:50am. Because he is able to slid is card through the fuel pump at that time he has to log his fuel stop from 7:45 to 8am. Driver B arrives after driving the same distance in the same amount of time, but because of his later start he pulls into the fuel island at 8:02 and has to log his fuel stop from 8 to 8:15. When driver B leaves the fuel island at 8:15 driver B can be 15mins ahead and they are both only 3hrs into their day and driver B already has 15 more minutes of drive time on his log.

Rest stops are the same way. If you pull in and stop for 8 mins it can legally be logged as 15mins. If you stop for 20 minutes it must also be logged as a 15min stop. In this example the first driver would have gained 12 miles on the other driver. If I ever sit somewhere for 12-15mins I will purposely sit and wait for the 23min mark to hit so I can legally log a 30min stop. By doing this I can routinely gain 30-45 driving minutes on any particular day and always stay within the legal parameters of the regulations.

These examples only apply to companies like Crete that strictly enforce logs books down to the minute. With the more lenient companies it is much less important to be this anal, but for me it is imperative in order to maximize my available hours.

It doesn't take too many of these examples to make a significant impact on a drivers productivity. Like everything else in life, its a game and you have to know how to make the rules work to your advantage.

Another thing that has saved my butt on more than one occasion is logging local work on line four. As long as you stay within a cities limits while doing various drop and hooks, or delivering on one side of a city and picking up another load on the other side of the city it is legal to stay on line four. It may not save any time on the overall 70hr clock, but it does make it possible to put in more driving hours into any particular day when needed. It is also helpful to know that even though your 14hr or 70hr clock has come to an end, it doesn't mean that you can't keep working, you just can't keep driving. What does that mean, well, as long as you are within city limits and on line four, you can continue to preform duties necessary to load and unload a truck, including driving to a nearby truckstop as long as you stay on line four and don't travel more than 15 miles or so. You can get away with driving further in some cities that cover many miles.

Now I don't want everyone jumping on me and challenging my opinions, as I stated earlier, these are gray areas that can be exploited to your benefit. I am not a DOT officer and can offer no defense for you if one of them calls you on it.

Ok, that went on far too long. I could continue, but I'll spare you the agony. These layovers tend to make me babble. Sorry about that.

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

Never mind,

invalid point and removed!

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

Congratulations ET!

As for ET being the only driver making money at crete, NOT SO. I've talked to many other drivers who are doing just fine. Myself, as an o/o leased to Crete, keeping my average about 2900 p/wk. Could do more like ET, but I don't want to work that hard anymore. Last year I averaged almost 2900 m/pw, this included all time off, i.e. I was paid on 151k miles last year. Through the end of September '08, I've been paid for 112,487 miles. Again, an almost 2900 m/pw agv., including all time off.

I've found that a driver's success, or lack there of, usually comes down to attitude, and how willing they are to be pro-active in delivering/picking up early. Sometimes you have to work through dispatch, and sometimes it's better to handle it yourself. Knowing which route to take comes with time and getting to know the Crete customer base.

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Thank you Christ & Veterans for the blood you shed for my freedom! Hope is knowing that Christ will not let failure be your final resutl.