CRETE - A Year in Review

2009​

Alrighty then, in the interest of getting caught up with weekly mileage totals I’m going to go ahead and post them. I will also be straying from my traditional day by day description of my weeks. It is just too time consuming to continue. As an alternative I’ll just keep a running tally going and when something interesting comes up I’ll go into a little more detail. This way I will be able to stay current with my life at Crete.


WEEK ONE
Monday, January 5th through Sunday, January 11th
Miles include deadhead

Tucson, AZ to Maumelle, AR……………………………………………..1393mi
Harrison, AR to Carol Stream, IL…………………………………………..702mi
Romeoville, IL to Vonore, TN………………………………………………618mi
Red Boiling Springs, TN to Opelika, AL……………………………………533mi

Total Paid Miles………………………….3246 Miles

Actual Miles………………3365 Miles

3246mi x .43 = $1395.78 + $150 training pay = $1545.78

WEEK TWO
Monday, January 12th through Sunday, January 18th
Miles include deadhead

Columbus, GA to Franklin, MA………………………………………........1226mi
Devens, MA to Browns Summit, NC………………………………….......759mi
Greensboro, NC to Blandon, PA………………………………………........477mi

Total Paid Miles……………………………..2462 Miles

Actual Miles………………..2663 (excessive unpaid miles due to some bobtail use during layovers, driving out of route to find parking during layover and driving around NYC instead of through it during rush hour)

2462mi x .43 = $1058.66 + $150 training pay = $1208.66



WEEK THREE
Monday, January 19th through Sunday, January 25th
Miles include deadhead

New Kingstown, PA to Taunton, MA……………………………………………...504mi
Devens, MA to Browns Summit, NC……………………………………………....715mi
Obetz, OH to Hagerstown, MD…………………………………………………......757mi

Total Paid Miles……………………………………….1976 Miles

Actual Miles……………………..2133 Miles

1976mi x .43 = $849.68 + $60 Drop pay = $906.68



WEEK FOUR
Monday, January 26th through Sunday, February 1st
Miles include deadhead


Toms Brook, VA to Philadelphia, PA………………………………………......290mi
Lakewood, NJ to Fostoria, OH…………………………………………….........640mi
Lima, OH to Pineville, LA…………………………………………………..........1055mi
Pineville, LA to Wilmer, TX………………………………………………...........310mi

Total Paid Miles……………………………………..2295 Miles

Actual Miles………………..2369 Miles

2295 x .43 = $986.85



WEEK FIVE
Monday, February 2nd through Sunday, February 8th
Miles include deadhead

Ennis, TX to Cayuga, IN……………………………………………...............889mi
Cayuga, IN to Elgin, IL………………………………………………...............184mi
Peru, IL to Columbus, OH……………………………………………..............543mi
Columbus, OH to Gahanna, OH (Shag)……………………………….........10mi
Columbus, OH to Granite City, IL……………………………………...........426mi
Bridgeton, MO to Albuquerque, NM(first leg)……………………….....1052mi

Total Paid Miles………………………………………..3104 Miles

Actual Miles……………………….3154 Miles

3104 x .43 = $1334.72 + $15 short haul pay + $35 Shag pay = $1354.72




WEEK SIX
Monday, February 9th through Sunday, February 15th
Miles include deadhead

Albuquerque, NM to Tucson, AZ (final leg)…………………………...........593mi

Total Paid Miles……………………593 Miles (Monday only)

Actual Miles……………..740 (includes deadhead back to PHX for hometime)

593mi x .43 = $254.99 + $60 stop pay = $314.99

 

WEEK SEVEN​

Monday, February 16th through Sunday, December 22nd​

We'll, it's back on the road again. I've had the last week to sit back and relax in the fair weathered city of PHX. But this is what I had to drive through up in Flagstaff last week to get down here.

When I was taking this picture I didn't realize I had it set on Movie mode. I wish I would have thought about it in the past, I could have gotten some good clips, anyway, here is a very sort clip (I kept pushing the button in rapid succession waiting for the clicking sound of a pic) of the Winter Wonder Land that was Flagstaff on Feb 9,2009



I made up for it by getting a room at the Hilton Pointe Tapitio Cliffs over the weekend for Valentine's day. Another treat from Priceline. I put in a price offer of $50 for a Phoenix resort. That offer was turned down, but told that if I increased my offer to $64 they would try again. What the heck, the offer went in and the Pointe accepted and we spent three nights in a two room suite. The going rate through their website was $250/night. Love Priceline!
;




Sitting in Phoenix sure beat the hell out of the last month or more that I spent running around in the North East. Outside of a trip or two down into Louisiana or Tennessee I've been living in below freezing weather, ice, snow and everything else undesirable. Even my trip through Arkansas had me driving through an odd little ice storm. I'll be so glad when this winter is over. I've had enough of it. At least I am currently sitting in TX enjoying some fairly mild weather. But then a snow storm would be better than being laid over for 3 days.

