CRETE - A Year in Review

Well, I actually managed to pull off a miracle this week. I got my truck into a shop for a B service and was only 7000mi over at the time. It seems like it takes an act of God to get a truck in the shop for an oil change these days. My quest started a couple of weeks ago when the service was due and in that time I was turned away 4 times by 3 of our shops, always with the same response. “We wont be able to get to it until tomorrow afternoon”, or in the case of the KC shop, a two day wait was the best they could do. But they did put my truck in the shop almost immediately to fix a leaking air bag. I guess that is good for something.

I finally managed to get it into the Knoxville shop by passing up yet another 34reset. I had to start driving at midnight when I picked up some hours and drive through the night so that I arrived at the Knoxville shop just as they opened with the hopes that I could get them to change my oil sometime during the day. I had an 11pm delivery (love those) that evening about an hour down the road.

Surprisingly enough they had my truck in the shop just over one hour later and I was certain that it would be out in the early afternoon. That would be really nice since I had only managed to get in a two hour nap the night before. It was another one of those really stupid driving days where I had only 3hrs available to me and had shut down very early in the day. I wouldn’t have driven at all and it would have been the perfect time to put in a reset, but because I was in desperate need of a B service I had to drive those few hours in order to be close enough to Knoxville to be able to drive there the following day and arrive there when they opened as opposed to arriving in the middle of the afternoon which I knew would make it impossible to get the truck serviced.

So, because my log book only allowed me to drive 3hrs I had to shut down early and then spend my day in the truck. Not being tired I wasn’t able to get any respectable amount of sleep and when midnight rolled around I was on my way. I was only about 5hrs away and the sleep issue was no problem while I was driving because I had sleep in very late the morning before and was wide awake, but by the time noon rolled around as I sat in the “drivers lounge” (I’m not sure a room the size of a walk-in closet with one table and 5 chairs counts) I was ready for a little shut eye.

This brings me back to my hope that the truck would be out of the shop in the early afternoon. After all, how long can it take to change oil? Well, in our shops 6hrs seems to be the general rule and that’s what I was counting on. As that 6hrs passed and turned into 7 I wondered on into the shop to inquire about an approximate release date. I assumed that they had found something wrong with the truck and I wanted to know if I needed to let dispatch know of any delays. They assured me it was almost done, (they were pumping new oil into the block as we spoke) and I wondered on back to the lounge to once again plant myself into a very hard chair where the same driver that had been talking to me for the last 4hrs straight could resume his relentless barrage of mindless babble. This guy also had his truck in the shop and had the gift of gab. He NEVER shut up and there was absolutely nowhere for me to hide.

Two hours later I was once again wandering around the shop area and found that my truck had been moved to another area of the shop. That most likely meant that they had indeed found a problem. Sure enough, two slack adjusters were messed up and I was once again told that they were just finishing up and they would be finished shortly thereafter.

Another 2 hours or so passed by and I found myself on yet another quest for information. The day was getting shorter and I was starting to get concerned about making my appointment. If I had let dispatch know early in the day that I would not be able to delivery my load because the truck was in the shop they could have covered it. But since the shop assured me they would get me out long before that I hadn’t even bothered informing dispatch. If I had to tell them at this point they would throw a hissy fit for not giving them enough time to get the load repowered.

Once again the truck had been moved to another stall in the shop and the mechanic was sitting on top of the engine taking something off of it. That’s funny; I didn’t know Freightliner put their slack adjusters up there. Now what? “Oh, I’m just finishing up with the new alternator, should be done real soon”. Alternator? I didn’t even know anything was wrong with it. I have had no issue with it up to this point, but if they say I need a new one I guess I do. It sure beats the heck out of calling breakdown when I’m in the middle of nowhere.

Back to the lounge where the relentless torture resumes, (the same chatter box is STILL there too). I’m exhausted and this guy is slowing driving me insane. The shop continues to assure me that they can finish my truck in time for me to make my delivery, but I am skeptical, especially when another driver comes in from the shop to inform me that they are now working on my APU. Good Grief? Again, I have had no problems with it and it wasn’t anywhere close to its service interval. I figured it had something to do with the alternator problem.

True to their word, they did get the truck out of the shop with plenty of time to delivery my load, heck, I had almost 30mins to spare. But after spending 13hrs on a hard chair with no appreciable sleep in the last day and a half I was on my way. Fortunately it was only an hour away. It was a live unload that took very little time to get off the truck and my MT call was answered with a load offer of a preloaded trailer that picked up across the street the following day.

It wasn’t supposed to be ready until 5pm, which didn’t thrill me in the least and I decided to stop by the shipping office just to see if it was ready. I knew it wouldn’t be, but if I let them know I was waiting I though it might help me get the load earlier in the day when I came back. As suspected, it wasn’t ready. When I asked them if there was any chance that it will be ready before 5pm, the guy at the shipping window started shuffling some papers around and then told me to back up to a door. “There are four trucks ahead of you, but you should be loaded by 4am”. Wow, who saw that coming? I love it when things work out. Five minuets later I was backed to my door and five after that I was in my bunk sleeping.

