CRETE - A Year in Review

I believe it's after 3 years. You get a 3rd week after 10 yrs....don't quote me on that, but if I remember right that is how they do it.

 

Well, my luck has gone from bad to worse. Have some legal issues at home that require my immediate attention...and they can't find FL freight...Does anyone know what the chrome bracelets feel like??????? If I don't get home soon, I will have the Sheriff fitting me for some for contempt of court. Then, while getting this load, the curly qualcomm cord tangled and I didn't have a good grip on the display, it pulled out of my hand and snapped back and cracked the screen.... I figured out how to do almost everything without the touch screen except doing the little scissor thing on the edit function, and how to get to that little orange exclamation point in the right corner(the one that tells you that you are close or out of hours). For a bit, I had to actually call into dispatch. My AM seems to be fairly laid back and cool under pressure. Meanwhile, the load I deliver Tuesday will put me at 1466 for the week...and it's about 1000 miles home, so I should have another decent week.

 

Oh.. I thought it was after 2 years you got 2 weeks... 5 years was 3 weeks and 10 years was 4 weeks... I'll look in my driver book today to make sure.

 

Its two years for 2 wks and ten yrs are 3...no more than that.

I got a phone call the other day from Smith Transport. Out of the blue...anyway don't know where he got my name. They offered me .35 cpm and two out with 2 days off. Not interested.

 

I've been getting 2wks for so long...I wasn't certain. I have no idea where my drivers book is anymore.

2 loads back to back the delivery appt was screwed up. Yesterdays del, both of us Crete's had to be squeezed in because whomever is the csr for them called the consignee too late and the appt was never confirmed. Todays delivery, q/comm says 1330, paperwork says 1330, but the guards appointment list says 1600...so another 14 hr shot to crap...I may never get home

 

Yeah, jmurman is correct.. I dunno where I came up with 4 weeks.. I del here in seymour,in and go pu a load in the am heading for keasby,nj... I guess I missed the change of address form that said i moved to nj.. this will make my 5th day in nj and I've only been out 10 days.

 

Didn't know Joisie was that big. Seems like in all my journeys only one overnight in Joisie on the turnpike. After that I always hold up in PA....get in.....get out.

 

If you lived in Joisey, you'd be in and out of Chicago or St Louis. Remember the unspoken policy....Never never never let the driver get close to home until hometime, then offer him the longest load in the opposite direction, and claim that there isn't anything headed towards home...that is only load available.

 

I agree with you on that one snack. I thought I was going to get home on thursday as I had a load of mt kegs going from Mississippi to the budwiser plant in houston. I thought great ill be about 100 miles from home. But NOOOOO. I get a preplan load from Pasadena Tx to Enid Oklahoma. (#### do these people know where the states are) Ok fine I took the load. It del on thur. Well while in route i get 3 preplan loads and a message that said if these will do to get me home.

I was on a load from Houston to Enid Ok, then get a load from Enid to Rogers Ark, then run over to Muskogee Ok and get a load to North Platte NE, then run over to Aurora NE and get a load to San Antonio Tx. WOW. I mean I ended up with good miles but some crazy planning and the long way home. I have a love-hate relationship right now.

 

I do have a bit of info that may be usefull in the future. For those of us that have the little q/comm unit (mcp200 - the one w/the slide out keyboard) if you break your touch screen like I have, there is a usb port on the left hand side. If you have a wireless(or usb wired) mouse from a normal computer just plug it in and you can use the q/comm like normal if you can see the screen. Before I discovered the mouse option I was still trying to use the q/comm, but w/o being able to touch the screen, I couldn't switch messages on the 'compose' tab. I could get it on the freeform msg, and then just send my AM a message about arriving/departing customer, load call info, hours etc. Switching to anything else took the tab/shift/arrow keys, and was a pain. I also went back to paper logs for 2 days...but then I discovered that, since the new q/comms are basicly mini computers using Windows-mobile OS, a mouse is just a simple plug-n-play usb device that disables the 'touch' part of the touch screen. Now it works just fine....except for the spider web of cracked screen I have to look thru. I am not sure if the bigger mcp300 units have the port like the 200's...if they do, it should also work. For my next tech tip, I will see if it can find my printer...since the under bunk unit has usb ports, all I need to do is see if it'll have the driver already in the system... Then I will have to figure out how to print stuff...if I can it'll make it easier to get directions...ask, print, clip, drive...