CRETE - A Year in Review

2008​

WEEK ELEVEN​

Monday, March 10th through Sunday, March 16th


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Monday starts out at 7am with me sitting in a rest area outside of La Crosse, WI and just a few miles away from the first of my two scheduled stops. The problem is that I'm not scheduled to deliver until the tomorrow. I picked up the phone and put in a call to the customer to get directions, verify the delivery time (per the instructions on the BOL) and to take a shot at unloading early.

After getting directions I let the customer know that I was less than a ½ hr away and was available to unload if that was agreeable to him. He was surprised that I was already in town and said he could be at the shop within the hour. This is very good news to me, I really wasn't looking forward to spending an entire day in a rest area.

I arrived at my first stop and didn't have to wait too long for the owner of this small insulation company to arrive. He brought his wife with him and backed up a small moving type van to the back of my truck. Looks like this could take a while. I did consider helping them out, but it was all of 15° and I wasn't quite that motivated. They were only getting about 20% of the load, so it didn't take all that long anyway.

Once that drop was taken care of I had one more stop to make. This was also scheduled to deliver the next day and was only 3hrs away. Time to put in a call to them to confirm tomorrow's appointment and cross my fingers. If I can get the rest of my load off today it would save me a day of sitting around.

Unfortunately I didn't have as much luck with my second stop. I was informed that no one was in the shop to unload me today, but I was able to move up my delivery time from noon to 9am, better than nothing I guess. A quick trip up the road and I found a place to park at a small truckstop in Wausau, WI. It's a good thing I was able to get there early, there was only parking for about 20 trucks and it filled up early. There was also a Texas Roadhouse next door so I knew I would be having a decent meal tonight.

Tuesday morning rolled around and I headed over to the customer just a few miles down the road. They where waiting for me when I arrived and didn't waist anytime unloading me. My MT call was sent in and I was sent a two load offer.

Load 1 was a D/H PU and DEL going to Michigan (550mi). Generally I would jump on a load like this because I can roll off the miles as fast as I wanted to and deliver anytime I wanted. But there were two things that I didn't care for on this run. First of all, I would be hitting Chicago too close to rush hour for my liking and Second, I would find myself empty and looking for a load in Michigan. I have always been able to get a load out of there, but the last couple of times I have had to wait a few hours to get a load offer and both times I had to PU a load out of packaging company that was a live load. The worst part about this company is that they seem to always be running behind schedule. Last time it took me almost 5hrs to get loaded and wiped out my 14hr clock for the day. I was also anxious to get out of the frigid weather that had descended on the area.

Load 2 was a D/H PU with a live delivery in St. Louis (552mi) at 9am the following morning. I'm not crazy about the live unload, but since I wasn't able to fit in a 34hr reset this week due to the poor timing of P/Us and deliveries I find myself with limited hours and I'm not really in a position to work long days anyway. So an unloading delay won't really affect me too much. This, combined with the fact that freight is usually much easier to come by in the St Louis area made load two a better choice.

The rest of the day went by with nothing spectacular to report. My D/H PU was a quick in and out and the rest of the day was spent driving toward St. Louis. The most annoying thing was that I had to stop about 140 miles short of my destination because I only had 8hrs available today. I really hate it when I can't fit in a 34hr reset. It is very aggravating when I have to shut down so early when I'm wide awake and ready to roll.

Wednesday finds me driving my last couple of hour to make my delivery. The warehouse guy was standing outside when I pulled up and told me what dock to bump. I had hopes of a quick unload, but this was not to be. Almost 3hrs later I put in my MT call and was sent a single load offer within a couple of minutes. It was a D/H PU at the Budweiser plant just down the road that was to deliver to Pine Bluff, AR (387mi) anytime after 6am the following morning. Not the longest run in the world, but since I had already gone 140 miles today, it made for a respectable 500+mile day. The rest of the day was relatively painless and I decided to stop short of my destination in West Memphis so I could fit in a shower. I had the hours to make it to the customer (or at least close by) but not knowing what the parking situation would be like in that part of the country I decided it would be better to shut down for the night and get an early start the following morning.

