CRETE - A Year in Review

Thanks SS, I'm going to miss the banter.

I'm not so thrilled about walking back into the white collar world again myself. One of the main reasons I went into trucking was to get away from the overbearing, triple management, headless machine that ends up controlling your life. The good thing about this job is that I'm all by myself out here in AZ. I'm the only one from the company over here right now and once the ball gets rolling I'm going to be the one running the show. The potential is actually staggering, there is no competition. I'm still pinching myself to be honest with you. As a matter of fact, I just closed a $148,000 multi store deal this morning and was done working by noon. But then I did wake up at the ungodly hour of 7am. That 10% commission check it going to be fun to cash. Until I have to send 1/2 of it back to Uncle Sam.

Like I said, this opportunity was promising ridiculous cash that I couldn't turn down. I'm not particularly found of the white collar world, or more to the point the kind of people you have to deal with, but at this point it is a necessarily evil. I'll take a room full of truck drivers any day, and we all know what rip roarin' good time that is.

Interestingly enough, the easier the work, the higher the pay scale is in the messed up world. No wonder its falling apart at the seams.

I guess I'll just have to gets me mines while I can.

 

I should also take a moment to pass my thanks along to the people that made my life a little bit easier at Crete. For starters, that would be my terminal manager Chris. I didn't need his assistance all that often, but when it was crunch time he always did everything in his power to solve whatever problem was in the forefront. As little as dispatch seemed to care about the driver from time to time, it was always clear to me that Chris had my back when I needed it. I even know that there were a few times that he jumped in to help out even when I hadn't asked. I also have great appreciation for his flexibility. I didn't often take advantage of the situation, but when needed, I always knew that I could stretch out my home time as much as needed, whenever I asked the answer was always yes without the need of an explanation. He's an exceptional manager and truly cares about his drivers.

And to LeAnn, what and absolute sweetheart. She always gave me the impression that she would do anything to help. She never failed to make my life much easier. Even when it came to something as simple as changing a fueling solution. She always knew there was a good reason for it and never made me go through the hassle of explaining myself. And the same goes for Shannon. Nothing but smiles and good nature from them anytime I spoke with them or saw them in person, as rare as that occasion was. True Southern hospitality. It was a joy and a pleasure working with everyone in the office.

I guess I should also take this moment to thank Chris for naming me the Driver of the Year 2010 - Spartanburg Terminal while I'm at it. I kept that news to myself at the time, but since I have moved on i guess I can go ahead and throw that out there. I'm not sure why it took him 4 years to figure it out, but I'm willing to forgive and forget. It probably would have helped if I had stopped getting traffic tickets for one dumb revenue enhancement reason or another. Even though I beat all three of them in court over the last 4 1/2 years. I even beat a TX beef.

Over zealous DOT enforcement is the one thing I can guarantee you I will not miss in the least bit. Oh yeah, and logbooks.

It was a good run and believe it or not, I am going to miss it. Probably more than I realize at the moment.