CRETE - A Year in Review

Crete will not pay you a dime regardless of how long you sit. They will however hound you to no end if your idle percentage is too high during that period. It seems that they want you to get a hotel in those situations but are no willing to reimburse you when you do. I don't know about anybody else but I couldn't afford a Hotel when I was averaging over 3000 miles per week. I most certainly can't afford it now.

 

Crying about only making $800 a week is taking a complaint a bit too far for a 5-day work week. In this economy, there are lots of OTR drivers out for much longer only hoping to do that well. In fact, there are lots of drivers with those $.30/mile companies that aren't doing nearly that well and staying out much longer.

Socialism?? How exactly is a poor world-wide economy and resulting low freight socialism? Seems there are two answers: 1) you do not understand the concept or definition of socialism, 2) you listen to conservative talk radio too much.

 

I agree...in fact, shortly after that comment, I hit stop and closed it out... He could have had video of him being a 'Goodyear Highway Hero' rescuing a family from a burning crash, and all the general public would remember(which more of the general public view Youtube than a trucking forum)...was a truck driver wishing he had some hookers and drugs.

 

To be honest, the new home time program has worked for me, but have only used it once. From MS the other week, they got me a load that dropped and hooked in Tifton, GA and authorized me to head home to handle my legal affairs. But when I dropped, there were no empties to hook to at the receiver, so I checked the Tifton yard and there were no empties there either, but there was a load going down to central FL with enough time for me to handle my affairs on Tuesday and get the load delivered on time. So I offered to handle it for them... This way, I get paid to go by the house. And they had no problem putting me on it. The last few home time loads to FL, I have been offered freight out of central FL, but had to remind them of my home time and turn down a decent run. This time, I was ready for a decent run and home time was done, but....you guessed it, nothing to haul. Only had to wait a couple hours, and an 1100 mi run to Ardmore appeared... Oh great...south OK/TX area again!!! Looks like I'll be camping out for the weekend. But I can accept a little down, the last 2 weeks have been the best miles I've seen all year. I had 2552 last week and 2830 this week. I was beginning to feel a little like ET.... I guess it was just my turn to make a mile or two, now who's next??? I'll hold the door for you. Number 17, your miles are ready, Number 17 please report to dispatch for your miles....

I did make them a little unhappy though. Since I've had this truck, I have never gone more than 5000 mi before the see-thru bowl on the new style fuel filter is full(they say to have it changed when the fuel is at the top of the filter, but that often, I would be in the shop way too often)... After talking to mechanics about it, they say to have it changed when I notice a problem with the truck pulling instead fuel level, but they have never had to change a fuel filter at the 'A' service mileage because the truck pulled fine right up to the 'B' service mileage. And since these new trucks have very few grease fittings to grease because of the 'lubed for life' bearings Freightliner installs, and the new fuel filters are a 'change only when needed' filter instead of a 15k mile 'must change', an 'A' service isn't nearly as 'critical' as it use to be...I've been known to occasionally skip an 'A' (mostly because any extra down time isn't near a shop, and when I'm near a shop I don't have extra down time. By the time I have down time and a shop, it's 'B' time)But I really try hard to never exceed a 'B' mileage. Well, somewhere in the panhandle of FL, well past Marianna, my truck all of a sudden started to fall on it's face really bad on the 'hills' in that part of FL. I must have picked up some bad fuel for it to change that fast. I purged the fuel filter and pulled a little crap out, and the truck ran OK for about 20 miles, then started running bad again. I messaged breakdown for the nearest shop, so I could get a filter change to see if that was the problem. The only shop in that area now is the Freightliner in Pensacola(the Lucky 13 at exit 70 is now closed). Holy crap...after 3 hrs and $130, I had a new filter. (the filter was $16). Once I saw the bill, I wished I would have just purged it on out of FL and found a local shop in AL to stop at before saying anything to breakdown. I knew it was going to be more at Freightliner, but man....that's nuts. Breakdown told me they wished I had messaged them closer to Marianna and they would have had me stop at the T/A...Man I wish I had their Crystal Ball so I could have predicted I would be needing to stop ahead of time.

Oh, surprise of surprises...I was sitting here in Ardmore typing away, and a load appears. Picks up tomorrow in Muskogee, delivers ASAP in N.Platte, NE. Not great miles, but it gives me something to do instead of sitting all W/E.

Cheers

 

One small thing I saw in the video I didn't like (besides the bad joke about coke) was this big G.0.A.L. sticker on the bottom part of his PASSENGER SIDE mirror, right about where you'd look for 4 wheelers in the blind spot.
I don't need instructions for toilet paper, and I dang sure dont' need that.

 

If you would have watched the remainder of the video, you would have had the chance to see and hear what the video was really about, the friendships he has developed while working in such a demanding industry.

While the joke might be in bad taste, it was a joke, and anybody who has watched any of his other videos would immediately realize this. As far as exposure on YouTube, his videos have done a lot to promote the industry, both the good and the bad. I hope you take the time to view some of this other stuff and see for yourself.

For the record, I don't think his dad worked in the circus either, he was a truck driver too!

 

I agree that specific line was crap. However, I think it was a joke and I took it as such. I have had a chance to watch some of Trucker Steve's videos and like some and hate some.

Just like everything else in life brothers! Like some - Hate some. Wouldn't life be boring without?

What we really need back here is another Ever update.

 

From the Business Journal (4/3/09) :
"FEDEX has confirmed that the company has cut 1,000 jobs worldwide, including 500 in its headquarters city of Memphis, Tenn." This is following the 900 layoffs in FedEx Freight in February.

Also I heard the other day that ABF layed off a bunch. Same with Con-Way. And so it goes. . . .