CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK NINE
March 1st through March 7th

Not a great week here. I had to sit around in Tifton on Monday to put in a reset. From that point I kept getting loads that picked up in the middle of the day and I always seemed to be a little behind. That along with a few more live loads/unloads than I like to see made for a less than stellar week. The one load that really hurt me was another run out of the Lowe's DC in N Vernon IN.

Just like all the other loads I've pulled out of this place I once again was told via Qualcom that it is imperative that the load be delivered on time. The load must not be late! This load may not be tcalled, Blah blah blah. And to insure that these loads are not late, every single one that I have pulled has had a minimum of 24hrs of down time attached to it. This one was no different and I found myself in their parking lot a day early. These are drop loads, meaning we pull an empty trailer out of their dock door and drop our loaded trailer in its place, but early deliveries are strictly prohibited because they don't want a loaded trailer sitting in a dock door waiting to be stolen I guess.

So as a result of this I found myself sitting in a parking lot for a day of wasted time. At least there was a mall, theater and number of restaurants in the immediate area to occupy my time.

The finial frustration came when my next load offer came through once empty. It was a good run up to Michigan(917mi), but the pickup time of the load cost me a reset by 30mins. That would mean that instead of having a fresh clock for the next week once empty in Michigan, I would be looking at a 2hr day followed by a number of limited hours during the next week.

Which finds me where I am now. The weekly total shows a rather lack luster week as far as a Monday thru Sunday thing goes, but in reality I put in another 3600 miles in the 7day period that started on a Tuesday since my last reset. The problem with that is that it took 7 days to do it instead of 6 days. That means that I was out of hours on my 8th day and had to sit around waiting to gain hours. This delay prevented me from delivering my current load yesterday and I had to drive the final hour very early this morning.

That one hour delay allowed 4 other Crete trucks to deliver to the same place a night before me and I am now the last one in line for an empty trailer. So here I sit, in the same place that I've been since 5am this morning and it is now noon with a recent phone call to the receiver that resulted in a "we're working on it, but can't make any promises".

As annoying as this week was I have still manage to rack up 7200 miles in the 14day period since leaving the house. With that said, I spent the 15th day working a total of 2hrs (it's all I had left on my log), followed by a decent 500mi day and I am once again sitting around today waiting for an empty trailer with no promise of even getting one. There is a good chance that I will be here until tomorrow. This has the potential of being a very bad week.

WEEK NINE
Monday, March 1st through Sunday, March 7th
Miles include deadhead


Albany, GA to St Rose, LA......................................................................437mi
Jeanerette, LA to La Grange, GA............................................................625mi
Columbus, GA to Rincon, GA...................................................................319mi
Savanna, GA to N Vernon, IN..................................................................748mi
N Vernon, IN to N Little Rock, AR...........................................................583mi
McGehee, AR to Mendon, MI(1st leg)....................................................229mi

Total Paid Miles...................................................2941 Miles
Actual Miles...................................3005 Miles

2941mi x .44 = $1294.04

 

By the way, Is this good insurance? What is the deductible and copays, office visits etc. Thanks again for the info.

Crunchy[/QUOTE]

I don't know to be honest with you, I have never used it. But it is Blue Cross Blue Shield, so I assume it is good for those that have needed it, I'm just not the person to ask.

The one thing I really hate about it is that you must meet your deductible before you get any benefits from it. Meaning you have to pay full price for all services before it kicks in. There is no cheap copay for a doctors visit or anything along those lines. So the first visit or two to a doctor comes out of the pocket at full price.

 

Thanks for the info, I'm always looking for a good BBQ place. Oddly enough I eyed that very place on my way in on this trip. I was halfway expecting that I would be spending the night at the shipper and had planed on trying the place out but was loaded early and headed on down the road. Next time around I'll stop in for a plate.

 

I thought everyone knew about this. It's been in the news for some time now.

It's the end of the Cretan Calender!

We are living today in the cusp of the Cretan end times, the end of a galactic day or time period spanning thousands of years. One galactic day of 25,625 years is divided into five cycles of 5,125 years.

The Great Cycle of the Cretan Long Count calendar ends on the winter solstice of 2010 A.D. (or even sooner than that if you buy into Supersnacks calculations) following Cretan and Supersnack concepts of cyclic time and World Age transitions, this is as much about beginnings as endings. In fact, it was considered by the ancient Cretans and Supersnack to signify the creation of a new World Age. We are almost at the end of the fifth and final 5,125 year cycle!

Rather than being a linear end-point, this cycle that is closing is naturally followed by the start of a new cycle. What this new cycle has in store for humanity is a mystery that has yet to unfold...it is widely rumored that the recent rash of deadly earthquakes occurring around the world is directly related to these end days.

 

I've done this in the past and it always results in far more headaches than it is worth. Initially, you may get rolling sooner, but you will find that every load you get will be a live load because there is little change of doing a drop and hook because very few of Crete's customers that preload will load on a reefer because the next driver that picks the load up would then be stuck with the reefer. In addition, it is almost impossible to get rid of the reefer once it is attached to you.

You are better off waiting for a Crete trailer to appear. This being said as I am entering into my 8th hour waiting for an empty trailer at a Post plant. I wonder if they have any Shaffer trailers sitting around?

 

Well, my 8hr wait for an empty trailer has turned into 26hrs and counting. I have never encountered anything like this up to this point and can't say that I'm all that thrilled about it. I was 4th on the list for a trailer when I got here at 05:30 and managed to make it to the top of the list by 6pm but that's as close as I've gotten.

There are at least 20 loaded Crete trailers sitting on the customers lot and it is now painfully clear to me that they are being used as warehouse storage at this point only to be unloaded as the product (cereal boxes) is needed on the production line.

A few rounds of messages and phone calls made this morning in an attempt to allow me to bobtail 60 miles down to the Memphis yard for a trailer has done no good and I have now been told that the customer told dispatch that a trailer "should" be ready around lunchtime. This is suspect to me because when I called the shipping office I was told it would be later in the day "if" at all.

I can tell you one thing, if this company EVER tries to send me to Post Foods in Jonesboro, AR ever again they will have a battle on their hands.