CRETE - A Year in Review

Yeah Im sick of crete trucks already. Was an o/o too long i guess. Looking at more options unless crete raises their speed to 65, gets rid of on-guard and switches to 13 speeds.....lol that wont happen.

 

I ran out of WM DC in Wintersville, OH for SNI for almost two years. It wasnt all that bad. Two years ago I ran out of Pottsville DC for Transport America for July 4th. That was the best week I had while I drove for them(almost 3000 miles, no lie) One of the WM guys tried to hire me for the Private Fleet, but I didnt have enough experience at the time.Guess I got really lucky. Sorry to hear that they aren't running you guys. I have heard similiar experiences at other DC's that supposedly can't handle the holiday freight.

 

I live very close to Pottsville. What is it that they do so bad at that DC? I ask because where I'm at right now, we are not busy. In fact my dispatcher just called me a bit ago and said that all my loads are cancelled for the rest of the week. I had seen a Crete ad awhile ago advertising for this fleet, and while it didn't interest me then as I was working steady, I was actually starting to give the idea some serious thought. If it's really as bad as you guys say, I think I'll pass.

 

Lots of Joisey, New York(the boroughs, not sure they're allowed to have a regular wally in the city)...plus they're a grocery d/c, which means mostly you stand at the back of the trailer and sticker the pallets as they come off...at least that is what most of the drivers who were force into doing it said.

 

Honestly, if you ever see Crete's equipment turned back up to 65 or 13 speeds in them...you need to buy a big steel reinforced umbrella to keep the flying pig crap off of you...because either Hades will freeze over, or pigs will fly before that happens. Most of the drivers over here wouldn't know what to do with a 13speed...2 switches on the shifter...they'd just sit there staring at it shaking their head.

 

Well...my quieter time is over. When I got empty this a.m. I wasn't sent to the Wally d/c. They sent me a load from Reading headed deeper into Coryland...up near Hartford for tomorrow. I politely asked if they had anything else that would get me out of Purgatory, not send me deeper into it since I had already done 2 NY(state, not city) and one eastern PA(almost NJ) in the 12 days since leaving home....only to be ignored. Sooooo, I just started with the blank messages(since I know my A/MM hates that). Only to be told that I need to accept the pplan and my messages were only coming through blank. I let him know that I guessed it was silly of me to actually expect him to answer the message I sent in 20 minutes ago....only to be gruffed at about being Monday, and some other blahblahblah stuff. To which I replied something a little less polite...something along the lines of....'yea, who cares if the drivers are going bankrupt with these crappy runs, as long as Crete is making money'. Then a back and forth about how my miles b.p.(before Paul) were 127,000 and that I might...just might get to 120,000 this year...a piddly $3000 drop in pay since he became my a/mm, but since his pay won't change...who gives a flying flip. And an offer from me to trade jobs for a month to see how he liked it from this side of the q/comm.

I told him that 120,000 has me at a crossroads in my career here. I can a) be assigned another a/mm that -can- get my miles up or b) make the suits in Lincoln happy by leaving, thus opening up a truck for a cheaper driver to be hired...thus making them more moolah. He didn't respond.

 

WM fleets are totally different if you are actually on the fleet, not just helping out on a "pop up" fleet. I know at Pottsville that is the case. If you are on the regular fleet, (Shaffer or Wal-Mart) you have a much easier time than if you are a popup driver. Popup drivers have to wait for loads off premises and cannot use the driver lounge or showers there (gotta go to the Pilot 20 miles south). Heard similar stories about other areas, but know this for fact. Working a popup is nothing like working for the DC fleet.

 

You had 3 accidents that were your fault.....the paint, the mirror and the cab extender. Please, please stay at the postal service.

 

Yes that was written by Marine Corps General Smedley Butler. The guy was a little bit nuts, wouldn't put too much stock in his musings. His body was completely tatted up (remember this was turn of the century 1900, that didnt become the 'norm' for almost 100 years), had numerous nervous breakdowns and was trumped up by Douglas Macarthur during the Bonus Army protests.

An interesting sidenote for me is in Oliver Stone's JFK, Tommy Lee Jones mentions a butler named Smedley but I have never found any information confirming that they are trying to reference the general, not even mentioned by Oliver Stone in the director's comments DVD.

 

I've worked for three trucking companies (including Crete in the past) since the 90's and never wanted to use any major drugs as much as i want to now to ease the pain. I can't even sleep at night when they jerk me around so many times. Had to use 1 1/2 'home' days just to clean out my 'new' e-log truck (which was supposed to have already been detailed but was filthy) and move all my belongings, then was ordered to return to work Thansgiving day - on which I'm sure I'll just be sitting waiting around.