CRETE - A Year in Review

I dunno...I suspect that Meritor was just spouting some standard line about range selector synch damage, wiggling out from under the warranty coverage. I somehow doubt that the 3 of us are all in the habit of improper shifting...

Hey, at least I get to eat at Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant in Chickamauga with my wife, work on my Spanish vocabulary and usage, and watch all 5 seasons of Babylon 5 on DVD

 

I am totally with ya! I started out in insurance sales after college, made a bundle, but was young and blew it all on beer and chicks. Went into Tech Support, Web Hosting Support, was drafted by the same company into sales management, facility management, then physical asset management.

Now cubicles might *seem* like a nice alternative to never being home, not sleeping in your own bed, filthy bathrooms, etc, but when you remember dealing with the **& #$)*S every day, and the rampant political correctness, and the sensitivity classes, and the reminders from my boss that I am NOT in fact "Chief J Longstroke", I think I like to work alone.

 

I was not likely much more than that. And when you factor in the cost of living on the road 50-60 looks pretty good.

 

i should avg that for the labor day check for the week..it was a rough one

 

Shut up moron. Just go away.

 

Ok ok, it's time I weighed in on this fun we have been having. This is my official $.00175 worth (it use to be my $.02 worth, but w/federal, state, and local taxes, plus an overdue surcharge for waiting so long to speak up, $.00175 is all that's left)

As the Beech Master General, I have to balance my opinions, because I have comments that fall on either side of the latest brew-haha.

Gentlemen(and Ladies, if any posted)...let's be civil about this. This is a popular and often viewed thread...we wouldn't want the Mod's to put a stop to it, now would we?

If anyone posting on this thread (other than ET) is guilty of hijacking it, it would be me...but with the multitude of post's I have made, no one has ever accused me of hijacking this popular place to visit and blow off steam.( I actually see myself as the -not as funny as he thinks he is- MC trying to keep an ever increasingly angry crowd occupied while the star of the show makes his way to the stage...but he's stuck in traffic, and will be delayed for an untold amount of time....and I'm running out of jokes, and can't sing or dance...... - or I could be wrong...but that's the way I see myself)

Hd was put in an unacceptable situation, and voiced his opinion and displeasure with how this company's operations department handled the situation...much like many of us have done countless times here. There is no reason to get personal, or start calling each other names...if we wanted that, we'd turn on the CB around any truck stop...

HD- the reason we weren't so taken aback with the situation is we simply didn't find what they did so unusual. You've been here w/Crete how long, and this is the 1st time they've done this to you? Lucky you. The majority of Cretens reading this have had to sit like that more than once, but most of the time it was without it being a customer or operations screw up, it was just because of a lack of freight...which Crete doesn't pay layover for.(mostly during last year's -industry wide- freight shortage) And Jdzr is correct, you are due layover pay for this...if you're terminal manager, whom ever he/she is, doesn't resolve it...go over their head. (and if it's Janelle in SLC...while your stepping on her head on the way up the ladder...jump up and down a few times, and tell her it's from me) Because this is right up their alley...that's one of the jobs a terminal/fleet manager is put in place to handle.(They're not just there to be the 1st one in line when the *bleep* hits the fan) If this were JB or Schneider or Swift...then the 10's of thousands of trailers around the area would have offered an other option, but we don't have the equipment resources (or the debt) that they do. And by the way, weekend and after hours dispatchers are not granted the authority to scratch their own butt's without calling a supervisor at home...let alone allowing anyone to bobtail out of an area in the middle of nowhere, NE. The trailer pool in that area of the country is already thin enough...just a trailer here, and trailer there out of place, and we have customers needs not being met...which would hurt us all, we need all the customers we can get in that area as it is. This situation sucked sewer sludge, there is no doubt about it, but sometimes being on the wrong load at the wrong time and place just happens, and there isn't anything to do but ride it out...take it from me, crazy, screwed up stuff happens to me all the time. I look at it this way...there is set amount of bad stuff that has to happen in this world...a person will only be asked to handle the exact amount for which they are capable of dealing with, and nothing more.(by God or whatever grand entity you may believe controls such things) That's why when the world is dumping on me big time (like normal) that means I'm taking the extra load that someone else on the planet couldn't handle. I guess you could call it my duty in this grand experiment called life. It was just your turn, it sucked...make sure you get paid for it, but put it behind you, and don't dwell on it, or else it'll eat you up inside, and you will still be in the same place after it's done, at least as far as resolving the pay issue that is. But coming on here and blowing off a little steam does indeed help, especially right before you call Lincoln, that way you've eased the pressure inside instead of blowing up at the person answering the phone.

