CRETE - A Year in Review

Me too, every day.

Best of luck to you at KLLM, they seem to be on of the better refer outfits as far as the big ones go. Hope it works out well for you. Just do us dry van drivers a favor and park on the other side of the lot.

 

Hey, that's how rumors get started, be rest assured, I'm here for the long haul. This thread is my home away from home and is a great place for us Cretins to exchange info. As you stated, I've just been a bit preoccupied lately. The house hunting really sucks up the time (hopefully it will come to an end within the week, but the wife and I have been telling ourselves that for the last two months) and that stupid LOST series has been dominating my life as far as free time goes. Each season has something like 24 (40min) episodes and the bonus disks add many more hours. What can I say, I'm hooked. Even went out and bought season 4 and will be starting on that one tonight. I actually made a conscious effort to deny myself today after a very thrill packed night of watching the last 4 shows of season 3 last night.

I figured I best put some time into my updates. Then I get started on those and find myself babbling on endlessly.

Just came off of another awesome week (other than my first ticket while driving a truck in my 12yr carrier, more on that BS later) and once again ran out of hours. I was going to catch a train into Chicago and go to the Cubs game, but I will be spending that money on a lawyer instead.

Currently doing a 34hr reset in South Bend, IN and will deliver in the morning just down the road. I'm only 4 miles away from the Pres, "O man". He made is little appearance at Notre Dame today.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself, but I'm doing my best.

 

WEEK FIFTEEN
Monday, April 13th through Sunday, April 19th
Miles include deadhead




This will be a good week I tell myself; it has to be better than last week. The trainee is now off the truck and I don't have to worry about getting anywhere in particular, so I can count on a productive load for a change.

My load was scheduled to deliver this Monday morning at 7am. According to the load info the customer had overnight parking and I took advantage of the situation. Even though there was a truck stop a couple of blocks away I find it to be advantageous to be on property. Especially when delivering to a dreaded grocery store warehouse like I was today. When I pulled in last night I was allowed to check in. They even took my paperwork and entered all pertinent information into the computer. I was set to be the first one unloaded in the morning and instructed as to where to park. They would wake me up when they were ready for me.

The knock on the door came at 5am and my new week began.

The unloading went by fairly quickly for a grocery store warehouse and I was putting in my MT call 3hrs later. That may seem like a long time, but it was less than one hour after my original appointment and I was feeling grateful. It was a Monday morning and it was still early enough that I feel pretty good about my chances of getting a load without too much of a wait. I was a bit disappointed when I once again found myself reading a no freight message. But this time it wasn't exactly a no freight proclamation, but more like a "we are working on load offers, check back in 2 hours". I guess that's a slight improvement over what I've been getting lately.

I tried waiting the prescribed 2hrs but gave into inpatients after an hour or so and sent off an inquiry as to the possibilities of getting a load. Believe it or not, it was answered with a load offer. A nice little drop/hook load sitting in Omaha with TX(779mi) as a final destination. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the TX thing since I haven't had all that much luck getting out of there lately, but anything is better than reading PA in an address. I was also concerned about the delivery appointment. Not only was it a 2pm delivery, it wasn't until Wednesday. I love an 800 mile trip, but not when it's stretched out over 2 ½ days and that would only be stretched out by the licklihood of sitting around until Thursday morning before getting a load out.

I took the load without a complaint to dispatch, but I had no intention of being rolled over like I was last week. This particular load was headed to a warehouse that was a mere 40 miles from or Wilmer terminal and I would be relentless about getting this load Tcalled. Mercy be to any dispatcher that gets in my way on this one. Off I went to Omaha were I did one of the fastest drop n hooks in recent memory with a Texas, here I come attitude. 650 miles later I was shutting down for the night and feeling good about running solid miles for a long over due change.

This would also be a good time to mention the fact that when I picked up this load I had sent in a message to dispatch requesting a Tcall. Along with that request I made it clear that I had just come off of my worst week ever with this company and didn't want to be stuck under this load for well over a day waiting to deliver it. Being the compassionate folks that they are, the answerer was "No, you will have to deliver this load"

All right, so that's how it's going to be, eh!

