Well, it’s Monday and it’s Labor Day! And I’m sitting in the parking lot of a run down mall because there are no truckstops in the area. I had the good fortune of escaping from the Wal-Mart gig last night by running out of useful hours as far as they were concerned. I actually had 7hrs left, (and still do today). I had put in an MT call last night and asked that I be put back on the national board with the hopes of getting a load out sometime today, but I didn’t actually expect that to happen. I did however expect confirmation, or at least some kind of acknowledgment from dispatch that I was on the list to get a load. What I did get was complete silence.

I didn’t let it bother me too much; this seems to be the status quo lately during holidays and on weekends. I’m not going to put all of the blame on the people in the dispatch office though. I know that they are painfully understaffed and have more problems to deal with than they can handle, but a simple “working on it” would have gone a long ways towards alleviating some of my angst.

I did send in another message on this fine morning asking if a load would be available today or in the morning, but that too was ignored. I made it a point not to send in numerous repeat messages because I knew they were busy and it would do no good.

Realizing this day was a bust, I resigned myself to spending the day in a parking lot and did what I could to amuse myself. The mall, (whose parking lot I was currently residing in) was of the run down variety with a lot of no name stores in it, but it did have a theater with 4 screens in it. What the hay, I didn’t have anything else to do so I headed on over to check out one of the current releases. The choices were dismal to say the least and I opted for “Death Race”. I figured it would have a mindless plot and excessive amount of special effects and I was right. Basically a waste of money, but it helped me burn a couple of hours. The theater was a clear indication of the economy in this area. This was a first weekend release of this movie, on a major holiday weekend in the middle of the day and I was the only person in the theater. Not one other person to be seen.

Now that the movie was over I set out for a little walk to get some exercise and found a trail in the back of the lot that headed out into the woods. Curious as to where it went, I proceeded onward and found myself overlooking a pleasant little watershed pound after walking about a mile or so. It was a very secluded and quite area and I thought it would be a fine spot to set up a little camp fire and pretend I wasn’t driving (sitting in a parking lot) a truck. I went back to the truck to get my folding chair and something to snack on and headed back to the pond and enjoyed an evening by a crackling fire.

One thing I did do before leaving the truck was make one final attempt at getting some kind of response from dispatch. Something to the effect of, “I’ve been here since last night, previous messages have been ignored, I know you're busy, but could you please acknowledge this message. I have been released from Wal-Mart and don’t even know if I have been put back on the national board so that I’m in line for a load. THX”

This time around I finally received a response, “Sorry for the delay, it looks like you have not been placed back on national, please call ****** in the morning.” Just as I thought, left out to dry. As annoying as this was, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. I didn’t have many hours left anyways and this little layover (my third in two years, so I can’t really complain too much) made it possible to put in a reset. Last week was more or less a bust as far as mileage went, but with the $175/day pay at Wal-Mart plus some extra mileage pay for a good day there I still grossed $1161 on 2541 miles.

Tuesday eventually came around and I didn’t exactly have high hopes for what lay ahead. I wasn’t the only driver sitting around waiting on a load. There were no less than 10 CR England trucks in the lot and a handful of others. All, like me, had been sitting around for some time now. I had fully expected to spend another day in this parking lot. I couldn’t even start thinking about a load until sometime after 8am, that’s when the individual that I needed to talk to would be coming in. The problem with that, I’m sure I’m not the only driver in the fleet that needs to talk to him.

When the appointed hour finally came around I started with the phone calls, (voice mail of course) and sent off messages in three different directions and awaited some kind of response. Surprisingly enough it only took about 30 minutes to get my first QualComm message. This message acknowledged the fact that I had been sitting for an extended period of time and they would find a load for me, “just sit tight”. Not the perfect response, but at least I knew the ball was rolling. The difference between today and yesterday is that I am now a prisoner to the truck. Yesterday I knew there would not be a load offer, so I was free to wonder about and find some way of amusing myself. I now find myself forced to sit in the truck and await a load offer.

I also took this opportunity to call my Fleet Manager. I’ve been out too long this time around and this last week took the wind out of my sails. I’m ready to go home for some R&R. When asked, “When do you want to go home” I simply replied, “ASAP!”

And wait I did until shortly after noon. The QC finally chirped to life with a very respectable load offer. It was a preloaded trailer just outside of Philly going south of Atlanta (909mi) with a 5am delivery on Thursday. Well, I just went from “nothing to do” to “holy crap”, this is going to be a tight run. I was a bit miffed when I saw that the load had been ready since 8:30 this morning and I didn’t get the load offer until after noon. I guess dispatch was just that backed up and it took them awhile to get around to me.

Now I am left with a choice. I can sit in this lot for another 7hrs or so and then pickup the trailer, therefore forcing me to drive all night and sleeping during the days again. This option would make it possible to make my delivery with only one 10hr break along the way, but I would be on a night schedule. My other option would be to take off now and be on a very tight schedule because I would have to take two 10hrs breaks along the way to time the 5am delivery correctly. Well, I’ve been sitting around all I care for and pulled out to get the trailer. As I was driving towards Philly I started running the numbers and tried to determine my best course of action. I also realized this trip was going to be more than tight; it was going to be a squeaker. It sure would have been nice to get this load offer a few hours earlier.

