CRETE - A Year in Review

First off, Thanks for the compliments, I do appreciate them.

Second, sorry for the delayed updates, but there has been a bit of an upheaval in my personal life, nothing bad, just unexpected and I have been a little more than preoccupied. I will try to catch up in the near future, but for now I have just returned to the road after an exhausting week off and now that my first day of running has come to a close I am in the need of some serious sleep.

Drive safe all

 

2008​

WEEK THIRTEEN​

Monday, March 24th through Sunday, March 30th ​

They tell me the number 13 is an unlucky number and with this being the 13th week of the year, well it seems to be an unlucky week for me.

The stage was actually being set for me in the middle of last week. Ever since the wife and I left Phoenix for our new home in NC her ex employer has wanted her to return to her old job. After our last visit to Phoenix she was informed that a longtime employee was about to retire and she was offered the position with a substantial pay raise that we just couldn't turn down. As much as we love NC it looks like we are headed back to Phoenix. The details were finalized over the weekend and I now find myself in a position of being far from home and in need of returning ASAP to take care of arrangement. Part of the deal with the wife's new/old job is that she needs to be there in two weeks.

I had already put in for hometime, but wasn't due to be back until next week. After making my Monday morning delivery I called my terminal manager and dispatch to explain the situation. It was Monday and I was hoping to be home by Wednesday if possible. I didn't expect to be able to make that time schedule, but hoped for the best.

There were no loads available going to NC from KY (as expected), but they did get me a load going to AL that delivered the next day. At least it's in the right direction. Once I had that load delivered I sent in my MT call and a note that I needed to get home. Again, there were no loads going home and I was offered a load to Dallas, Chicago or the option of waiting until the morning to see if they could find me a load going east then. I can't believe it, they actually told me they only have loads going west. There must be a thick coat of Ice in hell this morning.

The Chicago load was actually promising because I was practically guaranteed a load to NC (or at least something I could TCall) from there but because of my hours I would not be able to get back to NC without shutting down along the way and costing me a day or two. With that in mind I took the TX load knowing there was a limited chance of getting a load home, but at least I would be close enough to the house to rent a car if it came down to that.

Sure enough, after making my TX delivery early Thursday morning I was informed there were no loads going to NC, but they had one going to Memphis. This didn't get me home, but we have a drop yard there and I could leave the truck there and rent a car if need be. I was still in a position were I could be home by this weekend.

I made my delivery in Memphis on Friday and after my MT call was offered two loads, one to Florida and one to Columbus, OH. Still not home, but I could work with these. The FL load would get me within 400 miles of home but didn't deliver until Monday morning. I could probably Tcall this in out Deland, FL terminal, but a car rental in that area was questionable, so I took the OH load. We also have a lot of loads going from OH to NC.

It was to deliver 05:00 Sunday morning. As it worked out, I had the load in our Columbus yard by Saturday morning and was allowed to Tcall the load there. They also preplanned me on a load going to Lumberton, NC just up the road from my home. The problem with that load was that it didn't PU until 11pm Sunday night and delivered the following Tuesday. Crete did get me to the house on short notice, but this load was going to get me home too late.

I sent a message off to dispatch thanking them for their effort, but informed them that the load didn't work for my time schedule and asked them to pull me off the preplan. I let them know that I was going to park the truck at the Columbus terminal and rent a car to get home. That is all the explanation they required, I was simply asked when I thought I would be back. I set my PTA, rented a car and started by 600mi drive back to the house.

I was happy with the effort that Crete made to get me home on such short notice, especially with the limited freight base these days. If I had not been on such a tight schedule I would have been very pleased, but as it worked out I was content with getting close enough to drive a rental back. My terminal manager did say if it was an emergency they would have made whatever arrangements were necessary to get me home immediately, but I told him this wasn't exactly an emergency, but more of an urgency issue. All in all, I was pleased with the way it turned out.

I was home by Saturday night and spent the next week packing, painting, fixing, finalizing and saying goodbye to very good friends.


WEEK THIRTEEN RESULTS
Monday, March 24th through Sunday, March 30th
Miles include deadhead


Mt Sterling, KY to Owensboro, KY(last leg).......................132mi
Owensboro, KY to Theodore, AL.............................................592mi
Theodore, AL to Coppell, TX....................................................612mi
Hawkins, TX to Memphis, TN........................ ..........................502mi
Memphis, TN to Columbus, OH.................................................600mi

Total Paid Miles.......................................................................2441 Miles (Short week, Mon-Sat Morning)
Actual Miles...........................2695 Miles

2441mi x .42 = $1025.22




I did a fair amount of Bobtailing for personal use this week. Also three of the loads that I picked up were in the same city as the previous delivery. When this happens we are not paid for the in town miles when the driving is done within city limits. Example, the Owensboro load, after delivery I drove 8 miles to the nearest truckstop. My PU was the next morning on the other side of town, now 16 miles away. Trucks had to use the truck route which made it 28 miles to the PU and another 28 miles return. The result was over 60 unpaid miles. This doesn't happen when a load is picked up in another town, but when staying local it can result in excessive unpaid mileage as was the case with this week.

With that said I am beginning to question Crete "practical miles" of late. I will know for sure if I get a load in the future that has an identical PU and Del as a load in the past. Until then I will just remain suspicious.

One of the great positives about Crete is that you are paid for almost all miles you run, unlike many companies that pay based on the HHG "short" miles. This is because Crete pays "practical miles". I do believe (no solid proof, just an opinion), that there are options to practical mileage programs. One being a true practical mileage chart that routes over predominantly interstates and another option that routes over less desirable, yet drivable 2 lanes roads. This results in slightly shorter mileage pay, but still superior to the HHG miles.

It "appears" to me that someone may have changed the settings in an effort to save on payroll. Why do I think this?

Because I am still being routed over interstates and major route when I receive my Suggested routing, but if I follow them precisely I am finding large discrepancies (compared to the past that is) between Paid and Actual miles. If, on the other hand I take any and all available two lane roads to cut corners I am finding that the miles are almost dead on. This used to result in being paid more miles than I actually ran as I have shown in the past on my weekly final results.

I would like to know if other Crete drivers are having similar experiences, or maybe it has just been an off week or two.

[FONT=&quot]Maybe I'm just being paranoid[/FONT]

 

It's just the way loads are presented to us and I think we just tend state it that way out of habit. We are paid the same empty or loaded.

 

It looks like a number of drivers have chimed in on this one and covered it fairly well.

Personally, I'm not too thrilled with the Opti-Idle, but do understand why it is necessary. As a matter of fact I hate it so much that I rarely idle.

I drove my first Opti truck in 2000 and it didn't take too long to adjust. Although I was driving team with the wife at the time and since the truck was moving most of the time it wasn't often an issue. Learning to sleep in a truck bouncing down the road was another matter all together. There were time that I actually woke up and didn't have a single part of my body touching the mattress. Some of those bumps can really launch ya.

Crete was set to switch to APUs on all trucks just before California pulled its bonehead extreme emission requirement regulations. They are so strict that you can't even use APUs unless they are 2007 compliant. Here's the kicker, there is no such thing on the market yet. (there may be by now, not sure).

Anyways, that put a stop to the APUs for now. I HATE Cali with a passion and will refuse any load going there this summer. If I can't idle in 100+ heat and if Crete wont pay for IdleAir, I wont deliver freight to that #### state.

If everyone else would do the same, Cali would change their mind in short order.