CRETE - A Year in Review

Used to be til Dear Leader cut their funding

 

An army of 1/2? I was Navy anyway. It was an adventure!

 

I believe the Army motto is, "Army Strong" now. Be safe out there guys!

 

Well, the improvement in loading in Social Circle didn't last. I had delivered in Cartersville GA at 2100 Sunday night, which meant since I had gotten there Sunday morning that I was on night shift already. Next load was from S/C (Social Circle)that would be ready after midnite, but didn't deliver until Tuesday morning in Indianola, MS. Got to S/C at 4 am, p/u my load in the pouring rain and it was 1820 lbs over on the drives. The security said that the scale might not be correct because all the water was causing it to keep kicking err on the screen. But I tried to get op's to adjust the paid miles to allow me at least 1 round trip to the closest scale 14 miles the wrong way. I sat for over an hour beeping them every 15 min and finally got told that I could scale elsewhere if I wanted to, but that was all they said, never heard about any mileage change. So I chose to have the load reworked based on their scale. 8 1/2 hrs later, I scaled out 820 lbs over on the drives...back I went again. After another 1 1/2 hrs, I could scale legal barely. But now I would have to drive all night on almost no sleep to make the delivery. After the B.S. that I have been through this month(that I haven't told ya'll about), I chose not to kill myself for this place anymore and forced dispatch to reschedule. I sent in my eta to deliver, and got an attitude from op's...so a return attitude was replyed. He almost turned the key to the beachmobile hard enough to start. But I never got a reply for a new appointment time. So now I don't know when I should leave the truckstop I was at last night... The cow-tippin yahoo(in Lincoln)went home for the day. I know General Mills is one of our major customers and they don't want to whizzz them off, but, at what point do you just stop servicing a location that causes such a reduction in the productivity of manpower and equipment?

 

In the Army we always answered a question like that with, "Do what your paycheck can afford". Sometimes, unfortunately, doing what is right does not go over well with the head shed. They have either forgotton or never known what it is like to actually work and try to complete a mission planned and executed by a leader who really didn't know the inner workings and based everything on a thought process or (smiling) a "good idea". Good luck SS and drive on!

 

So, here's what happened to me to start my new year off with a royal bang (of my head against a wall)

When I last left home, I was pulling a Shaffer trailer...not that it matters, except when it comes to Crete's customers, some won't load reefer trailers. Partially because of the slightly reduced interior space, but also because of the added weight and/or a reefer trailer floor isn't flat and smooth. If you tried to load paper or stuff like the can lids going to Budweiser, it wouldn't work because the way they secure it, it would shift. Anyway, after I delivered my load of chicken into S/E Iowa, I pulled out to the shoulder of their drive and waited, and waited, and waited. Then all of a sudden my Q/comm goes beeping nutz. 5 messages in 5 seconds. It turns out that this new cell-phone based Q/C has a problem. The messages were instructions to take my reefer to a turkey plant in Iowa, the directions to them (which were a phone number and address only) then instructions to go to Cedar Rapids, IA - Alside to pick up a Crete trailer, and then several messages wondering if I had gotten the previous messages. I replied with a simple, 'just now got all of the 5 messages you sent leaving now'. Once I found the place to drop, I rolled up to Cedar Rapids, picked up my empty and was glad to be on the dry side of things again.