I went through the paces and pointed the truck towards Atlanta. I had no time to spare so there were no extra stops along the way. I had a fuel stop sent to me, but I had enough fuel in the truck to finish the trip and I was able to by-pass that one, yup, I’m that short on time, can’t even waste 15mins. My biggest problem was the fact that there are no parking options in the Atlanta area. I was headed to McDonough and the choices are almost non existent. I actually had enough hours to get there and deliver the load early, but if I was turned away and told to return at my appointment time the following day I would have been screwed. If the customer had overnight parking I would be fine, but a call to the customer only got an automated system and there was no mention of it in the load info and I didn’t want to take any chances. Because of that I actually had to hold up 100 miles away at a TA north of Atlanta. Normally I would stop at our yard, but it was about 20 miles out of route, and that simple delay would have made me late for my delivery. Just one of those days I guess. This made for a rather short 400mi day, but I just didn’t have any other choice.

My Thursday started exactly 10hrs and 7½mins after I had shut down the previous night and I managed to pull into the customer's lot 16mins before my appointment time. OK, that’s a little tight on a 900mi run. Into the receiving office I go only to find that this was a drop load. I also took this opportunity to ask if I would have been allowed to drop this trailer last night if I had pulled in at that time. “Sure” he says. Grrrr! Our drop deliveries are almost always denoted by a delivery window, i.e. 07:00 – 23:59 or something along those lines. When the delivery time says 05:00 it generally means a live unload. I got burned on this one; I could have dropped this last night, grabbed and empty and still would have had a few hours to get my next load. I’ll know better next time around.

Time to put in my MT call and see what they have in store for me. The load offer was slow in coming, which surprised me a bit. This time of day usually results in a very quick response, but not today. About 20 minutes later I finally get the chirp and am a little disappointed. It’s going to NC (350mi) and it’s a live unload with a fair amount of unnecessary down time to it. I also note that it is a bit odd that I’m getting a load to NC, I never get loads going that way. Then it hits me, I put in for home time just two days ago and I realized that I failed to mention that I wanted to take it in Phoenix, not Wilmington, NC. That’s quite impressive, request home time and two days later I got it. Too bad it’s in the wrong direction. I guess I could always spend the week at the NC house, but I’m guessing the wife would be a little miffed about that one. We’ll be going back for a while to check up on things in October anyways.

With that realization I sent off a message to dispatch to inform them of the mix-up. I also let them know that I would run the load if they needed me too, but I would prefer something going in the direction of Phoenix so that I could take my home time there. Shortly thereafter I was pulled from the original load and sent a message that he was working on something for me. Oh goody!

Another 30mins passed and I was sent another load offer. This one picked up at 1pm here in town and was going to the Dallas area (813mi) 2 days from now at 6am. That was followed by a message “deliver this load and I’ll get you on a load to PHX from there”. Wow, that was easy, looks like I’m home bound.

There was a bit of excessive down time involved with these runs, but that’s not all that uncommon with loads that point you back towards the house. I was more than pleased with the rapid response to my home time request. A nice change of pace considering the lower freight levels these days.

My pickup was scheduled for 1pm. I figured it was on a preloaded trailer, but there was no urgency in picking it up right away. I had a scheduled delivery time in Dallas and it wouldn’t do me any good to show up early anyway. I waited until the prescribe hours arrived and went to get my load. Sure enough, it was ready to go and I headed on down the road and managed to make it to the middle of Alabama before my 14hrs expired with a whopping 350 miles for the day.

I actually got to sleep in Friday, all the way to 4:30 which was a nice change from my 2am starts of late. The rest of the day was just a pleasant stroll across I-20 with home getting closer with the passing of each mile.

I pulled into the customer’s gate first thing Saturday morning for my 6am appointment drop. Yup, another one of those receivers that is a drop, but they wont let you show up early. In this case I had to agree with them on their policy. This lot was packed to the gills and there wasn’t a spot to be had. I actually had to drop my trailer in the middle of their lot in front of a number of other trailers. What a mess. Now all I had to do was head on down to Waxahachie to get my load of insulation going to Phoenix.

The info in the QualCom stated that this load would be ready anytime after 6pm, but I had little doubt that it was already loaded and waiting for me. The 6pm thing was more of an “earliest pickup time to result in a productive load” kind of thing. Picking it up any earlier would result in extended downtime for the driver. But considering the fact that I was on my way to the house, ye ha!

As suspected, the trailer was waiting for me when I arrived and 16 minutes later I was westward bound. This load had a live unload scheduled for Tuesday morning, but I had every intention of pulling into our PHX terminal by Noon Sunday and after some solid driving that is just what I did. I love it when things work out like this.

