CRETE - A Year in Review

Heard on the radio last night that retail sales rose 1% the first time in the last six months... Let's hope we see a continueing upward trend, that would help us all.
Be safe.

 

You can have my place...right now I am just trying to hang on until better times. I'm trying to stay under the radar as much as possible.

You must have been well below 0 on your safety points. Once I got above (or below) -23 they started picking on my logs and anything else they could to get it closer to 0. (for any non-Crete drivers...They use a 'certain ethnic' safety point system here... negative numbers are positive, positive numbers are negative...30 is bad, -30 is good. Sorta' like golf) They've even been hurrying me along at getting my T'flow's sent in ASAP. I had a load the delivered at 2100 hours, and no place to send it off, and no freight to get me thru a truck-stop that had one. It wasn't even 24 hours before they started beeping me, and it just so happens I was sitting in line at the Peelot waiting to fuel when the message hit my truck, and was going to T'flow at the same time anyway. And now that I had to update things on my air-card, I am limited to 5gig of data a month (like all the major cell carriers are going to) So I am not wasting my air-time on their inability to run me correctly. Only time I'll use the card for t'flow is if I need a load in to make next weeks paycheck.(yes I'm back online...will explain later)

Things at the Supersnackbar campground, spa and resort are still suckey(if that's a real word) It's Friday the 13th, and the load I am delivering today has just put me over the 3000mi mark for the whole month. This may be my first sub-7000mi month, ever. Let's just say, the Snackbar campground aint a place you want to pitch a tent at right now... pitching a fit, maybe...if that's your plan c'mon over, the more the merrier!! I have a special rate for readers of the Snackbar Chronicles. If things are showing improvement, they haven't hit the poor side of the tracks yet (over here in the trailer park)

The only positive thing going on right now- My wife said we could afford a new air-card (since my temper disabled my last one) once she saw our tax rebate amount.(yes, I'm getting back a little- It's my own way of saving a little that I can't be tempted to use until tax time - interest free unfortunately) Since Obama is trying to save the day by writing as many checks as he can...I'll keep my tax settings they way they are...so when he raises the crap out of the taxes, I'll drop the extra off, and keep my take home the same...(remember, the difference between Obama and Osama is BS, I mean B and S)

L8tr

 

You're the exception. Most people that I have talked to here list 'getting home' as the number one complaint(other than the major drop in miles that the economy has caused). I rarely get home within a week of my request...But I live in the great state of Florida, so I don't get too bent out of shape over getting home, as long as they leave me alone for the duration of my earned time off once I get there - which they do, unless I over stay my hometime... I've been with 5 companies in my illustrious career, only a couple had me home regularly on time, but they were either a SE regional carrier, or an east of the Mississippi carrier. Neither of which could compare pay wise to Crete. Any of the nation wide companies had trouble getting you into or out of Florida... Guess that's the joy of living in paradise. (well, living there might be an exaggeration...lets just say my bills are sent there, I live in this patriotic Crete truck - that's what we are calling the Crete drivers in Shaffer trucks, because we are red, white and blue. I say it that way, because when people pass us, they see the red of the Crete first, the white (blur) of the trailer, and then a blue truck puttering along)

 

Long time ago we used to haul C&H sugar from their warehouse underneath the Carquinez bridge on I-80 in Crockett, CA to McCormick spice in Joppatowne, MD - just north of Baltimore.

How do you get from the Bay area to just north of Baltimore? Logic says you run I-80 across the U.S. to where it splits off from I-76 near Youngstown, OH. Stay on the Ohio Turnpike, it becomes the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and take that out to Breezewood, PA. Get off the PA Turnpike, follow I-70 east toward Baltimore, take the I-695 loop north around Baltimore, get on I-95 north, and in a few minutes you're in Joppatowne.

But... in order to save money on the toll roads... we have a different way. Take I-80 across to the Quad Cities, and pickup I-74. Run that down to Indianapolis and get on I-70. Take I-70 out to Washington, PA and hop on I-79. Take I-79 south to Morgantown, WV, and then take I-68 east. I-68 dumps into I-70, and then on to I-695 and I-95 as above.

