CRETE - A Year in Review

Sympathies.
I just got everything reorganized in Texas from Florida for trucking reasons. Not an enviable task. Good luck man.

 

Are you sure about the "always driving safe and legal"....by safe I mean I drive under than the posted speed limit, especially at construction zones...and average aprox 56mph on the drive line, one reason is because I usually dont drive straight 10 or 11. Reason is not that i cant do it, but I like to show short breaks (after the 3rd hour, 8th hour, plus the fuel stop) which in a bad event would help me avoid any fatigue issues on paper. And, by legal .... i mean showing 20-25 minute pretrips, 10 min fuel stops,5 min tiv, 10min intertrip, 5 min intertrip, 7min postrip, and minimum 30-45 min drop/hook (as opposed to the shorter versions: 15 pti, 7 fuel, 3 after break tiv, 15 drop/hook, 3min post) along with notes on every duty status change or stop, which time consuming, and prefer 47mph rather than 55mph for delivery estimate. Not that am lazy, but I dont ever wanna be in a rush (even if statistics show that probability of receiveing a citation or getting involved in some kind of incident is very very small)..... I understand that we cannot be 100% safe and legal 100% of the time due to the nature of the job at hand, but after 4 days of no shower, and back to back loads, and 14 days switichng from night shift to day shift to night shift to day shift....at some point during the year, I may not make those loads on time more than once. So, could I really maintain above 2400 mpw on a consistent basis knowing that?

 

Need to mention that you have to live so many miles frm the locations I posted, I believe they told me 1 hr frm were I have to park the truck at there warehouse or manitance facility.

There web site isn't as up to date as the flyers they send out to the drivers monthly or bi-weekly to keep us in the loop, I would suggest calling the number I posted, and do not fill out the on line app, ask them to mail you one and fill it out and mail it back in the mailer they provide.

 

I believe that because from my experience with many co-drivers...your really good at timing your events, and/or ......you and your dispatcher click real good and/or .... you always keep that pedal above 60mph and/or....you're shorting your on duty time to the bare minimum and you got a body thats totally fine and only needs with 4-5 hours of sleep in any condition and at any time in order to go full force on your next shift. Unfortunately, It seems I either subjected my body to too much abuse on my earlier years and/or... am just turning into a pussycat due to age, loneliness, introvertness, and lack of love. Anyhow, hope you can keep it up for many, many years..... I wont mind working for Crete and rake in $45k, cause even though food distribution and oil field work pays closser to $70, I need more than 34 hours off at home and steadier shift hours.

 

Keep me in mind if they expand driver opportunities out of Brandon. I am 3,miles sw of Auburndale. Well within an hour of Brandon. Thx.

 

I will.

I have a feeling they may expand here after they finish the new trailer yard, they may start it around Oct of this yr, and may start around March of 2014 adding some drivers. (just my GUESS)

We just do not have any room right now, with 10 trucks and about 20 trls at any given time.

I would still call them and ask for a app, fill it out, send it in and they do hold it for 1 yr,

 

I have officially pulled my last load for this company. And in typical Crete style...it ended in a "who's on first" type conversation with not one, but two people. I had told my A/M that I needed to get through the house BEFORE taking my truck to Deland so I could clean it out and then my wife could follow me down there instead of following my hand written directions. But for some reason they kept trying to get me to central FL, close to Deland instead. Maybe they didn't know where Ft. White was, but I kept reminding them of the need to North FL first. I pulled a load to Wally in Winterhaven, then they had me pull a load of Pepsi out of Orlando to Waycross, GA. Which was an adventure, because their directions sucked, and I had all of 1 hour to spare before they stopped receiving. I managed to find them with 15 minutes before cutoff. In Crete's infant wisdom(I said it that way on purpose)...they offer me a load out of Albany (Miller) to Smyrna for 9 am the next day...which I couldn't do since I had driven most of the day, so I wouldn't have had time to make it to the shipper to pick up, take a break, and make the delivery by 9...and a 2nd preplan from Social Circle to Orlando....Central FL...why Central FL???????? After I explained it to him again that I LIVE in north FL...and that I have to get home BEFORE I return the truck...he removed the preplans. But, the delivery of Pepsi stretched into 2nd shift...and that is where the "who's on first" discussion ensued. It finally came down to me saying "Forget it...I'm going home now, the truck will be in Deland Friday morning" and started rolling...to which they offered me a load that picked up Tuesday night that delivered to Palatka Wednesday....

This place is truly the most disorganized, incompetent bunch of morons I've ever worked for...I haven't added up the numbers, but this year was going to be shorter than last year if I had made it to the end of the year..and last year I averaged under 10,000 miles/month.... of my almost 10 yrs here...I averaged less miles here, and spent more time in the shop, than any other company...and the last truck I owned had over 800,000 miles...and it spent less time in the shop that these new POS's...I mean Prostar's

And when I got home this morning...I was greeted with a fresh bacon and egg breakfast...At least someone makes me feel appreciated

 

I hope you keep on posting a lot Snack. Your entries are always very fun to read. I'm on my last days too and tried to outsmart them by putting most of my stuff in storage before giving notice (because once before when I said I was applying to other companies, they told me they were getting a bus ticket on the spot). But Murphy's Law once again appeared and my car broke down (had to be jumped & towed 3 times the night I arrived). That's the post I had to delete because I was extremely down. Now when I come back to the terminal, I'm just going to call one of those places that takes car donations, and hope to get rid of it once and for all, lol.

 

They were too concerned that you were going to abandon your truck in Ft. White. They would rather have you have to unload everything on their property and then kick you off of it.

Congrats on making the big move away from Lincoln, you will never regret it.

 

Good luck to ya man!

I'm still sitting at home waiting for my truck to be fixed. I would have switched trucks but I'm taking a break from driving here in a month anyway. Probably by my next home time I will be starting a blog on what I'm doing.