I took my lumps last week; I can assure you it won't happen again. There was no point in butting heads at that moment, especially since the reply came from Nebraska dispatch and the final decision would lay in the hands of TX dispatch anyway. I'll deal with it when I show up in the Wilmer yard uninvited. My cause was going to be helped by the fact that the trailer I picked up in Nebraska had an inspection sticker on it that told me it had not been through a shop in over a year. A ridiculous amount of time considering they are required to be inspected by one of our shops every 2 months. That was the only excuse I would need to run the 30 or so miles out of route to get this thing into Wilmer for a good once over.

I pulled into Wilmer on Tuesday morning, a solid 30hrs before the load was to be delivered down the road. First things first, I got the trailer into the shop. I had expected the standard, "not until tomorrow" and was absolutely amazed when they told me to pull it on in. WOW! That's the only part of it that was fast, they sure have that Texas pace thing figured out around here. It was almost two hours later when I got out of the door with the thing as opposed to the 15-20mins it takes at the Knoxville shop.

During that time I had made multiple attempts to call TX dispatch (Qcom wouldn't work while in the shop) with no luck. They had the stupid hold music on automatic and weren't taking any calls. When I finally pulled into the yard I immediately dropped the trailer and went on the search for an empty one. This can be a challenge at times in this yard, but today it was no problem. I even had a number of them to choice from. I also noted that the yard was practically void of trucks waiting around for loads. A very good sign indeed and a pleasant change from what I've seen down here in the recent past. Looks like things are starting to pick up.

My next step was to make #### sure I would get this load Tcalled. I was NOT going to take no for an answer. In went the message, "I'm in the Wilmer yard, trailer needed to go into shop (that little bit was to avoid the "why are you out of route" question), load doesn't deliver until tomorrow afternoon, please Tcall load so I can keep moving. Will repower or shag a load if you need help"

I always offer the shag help, it seems to go a long way towards good will and usually a good load. But sometimes they call me on it and give me a shag, like today. I don't mind shags at all and wasn't at all bothered by being asked to run this one, until I saw the timing on the load. When I offered to shag, I meant this morning. NOT 8pm tonight. Ugh! But it beat the hell out of delivering my current load tomorrow afternoon. At least I will be able to hold this joke of a shag over their heads after I'm empty tonight.

I spent the rest of the day in the yard and was able to squeeze in an 8hr sleeper break before heading out of the gate to make my delivery down the road. It was a live unload and went as swimmingly well as every other Sam's DC delivery I have ever made. While there I started getting messages from dispatch asking me if I would be ready for a load when empty, when will you be empty, how many hours will you have available and such. That could only mean one thing. They had a hot load, most likely an all night run and I wasn't going to be getting any sleep tonight. Not a big deal, I was able to fit in a nap while at the yard and wasn't all that tired anyway. For now, I just want some miles.

The unloading took longer than it should have, as usual (thanks Sams, ie Wal-Mart) and whatever dispatch had in mind for me passed by the way side because I never heard another peep out of them. The MT call went in and a load offer followed shortly thereafter. I'm expected to pickup a preloaded trailer in the heart of Dallas at 6am and go an entire 121 miles to Paris, TX delivering at 9am. UNBELIEVABLE!

On the surface, not all that bad of a load. Just pickup a preloaded trailer, run a 100 miles up the road for a quick delivery and be on my way for my next load. But there are at least three HUGE stumbling blocks along the way. I ran this exact gig a little over a month ago after sitting for 3 days in a truck stop waiting for my next load. One, the load will not be ready when I get there. Two, the load info specifically states "no detention paid by this customer" and there is a #### good reason why that is, it takes them forever to unload a truck. Three, by the time I get unload at 1pm after arriving at 8am dispatch is going to tell me they have no freight until tomorrow. Time for deep breathing exercises and restraint when sending in my next message to dispatch.

To start things off I accepted the load offer. I then sent in a message stating I had done so and would be happy to deliver said load, BUT. I then went into some detail regarding the recent past and respectfully requested to be preplanned on a trip with decent miles out of the area so that I wouldn't have to sit around for another day. I made it a point to accept the load before making this request. That way I'm don't come off as demanding anything as opposed to, alright, I took the hit on this one, how about helping me out on the next one.