What really made this a nice run was the fact that it was scheduled to deliver Tuesday morning. Thanks to the fact that I was able to pickup this load early and even though I was home before noon on Sunday, I was still under dispatch until the load delivered. That means that the remainder of Sunday and Monday did not count towards my home time. Tuesday is also not counted as a home day because I made the delivery on this day. So, outside of taking 2 hours out of my day on Tuesday morning to deliver my load less than ½ mile from the yard, I was able to spend an entire week out of the truck without ruffling any feathers. I really don’t think it would have been a problem even if I had Tcalled the load when I pulled into town, but this way I didn’t have to burden another driver with a shag load and I didn’t have to ask any special favors from my FM. I had been out for 7 weeks anyways and turned some great miles for the most part (I’m trying to put that Labor Day week out of my mind), I had the time coming and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Las Vegas, here I come.



WEEK THIRTY SIX
Monday, September 1st through Sunday, September 7th
Miles include deadhead

King of Prussia, PA to McDonough, GA………………………………….909mi
Atlanta, GA to Garland, TX……………………………………………….....813mi
Waxahachie, TX to Phoenix, AZ………………………………………….1124mi



Total Paid Miles……………………………..2846 Miles (Not the greatest of weeks, but that will happen when one gets laid over on Labor Day and my two runs to get me home were not the most productive, but that is to be expected when you have a specific destination in mind. This is just about as bad as my weeks get and I was able to gross just under $1200.

Actual Miles………….2869 Miles

2846 x .42 = $1195.32

__________________
"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

This will be short and sweet!

WEEK THIRTY SEVEN
Monday, September 8th through Sunday, September 14th
Miles include deadhead

__________________
"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

Hey,

We just got back from the race at Talladega.....I saw quite a few Crete trucks along the way. Mostly along I-20.... My question is:

If freight is short at times for you guys, how come I saw a few Shaffer tractors pulling Crete trailors?

Do they do that if there are no Crete drivers in the area and the load has to move?

R/

Jeff

__________________
US Navy Chief
"Navy Chief....Navy Pride"
"Destination: Excellence"

Crete owns Shaffer.

Yeah, I know they do. Just curious as to why they would "mix and match".

__________________
US Navy Chief
"Navy Chief....Navy Pride"
"Destination: Excellence"

Good question. I could speculate, but will leave for Crete drivers to answer.

Evertrucker feel you on sitting. I hate to sit idleing period. I'd rather be driving than siting and doing nothing. However you do make good stories interesting and I forward to reading them.

Hunter

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Paccar Products: Built Tough and Reliable

Actually, that was me.
And that is what I was told by the marietta manager (of course he also told me he couldn't put any drivers in the GM fleet and that I would get my OTR hometime as scheduled, so he is apparently O for 3 - and Crete struck out in the bottom of the ninth.
I'm now going with Scneider's GM fleet at a penny per mile more than Crete, LOL!

__________________
"I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep" Robt. Frost

evertrucker:

I trust this post finds you doing well.

I have been contemplating joining CCC. The website lists ICL1 Dedicated. It runs out of the Ports in Chester, PA and Richmond, VA. Average miles and income are 2,350/wk and $53,100/annually, respectively.

The recruiter I spoke with said he could get me on that account. The work regime is picking up loaded containers at one of the ports, taking it to the consignee, dropping it, picking up the mt, and returning it to the port. It is all drop and hook. Hometime is, typically home weekends.

I can't seem to find anyone on the CB doing this account, or that knows anything about it.

Do you, or anyone you are acquainted with, know anything about this account and the satisfaction it is providing the drivers? Any information you can provide regarding this important subject is appreciated.

Thanks,
GR

Its not really mix and matching - they are the same company and share everything from clients to profit sharing and benefits. They went through a similar phase back in 2000 with Sunflower and Shaffer, seperate entities but with the same infrastructure. The merged in 2002 and Sunflower is now Shaffer/Crete out of Lincoln.
There are a couple of reasons also that might be behind it, Crete does have (or did have last I heard) some dedicated refrigerated accounts - so occasionally if a Crete reefer isn't handy they use a Shaffer/Sunflower trailer. Likewise, if I hit a yard to drop a Crete trailer and can't find any empties except a Shaffer, dispatch MAY tell me to go ahead and grab the reefer and use it instead (not often, but it has happened). They own it all, and the billing is all done by the same corp, so it really makes no difference. I'm not sure if the original Shaffer (New Kingstown) has any proprietary claim on some of their accounts such as Hershey or not. They do still have their own dispatch however.
Call Crete in Lincoln or a Crete terminal and the phone is usually answered Crete/Shaffer, may I help you". My most recent orientation with Crete did include a visit from the shop to go over reefer operations so I think this is an increasing practice (swapping trailers). I did ask and was told that Crete does not have plans to make the full merge and absorb Shaffer and call it Crete Temp Control (CTC) which was a rumor I heard last year. Crete and Shaffer will remain seperate in name though they will occasionally share equipment and cover loads when needed.
One last thing, Shaffer used to pay a penny more a mile (or two, I forget) so that can also be a thorn in the side of some drivers who are on the Crete payroll and get a Shaffer load. By the same reasoning though, I, as a General Mills fleet driver got paid 5cpm less than National Fleet and used to be ticked off when I didn't get nudged up 5cpm when GM loads weren't available and I was given something off the national board (if you are wondering, the difference was due to the supposed higher rate of drop and hook with GMills loads).

__________________
"I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep" Robt. Frost