CRETE - A Year in Review

Was it hot enough for ya! I think it hit 114 that day. Even the swimming pool is starting to feel like a really big bathtub.

Supersnack wrote:

Don't you already have the laptop, why not get a Wal-Mart special, $40-$50 Hewlett Packard scanner copier and send them in from your truck. Makes life a lot easier.

I remembered reading this post last week and hoping the same wasn't true in Eastern NY when I got a load going to Albany. No luck. I delivered a load at 4pm Saturday and the only thing they had available in the area didn't pickup until 3pm Sunday and delivered down in the DC area (389mi) at 9am. That's a grand two day trip.

To top that off it's a live unload of insulation at a small mom and pop kind of place and I'm willing to bet good money that I'll be here until at least noon. But since I missed a 34hr reset by 90mins (ouch, that one hurt) I only have 11hrs for the next two days anyways.

I'm parked outside of the gate tonight and I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get backed up to their dock. It is Soooooooo tight, one of the worst blind back situations I've seen in years! Crap!

Longbow wrote:

It must be nice running on the Western fleet and getting National pay! I'm extreamly jeolous as I sit here outside of DC after a lovely drive down I-95. I just love the Northeast!!

rechi wrote:

That's about it in a nut shell. Where you live makes a big difference though. Drivers that are in the middle of the country along our major freight lanes fair much better at hometime than those of us living out West. I seem to be on a 45day cycle myself. Sometimes Crete's doing, sometimes my own. I'm really going to push to get home at 3weeks this time around and see if it makes any difference.


Weazz wrote:

Yup, I'm still a Phoenician. Although the wife is back in NC this week checking on the rental house and visiting friends. She's ready to go back now, but we'll be in the Phx area for at least another year if not more.

 

WEEK TWENTYTWO
Monday, May 31st through Sunday, June 6th
Miles include deadhead

Knoxville, TN to Raymond, NH(last leg).....................................................25mi
Norwich, CT to Booneville, NY.................................................................411mi
Mechanicsville, NY to Columbus, OH(tcall)...............................................758mi
Lockbourne, OH to Greencastle, PA.........................................................359mi
Blandon, PA to Columbus, OH(tcall).........................................................561mi
Columbus, OH to Murry, KY......................................................................443mi

Total Paid Miles....................................................2557 Miles
Actual Miles...........................2620 Miles

2557mi x .44 = $1125.08 + $35shag = $1165.08

WEEK TWENTYTHREE
Monday, June 7th through Sunday, June 13th
Miles include deadhead

Owensboro, KY to Cleburne, TX............................................................980mi
Garland, TX to Houston, TX..................................................................319mi
Houston, TX to Fort Collins, CO...........................................................1242mi
Fort Collins, CO to Lincoln, NE...............................................................556mi

Total Paid Miles..........................................................3097 Miles
Actual Miles.........................................3057 Miles

3097 x .44 = $1362.68 + Training pay $71.42 = $1434.10

WEEK TWENTYFOUR
Monday, June 14th through Sunday, June 20th
Miles include deadhead

Lincoln, NE to Fort Worth, TX..............................................................635mi
Grand Prairie, TX to Chanhassen, MN...................................................978mi
Hastings, MN to Frankfort, IL..............................................................466mi
Elwood, IL to Cherokee, IA.................................................................490mi
Shelby, IA to North Platte, NE.............................................................416mi
Mitchell, SD to Kimper, KY(first leg).....................................................648mi

Total Paid Miles............................................................3633 Miles
Actual Miles.....................................3839 Miles

3633 x .44 =$1598.52 + Training Pay $125 = $1723.52



WEEK TWENTYFIVE
Monday, June 21st through Sunday, June 27th
Miles include deadhead

Mitchell, SD to Kimper, KY(final leg).....................................................861mi
Kimper, KY to Rochester, NY................................................................616mi
Rochester, NY to Columbus, OH(tcall)..................................................394mi
Lockbourne, OH to Maquoketa, IA........................................................552mi
Clinton, IA to Indianapolis, IN(tcall).....................................................369mi
North Vernon, IN to Ft Smith, AR..........................................................799mi

Total Paid Miles.....................................................3591 Miles
Actual Miles...............................3588 Miles

3591mi x .44 = $1580.04

 

Wow, the year is half gone already.

It's been a good year up to this point with 74,206 miles in the books, although I'm not too thrilled with the hometime this year. I've been staying out longer than I really care too and my time spent at the home has been cut short a couple of times.

I'm currently sitting at 117,000+ miles from my annual Date-of-Hire and only need 4100 miles over the next 2 months to secure my .01cpm pay raise, so I think I might take a little extra time off. Maybe hit a beach in Jamaica or something like that.

Here's my mileage spreadsheet for the 1st two quarters of 2010:


And the breakdown:

 

The first week out of the house has been a barn burner. Wish they were all like this, except for the last run of the week that cost me a reset.