Yup, this is a first for me. I've had layovers, far more than I care to remember of late, but almost never more than 24hrs or so. OK, maybe a couple that hit the 2 day mark, but this one takes the cake. There is a reason for it to some extent.

I was suppose to pickup a student last Monday when I came off of home time but he flaked out at the last moment and I pulled out on my own. So since that time I have been waiting a reassignment and learned who my next student would be. Even without the student assignment I was looking at a two day layover, but because my next student will be getting out of orientation next Wednesday in Atlanta, that is where dispatch is trying to get me. Unfortunately that caused me to be dispatched on a load that doesn't pickup until Monday. Now, when one delivers at 7:30am on a Friday and picks up the next load Monday morning at 10am, well, that works out to 3days of mind numbing boredom sitting in the back of a truck.

I have a great idea, let's make every person in the trucking industry, i.e. dispatchers, managers and the bigwigs sit in the back of a truck for 3 days so they know what they are doing to us. Oh yeah, suspend their pay during that time also.

Not only do I have to sit for 3 days to pickup this load, I then get to drive 700 down to Ga and drop my load. Then guess what, yup, wait for a day and a half for the new trainee to get out of his orientation. This is one week I want to put behind me and pretend like it never happened. By the time Wednesday rolls around I will have 800 miles over a 6 day period, unless I actually get a run out of Ga on Wednesday night.

Such is Life!

The saving grace is that I put in some solid miles before hitting this brick wall. Coming off of home time in Phoenix is a sure way to get a nice long run back east and that's just what happened this time around. It made for some long drawn out days of driving but my two stops made up for it.

The first one was in Mobile, AL and was without a doubt one of the tightest spot I've ever had to pull into. It was actually ridiculous what this guy expected. The driveway into the parking lot was just big enough to drive a truck into, if I wasn't pulling a trailer behind me that is. The trailer just had to make its' own path and jump a couple of high curbs and a sidewalk. The truck was low enough (barely) to avoid the power lines, but when the trailer went up on the curb and sidewalk the lines were dragging along the top. And getting out, well that was another adventure. It wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have a 45,000# load of batteries in the trailer. Those are some heavy suckers!





The 2nd and last drop was delivering to Nashville, and although it was nowhere as tight as the last place, I still had to do a little jockeying around to avoid a number of cars and a telephone poll. Fun times.



I put in my empty call expecting a "no freight" message but was immediately sent a one load offer. One of our drivers couldn't deliver his load on time and was sitting at a Pilot just up the road. So I buzzed on over and re-powered it. A reasonable 670mi run that I could have delivered by Friday am. It was a drop load so I was hopeful that I would be able to get another load out sometime during the weekend and run up a solid 3500mi week. But sitting empty in TX and looking for a load isn't as promising as it once used to be and, well, you know the rest of the story.

Two days down and one to go before I pickup my load.

Hey, it gave me time to catch up with this stuff and I sure can't say I'm not well rested. I can only hope that I will get some decent miles once the trainee jumps on board. He is only a 10 day student and I can't imagine they will let him sit in a truck waiting for loads in that time frame. Sure can't do any training that way. Actually, he is another experience driver who has been out of a truck for a while. So I know he can drive, it will just be a matter of teaching him Crete's procedures and making sure he understands that he will be running a legal log.


WEEK SEVEN
Monday, February 16th through Sunday, February 22th
Miles include deadhead

Phoenix, AZ to Nashville, TN...................................................2106mi
Nashville, TN to Palestine, TX...................................................668mi
Palestine, TX to Sulphur Springs, TX (first leg).......................110mi

Total Paid Miles...........................................2884 Miles

Actual Miles......................2929 Miles

2884mi x .43 = $1240.12 + $30 stop pay = $1270.12

 

I keep hearing that, but I must say that I am not as confident in my writing abilities as many of you are. Not to mention, who, besides a few malcontents like ourselves would actually want to read a book about truck driving.

I do appreciate your kind words.

 

Wouldn't you know it, I'm in a dry county. What century is this anyway?

 

I would be happy to send you a copy of the spreadsheet. Just send me a PM with your email and I'll get it out to you. You will need a spreadsheet program to use it, but if you don't have one you can get yourself a gmail account and open it and store it on their site with their free spreadsheet program.

If you don't have enough posts to PM send a message to any mod and they will forward it for you. Cybergal has been good about helping out.

 

You know the old saying, if you don't have a good book to read, write one

 

So true, it is all a matter of prospective, and although I'm not thrilled about my situation at the moment, I certainly wouldn't want to be looking at it from your point of view.

 

Oops, doubled up.