This little strategy has worked well for me in the past and today it was true to form, for within a few minutes I had a preplan sent to me followed with a "will this one work for you". Another mitigating factor that worked in my favor was my impending home time. I have been asking for loads headed in the general direction of PHX and did the same with this one. They didn't have any loads going through PHX, but they did offer me a load going to Denver(896mi). Now, as long as I have been with the company I have never run a load out of Denver going south and knew there was virtually no chance of getting one this time around either, but it had some miles on it and it would also keep me far away from the dreaded North East end of the country.

The pickup for this preplan was perfect, being on a preloaded trailer that I could get anytime after noon, which was a good thing because I had no idea how long I would be stuck at the Bud distributor getting my current load off my truck. The delivery, on the other hand was anything but desirable. It delivered at 23:30 on Friday night and of course it was another blasted grocery store warehouse. That is not a good thing by any stretch of the imagination. I would be picking up the trailer on a Wednesday afternoon and be in Denver by Thursday. Normally I wouldn't be all that concerned about arriving on a Thursday night for a Friday delivery, but you can't really call an 11:30pm delivery to a grocery store warehouse a Friday delivery can you. I would undoubtedly be there until 5-6 in the morning resulting in a solid 35hrs+ of down time. After last week that is the last thing I needed.

The one shinning hope I had was our little drop yard we have set up in Denver. Looks like there just might be a Tcall in the making. There was no point in addressing that problem at the moment. I was happy to get the preplan and comfortable with the fact that I knew how my next couple of days would play out. I sure wish regular preplans were a part of this companies operations; it makes life so much less complicated from a driver's point of view. You can actually plan things out that way.

Anyway, back to the moment at hand. I had my next two loads set and my night had come to an end. My trailer was empty and my next load was scheduled to be picked up (preloaded, sure it will be) at 6am. The load info from the previous delivery had stated that I could park in the street at this customer. This was a very important factor concerning this load because I only had time to put in an 8hr sleeper berth rest while at the yard. This put me in an extended sleeper berth situation and would allow me enough time to get to the shipper, but due to the timing of the next load I must remain on, or very near the property to avoid a log violation.

With street parking available this wasn't going to be a problem, but it didn't take too long to figure out that the load info was incorrect. There was no street parking. There was a small Loves TS a couple of blocks away, but that would be a fruitless endeavor at this time of night. My only hope was to ask the guard at the gate if he knew of any hiding places in the area. Luck was with me and he directed me to a dirt lot not more than a ¼mi away. I'm glad he knew about it because I would have never found it on my own.

5am rolled around soon enough and I was on my way to get me preloaded trailer; I arrived 15mins later. Imagine my surprise when I was told they were behind schedule and it was not yet loaded. Instead I was given a door assignment and told to wait in the truck until I was loaded. I expected a long delay and was not disappointed. The pressing matter at hand was my 9am appointment delivery in Paris. I have been here in the past and know that they only have one dock. It's bad enough that it takes them a good 3hrs to unload a truck. If I miss my appointment I will be in bad shape. As the possibilities are churning in my mind I watch the minutes go by and see them turn into hours. My window of opportunity was growing smaller with leaps and bounds and they hadn't even started to load my trailer yet. Eventually the trailer started to bounce around, but the pace was unbearably slow and by the time I was given the green light I was looking at rush hour traffic in Dallas and an impossible time table. This load would not be delivered on time and I sent a message off to dispatch to let them know that a 30min tardy arrival was to be expected due to my delay at the shipper.

I didn't think it would be too much of a problem because I figured the receiver would be running behind schedule anyways, I just wanted to cover my butt in any case. I assumed that would be the end of it, but, boy was I wrong. I had expected a "get there as soon as you can", but instead I got a new appointment of 11am. Well, it looks like my premonition of a 1pm MT call is about to become reality. I only had the knowledge of my preplan to keep me grounded in sanity and headed off to Paris.

I arrived a 9:30 as promised only to find another Crete truck at the dock. Apparently he had an 11am appointment, but according to him, "There was an opening and they got him in early". My reply, "Isn't that nice?" The unloading process was paced just as I had remembered it and the other Crete driver and I passed the time telling war stories until it was my turn. A couple of hours after that I was on my way up the road to get my Denver bound load. Unlike the Coke load, this one was ready to go when I got there and in short order I was on my way to Colorado.