Even with that setback, I ran a short week of 3162 miles by Sunday which is my weekly cutoff point for calculating mileage, but my 7day total out of the house will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3700 miles if I get a good run out of DC once empty Monday morning.


WEEK TWENTYSIX
Monday, June 28th through Sunday, July 4th
Miles include deadhead


Ft Smith, AR to Gilbert, AZ.....................................................1228mi

Total Paid Miles..................................................1228mi
Actual Miles................................1292mi

1228mi x .44 = $540.32 + Drop Pay $30 =$570.32
(Mon-Wed morning only, home week)




WEEK TWENTYSEVEN
Monday, July 5th through Sunday, July11th


I started this week out on a Tuesday. I actually had hometime arranged through Wednesday, but since the wife was flying off to NC on Tuesday night I decided to hit the road a day early. I had been home for six days this time around anyways and spent much of that time putting in a new kitchen and needed to get back on the road to get some rest!

The first load of the week was a good one going from an insulation plant south of Phoenix to Waxihachie, TX(1075mi) and was a drop and hook on both ends with one of those wonderful anytime deliveries and according to the qualcom the load was ready to go. Not so fast. Moments later I get a message informing me that the plant had lost power and the load wouldn't be ready until 3pm or so.

So there I sit at 8am on my first day back on the job and I'm already doing the sit and wait thing. Sure do wish I would have gotten that message before I spent 15mins in the baking morning sun strapping my car cover on. It was already well above 90°.

I used the extra time to do the Walmart thing and run a few errands I had been planning to put off until my next trip home.

From that point on the week went extremely well. It was a straight shot to Texas and I managed to get there by 9pm the following night with a few hours left on my log and dispatch was more than thrilled to give me a Walmart load that needed to be picked up by midnight just an hour up the road.

That made my second load of the week that was a drop and hook on both ends and this one was going to another Walmart. Of late, I haven't wanted anything to do with a Walmart drop load because we are no longer allowed to deliver them early which almost always results in waisting at least a half day if not more, but not this time. I suppose because it was a cross dock Walmart load. Whatever the reason I was informed that this load could drop anytime and I had it there the next afternoon.

When that empty call went in I was immediately offered a wonderful beer load out of St Louis going to Arkansas. It was a relatively short mile load of 400 miles or so, but nothing to fret because it delivered anytime before 2pm the following day. The problem with that was that I would be shutting down at midnight and the following 10hr break would make it impossible to deliver the load on time. I let dispatch know I could not be there before 4pm and asked if they wanted me to pick it up anyways.

That was followed by a different load offer of beer going to Iowa with only 280 miles on it, but this one needed to be delivered by 11am. Different destination, same problem. The trip may be shorter, but the delivery deadline is also 3hr earlier, Nope, can't take that one either.

By this time dispatch seemed to be a little annoyed and stopped sending load offers or acknowledging my messages for a good 30mins. I eventually shot off another message asking for a load that I could pickup tonight and deliver within my Hours of Service or something that I could pickup in the morning. Once the load offer finally came through I couldn't help thinking that someone was trying to get even with me for turning down the last two loads.

I was looking at a load that had been Tcalled in the St Louis yard and was going to Albany, NY (1131mi). The miles were great and the delivery scheduled for anytime on Sunday lead me to believe that I could delivery it anytime Saturday and I could be there by mid-day.

It was nothing all that new, four days after leaving the house I found myself on east coast time. I wasn't crazy about heading to New York, especially after reading about Supersnack getting hung up out there. Next week may not be anything to write home about, but this week was a screamer.

I had my NY load dropped by Saturday afternoon and that's when it all hit the skids. There were no loads left for the day and the only thing they would offer me was a load of insulation going out of the same place I had just delivered too. This load was not to be ready until the next day and was only going to the DC area for a Monday delivery, resulting in 389 miles over the next two days. As it turned out the load was ready to go, but it made little difference because it was still a Monday delivery.

That I could have dealt with considering I had knocked out almost 2800 miles in the last four days. But what really hurt was the timing the the crappy little load meant that I would be missing my reset by less than two hours, and as a result I am now limited to 18hrs over the next three days. So close.


WEEK TWENTYSEVEN
Monday, July 5th through Sunday, July 11th
Miles include deadhead

Eloy, AZ to Waxahachie, TX.......................................................1075mi
Desoto, TX to St James, MO.........................................................570mi
E. St Louis, IL to Feura Bush, NY...............................................1131mi
Feura Bush, NY to Upper Marlboro, MD........................................386mi

Total Paid Miles........................................3162 Miles
Actual Miles..............................3282
(That's what I get for blindly following the companies "suggested routing")

3162mi x .44 = $1391.28
(Tuesday afternoon through Sunday-Partial Home week)