CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK TWELVE
Monday, March 23rd through Sunday, March 29th
Miles include deadhead
​

This fine week started out great. I was still at home and didn't have to get back on the truck until Tuesday, but that day came around soon enough.

I had actually expected to spend an extra day or two at the house due to freight availability. Like many parts of the country, freight out of the Phx area has been a little tough and I just assumed I would have to wait for an extra day to get a load out. I mean, I've been getting layovers all over the country lately. Of all places, this would be the one place that I wouldn't complain about. That in itself should have been a strong indication that I would be expected to roll first thing Tuesday morning.

In an attempt to avoid a delay in getting a load Tuesday morning, or perhaps more accurately, doing my best to avoid driving the 40 miles down to the yard only to be told that I would have to wait for a load, I put in a call to dispatch on Monday night.

By doing this I was hoping to find out one of two things. Can I count on another day at the house or what time should I show up at the yard. As it turned out they gave me two loads to choose from. Both picked up in Phoenix first thing in the morning, one went to Oklahoma(1000mi) and the other went to Columbus(2000mi). Both were appointment deliveries on Friday morning which made the decision process rather easy. Looks like I'm on my way back to the Eastern Time zone once again.

What dispatch hadn't told me was that I had to make two pickups on the run. The first one would be in Phoenix and the second would be in El Paso the following morning. Not that it really made any difference as to which load I would have taken. It just meant that my first day on the road would be a little shorter than I would have liked, not much more than 400 miles. That also threw up a red flag regarding my delivery in Columbus. As it stood I was looking at a very tight schedule on this cross country trip, but with the El Paso detour thrown into the mix it was all but impossible. As a matter of fact, throw out the "all but". It wasn't going to happen. I didn't have to wonder if I was going to miss my appointment so much as how late would I be. If all went smoothly I would be there by 9am for a 7am delivery time. Yeah! Things always go smoothly in this business.

The first omen appeared when I arrived at my first pickup Tuesday morning only to be told that I needed the correct pickup number. Apparently the two random numbers that the load planners had supplied me with were of no use in this particular case. The shipper only had one load going to my destination and he was holding the BOL for my load in his hands, but without the proper PU# I wasn't going to be loaded. Understandable from his point of view, aggravating from mine. Back to the truck I go to await an answer from dispatch. Shouldn't be too long, after all it's only the busiest time of the day for them.

The response actually came through much sooner that I had expected it to and I found myself backed to the dock within 30mins and loaded 15mins after that. I even managed to pull out before my original appointed arrival time because I had pulled into their lot early in an attempt to beat rush hour traffic. Off to El Paso I go and about 7hrs later I find myself parked for the night at a Pilot on the north end of town.

I was actually picking up my load more than 20 miles away, but there were no truck stops in that area and I was unsure of parking at the customer, so I chose to hold up short. This would later come back to haunt me, but how was I to know at the time.

Once parked for the night I did a quick post trip walk around the truck only to find myself looking at a flat tire on my tractor which would normally be a pain in the back side at the end of a day, but it just so happens that this is one of the few Pilots that actually has a service center in it. All I had to do was drop the trailer and pull into the bay for a quick fix. Lucky me.

I started out my Wednesday by showing up at the customer an hour early only to find a locked gate and a guard that told me to park off to the side until 6:55 for my 7am appointment. Oh well, that will happen some times. I also note at this time that there is plenty of parking in the area and I could have spent the night here. That would have been nice because I could have waited to start my 14hr clock. As the day progressed this little "should of" really caused me some headaches.

The first hour crawled by and I was eventually allowed to pull into the yard and head on into the shippers office. My first pickup in Phoenix was delayed by an incorrect PU# and I was uncertain about the validity of my PU# for this one. My concern was quickly laid to rest when I checked in. I did indeed posses the proper secret code to have my load released. What I did not have, however, was an appointment time. Apparently, to my great dismay, no one from Crete had called to set my appointment and I was simply told to pull up to an available dock and they would get to me when they could after they had finished with the other trucks that had an appointment.

Messages started going back and forth between myself and dispatch over this new development. They were convinced that this was a first come first served customer. I assured them this was not the case because I was definitely the first come guy, but that was obviously not translating to the first loaded. There was no doubt that the shipper was adamantly sticking to the appointment theory. That left me and another Crete drive that was experiencing the same fate stuck in the middle of a power struggle between the two. Guess who lost that battle.