I would never think about shutting down early if I had managed a 34hr reset, but now that my days are limited there is no point in pushing. It makes for more relaxed days, but it does affect my ability to get the miles I want.

I'm able to get going by 4am Thursday morning and make it to the customer by 7am. There are two trucks ahead of me but am able to get unloaded by 8am. Not bad at all for a local beer distributor.

My MT call is greeted by a nice 3 load offer. It's been awhile since I've had so many choices. A sign of better days ahead perhaps (except for Snackbar that is). One load was going to the Atlanta area and the other two were destine for Texas. I ended up taking the shortest of the loads offered because it was a D/H PU and Delivery so I could run it out as fast as I wanted without any wasted time on a live unload (as a matter of fact I had time to deliver the load tonight). The only thing that concerned me was the Texas part. Freight has been scary slow down there lately, but I hoped that by dropping my trailer tonight I would be on the top of the list for a load the following morning.

I am able to make it to the consignee with no drive time left for the day. I do a quick drop and grab an empty trailer and headed over to the local truckstop for the night. Time to put in my MT call and see what pops up. I had already put in a 10hr day and had no time left so I was just hoping for a load offer that I could PU in the morning. I was surprised to get another 3 load offer, looks like things are picking up as far as our Texas freight goes, at least for now.

The first load was a sweet run, 2400+miles with deadhead thrown in. It was scheduled to be delivered 5 days down the road, but was a D/H delivery and could be delivered early. My kind of dream run. The big scary part of this one is that it was going to Washington state and I don't know if I'm ready to take a chance of waiting around for a load up there again. It turns out to be a moot point however. It is a live load scheduled for 11pm tonight and I can't go anywhere until tomorrow morning. The other two loads where in the 1000 mile range and I selected one going to La Grange, GA (1017mi) because it was a D/H delivery for anytime Sunday. That means I can have it there by Saturday and would be in a strong freight area with some time left in my day to get another load. Or I could shut down along the way a work in a 34hr reset, but that is pointless and this time because I have come around on my logbook and am gaining solid hours for the next few days.

Friday is a simple day consisting of a live load and driving. However, I am very annoyed by the fact that I had only gained 10hr for today. Because of this I am unable to make it to New Orleans for the night (would have been a fine spot to force in a 34reset). Again, if I had been able to get my reset in earlier this week I wouldn't be forced into these silly short driving days. Oh well, I shut down at a crappy little truckstop in the middle of nowhere.

Saturday is an early start at 4am and I finish off the end of my trip to LaGrange, GA. As I'm pulling into the Wal-Mart DC I tried to use the CB to get the attention of the other Crete driver leaving to find out if he got the last empty trailer, but got no answere. This was meant more of as a little joke, but a definite concern. I can't help thinking about that last 15min break I took and wonder if it just cost me that last MT trailer. It's not unheard of to wait until the next morning to get a trailer out of a Wal-Mart, especially when I'm a day early with my delivery to begin with.

I do my drop and head out to the back lot to get an MT. Sure enough; I had watched the last one go out the gate. Grrrr! After a couple a trips around the lot I did find what appeared to be an MT trailer at one of the docks. It had a green light and sounded hollow when pounding on the side. I hunted down a yard dog, had him check on the status of it and was rewarded with an MT trailer. I just had to wait for 30mins for them to get around to pulling it out for me. Nothing happens with urgency in those places; at least I have my MT and am ready for my load offer.

It's around noon and I still have 3hrs of drive time left for the day. Once again I am offered 3 loads (just like the old days, I could get used to this). Load one was a Deptford, NJ (1000mi) load with a 3am live unload. I think I'll pass (didn't have the hours to do it anyway). This actually wasn't a bad load and I have been to this customer before. They are in a relatively unpopulated area, the live unloads go well and they are done early enough to get out of town with the next load before traffic gets out of hand. But it's still the northeast and I have seen very little of it as of late, once or twice in the last 6 months or so and I'd like to keep it that way.

