CRETE - A Year in Review

I may have to change my address to somewhere out west if that will get me more of these runs. I haven't been out here for so long I forgot what it's like: open road, sparse traffic, plenty of parking, great weather ( right now - through NM). Driving back east all the time should pay more because this here is like a vacation.

* I guess I cursed myself with the above comment. I was smooth sailing and even asked the CSR to move the delivery up a day as I am way ahead of schedule. Then immediately after that someone on the cb tells me I have a headlight out. I figure this will be an easy swap out (I've only changed headlights on older Freightliners before). I call breakdown just to double check and they immediately sound all ominous. They say it is probably a wiring problem and not the bulb, and immediately send me to an Int'l dealer. I'm not sure how they knew that, to send me to a dealer for a headlight out seems kind of drastic. But looks like I'll lose most of the day on it ..... uggghhh.

 

In one of my last posts about my loads, I jokingly said that, where I was delivering was also a place we also pick up, and that being said I should get there early so I could get out the dock so the Crete they are sending in to pick up there can get in...I said it as a sarcastic joke...but that is close to what happened. As I was backing in to unload at dock F, the shipping/receiving guy said once empty, I needed to pull around to dock D and get reloaded. I beeped Crete, and they said no, we're sending in someone else to pick up that load. Are you f'g s******g me? A barage of messages went off, and finally I was told to drop it. Instead of me traveling 150 feet from one side of the building to the other, they brought someone in..only 12 miles...but still. Turns out, the load was headed to Cali, and this driver hadn't been home since early December, and it was his hometime load.

Now the stupid part...with all the butt-riding this company does about idle time and fuel routing to save money...they deadhead me 181 miles(the q/comm said 181, actual was 208 ) to pickup a load who's loaded miles were only listed as 56( actual loaded miles were 82 ). Then a 2nd preplan that picked up 38 miles away in Rotterdam, NY going to Lansing, MI for Wednesday...and fuel up here is $4.45/pump price. They must be planning for a big tax rate increase this year, and are trying to lower their profit margin so they don't have to give it to the government to waste...they sure couldn't have made money on my load yesterday...this place is truely the biggest joke I've ever been associated with. It is almost embarassing to have to go to places we ship and deliver to because this deadhead out so another can deadhead in makes it look like this company hasn't a clue as to what they're doing.

I'm to the point now where I only plan to run 7 or 8 total hours on duty per day, if they can't get a load that fit's into that schedule, then give it to someone else...I'm tired of running my #### into the dirt to make up for these incompetant fools. I'm not killing myself to make this company look good when Lincoln goes out of their way to screw things up so badly...they have to be doing it on purpose...things couldn't be screwed up this often by accident...

 

Maybe your buddy Tonn is trying to devalue the company so that he can force the old man out cheap.....

 

I ran my last three months at Crete, and they were the first three months on my AMs board. Calcuated out to twelve months, I would have run around 125k miles, thereby grossing around 55k. So indeed, while it isn't all bad, it would still be nice if some of the asininity and nonsense would cease.

 

That seems way too close to just be a coincidence. I'm not really into conspiracy theories but I swear that seem like a carefully planned scheme on Crete's part.

 

That is so true. This Cali load I'm on is an exception (I hope I wasn't the culprit that pulled your load, but I don't think so because I was in Ft Worth and deadheaded 45 miles). What blows my mind are all the unpaid hours they send us scurrying around for mts, these live loads/unloads, or waiting on inane qualcom back-and-forths. Except on rare exceptions like this Cali load, I rarely ever get to use my 11 hours driving.

 

Na, wasn't my load, I was in Fulton, NY...which would have had to carry over until next week to deliver anyhow. I mean, it's 2300+ to Phoenix from there, so I doubt they would have scheduled it by Friday...so it's probably for the best. I'm on a load now to Newport, MI for tomorrow(Weds). Which will put me mid 1600's w/hours.

If anyone hasn't been to the Rotterdam paper warehouse lately...wow what a change. All those warehouses right next door...bldg's 8,9, and 10 are torn down. Almost didn't recognize the place.

 

At the home terminal in Indiana (Wheeee) gotta get an electronic or electrical gremlin exorcised. Seems the cruise control likes to check out at random intervals. Probably gonna end up getting a 34; we all know what them electrical gremlins are capable of doing to a troubleshooting tech.

 

If they discover what is causing it, post it if they tell you. Mine has had 2 different issues. The first started after the 1st ecm update...it causes the cruise to forget to resume if it's over your set speed and someone comes within 350 feet of the OnGuard...even if they're pulling away at 80 mph. The other started after the egr was replaced, and a new update was flashed. Some days the cruise just shuts itself off. At first I thought I had bumped the button, but I've caught it doing it when I'm holding the other side of the wheel. It'll do it 3 or 4 times in one day...then won't do it again for days or weeks so remembering exactly what circumstances are taking place when it happens isn't easy...it catches you off guard when it happens.

 

Yeah, I've had that cruise bulls@t happen every day too (for no apparent reason). I'll be sailing along fine and then suddenly notice the truck drifting down to 59, 57 .... When I went for my 'B' service I asked if it was a known issue and the guy just sort of grimaced and shook his head (yes). I wanted to get the heck out of there so I didn't even write it up.

That's something else they do that I don't understand. The few times I've gotten a sweet 1000+ load, they put too much time on it. So they erase the one chance you have to burn off some productive hours. I asked them to move my appt up on this Cali load and they said " no, no, no. It's pre-set". So I'll end up sitting another day and a half before I can deliver.