I took this opportunity to inform dispatch that I was already in a bad position to make an on time delivery when I pulled in this morning. It was now an absolute, I was looking at an extended delay do to this oversight and there would be no possibility of a timely arrival. This message was ignored as best I could tell for I received no response to acknowledge my situation.

I also used my unplanned free time to inform the training department that I was once again out and about and able to take on a trainee if they were in need of help. It took all of 30mins before my phone started ringing and my next trainee was assigned to me. I would have to be rerouted through Nashville to pick him up, but it was only about 90 miles out of the way. The load was going to be late and in need of a new appointment anyways, so an extra couple of hours wouldn't make any difference at this point.


The delay in getting loaded was indeed extensive and it was close to 5hrs before I was able to pull out with my load. A whopping 5 pallets that took a whole 15 minutes to load once they decided to put their mind to it. I think it was a power trip thing. Oh well, what ya gunna do?

I was once again off to the races with a solid 1600+ miles ahead of me. It was an uneventful trip and other than a quick stop off in Nashville to pickup my new student, nothing to write home about happened.

When I let dispatch know of my new PTA of 1pm as opposed to the original 7am appointment time I fully well expected my appointment to be reset for the following day. I wasn't exactly optimistic about delivering on a Saturday morning (if the customer would take a delivery on the weekend) and getting a load out before Monday. Like many other parts of the country, Ohio has been a bit of a dead spot lately and I was beginning to think that I just might be spending a few days at our fine terminal. In all honesty I wasn't all that worried about it because I assumed I would be allowed to Tcall the load if it were necessary.

All my worrying was for naught because while on enroute to Columbus I was sent a message from dispatch to let me know that my appointment had been reset for 1pm. That was great except for the fact that when I informed them of my PTA I had not taken the time zone change into account or the fact that I had to drive to the trainee's home during Nashville's rush hour to pick him up. I actually managed to get to town just before the traffic got really bad, but still found myself an hour behind schedule and was worried that my load would be refuse due to my tardiness.

There was only one way to find out and that was to show up and see what happened. As it turned out all was ok when I pulled in 45mins late. I was assigned a door and the unloading followed shortly thereafter. The MT call went in and I headed on over to our yard assuming I would spend the rest of the weekend there. It was a Friday afternoon and I really didn't think a load would be offered.

Not so, for the qualcom shot me a load offer before I made it to the yard which was only a couple of miles away and it was a #### good one. One of those sweet preloaded trailers sitting on the other side of town going to North Platte, NE(1067mi) with a drop delivery whenever I could get it there. It certainly doesn't get any better than that, until I arrived at the shipper to find out my preloaded trailer wasn't. I was instructed to hook to the trailer that was currently in a door and wait for the loading to be completed. It was suppose to be ready by 2pm and it was currently 5pm. According to the shipping office "It should be ready any minute now". That sounded encouraging, which was in stark contrast to the feeling that overcame me when I backed to the trailer and hear the tall tail sounds of bumping up to an empty trailer.

Sure enough, the trailer was in the door, but it was completely empty and after a short conversation with the Crete driver next to me who had been there since noon with the same 2pm pickup time as me it became clear to me that I would be spending much more time there than I had anticipated. The minutes turned to hours and the loading finally commenced at 8pm and it was another two hours before the green light started flashing. So much for a turn and burn. At this point my hours had long ago expired and I had no choice but to have the trainee drive us over to the yard and shut down until the following morning. Not all that bad of a deal overall, I went from the expectation of spending the better part of the weekend in a terminal to picking up $30 in detention pay and I had a solid trip in front of me.

Other than the lengthy delay at the shipper the remainder of the trip went marvelously. My trainee was in his sixth week and was on my truck to finish up his last two. I was able to put him in the driver's seat and let him do the driving. All I had to do was sit on the passenger's side and try not to go insane with boredom.

We pulled into North Platte by noon on Sunday and did our thing and headed to the Flying Hook on the corner and awaited our next load fully well expecting a no freight message. But once again I was presented with another fine load that picked up in western Nebraska going to OK(1072mi). Ah, just like the good ol' days. Sure beats the hell out of sitting in a truckstop all weekend.

