CRETE - A Year in Review

You are wrong on the trade in time. Mine had nearly five years on it before they retired it. That was 8 months ago and there are still trucks out there that are very close to my old one number wise.

If they traded in trucks based on age it would be a very simple thing for a driver to figure out how long till they get another truck.

 

I beg to differ.

According to Merriam-Webster --

 

REGARDLESS of the fact that 'irregardless' is improper usage. It is also true that 'REGUARDLESS' is not a word. Were that so, the root word would be GUARD. RE-GUARD, I guess would be to guard something, and guard it again. But, RE-GUARD-LESS? The -less suffix means: without. Example CLUE-LESS. Definition: Without a CLUE, which is what Merriam Webster would no doubt be; were you to ask him the definition of: REGUARDLESS. But, then that's not the word used, was it? RE-GAURD-LESS? GAURD? That's whole other can of beans!

 

hey big daddy im truly impress wit those numbers and the way u done that,im organize like that if i can get started. im just starting out,i have no kids, no wife, no overhead at all, i been driving big trk 6yrs off in on but really started otr here '07 n got with a bad lease contractor here in ga.desparate out the gate when i first got here(Ellenwood,ga) they tag my dac with a company policy violation and now im try to getaround it....i have all my endorsment just need a good company and a chance.

 

What are you talking about? Did you forget to take your meds again?

 

Your an idiot !

ET how bout an update ?

 

Hey evertruckerr..... I dug out my logbook. The crappy old truck in question was 28xxx. I'm not putting the whole number here so someone from Crete won't be able to match my user id here to an actual employee name.

However, if you really want to check the records, (the next time you're in an Ackley Maint facility), I'll PM or Email you the entire number.

Boo

 

Let this be a lesson to the rest of you. When you point a finger at someone (even in jest), you still have three pointing back at you.

 

My miles for May have sucked. 1963(carryover from April), 1641, 2835,around 1000 (home time after 2 mos), and it's mid-week and I'll have 1514 at 7am Wed.

After I got to Lakeland last week, they offered me a load to Chicago, but it was home time. They did give me the option of T'calling in Tifton. So I took it. The problem is, it made me run a little over my 14... But after 2 months away from home, and the fact that I'm way below 0 on safety points. I went ahead and did it. The next load out of the house, water out of Lee, FL... which, if the yahoo's would have been on the ball, would have put me at almost 1500 mi and 4 days off. But of course its me, and it took them 7 hours to get my truck loaded. By then, I would have been up all night making the delivery, and way beyond my hours - or not enough time to make the delivery legally and sit under the load all w/e. T'call #2 in Tifton. So I'm not sure of the miles to T'call(the reason for the 'around 1000' in the mile totals above) Then a load out of Douglas, GA that p/u Friday, del's to Smyrna, DE anytime Saturday. Great, the NE on a holiday weekend. Got to the pickup, and the 'Loss Prevention Associates' at Wally world had no clue as to why I was there and sent me to the pallet yard for me to pickup the load. Crete's people had no clue as to what I was picking up, but I didn't think I would be picking up pallets going from one D/C to another, but I gave it a shot. The pallet boss was out to lunch(really, not figuratively)so I had to wait. After he came back, I was sent to the shipping office of the D/C, where they only had one load to DE, but it was the wrong number...After almost an hour of msg'g back and forth, Crete finally told me to take it, partially because I gave them an option of running it, or bob tailing home and trying again after the weekend. En route coming through Jessup, GA, the DOT boys decided to do a level 3 on me...of all weeks. No ticket but not a clean inspection either, he wrote me up for my 14 hr violation 7 days ago. Got the load delivered, no freight. I had to wait until Monday (yes on a holiday) to pick up a 600 mi run out of Chester to north of Cincinnati for Wednesday morning. Monday afternoon I stop at my only fuel stop, Carlisle, PA...And the fuel pump decides to screw up. My truck had been getting the best mileage I've seen in a while. I was between 1/4 and 1/2, and the fuel button on the dash showed 97.3 gal used. But the fuel pump showed pumping 157 gal. No 'f-g' way. When I first picked up this truck new with dead empty tanks, I was only able to squeeze in 163 gal. It took almost an hour to solve the problem. A pump test showed that it was registering 1 gal, but only pumping a little less than 3/4 of a gallon. At least the manager was cool enough to take my word for the problem and look into it, instead of just blowing me off as 'just another whining truck driver'. Once the issue was solved, I got the heck out of there but it was late so I decided to stop short of the delivery, I got to the Columbus yard and shut down. 1st thing in the a.m. I tried to pretend I was ET and talk them into letting me T'call and get something that would allow me to run instead of the short hop over to Cincinnati...no dice a.k.a. no freight at that time. So my luck, as usual, sucks... In fact, it once again has me contemplating total retirement from trucking...I'm not blaming Crete, just the industry in general is making it tough for me to keep a positive outlook, and is darn sure not worth the sacrifice of time that it has been taking from me lately.

And they don't go by truck number anymore nor do they look at mileage, it's the date that the truck original goes into service. And depending on where your truck was 1st assigned, your truck number might be lower than many others that were being pulled for trade, but because your truck didn't go into service until later, it'll get traded later. That was the way my 1st truck was, and the truck I had before this one was that way too. And they don't lease, but they have a trade deal with Freightliner. I have heard a rumor that Freightliner is losing a bunch of our business because of various reasons, and more Internationals are being brought in...but I haven't heard that from any source at 'High Command' so I don't know if it's true or not....T'wood be nice - from what I have heard and seen of the new Prostars, seems like a much better truck all around.

Cya

 

SS,

If the rumor turns out to be true, then very good as the freightliners are a crap load of problems.

KH