I didn't want to waist any time getting to Denver. I had all the time in the world to get there for my middle of the night delivery on Friday, but if I pushed I could be there by
Thursday afternoon. I didn't have to run a full 11hrs today, but if I did so I would be able to make Denver and still have a couple of hours left to get started on my next load if dispatch had a load available. If I ran a more flexible schedule I could shut down a little earlier today, but would arrive in Denver with no hours available and would have to wait until Friday morning to get a load out.

That would make it much less likely that I would be able to talk dispatch into a Tcall because I would be looking for a load on Friday morning and would in all likelihood be told to stick with my current load that delivered later that night, much later. So it was imperative that I pull into town the day before with available hours so that I could keep moving. So off I went with the intentions of doing just that.

This was also one of those loads where I could shave a large number of miles off the trip. Instead of running along my "suggested routing" which involved mostly interstates, I opted for the more scenic route that was comprised almost entirely of back road highways and in doing so shortened the trip by about 70 miles. It would save me some time and make it that much easier for me to arrange a Tcall. I made a quick call to my terminal manager to adjust my fuel stops and was off.

Thursday arrived soon enough and between my shortened routing and the time zone change I was able to pull into Denver by 2pm. I set my sights on a Tcall and let dispatch know I was I town with 2 ½ hrs of drive time left and had 4hrs to do it. I wasn't feeling too lucky about this and had actually stopped off at the Pilot to grab a parking spot and sent the message while sitting in line at the fuel island. They don't last long around here and I assumed I would be spending the rest of the day here and wanted to secure my home for the night. Even at 2pm I was out of luck, not a space to be had, but as luck would have it I caught a glimpse of someone pulling out as I was rounding a corner and high tailed it over to grab it. It was a real hoot squeezing into that one by the way.

I didn't even have time to congratulate myself on my prized parking spot when a message came back form dispatch. "You have been Tcalled, what empty trailer do you have". WOW! Who saw that coming? That could only mean one thing, not only are they going to tcall me, but they are over booked and need to get some freight moving. I couldn't imagine any other reason for them letting me off the hook on a middle of the night delivery.

Only problem was I didn't have an empty trailer and I didn't know if one would be available at the yard. They must have assumed I was already there and I sure didn't want to disappoint them. I headed on over preying that an empty trailer would be sitting there awaiting my arrival. If not I was going to be sorely out of luck. But Lady Luck was playing my hand today (I sure have missed the ol' girl) and I pulled into the drop yard to find 3 crappy trailers to choose from. The Qcom once again chirped with a message from dispatch asking for a trailer number, (they must be desperate to move loads today) and I obliged.

I was immediately sent a load offer to pick up a load of beer that was destine for NC (1650mi+). That would have been great if I still lived in NC, but home is now AZ and I had also sent in a request to get something going that way. But as I stated earlier, I never really expected a load going that way when I accepted the Denver load, but I was harboring the hope of a load that would keep me on the west side of the country. In all fairness to dispatch though, I did clearly state to them in my message, "looking for a load going 2, thru or near PHX. If nothing available I will take what you have". That little statement was all they needed and they took full advantage of it.

They had informed me that they had no loads going to PHX and gave me the option of waiting until the morning to see if anything would be available at that time, but I had just come off what I believe was the worst week I had ever had with Crete (still made over $900 gross), if not dollar wise, certainly from a demoralizing point of view and there was no way I was going to turn down a load like this. I would take this load and worry about getting home later on. Not to mention the fact the weather man was assuring everyone that there would be 1-3 feet of snow on the ground by tomorrow afternoon and I had no intentions of sticking around to find out if he was going to be right. Not that I doubted him for a second because it was already being reported the I-70 was shut down just west of town.

This load may be taking me in the wrong direction, but when empty I would find myself on the other end of the country with my home time now well over due. It would put me in a great position to pressure them for a load going back west. I would then be looking at a solid 2500mi return trip without having to worry about being stuck in the north east again. It's was a win-win situation and that's how I make the system work to my advantage.

