CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK THIRTY SEVEN
Monday, September 13th through Sunday, September 19th​

For the most part, it was a rather uneventful week this time around. One point of interest for me was that my forth year of driving for Crete came to a conclusion this week and year five is now underway along with my .01 cpm pay raise. Yeah!

The final tally of miles for year four, from date-of-hire came up to 146,558 miles which was a nice improvement over the previous date-of-hire year of 132,356 miles.

The second point of interest is that the "p" on my keyboard has stopped working on an intermittent basis. Mildly annoying.

My Monday started out in a New Jersey parking lot where I was to make my delivery. My appointment was for 5am and I was knocking on their door at said time, anxious to get unloaded as soon as possible so I could get started on my next load and hopefully get a head start on rush hour traffic.

Great thought, but I'm not going to pretend I was surprised when it didn't work out that way. Even though this was one of those "JIT" loads with very specific instructions "DO NOT BE LATE". That in itself is usually a good sign that the receiver is far less interested in an on-time delivery than anyone else in the supply chain is.

It was looking good at first when I was told to walk to a different part of the warehouse where someone would be by shortly to let me know which dock to back into. Well that shortly turned into an hour and I had yet to see one single person. I finally decided to make another trip back to the first office I had gone to this morning to find out what was going on. Unfortunately he had no more of a clue than I did. Another 30mins went by before he was able to get someone on the phone that could be of the slightest assistance and I was once again told to return to the other side of the warehouse to await further instructions.

That cost me another half hour before a slightly disheveled, obviously late for work and less than enthusiastic gentleman appeared, only to glare at my paperwork offering little more than a gruff gesture to a dock door with a "wait in your truck". This day is running like clockwork, just the way I want to start a Monday.

Three and a half hours later found me putting in my MT call wondering what awfully short haul run I would be blessed with out of the fine state of New Jersey, if I were so lucky to even make it out of the state by the time the sun went down.

I was more than shocked when the load offer came in. Not only was it not a short haul, it was getting me out of the blasted northeast without the slightest hiccup. I was sure I would be spending a better part of a week fighting my way out, but instead I was headed to the middle of Iowa with a 1145mi run. I had no idea how that happened, but I wasn't about to complain and accepted the load before dispatch had time to reconsider.

The New Jersey joy continued from that point when I headed over to my next shipper. I arrived about one hour early only to find an absolute cluster you know what. There were trucks everywhere waiting for their turn at a dock door and yours truly was not looking forward to what lay ahead.

My first attempt at going to the shipping office found me face to face with a guy who absolutely detested life. Not necessarily his own, but I defiantly detected a lack of empathy for any other living creature on this planet. Maybe it was the fact that he walked directly past me a couple of times without acknowledging my existence, despite my more than obvious attempts at gaining his attention.

On his third pass by I literally stepped directly into his path of travel and announced with great exuberance that I was here to pickup a load. I assumed this would do little to brighten this malcontent's morning, but for some unknown reason I derive immeasurable satisfaction from provoking just such a character with more joy and elation than he can possibly tolerate.

I'm not positive, but I think it's referred to as Passive-Aggressive.

As it turned out, according to him I was in the wrong warehouse even though the directions given to me clearly stated that I was to pickup at Bldg #6, the very building I was currently in. Instead I was instructed to go Bldg #7 on the other side of the street. I couldn't help myself and once again asked him to confirm that I was indeed in the wrong place because "my directions told me to come here", as I pointed at my little book in my hand. I don't think he appreciated my good natured prodding.

I left my truck parked where it was primarily because it was a very short walk to the shipping office of the other warehouse (same company, just a different building) and perhaps more poignantly, because there was absolutely nowhere else to park. This place was far too small for the amount of trucks coming and going.

When I arrived at the shipping window of the second building I found that I was talking to the brother of the first shipping clerk. Wow, these people are miserable. I watched him berate, belittle and in general, treat the three drivers in front of my like dogs and prepared myself for a comparable attack. However, being in the back of the line allowed me the opportunity to learn by observation and by the time I was standing at the window I knew exactly how this animal wanted information presented to him. This made for a rather quick and efficient exchange of information and without fanfare, I was told what door to back into once the current occupant had pulled out. Back to my truck I go, and in doing so notice one single parking spot had opened up on the street, lucky me.

As I'm walking across the street I hear some screaming going on in the not to far away distance and don't really give it a second thought, after all, it seems to be the norm around here. As I get closer to my truck the screaming seemed to intensify in volume and I soon learn why. It's the very same creature I first encountered in Bldg #6 having a hissy fit. "I wonder who he's wishing death upon this time", I think to myself. Then I realize, "Oh, it's me". I guess he's not overly jubilant about my choice of a temporary parking spot. This time it's my turn to walk by without the slightness acknowledgment of his existence on this planet.

For all the commotion going on, I actually got a dock door within thirty minutes of my appointment time and the loading was moving along pretty good until lunch time rolled around, or as I like to say, Screech! Slam on the breaks and wait another hour for the last few pallets to be put on the truck. One hour and ten minutes later the truck was loaded and I was read to go, once I got my paperwork that is.

I'm told I will have to wait for the paperwork, and after thirty minuets of standing around and watching the Nazi shipping clerk verbally thrash everyone within earshot I made an inquiry as to when I might expect to get the BOL and braced myself for the onslaught which was sure to follow. I must admit, I was a little disappointed when he just told me, "They lost the paperwork in the office and are trying to get a copy from the customer". He didn't even give me any attitude.

