CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK FOURTEEN
Monday, April 6th through Sunday, April 12th
Miles include deadhead
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This week did not start out good and I held out little hope that it would get any better. There was no way around it, this was going to be a bad week.

I was under a load that was to deliver in PA first thing Monday morning. That in itself was a bad enough. Freight out of the area has been horrendous lately and from what I have been hearing of drivers currently up there, it wasn’t getting any better. My frustration was being compounded by the fact that I had arrived in our New Kingstown, PA yard early Saturday afternoon and had tried to arrange a Tcall. Not only did I not want to sit under this load for the better part of two day, I wasn’t looking forward to the “no freight message” that was sure to follow.

Upon asking for a Tcall I was informed by dispatch that there was no freight in the area to keep us moving, so I would have to deliver the load. Under normal freight condition I wouldn’t have been overly upset by this, but I now knew I was in for an extremely aggravating few days (or more). What really got under my skin is that this was a drop delivery but I was under strict orders not to deliver this load until Monday. I’m screwed! To complicate matters, I still had a trainee with me. These trucks are very small when you put two people in them but it is bearable when the truck is moving. Sitting around for 3-4 days at a time is not a pleasant experience, for either of us.

In hind sight I should have put up more of a stink over this load and insisted on a Tcall. Even though there was currently no freight, at least I would have been on the list for a load out and in all likelihood would have been moving by Sunday or Monday. But instead I decided to play by the dispatches rules and settled in for the rest of the weekend.

At least I was at a terminal and could drop the trailer, thus allowing us to use the truck to get around town and amuse ourselves. We spent the next couple of days wondering around Best Buy and the like and enjoyed a good meal for a change instead of eating out of the truck. My trainee even introduced me to disk golf. A sure fire way to make your arm hurt for the next couple of days, but it did get me out of the truck and take my mind off of less desirable thoughts for awhile.

Monday finally rolled around and we knocked out the last 100 miles of our trip and dropped the trailer. Yet more frustration at this point when I pulled in only to find no one in the area and a sign at the receiver’s door with instructions to drop the trailer in the yard and leave a copy of the bills in the mail box. I was hopping mad at this. A frame of mind that was only extenuated by the 8” deep puddle of water that I found with my foot behind the trailer while dropping the blasted thing. Apparently the place is locked up over the weekend and I could have dropped it at any time and no one would have been the wiser to my early delivery and I would have been on the load list last Saturday with a very good chance of getting a load out today. But instead I was just now putting in an MT call which was immediately answered with a “no freight, find a place to park” message along with a notice not to expect anything to be offered out today. At this point I am so amused.

It was now 4am and I was sitting in a part of the country that not only had no freight, but the prospect of finding a parking spot within 100 miles was slim to nil. My intention was to head on over to the WaWa about 15 miles away, but at this time of day it would be packed (it always is at all times of the day). I hoped that if I sat around for a few hours I could then head on over around 6am and slip into a hole, assuming other drivers would be pulling out to make their morning deliveries.

Well that went as smoothly as everything else has up to this point and I pulled in only to find a cluster of hopeful trucks trying to do the same thing I was. It took a solid 30mins just to get in and out of the place. I knew of a few other places on down the road, but each one was a worst parking spot than its predecessor and I had grand plans for the evening. I knew there was no chance of getting a load out today and wasn’t at all encourage by the prospects of tomorrow either. I wanted to spend my down time at the Wawa because there is a great place to watch TV just up the road at the Boston Pizza place and the NCAA final was tonight.

With that in mind I headed off to a dirt spot on the side of the road not too far away. It isn’t the greatest parking spot by any means, but I knew it would be available. After sitting around for a few hours I headed back to the Wawa to see if there were any openings and would continue to do so throughout the day until I got lucky. As it turned out I hit the jack pot on my first pass through. Just as I was pulling in another driver was leaving and I had my parking spot. And that is where we spent the next two days. Grrr! At least I got to watch North Caroline kick butt in the game and had a good meal at the same time.

Our seemingly endless wait for a load finally came to an end on Tuesday much earlier than I had expected it too. Certainly not the greatest load I could have asked for, but at least I would be moving. What we got was a load that was to be picked up today between the hours of 8pm and Midnight and was headed to MI(586mi) with a scheduled appointment delivery late Thursday morning. Just great! I hoped that meant it was going to be a preloaded trailer and we headed out early in the hopes it would be ready to go when we arrived.

We arrived to find it ready to go and were underway in short order. Not that it made any difference since it was a short 600 mile run with close to two days to get it there. This week just keeps getting better. By the time the load was off my truck I was looking back at a total of 686 miles over the last 5 days. I must say, happy go lucky was not my current mood. But I was empty and had high hopes for my next load.