Now it's "only" fifty miles further to go that route. And granted, it does save the company the expense of running the Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania turnpikes.

Here's the problem with this --

1) - The driver doesn't get paid anything for driving those extra fifty miles. Not only does that company save money by not paying toll fees, it saves money by not paying the driver for travelling the "suggested" routing as opposed to the "practical" routing.

2) - It's only about 110 miles from Morgantown to I-70 at Hancock, MD. I'd swear on a stack of Bibles that if WV & MD DOT were to ever straighten out I-68, it would only be about 38 miles - because better than 2/3rd's of that 110 mile distance is either going up a hill, or down a hill! If you're not in a low gear crawling up a hill, you're (hopefully) in a low gear with the jake's on crawling down a hill.

The company saves itself money by staying off of the toll roads and by not paying the driver the $20-some dollars s/he's entitled to for running the extra 50 miles, while at the same time sending them over a road that is more suited for a Dall sheep than a tractor-trailer weighing 78,000+ pounds.

Maybe this is what they mean when they say "There Are No Shortcuts".

 

I havent had any problems getting the OK to run I-80 all the way accross, if you want it delivered ON TIME, they always say its OK. Nobody in Lincoln wants a load delivered late (remember that) when you request TOLL on the QLCOMM.

 

For not hiring they sure are running a lot of ads on XM/Sirius.

Also a recruiter called me the other day about their container fleet (Ports of Chester and Richmond). The last contact I had with Crete was back in September or October. I was surprised to get a call out of the blue.

 

I hate to curse myself for next time out, but it is apparently possible to sometimes get good miles in this economy if you can draw the lucky card to get out west. I'm sitting in Oak Grove, MO taking a restart after ...

2/9 - 2/11
Conway, AR - Apple Valley, CA
1591 miles

2/11 - 2/13
Irvine, CA - Farr West, UT
832 miles

2/13 - 2/17
Ogden, UT - Graniteville, SC
2048 miles (Ran 1121 to Oak Grove, MO before restart)

That's 3544 for the week and 927 to start next week although I'm gonna head home for a couple of days after I drop in Graniteville on Tuesday. I could have done even better had I not gotten detained at the Irvine shipper juuuuuust long enough to get stuck in the LA area rush with short hours. That left me no choice but to stop in Lizardville (Ontario) instead of Hesperia as planned which caused me to have to pull up 45 miles short of the Farr West consignee the evening of the 12th. Then I got detained on the live unload causing me to start out on this run with 4.5 hours already on my clock for the day. Could've had a perfect, maxed-out week otherwise ...

Of course, that followed a 1903 week that left me sitting in North Little Rock all last weekend making for a 2723.5 average for the trip, but I'll take it ...

 

Do you know where I can find a spreadsheet like this?

 

38 miles, RiverOtter? That seems about right

 

Wait.....Listen......... you hear that???? That's the sound of life --- sucking!!! I managed a mere 1490 mile week that ended up in Metairie, LA this week. Now I am sitting in the Peelot in La Place, LA. (one of the last Cretes on the lot) I got here Friday around 1300, it's now Sunday around 1700. And according to OPS, I'm not likely to see anything until sometime tomorrow. Looks like another crapo week for me. I have sent in several messages to my FM over the weekend so that she'll start her Monday off right. They managed to get me into almost every 'freight black hole' in the eastern US except PA... oh great...guess where they'll send me tomorrow... At this point I may as well be practicing my 'would you like to super size your value meal for $.89 more??' speech. At the miles I am making now(and have been making all year), stocking shelves at the Wal and flipping burgers part time would net me the same as what I am making right now, and I'd get home every night... I know it's the slow time but geeez. $500-600 take home a week? I was doing that 13 years ago running regional, getting home a couple times a week.

If you are thinking about leaving your company and coming over here...don't... it isn't any better here...plus we don't need any more company sitting around the truck-stops contemplating the meaning of life.