Calex Express....My New Home!

What is starting to bother me the most in what I am reading and what you guys are saying is usually not a good sign of things for a company with 1 truck or 200 trucks, is problems with drivers pay and maintenance issues.. Those are always signs a company is starting to struggle financially. I really hope that is not the case here but I hate to say it I have seen it so many times, specially over the past few years during these difficult times everyone is struggling in.

 

Well I would like to keep this dialogue going but due to work constraints I have to go earn my keep. I load at 5 in Belle Glade with lettuce going to Jersey. Because of the way they feel is important to keep a truck at either end longer then they should, I will not get at either end any earlier then my appointment time. 5pm here, and 11:30am on Monday in Jersey. Be safe all, God Bless.

 

Sitting at the dock here in Florence getting unloaded. What a trip. Got to the shipper on Saturday at 5pm. Was finally loaded at 9pm then drove to Kingsland for fuel and coffee. I ended my day at 6am yesterday at the NC welcome center. I woke up and started my day at 4pm, drove to Kenly for a shower, then left for Florence. I got here at 5am and handed my paperwork in then went to bed. I woke up at noon, had lunch then got a door assignment. I'll be done soon then head up to Pittston. This trailer I've had since before the holiday's developed a fault code so it needs to be fixed, my truck needs a shock replaced that's leaking all the oil out and I need a service that I bypassed last week because of the last snowstorm.

I have to say something, I try and be as honest as I can here on this blog, I try and tell the good and the bad, give everyone a glimpse of my week, and not fluff this job up. Having almost 4 years in at Calex I have become somewhat more open to things that bother me, which is what bothers most drivers. I have a good thing here, for me, as an OTR driver that most OTR drivers long for. Right now there are things that I see that is bothersome to me. I am the type of person that always see's the glass as half full not half empty. I am also very adept at not getting rapped up in insanity, you know, the mouse in the wheel syndrome. Calex is good to me, in every way possible that is important. Remember, this is an OTR job, I run 2700 miles per week, I'm home more than I'm gone and I make good money, OTR, not LTL, not 9-5, OTR. I've done this for 33 years, not 6 months or a year. I've seen quite a bit and still believe that Calex is a good fit for me. I don't believe that running 4,000+ miles per week is the way to make a decent check every week, but running 2700 miles per week and being home EVERY week is the real way it should be. Could I stand to make more per mile? Absolutely. But I know what I have, I look at the whole picture and am very happy here. I just wish somethings could be a little better.

 

For a change this week I decided to sleep in. I got up at 8am, had breakfast then got to the yard at 9am. Here's how my day went....

complete truck service........check
replace rear shocks.............check
replace wipers....................check
trailer washout...................check
replace trailer turn signal.....check
fuel...................................check
back at truckstop at 1pm.....check

Not bad, in fact it must be a record. Thanks guys, good job. Now time to take a nap.

 

John, extremely good points from your post a day ago. One heck of a way to sum things up!

 

Good. Hope this means the new shop supervisor is getting settled in.

Being fair also means mentioning the efforts of our fearless leader to correct the problems you mention.

Added mechanic(s?)....check
ok, the mech is a puppy but the last three seem to have worked out. If we have to be a training company to save money; then, I would much rather have puppy mechanics than puppy drivers.

Changed tire change priority from trlrs first to trucks first...check
True that we will now have idiots taking off with trlrs before he can get to them, but we have had no pre-trip idiots all along.

Added supervisor who is actually IN THE SHOP....check
I struggle with names so all the land locked get descriptive nicknames till I can memorize their actually name. I call this one centerpiece because his station is in the center of the truck repair shop. With experience running Volvo's larger shop; he should have no problem mastering ours and be able to guide when our puppies hit a puzzle. I hope he can also help when Heather/Mel/Ray do not have enough ear capacity. I am not sure if the mechanics stay for privileges more than pay as the drivers do, but I am sure he will figure that out too.

Added washbay guy who actually gets them clean....check
OMG. When he finished I could pretrip check underside stuff without a hazmat suit.

 

Lets not fluff this up Christine, it's only taken them the almost 4 years I've been here to address and work on this problem. I think the fact that some long term drivers have quit recently might have turned a light on. But I will let this play out and see how it's fixed. Lets hope for the best.

 

I'm home. Same old same old. I can't wait until this disgusting lettuce is over with. It's pushing me to my limit.

 

4 years is a long time but I do not think I fluffed. The changes deserved mention and my reservations were included. I have been right there with you on several of your complaints. I apologise if I made you feel I blew off your worries.

It is also true that I am not as ticked about the lemon trucks because I seem to have turned Todds' "lemon" into my "lots of stuff breaks but energizer bunny truck just keeps rolling." I do a lot (some of it probably voodoo) to limit wear and tear on the engine.

I also think Tommy has been trying things to get a handle on the problems all along but has the same whack a mole confusion we do. I think the cameras inside were/are about trying to be several places at once.

Together WE caused centerpiece... For whatever reason; your growling was not getting a fix, then I gave Tommy a concrete example: the dog ate my repair request, Ray was too busy, my regen filter costs around 3k to replace, and it dying will mess up a critical load.

Two weeks later we have centerpiece. His job includes beating the tar out of the dog if it tries to eat another request and being a less busy Ray.

I guess it is the tomgirl in me. I want to take aim at what will fix it. I was/am convinced that if we fired every mechanic and hired all new ones the problem would get worse not better. I hear that Calex and the Volvo we lease from are sister companies; but, are some of the problem trucks outright lemons? Is that another direction we can aim for improvement?

Because we have seen it foul up three seemingly intelligent people; I have made no comments on payroll beyond sympathy for the 1 vs 145 nature of that position. Gail had the same hit or miss stats and so did Bob. That tells me the problem is in how it is processed not who is processing it.

 

I'm in what is called frustration mode. I hope that these things are addressed and corrected. In the mean time, I'll just carry on with my job.

I get to load in Belle Glade.....again. Tomorrow at 5pm for an 11am delivery on Monday. Believe me, I'm counting down the days until this lettuce season is done.....and so is my wife.