All in all I was feeling pretty #### good about the current chain of events and was actually starting to feel like a truck driver again as opposed to a homeless person squatting in an abandoned Freightliner. I started to jot down my load info and was about half way done with it when another massage came through informing me that my load had been pulled out from under me. "What the %##&?" My initial reaction was to get a little upset (just a little bit), especially when I read the reason for the "cancellation". I was being told that the load "probably wasn't going to be ready". I know when I'm being lied to and this was one of those times because I had already been sent the preloaded trailer number in the load info (it's already loaded, how dumb do they think I am). I could only assume that they had decided to give the load to someone else. I have no problem with that, I know things happen and it probably had something to do with getting someone home or shutting up a whining truck driver. I can live with that, just don't lie about it. I'm a big boy, I can take it. Really!

Instead of getting all hot headed about it I just sat back and waited for the next load offer. I'll save my tirade for a later time if necessary. Not really, I'm just a big talker and would simply resolve the matter by uttering misdirected profanity under my breath and take it out on them in my weekly ramblings. It probably has more effect in this manner anyways.

My decision to forgo a temper tantrum turns out to be well founded when my next load offer was sent out to me. I was still looking at a wonderful run of 1653 miles, but instead of NC as a destination I was now headed to Camp Hill, PA. I wasn't exactly looking forward to heading back to PA, or more specifically, getting a load out once empty, but that would be something to worry about next week.

All of this back and forth with dispatch had cost me valuable time and I was now pushing my 14hr clock. I would have plenty of time to get the load, but instead of getting well out of town (and down the hill that is Denver to avoid the impending deluge of snow) I was going to be hard pressed to put any miles behind me once loaded. All I could do was get going and see how far I can make it. The drop/hook PU went well, but the Denver traffic didn't and I only made it Watkins before shutting down for the night. Well above the pending snow levels and it was already raining steadily and hovering around 34°. I would have much preferred to spend the night down in Limon below the snow line, but the log book insisted otherwise. Tomorrow morning should be interesting. And to think, not more than a few days ago I was reveling in the fact that I wouldn't have to be driving in any more snow this year.

I awoke on Friday morning expecting to find a blanket of snow to greet me, but was surprised to see nothing more than rain on my windshield. The snow hadn't made it this far yet and the temperature was still hovering above freezing. In less than 30mins I was off the mountain and in the clear and spent the next few days driving back to the place that I long for in my heart. Home Sweet Home, Pennsylvania. Just think, some people actually live there. Lately, I've spent more time there then at home myself.

I actually stopped off in Columbus along the way and though about tcalling this load. It didn't deliver until Monday evening and I could be there well before that. But my truck had just pasted it's due point for a B service and if I continued on to our New Kingstown terminal I knew there would be little to no chance of getting it taken care of at that point. I also knew it would be a timely process here in Columbus, but I had the time to spare and could put in a reset and start next week out with a fresh 70hrs.

As it turns out I made a good choice. It was at this time that the guys in the shop informed me of a new company policy that I had not been aware of. I had heard nothing of it before this time nor have I since that time (over a month ago at the time of this posting). Apparently, it will now be company policy to shut down any truck that is over its B service (oil change interval). If at any time a driver goes over his/her mileage that truck will be routed to the nearest terminal and the load will be tcalled and given to another driver. Said truck will not be dispatched until the B service is completed. I guess too many drivers have been abusing the grace period.

I took this opportunity to get the truck serviced, (only took 6hrs once it made it into the shop) and fit in a reset before heading off to PA for my Monday evening delivery.

This week ended with a modest 3097 miles, but only because I held up in Columbus so that I could put the truck in the shop. I had the option to run out the rest of the trip on Sunday which would have produced a solid 3500 mile week. Doing so, however would have negated my 34hrs reset and forced me to deal with limited hours later on in the week. Besides, it's going to take me a while to get used to running this hard again.



WEEK FIFTEEN
Monday, April 13th through Sunday, April 19th
Miles include deadhead

Omaha, NE to Wilmer, TX...............................................................787mi
Wilmer, TX to Desoto, TX (Shag).........................................17mi
(17mi at 43cpm + $35 shag pay = $2.49/mi)
Dallas, TX to Paris, TX.....................................................121mi
(121mi at 43cpm + $35 shag pay = 72cpm)
Paris, TX to Denver, CO...................................................896mi
Golden, CO to Columbus, OH (first leg)........................................1276mi


Total Paid Miles...............................................3097 Miles
Actual Miles......................3060 Miles

3097 Miles x .43 = $1315.80 + (2)Shag pay $70 = $1385.80