CRETE - A Year in Review

I shoulda' said, I use to be able to ignore them...with this new yakity poj, I may not with anything short of wire snips and an outdoor qualcomm rack

 

Looks like I am officially back on National after Christmas. My Mgr messaged me that they need my truck (has a sliding 5th wheel) so on Friday before I go home I trade out of my 08 Prostar and into a 07 Century. Looks like I could have this for about 40K.

I don't care at this point...I just want to run.

 

Did you just get sick of hauling cans or did we lose the container account again?

 

My reasons for leaving are personal. Ill leave it at that. If you and I bump into one another ill buy you a cup of coffee. Ill be the guy in the Century doing paper logs...lol

 

Glad my experiences with E-logs was not just me...guess misery loves company.

 

Made it home today for Christmas vacation. Will be back on the road Jan.2. Merry Christmas to all of my fellow Crete and Schaffer drivers!

 

Well, I think my new Prostar is going to be one of the 'hanger queens' that Poetry was talking about. Climbing a hill in PA the other day, check engine light is back on. Trying to get to Marietta on the way to Chattanooga the other day, jake brake is cutting on and off in sequence with the shift light...except it is doing it when I am trying to stop and not on the gas. Now I've gotten the Microsoft blue screen of death on the new style qualcomm a couple times. Plus my stutter/chug has gotten quite regular. And my OnGuard gives me a 'obstructed' error in light rain. I am kicking myself for not taking that older Cascadia last week after my Poopspreader got hit.

Couple that with 2 trailers back to back were un-usable after they loaded them. 1 had the rusted out ICC bumper pushed 1/4 the way under on one side and a hole in the roof(on a roll paper load)...this took many hours to fix, thus screwing my 14. The next had a broken linkage on one of the slider pins, and they were all the way back. I tell ya, I'm going to become Amish, that way if my horse has an issue, you shoot...oh wait, they don't use guns...ahhh crap, therd goes that plan.

 

Don't do it. This 'safety minded' company tried to force me to deliver a load to a customer that is on a shoulderless 2 lane partially residential road, just at the top of a rise, before a curve into a lot that a 53' trailer and a sleeper length might fit, but only if you jack the truck at a 90 degree angle...all this at 830 am on the Friday before Christmas to a customer whose building is only about as big as a 2 or 3 car garage...and their excuse for trying to force me...other drivers deliver here, and don't have any problems. But I bet darn sure, if someone wasn't paying attention and drove under his/her trailer while they were trying it...this 'we love our drivers --- safety first' company would hang that driver out to dry. I guess I should use the same excuse when driving on ice, or speeding through a construction zone...hey, others do it...I guess that makes it o.k.

This is the kind of hypicriticle b.s. you have to deal with here. It's all about safety, unless it means we can't deliver and make a buck, then it's 'screw safety', you gota do it or else!!!

 

Anytime someone comes up with "other drivers do it" my BS meter goes off.

I agree completely about you last comments and saw it first hand over and over hauling containers.

I'm on my last run with this fleet. I'm an hour out of Philly and will drop this can in the am then head to NK and home for a few days.

 

Well, I will make it home by Christmas, barely. After my fight over not delivering an unsafe load, I had to play the hide-and-go-seek game looking for an empty trailer...and because I essentially 'refused' a load, they didn't pay me the extra miles on this adventure. It took me 2 hours to get to McDonough, GA(60ish miles) only to find no empties at the 1st place they suggested, but there were a few empties at Kimberly Clark down there, then it was off to Social Circle, GA for my homebound Christmas load. The only thing Crete claims that they had to get me home on was a load to Lakeland that delivers Monday night, but doesn't p/u until 1600 Christmas eve, and it's 5 1/2 hrs to my house from there....and I hope the folks are on their 'A' game in Social Circle when they load my trailer... I've had some better luck getting out of there on 1 try lately. I hope it didn't jinx me by saying that, and it's a multi reload load...my attitude won't improve in the least.

I have to wait to see if they pay me for the extra miles I ran getting that trailer with the broken linkage to their shop...if not, guess what fellow Cretins, your profit sharing deposits will drop because they'll have to send a service truck out from now on... Their saving $20 in OOR pay will cost them many times more in just road service call fee's alone.

Sorry for the overly negative posts this close to the holidays....but it seems as though things are going back to the old ways here.

Any way, Merry Christmas from the Snackbar house...and my it be a Happier New Year for all.