CRETE - A Year in Review

I've had that same A/C problem on two different ProStars. The problem both times was with the freon in the system being too low which caused the system to freeze up and blow hot air. Maybe that's happening to yours. It was a quick fix once I got it in to the shop. Good luck with it.

 

I don't know why I am shocked by this crap. I get as far as my hours will allow, believing that perhaps there was some sort of plan here, where I would meet a driver, swap trailers, he heads to deliver on time, and I go to bed. Now it's after 11 pm, and at last word, they were still looking for someone to take the load (I honestly think they're looking for a big enough pry bar to dislodge their head from their butt). How on earth do they expect drivers to be anywhere close to patient and dedicated with this level of shear, unadulterated incompetence? How on earth do these people manage to find their way to work...better yet, how do they manage to get up and get dressed by themselves..

*update* while sitting here waiting on who is coming to pu this load(they t'called it at the truck stop already) I am sent a preplan. Pu in Tifton, deliver by 1300 in Gainesville, GA...am I suppose to just leave this loaded trailer at the truck stop...what kind of half ret....never mind...my comments would end up being way to offensive. I'm not a drinking man...but this place is seriously making me consider getting blind drunk...simply to forget this 3 ring circus for a few hours.

*update #2* after telling them no to preplan to GA(since I didn't know what to do with the truck stop t'called load), now I'm back on the original load since no one else would take it. 3 more hours of my life wasted.

Seriously, if anyone is thinking of working here...God help ya'!!! Just when you think these people couldn't get any worse...they top themselves by going to new levels of disorganized incompetence.

 

OK Now don't hate the playa but.....
I get close to the cons and send a note that I am 45 minutes away, can del anytime tomorrow and asked if they had anything to preplan me on. I got a preplan for the same place I am delivering. I went ahead on in even though my appt was tomorrow but I know we drop there so I took a chance. The guy was super cool, let me drop my trailer there and checked on my trailer for tomorrow. He said get back around 10'sh. Thing is, I'm heading right back to Owens Corning in Jackson, TN where I just picked up at

I line 5'ed it over to Roland, OK to the Pilot. Here I sit watching Andy Griffith.

 

They started the discussion of t'calling, otherwise I would have done just that. When they said get the load moving, they asked for a safe/legal eta...after I said noon, that's when they said to get as far south as possible then t'call. I am truly dizzy from going around in circles for a 440 mile run that will most likely turn into a 2 day run...they need to watch themselves...I will be going right by the house...I may catch a 7 day case of "don't give a *bleep*" and park it, load and all, at the casa de snackbar (btw, don't believe google translate...it translated house of snackbar as casa de cafeteria, maybe I shoulda capitalized Snackbar)

 

I think I may have figured out why weekend dispatch is so screwed up. I think truck driving schools aren't the only schools this company hires from. I think they go to the local school for the mentally handicapped and hire the most promising prospects and put them on weekends...that must be how they get to work on the weekends..the short bus brings them.

Less than an hour after they put me back on this load and I update the eta to deliver, they asked what my eta to deliver.. It's not like it was 5 or 10 messages up the screen, it was the last message I sent...so in order to send me a message, it was right there...but of course, I didn't see the message until this morning when I got up. Silly me...I thought after all that went on, everything was settled, so I went to sleep.

Maybe I shouldn't demean the mentally handicapped like that comparing them to Crete operations employees...

 

i had the same exact thing happen the two times they wanted me to tcal at a truck stop. They told me the other driver would be there at such-and-such time. It was evening and was hoping to complete the swap before I got undressed and went to sleep (so I kept an eye out). They kept saying the driver would be there "in a few minutes". Dispatch eventually stopped responding to me. The driver showed up 6 hours later at 5am.

Same thing here. I always wondered why other drivers talked of getting drunk or going to bars. For the first time in my life I now totally understand. Forget hours-of-service, "safe & legal", and all their empty slogans. The most unsafe thing they do is create is create a totally chaotic and disorganized romper room environment that needlessly stresses out the drivers.

 

SSB, these are the people who can't be trusted to work at fast food places, around deep fryers, and other dangerous things.


Had it happen to me a few weeks ago. Almost out of hours, they kept trying to force a load on me, even though I said 'NO'. They then wanted me to pick it up and they would have 'some driver meet me to relay it'. I said 'NO' again, and that once I start my ten hour break, which would have happened very quickly after I picked up the load, if it was actually ready, and if I could find a place to park safely and legally for the night, I WOULD NOT be available to exchange trailers with the driver who probably never would show up, DURING MY TEN HOUR BREAK.

They want me to follow the rules, I want to sleep,and I am tired of wild goose chases that don't earn me any money.

They are worried about safety? What will Crete do when some harassed driver goes insane, and starts running over minivans full of nuns or school children, while screaming 'Take that, you stupid night/weekend dispatch monkeys!!!!!'

 

I am not far from that right now.

Had a crazy dream last night...the motel I was staying at in my dream was grazed by a tornado...Freud would probably have something interesting to say about what that means.

I'm gona take a picture of the t'shirt in the truckstop that says ''when I snap, you'll be the 1st one to go" on one side and "shut the duck up" on the other....print it out and send it to the operations department...just to see if they get concerned about who sent it.

 

I really should unsubscribe from this thread, but I just can't. Reading about the inefficiencies of Crete reminds me why I left, & why I'm so thankful for my current employer. It's kinda like watching a wreck at a NASCAR race; it's exciting to watch as long as no one gets hurt. Unfortunately it's your wallets that keep getting hurt, & that can be very painful. I'm pulling for ya.

 

i'll probably get in big trouble for saying this, but something similar happened to me many months ago. They wanted me to swap in the middle of my 10 hour break at some totally undetermined time in the middle of the night. I was pi$$ed and told them "this is going to void my 10 hour break". Now obviously if they were cutting me breaks and treating me professionally, I would have no problem bending the rules. But if they always want to nitpick and micromanage the driver, then I'll go by the book too.

Dropping and hooking right out of a disturbed deep sleep (hello sleep apnea) is certainly as much or MORE dangerous than driving down the road groggy. I called logs and questioned them about this and was told by Laura, the head of the whole department to just shift the time around and show the drop and hook at the end of 10 hours even though that's not when it happened. Then I asked her what do I tell the investigators if an injury occurs - do I lie and pretend it happened off duty?

Well this exposed her contradiction and she went nuts. My AM contacted me the next day and chewed me out, I was banned from calling the log department, they made me move into an e-log truck as retaliation and some other stuff. Yes, it actually happened. I wanted to call FMCSA and report it under whistleblower protection, but I was just too burned out from fighting them at the time.