Well, here I sit in the Seattle area with my empty Shaffer trailer and a "short on freight" message staring me in the face. Delivered my load at 10am, empty by noon. Run the 10day student over to a Shaffer driver's house who has to take medical leave so trainee(has finished his 10days) can pickup his truck and trailer and start his solo thing with Crete.
We both head down the road a mile or two where we find a nice out of the way spot to park our Shaffer trailers. Two hours later the ex-trainee is off on his first run and I'm still sitting in the street being ignored by dispatch.
For some odd reason this didn't surprise me too much.
This is going to be an awful week for miles if I don't get a reasonable run out of here.
UPDATE: Just got a run going to Oakland with a 8am delivery Monday morning. It's official, this weeks sucks!
CRETE - A Year in Review
Discussion in 'Discuss Your Favorite Trucking Company Here' started by evertruckerr, Jan 11, 2008.
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ET:
Can you tell me if Crete has any terminals or drop lots in the State of MN?
TY !!!
evertruckerr Thanks this. -
Greetings
I have had a normal 'snackbar' type fun week. Once I emptied out in southern NY state, I was dispatched on a load just 30 miles away, that needed picked up by 10 am...a light 7500 lb load going to St. Louis for ASAP (1600 Wednesday). Since it was 730 am est, not bad. But.... Got to the shipper, and earliest appointment they had for a Crete load was noon, that was unless I was a day late for my pickup.......to quote Scooby-doo 'Ruh-ro', So off I go back to the truck, and fire off a message about 'is my load the one that we missed yesterday, because only loads out of here today aren't suppose to pu until noon'...and I actually got a quick response (within 15 minutes)...'yes' and 'to let us know how late you're going to be if you have to wait'....So I responded...thanks for warning me...would have been nice to know that in advance. And the reply - from Cory(yes he still works here ET) 'Sorry, I wasn't the one dispatching you on the load, I wasn't in yet'...which was true, but my message was actually aimed at the operations department in general, but my message got through. Fortunately the shipper is use to dealing with Crete, and once a drop trailer for their dedicated carrier was moved, I was in a door. By 1100 est, I was rolling. Now this is a light load, which means what 2 things are likely to transpire?....Anyone? That's right, wind, and bad weather, and I got both. I was fine putting up with the wind, until Brookville, PA...that's where the snow started...and the last 10-15 miles of PA were snowy as crap...slicker than greased goose crap on an ice cold brass door knob. Some hills I had to drop 3 gears...not because my Briggs/Stratton powered putt-putt mobile couldn't pull, but I didn't have enough weight to get enough traction. If I gave it over 1/2 throttle, I broke loose w/the axles locked....but I made it..Once I got through Akron, I was out of the lake effect snow, and it was just cold. All that weather must've made Indiana slick...between the OH/IN state line and Effingham there were at least 6 trucks(or what was left of trucks) in the median, and at least a dozen or more tracks into/through the median from other's off road adventure. I got to St. Louis with 35 minutes to spare, and got unloaded pronto. And sat 45 minutes after my m/t call before I messaged about 'must be short on freight, heading to truckstop before it fills up, unless something sent soon'...and I got a load offer about 10 minutes later. Now I just ran 1011 miles in a little under 30 hours(with snow, not bad) am pushed on my 11 and 14(which I msg'd about just after my m/t call, so they knew about it) and what offer do I get...a load that has to be in n. GA by 1pm tomorrow, but doesn't pu until 6 pm (CST) today...which I msg'd that I couldn't make del on time, and left the door open for them to either reschedule, or offer something else. 45 minutes went by, and nothing...so I messaged off again that since there weren't any other offers, I was assuming that there wasn't anything else to do, and that I was headed to truck stop for the night...now that it's in the heart of rush hour, it took me 30 minutes to cross the river and get to the Peelot in E. St. Louis...I parked, transflowed my load off, and was eating...and more than an hour after I shut down, they finally decided to void load offer......The next day, a little short run, north of St. Louis to Owensboro, KY...Once on the load, I asked for a pplan out of there that way I didn't have to deal with getting an empty, then turning the empty trailer back in to get a load...But was told, nothing available, get an empty when you arrive. So, I waited until I got there, and while in line to scale into the Owensboro customer, I asked...did we book any freight, I see loaded trailers here?(which I was hoping that all the bobtail Cretes down the road a the local itty bitty fuel stop were out of hours instead of waiting on loads) And as expected, I got no response...30 minutes went by, and I messaged again...only to the OPS manager this time, and I got a bit irritable this time and said 'could someone answer my message, we are all tired of being ignored out here'...and I got a response...''we aren't ignoring you, we are extremely busy''...to which I responded..."busy doesn't excuse never getting an answer, which 30% of my messages never get responded to...that qualifies as being ignored." Anyway, I was told to grab an empty..then was offered a load out of another customer in Owensboro, to SW of Atlanta for the following evening...net result, 3075 miles for the week, and my next load was Winder, GA to Houston for Monday...926 miles...and no snow and ice, Yahoooooooo-ooooo!!!
Soooooo, I have a request for all my fellow Cretins...I got the ball rolling...So, within the company policy, and doing this in a professional way, when we message in, and get no response...message them again like they want us too(I think they ask to wait 15 minutes), and if we don't get a response to msg #2, you're 3rd message should be to the Op's manager politely requesting an answer, because you're starting to feel ignored....if we can get enough people bugging them with the 'ignored' word, maybe we can light a fire under someone's butt.
