CRETE - A Year in Review

I am in same boat as everyone else, 300 miles since friday. How are loads given out? Do drivers with most time get loads first? Crete needs to let drivers know what is really going on. Im 57 yrs old with some medical problems so I cant just jump to another job, at my age Im supposed to be looking forward to retirement and be in a comfortable position money wise but it looks like i'll go broke, one good thing Obama is adding several million dollars to food stamps

 

IF you can get them...

 

Dont feel bad i've been sitting in ohio for 2 days and they send me a load offer at 7pm for pu in pa at 10pm del mi at 7am...now as bad as i wanna get out of here. haven been up all day then run all night..dont think so.ask me if i can help them out..huh how about working with me!

But like uu said super..i'd quit if there was work at home...didnt wanna go back on the road again in the 1st place...times are tough and we all hafta make our sacerfices..and i know the grass isnt greener at any other company,

 

My husband and I delivered Saturday morning to Brookhaven, MS and there must have been at 15 Cretes at the same truck stop. Plus around 5 or 6 Schneider. We all sat until Monday morning. Except us, we finally got to leave today at 3:30... We will end up with 1,000 miles for the week.

We have decided to not take home time for awhile since we are getting so much time off out here. But, we are lucky since I ride with my hubby full time and we don't have kids, so we don't need to go home.

It is such a rough time for everyone and I just pray that it picks up for everyone.

 

At this time, thats the best attitude to have. Times have been tough for everybody, including truckers. We can do what we can or fight it, lets just hang in there and things will turn around. Dont jump ship, the grass is the same color - trust me! DRIVE SAFE

 

I did finally get a load... the same load they offered me at 2 a.m. was still available at 1230...but I had to ask(you can call it ask, more like an ultimatum... load, or I'll deadhead home). A whopping 575 mi run that didn't deliver until Tuesday night, live unload at a customer we normally drop and hook at.(Sams club D/C in Desoto, TX) And to top it off, the last dirtbag that had trailer 218595 that dropped in LaCombe, LA (I hope you're a member here and see what people think of you) left me a trailer with a broken air line that was being held together with fresh electrical tape, so I know that they knew the air line was leaking. I was going to try to make it to the Petro in Hammond(to save them the cost of having a road service truck come out), but when I turned out of the parking lot, the twist of the corner flexed the tape enough to start a real bad leak...I had to keep the truck at the governor to keep enough air to make it to the entrance ramp where there was a shoulder to park on. Fortunately, there were a number of road service shops the company uses in this area, and I was fixed in under an hour. But it still burns my butt that someone would stick a problem like that on someone else... It would have taken them less than a hour to get auth and to stop at a Petro or T/A on the way in and have it fixed. What if someone did that to a driver, and they had the air line blow in front of your family on the interstate, and because the brakes lock, your family parks under his ICC bumper, how would you feel then Mr. Dirtbag????? It just goes to show you the quality of drivers this company is hiring. This kind of stuff use to happen, but rarely, now it's a weekly event. Anyway, after I was empty, I got the usual, park and wait message... I didn't expect much. I stopped at the Wilmer terminal on the way over. (mainly because I shut down at 3 am, and all the truck stop spots were filled with the solar powered trucks) I decided to put the trailer in the shop since it was almost 6 mos overdue for an inspection. While sitting up in the drivers lounge, I just listened, without adding my $.02(yes me keeping quiet... I can't afford to even give up $.02). Many drivers had been there since the weekend, and it was Tuesday afternoon. I did get to jab dispatch a little, when I got empty I got the 'Freight is very short, check back after 1300 tomorrow' msg, my response was something about buying an industrial size roll of Charmin and strainin... I know...I know, it won't do any good. But I get in trouble for my comments here, I have to blow off steam somewhere, I figured I would save them the time of having to log onto the internet and checking up on me here. See... I'm doing my part to save the company money .

And to top it off, they're having a mis-information meeting here at Wilmer at 12:30, but you have to RSVP via the Q/C or you're SOL. OK? (actually they just wanted to know how much food to buy) I've heard the 'why we do the things we do' speech one-on-one with upper management, I don't need some local lackey telling me the same thing. I mean, once you've heard it from the horses mouth, why wait for it to come out of the other end of the horse????

It was kinda' funny though, Travis (one of the guys in my face-to-face meeting back in November) sent out an area wide message about 'do not reply to this msg', and 'freight being short, don't ask where you are in line'... It was all I could do to keep from replying anyway.(like when you tell your 3yr old not to touch something and then that's the first thing they try to touch) I just wanted to send him a message with the old line from the Incredible Hulk....slightly modified....'Sitting makes me angry...don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.' Just to see if he still remembers me...since I have been such a goooooood boy lately.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.. I haven't had a good rant in awhile...nice to know I still have it in me!!!

 

I took 5 and a half days off, I wasn't really ready to leave home, but, I sent a message saying I was ready. I was hoping for a "no freight, check back tomorrow" They had me a load in under 10 minutes.

 

Gee,...without our buddy ET providing his "day in the kife of a Crete driver" updates this thread has gotten slower than freight in February.

ET, hope your home time went well and I hope they got you rolling again. Hope everyone's miles pick up soon.

 

OUCH!!!!

I hope you brought plenty of books!!