CRETE - A Year in Review

Well, this is it for me. I'm sitting bobtail at the Wally World in Mt. Pleasant, IA with about fifteen other Crete drivers who've been consigned to Walmart duty 'til Tuesday. I currently have 4500 miles for the month due to no lack of effort on my part and this will doom me to coming up short four out of the last five, so I went ahead sent a note to my terminal manager giving two weeks' notice. I guess I'm going to sit out the winter and maybe put my college degrees to work office temping while researching some other companies that might still be worth working for in the meantime. Sayonara, Cretans. This company has truly gone to the dogs.

 

Take care UPSIZER.
keeps us posted please on the rest of your life

 

I wish you the best of luck...it's not an easy choice anymore. I've almost walked off a time or two in the last few years...but they pulled a rabbit out of their butt and got me some improved miles for a month or two to delay my departure.

Mt. Pleasant wasn't the only d/c blessed w/Crete drivers, unless there wasn't any freight in the Spring Vally, IL area. There were a bunch of Crete trucks pulling Wally trailers coming across the OH and IN tpk the other day, then a half dozen bobtails in Lasalle, IL Flying Pilot when I fueled up this morning.

Speaking of fueling...the system has lost it's freekin mind. Between Oswego and Omaha(an 1144 mile run) I had 3 fuel stops, #2 was Lasalle, IL, #3 was Council Bluffs. I couldn't put any on in CB because I had only used a little less than a quarter tank. But, on this load...Council Bluffs to north of Philly (a 1202 miler) my only fuel stop was Lasalle, IL again. 820 miles away from my delivery.

And I do believe I saw one of Crete's shemale cross dressers the other day. I was in the Burbank, OH Pilot, heading in for my final pee break before starting my day. 1/2 way across the store, I saw a person walking away from me in a thigh lenght pink satin party dress....at first I thought it was kinda late for a princess costume, and early for prom...then HE turned around to pick something up HOLY *BLEEPING BLEEP* that's a guy in a pink party dress. Dear God in Heaven. I had heard that we employ two drivers that dress like that, but I was thinking something a little less formal...yea, like I was thinking they were conservative cross dressers...geeez.

 

knighton5 you might spend time out east but i really think that u would be kept real busy in the 11 western states

 

Good luck, upsizer. I must say that I'd feel much the same way. Keep us posted.

 

Hey SSB, Im down in Laredo picking up one of the first Cummins equipped Pro Stars for road testing. I took it over to the local dealer to have a small issue resolved and he said he thought he would never see a red motor in an International again...LOL Only got to put 350 miles on it today but so far so good. Tomorrow I start a 2500 mile run and then its off to Denver for I 70 testing and Im finishing my move to San Antonio.

Have a great T Day bud!

 

I'm curious why it does that. The same thing has happened to me twice. It ran me across a stretch of 64 in Illinois with few and far between fuel stops. I had a heavy load and forewarned dispatch that it would not be enough fuel. I even proposed two Pilots that were spaced out perfectly. They ignored me and said "you"ll be ok, just go with it". Sure enough I went all the way down to empty in the middle of nowhere and had to put in $80 cash at a mom and pop. Happened to me again recently, but when dispatch again ignored me I got my terminal to correct it.

 

I always just changed my fuel location whenever I wanted and just dropped a note to my TM. I never was questioned or had any problem doing so but my terminal manager was pretty easy to work with in most regards. I also ran mostly with 3/8 to 5/8 of fuel in my tanks and hardly ever filled up. That would usually make the fuel program spit out at least a couple of stops for my next trip. I would always try to calculate how much fuel I needed to finish up a load and have about 1/4 tank left and would get that amount of fuel on my last fuel stop.

 

I'm still not sure what Crete's going to do once they go DEF. When I spoke w/Tonn last month, he said that they were going to continue to buy Maxxfarce Internationals as long as they had the non-DEF engines in them, but really didn't give any hints as to which way they're leaning after that. I had heard (from two different, unrelated sources) that they were going to test one of the KW models with the Pacar motor...but you know how that goes, don't believe anything you hear, and only 1/2 of what you see.

 

I hate having to change, especially when it comes to night and weekend dispatch. The last time it took 3 hours and a bunch of messages and pestering to get them to do it.

I am getting almost 8 mpg on this 6000lb load, so that'll leave me with over a 1/4 tank. That will at least get me back out of there, with a little luck, I won't be headed n/e of there.