CRETE - A Year in Review

If Crete is true to form...you'll have to fight to get into the N/E. If you come back, you will probably get stuck on the Chicago to Ohio to Georgia then back to Chicago loop.

 

Well the vision of the Keystone Cops doing a Chinese fire drill in a 3 stooges movie has been a popular vision in my head lately when I think about Lincoln(and the rest of this company)

Preparing to leave after my hometime. I send in my hours (which I am still confused by...why do I have to send in my hours if I do my logbook on the q/comm and approve and transmit all the hours to corporate every day already....the Robin Williams skit about REDUNDANT..REDUNDANT....REDUNDANT..REEEEEEDUNDANT flashes thru my mind when I think about it) anyway....get a load offer, it picks up at the paper plant in western GA going to Jackson, TN for Thursday at 1400...a decent 680 mile 1 day run...and now is where the fun begins. The customer, GA Pacific, requires that the trailer's D.O.T. inspection be current. A quick peek at mine shows that my trailer hasn't been inspected in 14 months...but there is an AMBEST sticker on the right hand side showing that it had but without a date. However, the paperwork from the inspection wasn't in the nosebox and since I hadn't been getting beeped about getting a service and inspection done I figured that it had been done recently. Now all I need for now is a copy of the most recent inspection. As long as it is within a year, I can get loaded and then if it's beyond Cretes service/inspection time...I then can get it serviced and inspected. Sounds simple....but were talking Crete here (this is where the Keystone cops get out of the Model T at the stop sign). I message breakdown and my AM about needing the paperwork...and since I am home, I have a free fax for them to send it to. And wait, and wait, and wait. I call my terminal (this is where the Keystone Cops start running around the car doing the Chinese Fire Drill....but 1/2 go around front, the other 1/2 go around back). Since we have some new people in Deland after the closing of Tifton, not everyone knows who to call for all situations...(some paperwork is accessible by the terminals, some isn't...I wasn't sure if an annual DOT inspection was one of those they could see) I am then transferred to Safety in Lincoln...who gets confused as to why I am asking about an annual inspection form...they only deal with the DOT inspection forms from the man with the badge and gun...not with the shop's inspection, then transfer me to maintenance, which only gets me maintenance's voice mail.... ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGG!!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile no reply to my messages on Q/comm(to which I have been sending 1/4 hr reminders about my intensifying aggravation level). Somewhere around the 1 3/4 hour mark, I get a message back from Rusty in breakdown telling me that the inspection was done on 10/21/11 so it is legal...we just need to get it thru a shop because it's due, and that they don't beep any more unless it REALLY overdue. So I reply that I can get it thru a shop after I load, but that I need the paperwork for the current inspection since this customer won't load you without proper documentation proving that everything is up to date, and that I am not going to be near any T/A or Petro's before the customer. Nothing....again. After over 2 hours I have had enough of this 3 ring circus for the day... tell op's that I give up, I am parking my truck and since they can't get their act together, put someone else on this load since I won't be allowed to pick it up anyway...and I will check back in the morning, if I feel like working here...otherwise I will contact Deland about when the empty truck will be sitting in their driveway. So, the way this usually works out...I will probably be the one who get's written up and disciplined for this even though the other driver didn't do his/her job and put the proper paperwork in the proper place, and the operations department didn't do their job by answering me in a timely manner and my terminal didn't do their job by sending me to the right person, and once I found that proper person they wouldn't answer their phone, and breakdown wouldn't read all of the message about what I needed (not that it was their job anyway). This place is truly one of the most disorganized, confused, and frustrating companies I have ever been with in all my millions of miles. How on God's green earth do they stay in business being this incompetent???

 

I messaged ya' back, but something I said caused it to be delayed pending a MOD's approval...not sure what it was.

 

LMAO the mods are out for ya now

 

Not sure...my 'Keystone Cops' message went right thru...but both messages I replied for your post had to be approved...oh well, they're there so who knows what triggered the computer to delay it.

 

I don't know weazz...it might be they are after you...just posted a quickie reply of your latest, and it's pending now...

 

Not sure what mighta triggered it...it even delayed a generic quick post...but only on this thread...didn't hold up a 'poly trucking' post minutes later... Doing it from a smartphone...hope it hasen't been hacked and secretly sending some trojan horse thru my postings.

 

Supersnack, it's the "force" telling you to come join us at Poly!

 

Man, you don't know how close I am from throwing in the Crete towel right now. After my battle with various departments trying to get the copy of the annual trailer inspection...my next load was from Jacksonville, FL to Bristol, VA and a 2nd stop in Johnson City, TN. I know what you're thinking... You pass Johnson City on the way to Bristol...but I don't schedule and load 'em, I just haul 'em. I was told the whole trip including the deadhead from home to Jacksonville was 639 miles, and the miles from shipper to stop 1 was right at 500 mi. And this all had to be done within 18 hrs. Now getting the load, getting to both stops and to a place to take a break within my 14 was going to be a real trick...but I would make the attempt. Once I had the load I plugged the stop 1's address in the Nag-a-gator and I was shocked that the miles were about 50 more than what I was told...which was problem #1, problem #2 came when I decided to plug in the entire trip... 675 miles....in a 62 mph truck pulling 30,000 lbs up I-26 from I-95 to I-81 in this pos Maxxfarce...not gona make it in time and request schedule change. I managed to get to Bristol w/15 minutes of drive time left....but Crete's directions were waaaaaaaay off. So I headed for that truck restarea on I-81 in southern VA and messaged op's that both appts. need changed because the Fubar directions were so screwed up it wasted any time I had left. They said they'd work on the appointments. After my break I find out the appointments were just moved 24 hours into Saturday. That means a 382 mile week last week. Saturday I deliver, and apologize to them for this company's inability to plan. My next load gave me a brief ray of hope... P/u off the Lenoir City yard to near Waukegan, IL for Monday. All in all a 700ish mile run... Add that to the carryover miles and I'd have a 1300 mile w/e...that was until I stopped to p/u my load. When I was delivering in Johnson City, nothing was wrong w/my truck. When I was fueling up by Greeneville, TN nothing was wrong w/my truck. When I was sitting at the Lenoir City fuel island waiting for my quicky inspection, I noticed some oil spray on the frame, then I looked at the front diff...oily...I looked at the driveshaft...oily, I looked under the truck, oil drip spots on the concrete. I open the hood and look, a small puddle of oil forming just under the bell housing. The mechanic says they have issues w/oil pan gaskets on these Maxxfarce's. So, now I have to check in...it was enough oil I wouldn't have passed a DOT inspection, so I head to the shop. I find out the International dealers mechanic won't be in until Monday, and breakdown can't get me to a shop before then either...so now I lose the load, and will be stuck the entire weekend losing a bunch of miles...again. International can take these trucks and shove them where the sun don't shine...but only if they take their head out of there 1st.