That explanation caught the ear of another driver standing nearby who asked me what product I had been loaded with. After telling him he went into great detail about how he picks up here three times a week and whenever he gets a load like mine it takes 2-4hrs to get paperwork out of the office. Oh boy, did that make my day.

Three hours later I'm signing the BOL, what a ridiculous wait just to get the stupid paperwork for a load that took less than an hour to put on the truck (less lunch hour that is). I can't wait until I get to come back to this fine part of the world.

Later that day as I'm escaping the torments of New Jersey I get a message from the Training department. Looks like they have another student for me, now I know how I got the mysterious load to Iowa (I assume), they are trying to get me to Lincoln. I was enjoying my solitude, but I guess it's time to go back to work, or so I thought. We were hashing out the details and as I was getting ready to hang up and as a haphazard second thought I was asked to confirm that I had an APU (student had a CPAP machine). "Not as of last week I don't, I'm in a new truck". "Oh, never mind then, I'll let you know when we have another student ready for you". Two days later I'm in wonderful Iowa, middle America, and being treaded like a human being once again.

From that point I was given a inter DC run for Menards from the middle of Iowa to Galesburg, IL with a nice drop and hook on both ends. From there it was a deadhead back to Iowa to pickup a live load going to WI for a grand total of 333mi. Not great, but it was an anytime drop as soon as I could get it there. That would have been great if I could have gotten an early load after my 6am delivery, but dispatch thought it would be a good idea to give me a 1pm pickup (which just so happed to be the exact same time my 14hr clock expired, I just love driving nights). I arrived 4hrs prior in the hopes of being loaded early and was excited to see a Crete trailer in their lot. Could I be so lucky as to get a drop and hook? No!

As a matter of fact, when I checked in I told them I was very early, but hopped that maybe my load had been pre-loaded instead of a live load. I was told that I would have to be a live load because Crete didn't have any empty trailers here and when I told them that I had seen one on my way in, they asked me which one that might me. I had put the trailer number to memory and recited it to her at which time she said, "Oh, that's a Crete trailer? We were wondering who the CCC trailer belonged too?" "We saw it out there, but didn't know that was a Crete". I pointed out the fact that there was a big "Crete" stencil on both sides of the trailer, but she simply said, "Oh, we just see them from the front when we drive by in the morning; we don't actually get out to look at the sides of the trailers." **************************

So much for my preloaded trailer, but hopefully the next Crete driver will not have to deal with a live load now that they know an empty is sitting in their yard.

I had to wait for a door, but they managed to get me in well before my appointment time and I was actually able to make it an hour down the road before my 14hrs expired at 1pm.

6am found me in Wisconsin putting in an MT call after dropping my trailer at Wal-Mart. I was sure that I would be put on a Menards DC load out of Eau Claire because I was too close not to be sent in that direction and it would in all likelihood by a short, multi-stop load going to the Chicago area. Menards it was, but instead of driving all over Chicago the following morning I got a single address drop delivery going to another Menards DC on the outskirts of Chicago, and since I would be going in on a Saturday morning, traffic would be of little consequence.

The drop went great on Saturday morning at 4am, but the hook, not so much because there were no empty trailers in the lot I was directed too. It was an hour later before I was able to procure an empty so that dispatch would send me a load. When they finally did so I was less than thrilled by the 10am pickup. Dispatch has been making this a regular thing lately. It makes it darn right impossible to get decent miles when I deliver a load in the early morning hours, only to find out that my next load doesn't pickup for hours. If I had know they were going to do this to me I would have waited until much later in the morning to make my delivery in order to delay the starting of my 14hr clock, instead of dropping at 4am, only to be told my next pickup was at 10am.

Up to this point, I have been able to minimize the effects of this "productive" dispatching by arriving early and finagling my way into a dock door sooner than the appointed hour, but even with that many hours of productive driving has been lost this week. Once again I arrive far ahead of schedule and started poking around. I had arrived at 7am and the place looked deserted, but after pulling on a number of doors I found an unlocked one and found someone driving around the warehouse on a forklift. He was picking orders for the day and placing them infront of various dock doors and wouldn't you know it, he had just finished pulling my load and told me to go ahead and grab a dock. Looks like I'm batting 1000 so far this week.

A short time later I had the BOL in hand and was on my way to Ardmore, OK(887mi) for a Monday noon delivery. Now, because of the way my loads have been handed out to me this week I was in a situation where I could shut down along the way on Saturday evening and do a 34hr reset, eventhough I had enough hours to drive to my delivery point on Sunday while giving me a 3200mi week. But if I did that I would negate my reset, which would in turn put me in a severely limited hours situation by the time Wednesday rolled around. A reset on Saturday would elevate that problem, but result in a 2800mi week. Neither situation was all that welcoming, but I went with the reset and with the help of Priceline, found myself a nice little hotel room for the weekend with hopes of better miles next week.



WEEK THIRTY SEVEN
Monday, September 13th through Sunday, September 19th
Miles include deadhead

Dayton, NY to Ankeny, IA........................................................1145mi
Shelby, IA to Galesburg, IL........................................................428mi
Burlington, IA to Tomah, WI.......................................................333mi
Eau Claire, WI to Plano, IL..........................................................385mi
Joliet, IL to Ardmore, OK(first leg).............................................503mi

Total Paid Miles......................................................2794Miles
Actual Miles..................................2837 Miles

2794mi x .45 = $1257.30