CRETE - A Year in Review

This never ceases to amaze me. I t-call a load in North Salt Lake and they confirm it. I send in my new PTA (that immediate time), my fuel level, mt trailer #, everything (even sent in my remaining hours left for today). After a half hour, I get nothing. I repeat the messages periodically OVER THE NEXT FIVE HOURS !! Finally I get a response 6 hours later: "what's your PTA?". I want to scream. In fact I think I will!!!

 

So much for things getting better and faster on the weekend shift...that didn't take very long.

 

I managed a 2775 mile week getting me home for my vacation. My new A/M did a great job getting me home with miles...and I didn't hesitate to bring it up...thanking him/her for a great job. I know they get plenty of drivers griping and complaining on a daily basis, I figure it would be refreshing to get a positive message for a change.(I'm not sure how long it took for her/him to regain consciousness from the shock)

 

Per my handy Truck Stops Plus Template, which I use with Streets & Trips, Gordy's Truck Stop, which is a large truck stop on US-97 in La Pine, OR to the south of Bend is the nearest truck stop with a scale and is approximately 25 miles away. However, (and this is a big however), there is a weigh station in between Bend and Gordy's. Oh well.

 

I have zero confidence in my new AM. Spoke to him for the first time this week...zsounds as if he's about 22

 

I've asked mine for the extension number they've assigned him/her...and have never gotten an answer. I'm starting to think that she/he doesn't want to ever talk in person, only messages over the q/comm. Although I had Paul for close to a year and only spoke on the phone once or twice.

 

get a day or twelve off in the new kingstown, PA terminal on some issues with my truck oh well in about 6k miles i should get a new one anyways

 

just call in and push someone's ext. then when you get someone else tell them you forgot his/her ext. number and ask what it is


Happy Father's Day to err'body!

 

Yikes! That makes it sound almost worth taking a chance thatthe highway scales won't be open.

 

I totally agree. They're in it for their own pocketbook, no matter what they have to say or do to a driver. I was unloading/loading in a New Jersey port one day and got a call from my own DM about a broker load that was coming back to our main terminal and would I mind giving the guy a call? Being the swell company guy, I said no problem. Well, oh, there was a problem. I called the broker who said he had "a couple thousand" pounds of bananas over at Door 6 for me. Good, I thought, and went to pick it up. When I got there, the door manager didn't know who I was or what I was doing there and told me to leave immediately. I gave him my story and guess what? The broker hadn't actually BOOKED the load when he talked to me. I had to leave the door and find a parking spot somewhere in the middle of a very busy port.

There were other problems, too, but suffice it to say that by the time I got finished with this one broker's "couple of thousand" pounds of bananas, I had picked up SIX loads from him, bound for all kinds of locations, not just the return to our main terminal. Not only was I scaling very close to 80K, and had spent 7 HOURS on the port putting my own available drive hours at risk...and my own DM knew nothing about any of them. He was REALLY unhappy because the broker hadn't agreed to a price and would most likely low-ball them.

So if you're a broker reading this, understand that it ain't personal...I hate brokers.