And as for the trainers getting special treatment, in a way, I personally would like to see that they are given some special treatment, so they get a wide variety of situations. That way, the trainee is given plenty of opportunity to learn to adapt and think on the fly so that they are better equipped to handle the fluidity of skills(or at least a taste of them) that being a safe professional truck driver requires. I mean, many of us have been out here long enough, sometimes we forget what it was like when we first got out here on our own. And how intimidating it can be at times. At least I do, I can't speak for anyone else.

(with me taking the sane and sensible -ET like- view of this, and ET making a more -snackbar- like comment, does this mean we're switching places, and I get to run his 12-14000 miles a month, and he gets my 10k?....oh, wait, that means that I would have to drive a Freightliner Buttugly...I.E. Cascadia.....n n n n n nevermind, sorry I mentioned it)

 

My trans isn't doing that yet...but unlike you rookies, I know how to shift (just kidding). There use to be a notice in/around the shops about that problem...but that was years ago. I guess they still haven't figured out what the defect is. Other than being a Meritor Rock-box. Maybe that's why Meritor is no longer making a fully manual transmission, only automated shift.

My truck is doing the chitty-chitty-sputter-sputter problem when you are topping a hill. It use to only do it when you put it in 10th at 55...but it's been starting to do it in 9th gear as well if you don't go to full throttle once you shift.

 

My week has been uneventfull but busy. The last time I posted, I was heading to Mt. Juliet, TN...Aldi's whse...a place they should model all grocery warehouses after. I had an 8 am appt...but because it's close enough to Nashville to see it's rush hour traffic, I opt'd to arrive at 6 am. at 6:15 they put me to a door. I went in and was told it was a $40 unload (unlike the $290 I had the previous load)and that all they needed was a comcheck number, no check needed, they had plenty. 30 minutes later I was empty, and on my way. Literally just around the corner to pick up a load going to Seymour, IN. The load wasn't suppose to p/u until 11 am, but I went to check on it anyway. At 10, I was loaded and rolling. It was a Wally load, and the load instructions said 2 different things, at the top, it was ''load delivers asap, check your hours and advise operations of updated eta" and at the bottom said, only deliver on date shown on q/comm, which was the next day. So I pretended I didn't see the 2nd part, and updated op's of my delivery, which was that afternoon, instead of the next morning. After delivering there, they sent me up to Plainfield, IN to pick up a load to Hagerstown, MD...that had to be there by midnite the next night (Friday). So even after a holiday that started me out behind on miles, I still managed to turn in a 2600 mile week.

After emptying out in Hagerstown, they sent me all the way to Raphine, VA to pick up a roll paper load going all the way up (2 stops) to St. Paul and Hutchinson MN for Monday (1313 miles). After that, I picked up the load I'm on now, delivering in W. Jefferson, OH on Wednesday morning. I'm sitting across the interstate from them now, and it's Tuesday afternoon. That's 2202 miles in 4 days, now this is more like it.

The only run-in I've had with Op's was when I was at Aldi's...I sent in for my $40 lumper pay...and waited a little while. After 10 minutes, thinking that I would be on hold for a few minutes at that time of the morning, I called in. Only to be greeted by dispatch. He grumped at me ''it's only been 4 minutes, you have to give us more time than that'' to which I replied...''I guess the Q/comm carrier pigeon got lost enroute from San Diego, I sent that in 10 minutes ago"... Other than that, not a word other than load and empty...plus the usual thank you messages for idle and fuel compliance. (dang it, I did it again...last time I said something about things quietly rolling along, within a couple days I was back on the *bleep* list....shoot)