CRETE - A Year in Review

beautiful area. I went thru there a couple of times....on the Harley though

 

Even though I just had my 5 day vacation, I'm on another load with too much time. I could probably get it off a few hours early on Monday, but I'm going to stick with the noon delivery and squeeze in a 34 starting tonight (so i will have another full 70).

I got lucky because my 11 happened to end right around the 331 in ND where there's a Days Inn. On Google Maps it doesn't look like much. Instead, it has a small water 'park' inside, a decent restaurant adjoining, a full size laundrymat next door, and a bar. I'm watching the UFC fights inside the bar where there is also a busy black jack table. Kind of wild. I lucked out on this one.

Of course it's costing me a pretty penny, lol. But I plan on finally working on my applications so i can make my move ASAP - consequently I'm just in mental survival mode.

 

I love getting ###### over by the previous driver...

At Lowe's in Rockford, picked up my loaded trailer...only to find its left rear brake chamber leaking severely. Did I mention I'm at Lowe's? Just enough time to get it in, no extra time.

Contacted Breakdown via q/c, then went to call them...only to discover that my phone is out of airtime...yay prepaid. So now I'm under a lowe's load outside the fence, can't drop it because it's a lowe's load, can't T-call it because of the equipment issue...and I can't call anyone, either. JOY!

It's not a small leak, either. I suppose it could go unnoticed while driving, but at idle, it can't maintain air pressure, and with the truck off and the red brake in, the air pressure very quickly bleeds off.

"Oh, I'll just drop it anyway...not my problem now!"

 

I went thru a streak of getting other drivers problems last month. I really hope that the company follows up on these things when they happen. I probably wasted at least 12 hours of my time fixing someone else's problems over the course of a week.

 

I was at a customer a couple weeks ago to pick up a pre-loaded trailer. There were very involved directions where you had to park on the street and then walk up a hill to check in because it was a major cluster f@#* situation. It was a weekend so absolutely no one was around and you just got your bills out of a box.

There was a very small area where the loaded trailers were dropped. Then if you wound your way through some narrow alleys, they had another small drop area in back where you were supposed to drop your empty. Both lots were full and the directions specifically said not to drop your empty down on the street. The previous Crete driver had decided to drop his trailer lengthwise directly in front of all the loaded trailers.

i figured I would have to do about 3 or 4 separate drop and hooks just to get out of there. I asked dispatch if I would get paid for any of that. They never responded so eventually I just gave up and left. It was do-able, but I was just fed up with one more unpaid hassle.

 

You all sound like you're pretty darn happy...

 

Yes, absolutely ecstatic!

 

Good news: 1460 mile run with 4 extra stops
Bad news: All deliveries are in the D.C. /Baltimore area

 

Prick in a Pete here has had the truck exit blocked for 8 minutes. It's kinda like blocking the fuel island, but even worse.

 

Typical Crete load planning 'skills': had a load with too much time so squeezed in 34 over weekend. Now mind you they've known the exact day and time I would deliver since last Thursday. Customer takes 3 hours to unload, then dispatch tells me "no freight, go park". I go to the truck stop and wait for 2 hours. They finally send me a 270 mile joke load.

Just after I've pulled out of the truck stop to go pick up, my genius AM sends me a demanding message: "I need to know right away if you can pick up this pplan" (another load for 9am the next day). I have to pull over and respond "that is impossible to answer unless I know if the current load will be ready in 1 hr, 3 hrs, or 6 hours". I get to the shipper (Rock Tenn, St. Paul) and sure enough it's the worst case scenario. The rolls have to be loaded at multiple locations and will take many, many hours (long after my 14 is done). Will be at least a 15-17 hour day and all I drove was 300 miles (with 63 still available!).