CRETE - A Year in Review

My bunk air is officially broken! It works fine when on battery power but when the engine is running (idling or driving) the bunk air blows hot. Once, just to test it, I closed the curtains and turned the rear blower to full and the temp to lowest then drove. When I stopped and felt thru the curtain and it was hot. After I stop for the day and turn on the bunk air it takes about a minute or more to actually turn it's compressor on. After about 15 minutes(depending on how hot it is outside) the air seems cold but since the back isn't being cooled when driving everything back there has warmed up and has to be cooled. I hope to get it fixed while on home time but I'm out of Wilmer. The last three....count them THREE...times I put my truck into the shop while going on home time the guys promised me my truck in two days but skipped it over until the day I was due to go out and then put it in the shop and out of service. I have lost an additional 4 days due to this. Plus since I live 20 miles from the terminal....NO BREAKDOWN PAY! We'll see how it goes this time. Or maybe I should just take the advice of "an" assistant terminal manager and "don't put your truck in the shop here...take it to another shop where you are the priority and let the other guy get skipped over"

 

Are the national cow-tipping tournaments going on this weekend? Op's seems to be going much slower than their usual flowing molasses in January pace.

Once empty in Social Circle...I was offered the same load twice...the 1st time I would have been 3 hours late for delivery, the 2nd time 4.5 hours late.

 

The exact same thing has been happening to me. I thought I was imagining things and it was just due to super hot weather. But then in very hot places like Laredo, it's been blowing ice cold, but only on battery power. When I'm rolling, the truck has been getting very humid and musty, then inexplicably the AC will turn cold for brief periods. I'm still going to ignore it for awhile because I can't afford to be tortured by more shop down time right now.

 

Sounds like a problem with the design, as my bunk air does the same thing.

Interesting few minutes at Lowes in North Vernon, IN yesterday. Deliver a load, prior to which I sent a message asking if I would need an empty or expect a load. Get the "probably a load" answer. Cool. Deliver, send empty call, nothing. Wait for about a half-hour, then finally get a message saying "nothing out of there....go park". I ask if I should just park there bobtail, or grab an empty and head to Seymour. Get an empty. OK.

Go back to the guard shack, and she assigns me an empty. Hook it, pre-trip it (in a heavy rain), get ready to pull out and BEEP! Preplan load information.

Load picks up there at Lowes and goes to Conway, AR. Delivers tomorrow at 1600, but I'll go in early as most Lowes' stores get their trailers empty in plenty of time.

The fun never ends.

 

My AC does the same. At Lowe's the night crews offload. Arrive during 07:00-15:30 on the delivery date and you should be good. The 16:00 must be a late reference even tho they show it as appt.

 

Yeah, that's it....similar to other Lowe's loads, only this one indicates they will not answer the receiving door at all on Sundays. I'll probably sleep in a bit then head over there. I'm only 38 miles away.

 

Experienced the same thing on a Sunday in El Paso a couple years ago. That's when I found out from the on-shift store manager about only coming in M-F dayshift. I sure am grateful that Lowe's allows us to park at supposedly any of there stores. I've used them many times even on loads that were not theirs. Never been turned away yet.

 

don't go in early in Hollister Missouri. very small loading area and they wait till end of other deliveries bwfore you can dock. and your mt is across the parking lot

 

I believe that was the first Lowe's load I did at Crete....you are correct.

 

I've got great news if you're in the Atlanta/Social Circle area. There are no empty trucks. I was basically told to go ahead and take the load I couldn't deliver on time and get as far south as possible...there was no one else in the area that could pick up. So, I did. If it hadn't been for some nasty construction/weather back up traffic, I would have made it to north FL where my daughter and grand kids live...but this darn e-log put me 10 minutes short. So now they're trying to find someone down here to take it off my hands to finish the load off and deliver on time. Here is the exact reason I beg them to preplan us. Had I known ahead of time that I was headed to Lakeland for a Monday morning 530 am delivery. I could have taken off earlier yesterday morning, delivered earlier this morning, and been there on time. But every time I do just that without a preplan, I end up getting a late afternoon pickup that blows my 14 out of the water...so it's a no-win scenario working here. And...although my a/c is working...I too am getting that musty smell, but from the front not the back...and, I see a small coolant leak from one of my heater lines...and the brain scientists at International didn't design this system with shut-off valves...ohhhh goodie...shop time.