Next load was from Iowa City, IA to Nevada, MO for 12/31, anytime drop. Got to the delivery, and wouldn't you know it...only security was there...freekin holidays. Well I drop, but Crete doesn't have any empties there, so I bobtail out to what is now a Peelot...scan in my paperwork, but don't do an empty call. I message op's about the empty problem and wait. I get a message, 'messaging MO dispatch, stand by'...1/2 hour later I ask again what to do, I get a message, 'messaging MO dispatch again, hold on'...now here is where things took a 'worse than usual' snackbar turn. MO dispatch comes back and tells me to wait for an empty...I reply politely that the customer won't have anyone to unload the trailers there until Tuesday, and it's Saturday morning...please route me to an empty. They told me that they couldn't, and that I was suppose to wait. Like HELL!!!! Now by this time, in an attempt to get MO dispatch to answer, or even acknowledge that I exist, I had done my empty call w/o and empty, which was a mistake. Had I not done the empty call, I could have fueled (off solution) at the Peelot, and had enough fuel to make it home to FL from MO. But...I only had 1/2 tank, and that won't get me home, bobtail or not. After several rather heated messages back and forth, I decided I had endured enough and set off on my journey home, bobtail. I told dispatch of my plans, waited 10 minutes, put it in gear and started south. Just before Joplin, BEEP...Head to the K/C yard and pick up this load, and T'call it in the Lafayette yard...BEEP. A load out of Amarillo that had been sitting there for a couple days that delivered Tuesday in Lafayette. Now since I had wasted much of my day messaging and waiting, I had enough time to get to the yard before my 14 was up. 1st thing Sunday morning, off I went. Got to Lafayette, and all the trailers new, used, trade etc., were locked down and since it was the holiday, no one around to unlock. OK, here we go again. Messaged that there were no empties, and I had limited hours, so I was going to bed, will deal with it in the morning. Turned down the Q/comm and went to bed (I have figured out that just because the volume bar are at the all the to the bottom, you keep pushing the vol down button and it does indeed mute the stupid thing) Sometime during the night, dispatch offered me a load, and instructions to bobtail to get it off the Indy yard...but because I was doing a thing called SLEEPING, I didn't get it, and by the time I got up and read the message, I was within an hour of the delivery appointment..which was east of Dayton, OH. Message op's asking if the load got covered, and questioned them as to why they thought that I might be up, staring at the Q/Comm in the middle of the night, and I got......nothing. Over the next 4 hours, every 15 minutes, I sent off a message....nothing. I did a 'directions request' and got an automated message, so my Q/comm was working...Finally after my 15 or 20th message, I gave up. I had enough fuel this time to make it home...and said my farewells, and started south bobtail again. Just before Indy, I got someone to send me a message. The only thing they had was the load I had brought in, and a preplan. So, not wanting to exactly leave in the middle of winter(I would like to see spring, and the usual uptick in freight before I tell them where to shove this POS truck, their dispatch system, and their high and mighty, self centered, hypocritical, greedy attitude), I returned to Lafayette and sat there another day, without a bathroom, without a shower. Freezing my butt off because this truck had decided to turn on only the rear heater, and blow cold air out the front ducts w/o warmed coolant. I told Lincoln about it doing that when I picked up the truck, but he told me that it was just 'heat causing the air to rise out of the vents' which was wrong because cold heat doesn't rise, because it's COLD. Plus while I was the only one sitting there, you could hear the fan motor come on and off. So I pulled the breaker for the front HVAC blower, and it stopped. My second night was much warmer.

So, I haven't made any new friends in Lincoln lately. And in the 1st 2 days of this wonderful new year, I have attempted to bobtail home, 900+ miles, not once but twice. And my terminal manager is nowhere to be found. Have messaged her many times, and no response. Although she has had family illness' to deal with in the past, she may be on leave dealing with that, so given the fact that she has been one of my more reliable allies in this place, I will give her the benefit if the doubt for now.

 

that's rough snackbar...............

 

My year has not been near that bad so far, but I had to be real pro-active to drop a load early. 600 miles scheduled for 5 days. I dropped on day 2 and received 2000 run in what appeared a 3.5 day run. Sweet. Enroute to shipper load assignment changed to 0030 on 1/9 effectively removing one day....impossible tasking. I informed them that they needed to resched or t-call at some point. They could not reach anyone over the weekend, so we waited until Mon AM to resched to 1/10 0030. Now mt received be patient, no freight message. Hopefully, not too long.

 

#### Snackbar. You was in Kansas City, go down to the Ameristar and go to the Cattle Company restaraunt and hang out at the bar with Brandon.

I'm restarting after 45 hours and that includes logging alll time at shipper and receivers and logging extra hours for load planning. If I get DOT'd I at least want a few hours off my 70 otherwise he might smack me for putting up with this crap.
I spent today at Hooters, it doesn't get any better.

 

It's kind of sad to read your post. You've been a trucker for 17 years and you work for Crete? I'm just curious as to why? They advertise in every truck stop magazine monthly which means they can't keep drivers. That sounds like a bottom feeder company to me. I think you can do better.