I had been able to pick the load up early, but I still had to deal with the delivery. The load info said it would be an appointment, but it had not yet been set. I sent a message in to inform them that I would be arriving a day early and asked them to set the appointment for that day. I got a few messages during the day to let me know they were trying to reset the delivery time, but had not heard back from the receiver. The last message of the day said that it was a drop anytime on the 12th, so it should be ok to deliver it a day early.

One thing I’ve learned is that when dispatch says “it should be ok” it usually isn’t and this instance was no different. When I arrived a day early I was asked for my appointment number. This was not a good sign because I didn’t have one for tomorrow, let alone today. After the security guard did a fair amount of typing on the computer and made a phone call I was informed that not only was this NOT a drop delivery for tomorrow, it had an appointment for noon the following day and was a live unload and that was right at 24hrs away.

All was not lost though, because they were actually very helpful and told me to park in the street and check back in a couple of hours at which time they should be able to fit me in. More sweetness!

What a wonderful day this turn out to be, despite the fact that I had hit my first snow storm of the season. An all time record for me, I can’t believe I made it to the middle of February before being forced to play in the snow. And of all places, Dallas? I was thrilled when I got this load because it was going in the opposite direction of the blizzard in the northeast and I was looking forward to the sunshine of the south. So much for that misconception.


This picture was taken at noon and there was already 6-8in on the ground and it never stoped snowing for the rest of the day. By the time it was over they ended up with something like 12” of the white stuff. And let me tell you, these people are terrified of it and it made for a wonderful rush hour which I found myself in. As luck would have it that is when I found myself empty and after dispatch let me know they had no freight to get me home I told them to give me whatever they had. That landed me with a short 200mi run down to temple.

No big deal, it was a drop and hook on both ends and I could delivery it any time and had just enough time to make it there tonight (in good weather that is). I didn’t think there was really any chance of getting it there tonight, but I would be able to drop it first thing in the morning and I would still be in the general area and held out hope that a home bound load would pop up by then.

The snow storm was doing a real number on Dallas traffic and I wasn’t breaking any land speed records but managed to pickup my load and head out of town just as the sun was going down, along with the temperature. All day long the temp had been holding at 32 or so, but with the disappearance of the sun the roads started to get down right treacherous. I had the radio on and the traffic reports were nothing but an endless list of accidents and road closures. All of the overpasses were freezing up and many had been closed down including the one I was headed for. The reason was apparent as I approached it, for there was a semi about ¾ of the way up the ramp at a dead stop where it had lost traction and blocked all traffic and according to the news, it was a common scene throughout the DFW area.

My self derived detour took me north on the freeway to the next exit where I was going to do a flip flop and head south towards Temple on I-35. That plain almost got me into trouble because the end of the ramp stopped on a rather step upward slope and there was already a car with wide tires doing the sit and spin thing in one of the lanes. I stopped at a fair distance from the light where I was sitting on a bit of a decline and did my best to time the light. I took off while it was still red and hoped to hit the intersection as it turned green. I missed timed it a little and had to slow down, but was still rolling when it did turn and made it through without getting stuck. The tires were spinning, but the fact that I had a 45,000# load did wonders for me. The Forward Air truck that was behind me didn’t fair as well though and as I made my way around the next corner onto the onramp I saw that he had spun out and was dead in the water.

I was only two hours from my delivery point, but the road conditions had slowed things down enough that I would not be able to make it. It was now my intention to just take my time and get as close as I could. This soon turned into, just make it to the nearest truckstop and shut down because the road conditions continued to deteriorate and the traffic was bad to say the least.

I was very fortunate to be in the south bound lane, because the north bound lanes where an absolute disaster. Things were slow going on my side with numerous cars in the ditch, but in a 30 mile stretch on the north bound side there were three separate areas where trucks had spun out on very slight hills and completely stopped traffic. These trucks hadn’t gone in the ditch, but simply lost traction in the middle of the road and came to a stop where they sat.

The backed up traffic was lined up for miles and I kept waiting to run into the same problem on my side, but it never happened. I just wanted to get off the road and missed my first opportunity as I passed a rest area before I realized it was there. All signs had a solid coating of snow and the exit ramp had so much snow on it that I didn’t recognize it as such until it was too late. I wasn’t about to touch my breaks and any attempt to exit at the time would have undoubtedly put me in the ditch, so onward I went. I came across a nice big truckstop of few minutes later and made a beeline for the nearest parking spot and shut it down. Ick!

When I got rolling the next morning at 5am the temp had actually climbed up to 34° and the roads were once again safe and I was able to delivery my load shortly thereafter.

My MT call went in with the hopes of a Phoenix bound load, but once again no luck. The closest thing they had was a run to Utah. I let them know that would be fine and I set my mind on going west, but shortly after that I got another message to pick up a load down Houston way and Tcall it in St Louis. From there I was preplanned on a load going to Phoenix. Yeah, I get to go home. The only hang up is that I have to sit in St Louis until Monday to pick it up which is fine because a reset will make it possible to run long days so that I can get home ASAP after picking up my load.