The only stumbling block was that this was a two stop pickup with appointments at both places along with an appointment live unload delivery, but the timing of the appointments was not bad at all that bad and the down time was reasonable. Good enough for me, it would make for one of my best weeks in recent memory. I was actually feeling like a truck driver again as opposed to a security guard keeping an eye on empty equipment.

The first pickup of this load wasn't scheduled until 7am Monday morning, but it was almost 200 miles away and we headed on over to cap off the week.



WEEK TWELVE
Monday, March 23rd through Sunday, March 29th
Miles include deadhead

Phoenix, AZ to Columbus, OH..............................................................2122mi
Columbus, OH to North Plate, NE........................................................1067mi
North Plate, NE to Scottsbluff, NE(first leg)...........................................198mi

Total Paid Miles..........................................................3387 Miles
Actual Miles.................................3445 Miles

3387 Miles x .43 = $1,456.41 + Stop pay $30 + Training pay $64.29 + Detention pay $30 = $1,580.70

 

Here are the numbers for the first quarter of 2009. Not great compared to past years, but all things considered, I suppose I should be content.

 

Well, here I sit once again. Have been running strong for the last couple of weeks out side of a hang up or two. The Wilmer shop being one of the hangups, but then that's nothing new.

I have been hanging out in the middle of the country and doing quite well, but that string of good luck came to an end when I was put on a load from Baton Rouge going to PA. Looks like nothing has change up here as far as freight availability goes. I had a wonderful drop delivery up here in Quakerstown with the dreaded "do not deliver early" message. That left me in our New Kingstown terminal on Saturday afternoon with nowhere to go because this load could not be delivered until Monday.

I tried the Tcall thing but was told no freight was available and they were still trying to get trucks that were currently empty lined up on Monday freight. That told me I would be poo out of luck after putting in my MT call Monday(today) morning.

I dropped the trailer at 3am this morning and was told to find a place to park. It is now 7pm and I was just informed that they are out of Tuesday freight but working on more. So I have basically been in the area since Saturday mid day and will be lucky to get a load by Wednesday.

So here I sit at the infamous WAWA with at least 7 other Crete trucks within eye sight.

At least I'll get to see NC kick Michigan States butt tonight.

 

Longbow wrote:

When you deliver just head on up the turnpike and stop off at the Wawa here in Breinigsville and say hi. I imagine I'll still be around.

My load info was very specific, absolutely no early delivery and I was threatened with a service failure. The original delivery date was set for Wednesday but I was told I could get a Tcall if I accepted it. I did so with that understanding but later was informed that the delivery had been bumped up to Monday. When I tried to Tcall the load dispatch wouldn't do it. I knew at the time that I should have put up more of a stink about it, but I decided to be a company man and take my lumps. I'm currently second guessing that decision.

I was ready to throw a fit when I delivered the load only to find the receiving office locked up with instructions at the door to drop the trailer and pull and empty out and leave a copy of the BOL in a mail box. The #### thing could have been dropped anytime this weekend and no one would have been the wiser.

Hey, I though we you were going to stay away from the area for awhile. It looks like you might be headed back into the fire. I unloaded in the early am on Monday and was told I would most likely be here until Wednesday morning at best before getting a load out. Doesn't sound to promising for those on their way up here.

The only thing that might just work in my favor is that my trainee's time is up on Friday and they will have to get me a load that gets me to Lincoln at the very least. If I'm really lucky it will go further west than that. I'll be putting in my home time request in the morning(I'm current 2300 miles away from the house and my 3+ week tour of duty will be up by the time I get there) and that might just land me a load going to Cali. One can always hope.

Quick question, when you picked up your load in Zachary, did you happen to come across the most surly person you have ever meet when you stopped off at the trailer inspection dock. I have never in my life come across someone that hated life (or truck drivers) that much. Details to come in the next update.


Kinghunter wrote:

A tad more, but hardly enough to justify this crappy life style. But then it beats driving around for the W company or others in the same category. Good days will eventually return, it's just a question of when? Truth be told, I don't mind it all that much because my new 3-4 weeks out routine has me seeing much more of the house than I'm used to.

 

I finally got my long anticipated load offer. I don't even have to wait until Wednesday morning to pick it up, instead I am to pickup at 8pm up in Tobyhanna. This load is nothing to write home about though. It's a 600 jaunt over to Michigan and doesn't deliver until late Thursday morning. That will give me a grand total of 700 miles for the week to date with 3 1/2 days to make up some ground.