Ok...snackbar attitude-101's class is dismissed...
Oh, and Merry Christmas...(I figure I'd better get that in while my mood is positive
)
Weazz Thanks this. -
Yea, I know you tried to get through there without me noticing you...I saw ya just walk on by me...pretending I wasn't there...but I don't let much slip by...my mind is still as sharp as a......oh loook, a kitty...here kitty kitty...ummm what was I saying now?
(just kidding, I know you were on a tight schedule...they must think you're a ex-grayhound driver....hurry, pick up this passenger, and don't be late for your next stop)
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WEEK FIFTY
Monday, December 13th through Sunday, December 19th
I've pretty much spelled this week out in earlier posts. It started with a shag run on Monday morning in the LA area. It was only a drop and hook, but there were no directions to the receiver in the system. I managed to find the place on my own with the help of Google maps and arrived at the horse stable facility with my load of wood shavings to find no one in the area. I was about 30mins early and phone calls to the supplied numbers were going straight to voice mail.
After wondering around the property for awhile I managed to find a ranch hand that could point me in the right direction and the empty call went in shortly thereafter. I was hoping that my offer to shag a load this morning would have increased my chances of getting a decent load out of the area, but it wasn't to be. Instead I was put on a 380mi run that didn't deliver until the next day. The only thing that nullified the disappointment was the fact that this load was going to Phoenix and I would be able to spend a night at the house. I would have been much happier about it if I didn't have a trainee with me at the time because I would have spent an extra day or two at the house since I've been out for about four weeks at this point. But my trainee was on a 10 day program and I didn't think it would be fair to drop him in a hotel. I was going to be home the following week for Christmas anyway.
The home stay was short, but a pleasant break none the less and I was back on the road Tuesday morning awaiting my next load after an 8am delivery. At first glance the load offer looked good. A nice 1500mi run up to the Seattle area, but it didn't take long for the delivery date to sink in. Another #### run that was going to have me sitting for well over 24hrs after arriving at my destination to make a delivery. This is getting very OLD! The fact that my load was preloaded on a Shaffer trailer did nothing to improve my mood.
If nothing else, it did give me time to stop off at the SLC terminal to get a B service taken care of. I had hoped to Tcall the Shaffer trailer while in SLC, but I've already explained how well that worked out. I later discovered a possible motive for why it was so imperative that I continue onto Seattle. I don't know if it was preconceive or just dumb luck, but oddly enough, there was an empty Shaffer truck sitting up in Washington in need of recovery. Apparently, a Shaffer driver was on medical leave and had to turn his truck in and it just so happened that I had a trainee in my truck that was ready for release.
Doesn't that work out peachy for everyone, well, almost everyone! That's the way it goes with this training gig. Sometimes it works out to my advantage, sometimes I get burned. Good with the bad, right?
So there I sit with a Shaffer trailer and a "no freight" message with instructions to check back in 3hrs and my ex-trainee sitting right next to me with his shinny new Shaffer truck and his very own Shaffer trailer. After a couple of hours he walks on over to my truck to let me know that he has just been instructed to take his trailer to a customer in the area and drop it with no further information. A message was sent off to dispatch asking what the plan was after dropping the trailer, but after some time with no response I suggested that he go ahead and drop the trailer and find out what he's suppose to do at that point and off he went.
When my three hours were up I sent in a message asking for a load and after waiting for 20mins or so I got my load offer. Pickup a preloaded Crete trailer down in Camas and deliver it in Oakland on Monday morning. Great, an 800mi run with 3days to do it in. Isn't that just perfect? I did make an attempt at Tcalling the load, but the request was answered with a "why do you want to Tcall?" I've heard some really dumb questions in my days and that was just another one to be added to the list.
"Because this load doesn't delivery until Monday morning and I will be there by 7pm Saturday, was hoping to get some more miles instead of sitting in a truckstop all day Sunday". I never heard another word.
I was headed down to get my trailer in Camas when I got a phone call from my recently released trainee. After dropping his Shaffer trailer he got a load offer identical to mine. The only problem was that he no longer had a trailer. There were no Crete trailers where he had been instructed to drop his Shaffer and the load info specifically stated, "Do not bobtail to this customer". Dispatch had him sit for an hour or so while they tried to find a Crete trailer in the area, but eventually he was told to go back and get his Shaffer trailer.
So goes my week. Way too much sitting around, but there does seem to be some reasoning to it all(at least that's what I tell myself). I have noticed that I have been on what can only be called a western regional routing plan for the last two weeks or so and I have to assume that it's to make sure I get home for my scheduled Christmas vacation. So I will be thankful for the fact that I'm not stuck somewhere around the eastern seaboard wondering if I would be able to get back to Arizona in the next week.
I can't believe Supersnack got more miles than me.
The world must be coming to an end!
WEEK FIFTY
Monday, December 13th through Sunday, December 19th
Miles include deadhead
Fontana, CA to Lake View Terra, CA(Shag)......................................72mi
Ontario, CA to Phoenix, AZ...............................................................387mi
Bellemont, AZ to Sumner, WA........................................................1531mi
Camas, WA to Oakland, CA(first leg)...............................................712mi
Total Paid Miles......................................................2702 Miles
Actual Miles.........................................2789 Miles
2702mi x .45 = $1215.19 + Shag $35 + Training $89.29 =$1340.19Last edited: Dec 20, 2010
truckdriver402, 90125-2 and The Stump Guy Thank this. -
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