CRETE - A Year in Review

SS, I agree with you for the most part but try to think of it from the "suits" point of view. He(she) sits down and looks at the numbers, then they read in the political section of the paper (or online) about new incentives for saving fuel, etc, etc. and then they decide to do this to the tractors, and now I'm seeing more and more trailers with shirts.

You can rest assured that in an office somewhere buried in corporate HQ is a bean counter pulling his(her) hair out trying to make the numbers work. The driver on his 3rd day in the driver lounge of (insert truck type here) dealership is the one being put out, not the suit. I agree with you that the "suits" should have to wait in the waiting room of the BMW or Mercedes dealer for 3+ days, maybe it would change the way they think although I doubt it.

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Unfortunately[/FONT], I think the "If you don't like it, leave" attitude is what you'll find in every large trucking company out here and I don't feel like flipping burgers right now, so I guess I'll keep driving.


I hope you get out of your funk soon, you're what's keeping this thread going right now and we as drivers need your input. Keep the shiny side up brother.

 

You can thank CARB for the trailer skirts. They are required in California on 53' trailers

 

I was just under that, I had a little over 30 days at home this year.

 

Well, I have had about enough of Internationals. I was told to get my truck to the Lincoln shop right after I got hit in Carlisle, so that their body shop could do the fiberglass work, and then replace all the remaining parts that were cracked or damaged, then they could close out the claim against the other truck that hit me. So, I finally got op's to get me into Lincoln. I had been holding off getting other things repaired until I got to Lincoln...kill 10 birds with one big ace stone...well, after spending 5-10 minutes in the shop office getting all the things wrong written down, I parked my butt in the lounge. This started on a Friday, around 3pm. I needed the body work, an A service, my Q/comm was still giving me the Microsoft blue screen of death lock up a couple times a week (not counting the whole *bleeping* cell network that Q/comm uses going down Friday), I still have an un-godly stutter and almost stall when I first start the truck, my jake is randomly quitting, my no-idle heater isn't pumping warm coolant to the front heater core, so my dash vents are blowing cold air when I'm trying to take a break, my front heater is just freekin nutz. Driving down the road, and switch it to a combo selection (floor and defrost, or dash and floor...etc)and one of the selection gets all the hot air, the other get cold air. My truck has also had a shimmy in the front end when I brake, and pulls bad to the left when it's wet outside. My Onguard has a random brake-check habit when nobody's in front of me.. Oh, and somewhere between Fulton, NY and Phoenix, AZ, I lost the top plate of my frame mounted load lock rack..because the little spring loaded cotter clip no longer had any spring, and the load I pulled required both load locks, so the plate didn't sit down tight against the bottom part...and vibrated the wing nut loose...All this and I only have 26k on it. Well, the body shop didn't fix my truck, the guys that reload the software on the Windows based Q/comm only work 8-5 mon-fri, so that didn't get fixed. They couldn't find any problem with my heater controls or the diverter plates that change where the air blows. Couldn't find a problem with my jake brake. Had no clue as to why my front blower is even on when I use my no-idle heater (they claim it isn't suppose to come on, but at least this shop admitted that it was indeed blowing air). They still have no clue as to why these Maxxforce engines stutter, so they have no idea what to do with that. In the 2 days I was here in the shop, I got an A service, some grease on my fifth wheel, got my Onguard mounts adjusted...and a new drivers side windshield wiper (that was damaged because these trucks allow so much ice to build up on the windshield when it snows), a new load lock top plate/wing nut and clip, and I won't know if they got the front brakes fixed until I get rolling...as of Sunday, there were no loads available on the yard (or any empty trailers) and no loads to offer until sometime Monday...so it looks like my good run of miles will come to an end. Although I did run 11000+ by the 27th...so I guess it wasn't all bad...but it's frustrating to come to the corporate office's main repair facility, and get some of the worst service and repairs I've seen since I was in Salt Lake City...(when I almost had to dope-slap someone)...

I messaged my terminal manager with some, shall we say, slightly hot-headed, unflattering messages about my experience and my intentions for future visits to ANY of Crete's shop...plus a small editorial comment about my overall opinion of all Crete's shops abilities to even come close to accomplishing their required duties... basically it went something like 'their head is so far up their butt, they have to chew their food twice', and "I wouldn't trust them to fix a broken down weed eater". I have given up on giving a crap about their equipment or their success or profit/loss. I am running on empty when it comes to patience and have almost no tongue left to bite when it comes to being quiet and pleasant.

 

I didn't know my dad drives for crete too, lol.

 

Big KNOCK on wood. My International has not been possessed by a demon....yet. She does have a personality and I do hate the ON GUARD (should be OUTLAWED). Only problem I have is with equipment that should have been repaired is passed on as AOK. Seems that there are lots of people at the HQ level that have a job description of second guessing and auditing the drivers' every move. Whether it is hours, inspections or logging, etc.

 

I have just started talking to a Shaffer recruiter today. I have to get a W2 to prove that I worked for a company that went out of business but after that I should be good to go. Looking forward to getting back on the road after a long absence. I'm enjoying reading all of these positive posts.

 

NO! That never happens!

You know I #####ed about a bad allignment and drives that were ate up at my previous company for 6 months and they wouldn't change them period. They finally changed them and gave me 8 brand new ones - 4 hours before they brought me to safety and fired my ###.

 

Don't even get me started on log's! I am in a battle royale(big shock I know) with my log lady. I have NEVER agreed with this company's manditory minimum log times for pretrip, load/unload, drop&hook and fuel... Now that I am elogging(or training) I get almost daily messages from the log-nag about not taking enough time on line 4 for those. In fact she said the wrong thing the other day to me...she said ''I can't approve you moving to e-log's until you start following company policy pertaining to the required times on line 4"...oh darn, you mean ........I have to keep using paper...how will I ever make it without e-logging... Plus she said that I would start being issued safety points if I didn't comply (after I told her I choose the other company policy about logging, 'log it like you do it' since an experienced professional like myself can normally accomplish my duties more efficiently than someone sitting behind a desk can imagine it should be done). Needless to say, the offer of involving the DOT and lawyers has been offered from my end...they haven't taken me up on that just yet. We may need to start a 'trucker-spring revolution' , hey, it worked in some muslim 3rd world countries to rid themselves of a ruthless dictator...it might work at this company....anyone interested in 'occupy Crete'?

Oh, and I officially have an asset manager... I was informed 5 minutes after I left the Lincoln terminal on my way to pick up my load to Richmond, IN...a load that they then pulled me off of, and put me on a load out of the same stinky dog food plant in Pawnee City, NE headed for Louisville for Wed afternoon...which sucks because the Richmond, IN was more miles in less time, and we pick up right back out of there. I haven't actually spoken to my new boss, in fact, I'm not entirely sure what exactly he is in charge of other than loads and dispatch...I guess it's another one of Crete's mystery changes that has to be figured out as we go along...

 

I don't know if Shaffer is the way to go if you need miles to make some fast cash. Most of the Shaffer drivers I talk to are starving...even before the normal seasonal freight slowdown we're in right now.