The trainees time was up and we needed to get him to Lincoln so that he could get his own truck and start his illustrious new carrier. I hoped that this might just give me an upper hand on dispatch and force them to give me a real load for a change. What I got was a “no more freight available today” message. Deep Breath!

As we were driving down the road a mere 15mins later to find a place to park the Qcom came to life with a load offering. Well, what do you know, looks like my trainee situation is doing its magic? Black Magic that is. I may not have had to wait until the next day for a load, but I just as well could have. I found myself looking a run that didn’t pickup until the next day in OH and went a whopping 266 miles to IN. Deeper Breath!

I could only assume there was no freight going to NE from our area and this load was intended to get us into a freight lane that would. Actually, I was certain of this and just pointed the trainee in the general direction of our next day pickup. We would get close to the shipper tonight; excuse me, this early afternoon and shut down to close out yet another prosperous day of 70 miles or so.

One good thing about this, it can’t possibly get any worse than this and I was sure we would be getting a Lincoln bound load the following day.

The pickup was made and the delivery followed shortly there after, not surprising since it was all of 180 miles away. That was followed with a hopeful MT call around noon time. This reply was maddening. “NO Freight”, you’ve got to be kidding me. There was a McDonald’s with truck parking a block or two away and there we sat for the next three hours waiting for a mercy beep from the Qcom. When it finally beeped to life I wasn’t the least bit shocked by what I saw. Finally, a load that was going to Norfolk, NE. But just to make sure I wouldn’t feel special the load wasn’t to be picked up until 6:30pm the next day on the other side of town. I must say, at this particular moment I am seriously rethinking my trainer status. I can’t help but think that my last bought of “mileage deficiency” is directly related to sitting around and waiting for loads that might get us in the general direction of Lincoln. So instead of getting a respectable, productive load, I have been getting nothing but down time and short crap runs. Whatever the reason, I find myself shutting down for the day with no more than 210 miles to add to my total. That’s good for 900 miles or so over the last six days.

The one shining light in this situation was that the shipper was located directly next to a Flying J. Even though the load wasn’t supposed to be ready until 6:30pm, I was somewhat confident that it would be ready to go well before that. Since it was so close to where we had spent the night, all I had to do was walk on over to the guard shack every once in a while and check on it’s progress without starting our 14hr clock any sooner than necessary. This little plan worked out marvelously and we were hooked and rolling by 1pm with our sights on Lincoln.

We were both eager to get to Lincoln, the trainee was ready for his own truck and I determined to tcall this load that didn’t deliver until Monday so that I could make some attempt at salvaging this miserable week. We made it to Lincoln, but that was as far as the good fortune went. Dispatch continued to make my life miserable and refused to let me Tcall the load. By this point I was a beaten man and just gave up. I was still about 200 miles away from my delivery point and finished those off Sunday morning and held out hope that next would renew my faith in this company.

I really hated this week and I can tell you this much, I didn’t enjoy reliving it as I told my story.






WEEK FOURTEEN
Monday, April 6th through Sunday, April 12th
Miles include deadhead

New Kingstown, PA to Quakertown, PA (final leg)……………………104 mi
Tobyhanna, PA to Trenton, MI…………………………………………........586mi
Cary, OH to Pendleton, IN………………………………………………..........266mi
Lebanon, IN to Norfolk, NE……………………………………………...........807mi


Total Paid Miles………………………………………..1763 Miles
Actual Miles…………………..1873 Miles


1763 Miles x .43 = $758.09 + $150.00 Training pay = $908.09

 

Miles are not as good as they were last year, but you will find that to be the case at any OTR company. The economy is hitting everyone hard. With that said I have been getting very good mile over the last month. Each of my last 3 weeks have exceeded 3000 miles and I went over 3600 miles this week and had to shut down for a 34hr reset because I am out of hours. Yeah!

Training trucks are run as a solo truck. We operate under the same log restrictions. No more than a 14hr day and no more than 11hrs driving in a day. I split the driving with the trainee for the first week or so to give him a chance to get used to things. Each day the trainee does a little more of the driving and by the second week the trainee is doing the vast majority of the driving. I drive in the more difficult situations and during the hours of 1am and 4am should the truck need to move at these times. By the third week the trainee will be responsible for all movement of the truck. When the trainee is driving, the trainer is in the passenger's seat and logging line 4 "on duty, not driving". I do not sleep while the trainee is driving.

If the trainee's progress is favorably we have the option of moving into what is called a "Super Solo" status after 5-6 weeks on the truck. In this case the truck is allowed to operate within a 18hr window, but must remained parked for a minimum of 6hrs a day. No trainer is expected to run Super Solo and many never do. Even when I am in Super Solo status rarely do I run outside of the 14hr window. When I do it is usually a situation where I will drive the first 2-3 hrs of a day and then the trainee will operate the truck within his 14hr/11hr log book. Trainee's are on the truck to learn, not to be run as a team.