The other two load offers went to Texas. I ended up taking one that went to Houston because it was a drop and hook on both ends. I wasn't fond of the idea that I was going to find myself in Houston looking for a load, but at least I'll be there early Monday morning instead of during a weekend. Should be able to get a load without too much trouble. I hope for the best and head off toward Atlanta to PU a loaded trailer from Anheuser-Busch north of town.

Things did get a little interesting when I hit Atlanta. The weather was not good and according to the national weather service there was a tornado warning in effect as I drove into town. Apparently one had done some minor damage downtown the day before and now they were reporting that radar had spotted on forming above the 285 loop in the southwest part of town. Oh, that's just wonderful, guess where I'm at. This is a little too close for comfort. As I got up to the north end of town the skies really started to get dark and the hail started coming down. For anyone that has grown up in tornado country, you know what that can mean. I just concentrated on not running over 4wheelers in the down pour and tried to get out of there as fast as possible. Not the easiest thing to do when you have 6 lanes of traffic come to a complete stop because the cars under the overpass decide that it's a great place to stop so their cars don't get hit by hail.

It was slow going for the next 40 minutes or so but traffic did finally start moving again and with the exception of a 3mi back up due to a recent accident involving a big truck and two cars. We were much more fortunate in the north bound lanes than the south side. They were backed up for 10-15 miles. I guess I'll be shutting down early after picking up my loaded trailer. There is no point in trying to get back to the Marietta terminal with that backup to deal with.

Saturday comes to a close at 4pm. The weather has made driving anywhere in the Atlanta area pointless at this time.

Sunday is another painfully short day due to logbook constrains. I run out of hours by 1pm. I now have to shut down until Midnight and then drive the final 5hrs to make my delivery. That makes so much more sense than driving during the day when I'm wide awake. After all, it would be insane to drive more than 5hrs during the day, right. We wouldn't want to go over that 70hrs would we? How I despise idiotic government regulations.

I have been fighting my logbook for the last week and hate it. At this pace I can only manage to get about 3300 miles/week. Not horrible by any means but I hate the restraint.

The worst thing is that my hours are starting to level out to the 7-10hr per day range. This works great for many drivers, but it drives me crazy. It also tends to limit the runs I can accept and I find that I end up with more and more short runs. I keep looking for that run that has enough time to work in a reset. I can usually count on something like that around a weekend, but as of now I haven't gotten one.

I need my reset!


WEEK ELEVEN RESULTS
Monday, March 10th through Sunday, March 16th
Miles include deadhead

Onalaska, WI to Wausau, WI.......................................146mi
Neenah, WI to St Louis, MO........................................552mi
St Louis, MO to Pine Bluff, AR.....................................387mi
Crossett, AR to Temple, TX.........................................480mi
New Braunfels, TX to La Grange, GA..........................1017mi
Cartersville, TX to Slidell, LA........................................616mi


Total Paid Miles................................................3198 miles
Actual Miles...........................3355

3198mi x .42 = $1343.16 plus $30 drop

 

This has been a problem for some time for me. It can often take over an hour to get my load info after I have accepted a load. Sometimes it helps to dive around a parking lot and turn off the motor and start it up again. Most of the time I just drive toward the load city and stop at a rest area or truckstop along the way to get the info. Occasionally this causes me to drive past my first fuel stop, but I put the blame on Qcom for that and just call in for a new fuel routing or send a Qcom message stating why I missed the initial stop and tell them where I want to stop for fuel. I have also found it helps to pull over and shut the truck off for 30sec or so and start it back up. This seems to jump start the messages for some reason. If I'm too close to the shipper or have nowhere to stop along the way I call one of the girls at my home terminal and ask for the info. They are much more pleasant to deal with and not as rushed as the dispatchers.