So that’s my week. A little short on miles, but that is only because I have to sit around and wait for my home bound load. If I had taken my Tcalled load all the way to its destination I would have closed the week out with just under 3200 miles.

I can’t believe how good miles are so far this year.


WEEK SIX
Monday, February 8th through Sunday, February 14th
Miles include deadhead

Kansas City, MO to Newport, TN (last leg)……………………………………….525mi
Newport, TN to Ft Worth, TX…………………………………………………….......921mi
Garland, TX to Temple, TX………………………………………………………........198mi
Silsbee, TX to E St Louis, IL………………………………………………………......978mi

Total Paid Miles…………………………..2622mi
Actual Miles………………………2745

2622 x .44 = $1153.68

 

Redbeard wrote:

Still trying to get back on the GM fleet eh? Good to hear from you again.

wsteed04 wrote:

Just in case this info helps, if you have a Carrier unit it has to be running to get power from the inverter plus the inverter doesn't work when the heat is on high. All of the power is diverted for the heater.

Nor did I intend to offend, stick around.

otrtruckerscott wrote:

My run of good luck ran out in Dallas, but I know what you mean. Winter was relentless on me for the last two years. I've been enjoying the reprieve.

Jmurman wrote:

Good luck, let us know how it works out.

 

They will not hook anything up directly to the battery and you are not allowed to do so and they will get uptight if they find any alterations when its in the shop.

What you can do is buy one of those battery packs that are used as an auxiliary power source to jump start a dead car battery (they have cheap jumper cables and clamps attached to the side). I have no idea if these actually work for this purpose, but they are a way to work around the power cut off that occurs when the truck starts.

You can buy them at most Pilots (usually on the bottom shelf by the DC powered stuff). They can be charged up by plugging them into a lighter outlet. They also have a lighter outlet of their own that you can plug your TV into or whatever you are using at the time. This way you get a continuous power supply when the truck restarts and the battery pack stays charged as long as you keep it plugged into the truck. You can also use it to power your DC devises for a while without running down your truck batteries or to increase the amount of time between starting up the truck to recharge batteries.

 

Did everyone get the new Wal-Mart directive.

NO MORE EARLY DROPS!

Drop trailers must now be delivered on the due date only unless prior approval is obtained from dispatch. That is going to put a major crimp in my productivity when it comes to Wal-Mart load. Not good considering how many of them I run.

As a matter of fact I'm on one now. So when I pull into Phoenix for my hometime at 7pm on Wednesday, I will have to leave the trailer in the yard for the night and then drive back to delivery the load sometime Thursday because delivering it at 7pm on Wednesday will garner a service failure, but if I sit around for 5hrs and deliver it at 12:01 am Thursday morning I'm good to go. Ugh!

Well I guess I will find out how the effective it will be to request an earlier delivery day.

I can't wait to get to Phoenix. The wife called me yesterday from the side of the pool and said its been in the mid to upper 70's this week and is supposed to stay that way for awhile. That really hurts when I'm sitting in St Louis and looking at 19 degrees on the thermometer.

I almost ran into a big problem with my home bound load too. I had Tcalled my last load in the St Louis yard last Saturday, but there where no empty trailers available. I was going to need an empty to pickup my load on Monday, but assumed one would show up by then for me to use. Well, is spent the entire day Sunday parked across the street with my truck facing the drop yard so that I could see any Crete trailer pulling in that I could grab and during that whole day I saw a grand total of one Crete truck pull in and it was only to Tcall his load. I was acutely aware of the other 4 trailerless Crete trucks parked in the same truck stop as myself and knew that we were all looking for the same thing.

I was starting to worry about missing my golden ticket home, because if I didn't find that all illusive empty trailer, I was going to be out of luck.

By the time 10pm rolled around it occurred to me that there may be an answer to my dilemma. I sent a message off to dispatch telling them that I had yet to procure an empty for my preplaned load the following day and asked them if there was a loaded trailer sitting in the drop yard that needed to be delivered in the morning. Sure enough, 10mins later I had a load offer to shag a load in the morning. Once empty I would have my trailer and I would be on a home bound run.

Sweet!

Until I hook to my shag load (still no emptys in the yard) and head on over to the receiver. When I walked in they looked at me like I was crazy and asked me why I was there. "To delivery my load, I have an 11:30am appointment." "Not today you don't!"

?????????

As it turned out, the appointment was for Tomorrow, not today because this in Presidents day and they had a skeleton crew on and where not accepting any loads today. Oh what a sinking feeling that gave me in the pit of my stomach. But oddly enough they said they would call Crete and find out what happened. A few minutes later the Qualcomm beeped to let me know that there had been a mistake made with regards to the appointment and they were working on it. Shortly after that someone from the warehouse came out to my truck as said they would get me taken care of. It would be a couple of hours, but I would get unloaded. I ended up only having to wait for an hour. How cool is that.

Hooray for me!

It's been a case of every thing going wrong and then right. So here I sit at my last pickup where I had a 5:30pm pickup time. I was only 5mi away once empty and thought I would pull in early, 4hrs early, and try my luck again. What do you know, I'm in door 27 and my truck is bouncing to the rhythm of a forklift.

AZ, here I come!