CRETE - A Year in Review

Oh, before I forget...if anyone has the new HTC Thunderbolt and get an OTA(their name for the op system) update request DON'T do it. There is a major glitch that causes your phone to randomly reboot itself a lot...per Verizon/HTC folks, a patch is in the works...once they figure out whats causing it. Not sure if it is a problem with other Android OS phones or just the T'bolt....I know it's a Crete info thread but it's popular so I thought I'd pass the word.

 

Anyone else sitting waiting for a load?

 

I actually got a load yesterday when i got empty, but it's not going to my favorite part of the country. It is a little over 1000 miles for the weekend, but puts me in the upper parts of the northeast. I guess I'll see what Monday has in store for me. It's still better than sitting, that really frustrates me.

 

I'm on a two stop P and G load going to Mi. Ill pick up today and 1st stop is 0400 tomorrow. Total miles is 650.

I was asked if I would help the container fleet out of Philly for a few weeks. Looking at my miles over the last few weeks I decided to do that.

 

Are the miles per week average starting to drop on a consistent basis now?

 

Were hitting the June swoon...my miles always nosedive late May thru June. I was in MI, got a 211 same day delivery, but pu time and del times screwed my 14 and my truck had to go to shop...only offer after empty, pu same place going back to Lansing, MI(same town I picked up previous load in) pu Sat, del Sun...211 mi, in 3 days. Told them I was headed to the shop...while in Ottawa, numerous drivers sitting around with same story...no frt. Once I was done in Ottawa, I was asked to pu in Morris, IL going to Toledo, OH for Monday(pu was 2200 Fri nite) and t'call in Romeoville. Got to Romeoville, and the lot was 80% Crete loaded trailers...no empty's and a bunch of our trucks there too. Told them since there were no mt's and I had been up all day, I was going to bed and would check back in the a.m. In the a.m. offered a load outa W.Chicago to Fulton MO for Sun nite...The other drivers were telling similiar stories about loads in that area as well. Although since March, I've rearly saw above 2500 w/o a fight.

My visit to Ottaw was a joke of a visit...but since I'm typing this on my Thunderbolt instead of my computer, I'll save that story for later, my fingers are cramping

 

Delivered Fri and was mt at 1130. Sent in msg and waited. Nothing till this morning for a load tomorrow AM. Wow. Hope this is just SS says and not a portent of long time stuff. In any event I will maintain a most positive attitude as always and carry on smartly!

 

Freight must really be spotty. I had a live unload in Austell, GA on Friday and an hour into the unload, dispatch was wanting to know how much longer I would be there because they had so much freight to pick up. I eventually got empty and was sent to Covington, GA to pu a Roanoke, TX load that was loaded three days before. I dropped in Roanoke this morning and was offered a reload to Roberts, LA. I will be out of hours once I drop in Roberts tomorrow. I bey southern Louisiana will be super slow on freight.

 

For what it's worth, the miles are falling off for me in the non-Crete world as well. I spent an entire weekend idling at the Pilot in Hammond, LA, a couple of weeks ago, until I got a deadhead back to Port Arther (sp?) and that was a teeny run back to Houston mainly to keep from having to pay me layover after the second day.

Last couple of weeks have been especially challenging for miles for me. Last Saturday I was picking up a paper load on the Georgia coast. As I was pulling up to the entrance gate I could hear the high pitched hiss of a tire going flat. I jumped out to check and discovered that it was actually the high pressure hose on my A/C that had gotten tired and split.

So, I was faced with giving up my load and sitting all Memorial Day weekend until I could get to the local dealer on Tuesday or run the 1000+ mile load up the east coast with no A/C. No good choices in this situation.

I decided to run the load in the heat because I needed the miles (don't we all?) and hoped that it would get cooler as I traveled north. No such luck. Instead the radio continuously blared weather reports of "record heat" and the locations of the emergency cooling shelters that had been opened. Really tough to stay alert with all that hot air blowing in my face. I compensated some by running mostly after mid-night.

No KW dealers in upstate NY, so I spent 3 days at a Freightshaker dealer with the usual routine after delivering on Tuesday morning. Diagnose problem ("I told you it was a split high pressure hose!"), order parts, wait for parts to come in, install parts, fill system, etc.

After 3 days I got back on the road to discover that, while the dash A/C was doing OK, my bunk A/C was still on its butt. The tech told me he had filled the compressor with oil twice to make sure the system had enough, so that means there's so much refrigerent oil in the system that it's stopped up the low points of the system. That just happens to be my bunk A/C.

I limped through the next couple of loads (don't we all need the miles?), but the dash A/C wasn't cutting it alone in the record heat, so I finally decided to spend the shop time again to get the system back on its feet. If it's not hacking it in Missouri, then it sure isn't going to cut it in Laredo or Brownsville.

So, now I'm sitting at the KW dealer in KC waiting in line for a tech to drain the oil from the low points so I can have full A/C again. In the meantime, someone else is benefiting from my shop time. Hopefully we get it right this time...

 

Well, I'll admit I was wrong. I was afraid when I got empty in Robert, LA, I would be waiting awhile for a load offer. I got a great load picking up in Zachary, LA going up to Romulus, MI. A good 1200 mile load w deadhead.