CRETE - A Year in Review

As for breakdown communication...I only use the q/comm. I never waste my precious cell minutes on hold. At least until they start either furnishing me a cell phone, or paying me back for cell time.

 

I am driving a tanker locally now and did not see one Crete truck all day around and about I88/I39 area. Usually I see a couple dozen in that area. Anybody out there?

Been getting a notion to head back to Crete....then I check in here. Hang in there guys.

 

I swear...I cannot win. I get a load out of W. Monroe, LA...Graphic Packaging. Going to La Porte, TX. 3.5 hours to get 9 rolls of paper. The load had no set delivery appointment, but my A/M said to let him know an eta to the consignee and they would set it up. Now, after sitting over 7 hours to deliver in Brookhaven, then 3.5 hours to get reloaded, my patience, outlook and over all love for this job were at record lows. I scaled the load and parked it for the night since it was after hours and my A/M was at home. I am to the point of believing that if I limit the number of loads I haul, it limits the number of f'ups this company, it's management and it's customer have an opportunity to be part of my life. Now is where it gets interesting. The q/comm address for the consignee doesn't exist, there are no directions in the system, and the b/l has a different address than the q/comm, but google maps and my gps puts the location beyond the end of an industrial area at the Houston port...i.e. TWIC zone. The bills clearly say TWIC card required for delivery...but Crete says otherwise. I try to find the customer, no dice. I tell Crete to call the customer because one address is wrong, and the other doesn't exist...and since I don't use my personal cell to make the suits get richer, they need to call and get things set up. I started on my A/M at 705 a.m. about getting this right, at 2 pm when I was fueling in Baytown, I still hadn't gotten any update on either the customers actual location OR an appointment time. I finally was told they would accept my load up to 4 pm... "who will accept...which one of the incorrect non-existant customers will accept". Then nothing. I finally get information that said when I get there, to call a certain number to arrange a security escort to escort me once I get in the gate since I don't have a TWIC card...for a reimbursable fee...o.k. we're not listening...where is the freekin customer, how do I find them, how do I call for a security escort...without a freeking phone...and I couldn't get them to tell me how much these ###### charge (aren't paid escorts a fancy name for a prostitute?) so I know how much to take out of the ATM...then he went home w/o it being resolved. So now I am sitting in the Flying J in Baytown waiting for my A/M to come in tomorrow morning to start all over again... This is like some sick sitcom, and every day is a season ending cliff hanger.

 

$95.00 for the escort 2 years ago. You just pullup to the main gate, the one for escorted service, pay the fee, check in, then get led around by a person in a pickup.

 

$95???? HOLY ####. For that much they better include dinner and a show before, because someone is getting screwed. This load has truly been a total disaster, I may as well start for home with it and call it a career

 

Honestly, with every load having problems lately, it makes it hard for someone to even feel like getting up in the morning. I use to be a 'up before dawn' person. Anymore, I'm a 'awwww crap, 5 more minutes' kinda person when the alarm goes off. And I use to be the person who woke up 5 minutes before the alarm raring and ready to go.

 

The sooner you put your application in at my company the sooner you could be hired. Then you can recapture that "loving feeling".

 

I've been thinking the same thing for some time now. He has mentioned a time or two a couple of things holding him back. However, I remember being stuck in my comfort zone with Crete. The first part of changing jobs is talking about it. He doesn't speak much of changing most of the time. Just vents here and there as we all have about Crete. In some ways I'm surprised he hasn't at least put in an application. It is sometimes difficult to take that first step. I can remember a time when I thought I would stay at Crete until I retired. Now, I can't imagine staying there and missing this type of trucking. Night and Day difference in stress has to be healthier on us. Throw in the freedom,opportunity and chance to make more money. Well, maybe one day he'll take a chance and find out what we've been talking about. Maybe one day Crete will push him far enough to give something else a try. Oh well, I wish him all the best either way. Besides, reading his vents helps me remember my time at Crete. I read something and it's like going back in time. Much easier to read about the headache than it was to live it. Can't wait to read his response to our Post. Take care JD...maybe I'll get to meet you some day.

 

There is only 1 problem with me coming over...2 years ago in Sept when I delivered to a customer south of Houston, my heavy truck cracked an underground water supply line(not visable from my truck) and Crete put it on my record as a preventible/fixed object strike which I'm sure will knock me out of the running for being hired at Poly for at least another year....as selective as Poly can afford to be given their limited job openings, so I'm truly between a rock and a hard place

 

$250 cash is what it costs to be escorted now...and you don't even get dinner, a movie, a reach around or even a pat on the butt after they're thru

Crete said they accept comcheck, and sent me directions...I pull in, go to check in, and they want $250 cash, not comcheck...so I had to leave once again, and now I'm sitting here at a little dump of a fuel stop down the road from the port waiting on Crete once again...I am trying to figure out if a full tank of fuel will make it all the way home to FL w/this load of roll paper and just hang it up as a driver...this company has ruined my over all will to do this anymore.