CRETE - A Year in Review

Well, I'm having fun again. The other day I was in Greensboro waiting all day for a 2200 delivery appointment...and my APU has now started tripping the ecm breaker and shutting down(just like my last truck's APU did, when I got the initial blame for running a microwave). So I warned my terminal manager that my idle time was going to be up a bit because I can't afford to sit at a shop for days for the 4th time in 5 weeks...Then last night, tried it again, and it ran all night w/o a hitch....I hate these random issues, sorta makes you look like your crazy when you take it to a shop, and it won't act up for them.

 

I have a question for any of us Cretins that have Prepass...have you been getting a lot of red lights lately? I ran home last week, got 1 green light per day in FL/GA... This week was routed to Jacksonville, then out of Jacksonville headed for the K/C area, 4 scales, 1 green light, 3 red lights and the scales were packed like Prepass wasn't even there.(I was in FL/GA, will be going through the other scale in N GA this a.m., then TN, IL and 1 MO today)

 

Last couple weeks I've also gotten red lights. However so has all the other carriers. Guessing DOT just wants to keep us honest.

 

What is the cost on that. I heard it is available through the company page, but haven't researched. Too busy getting the run around from Walmart...

 

Not sure what WalMart has to do with PrePass but I pay $13.50 a month. That includes a discount for being an OOIDA member.

 

I think the non-OOIDA cost is $16.25. I'm not sure, my wife does all the bills since I only visit once in a while. I got 2 red lights on closed scales yesterday. Ringgold GA and Manchester, TN.

I did see one of the new mid-roof Cascadia's yesterday. Not only was it shorter in height, but as it passed going the other way at 123 mph(combined speed of our trucks passing in opposite directions 61.5 x 2), it looked shorter in length...maybe it was just my imagination...runnin away with me....

 

I was being abused at a WM DC. They have a "new system" which would not receive my load in an ordinate amount of time, plus the first 2 doors assigned already had trailers present. Then an OSD issue and they claim I am late because of finding an open dock.....cheesh I hate WM. They tried to argue that you have to show up early enough at a Doctor's appointment. I laughed in their face. These people are clueless. It is the same thing WM got sued about requiring their employees to work "off the clock"......why can't we get that? Once we are on their property the clock is "punched", yet they claim the clock is not punched until you are at "Traffic" desk. Used to be receiving....makes some sense...combining ship/rec, but I fear the "new and improved" software.

 

Do you pay through Crete, or directly? The existing unit does not have the lights, so I assume a "new" box must be installed?

 

I pay bill directly to PrePass.

 

I pay direct as well, you have to go thru crete to get the application since you're a company driver. I think you can pick one up at any terminal, or call your home terminal and have one sent home. If you have a prepass with no lights already, that must be the easypass for tolls. Since you pay for prepass, you won't get the combined 'prepass plus' unit, you'll get a seperate unit. I am actually considering getting the norpass unit, that can be tied to prepass as well. That way I can get thru KY and NC's scales too.

I heard another piece of good news Friday as well. This is the 2nd driver I heard the same info from, so it's more likely not just a rumor. I hear they are getting rid of the zone dispatch and going to an assigned dispatcher system like the majority of the modern trucking world uses. .

I ended up having a killer week, partially because I left home on a 1083 me run, that ended up delivering on Saturday instead of delivering early on Friday because of a bad wreck outside Jacksonville FL that killed my 14. The week I was home, I had a whopping 464 miles, but this last week with the carryover miles, I turned 3585 miles...with another one of those '2 loads delivered in the same day' days...now I'm sitting in Edwardsville, IL waiting on an empty so I can go pick up my 977 mile run to Odessa TX for Monday morning. A decent start for next week.