CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK THIRTY ONE
Monday, August 3rd through Sunday, August 9th
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This was what I would call a hit or miss week. A little good and a little bad if you will.

The predominate good thing was that I was finally back in the truck. Not exactly what you would expect to hear from someone that has just come back from 3 weeks off the road, but I had spent that time remodeling a house and was absolutely exhausted. My return to the easy life of trucking was a welcomed reprieve. Now if I could just figure out how to get back without spending 4 or more weeks on the road.

I arrived in the yard bright and early Monday morning and let dispatch know I was ready to go. My previous 3 or 4 hometimes have always ended with good solid runs going to the TX area or somewhere in the mid-west. Today was no different as far as destination went, but unlike the rush nature of previous loads out of town this one caught me a little off guard. There was certainly no rush associated with this run because it didn’t pickup until 3pm and it delivered in Houston(1209mi) Thursday morning. An unsettling, if not ominous way to start my return to the Big Road. My first load of the week and I’m already set up to sit around for a full day upon arriving. At least there is a drop yard in Houston and I might be able to get out from under this load when I get there on Wednesday morning (if there are any empty trailers available).

Under normal circumstances I would have been put off by the late pickup of this load, but due to my unwavering determination to complete the remodel I had put off every thing else that needed to be taken care of while at home. This little delay afforded me time to take a nice little 2hr nap, stop off for a hair cut and a new pair of shoes with just enough time left to make a pit stop at Wal-Mart to stock up.

I made it to the shipper with a bit of time to spare for what I thought was a 3pm appointment live load. Instead I found a preloaded trailer waiting for me. That’s the good news. The bad news, the previous driver that pulled this trailer in left it here with a flat tire that was off the rim. Wow, that’s never happened before. Welcome back!

Back to the yard I go assuming I’d be hung up for hours getting it changed out, bad news. To my surprise I was told to back it up and he would pull a mechanic off of another job long enough to get me rolling again. It took less than 30mins to get it taken care of, good news. There wasn’t much left of the day by the time I pulled out of town, but I managed to make it to the middle of NM before shutting it down.

Tuesday was a good day, nothing but driving and 680 miles behind me by the time I called it a day. That put me close enough to Houston to make it there by 11am, a full 24hr before my scheduled appointment delivery. It was my intention to head on over to or drop lot a work on a Tcal if I could find an empty trailer, but I noticed that I would be driving right by the receiver on my way there. I figured it couldn’t hurt to stop by and see if I could get unloaded a day early. When I got there I parked out in the street and hunted down the receiving clerk and let him know I was in town a day early. I said I had no problem coming back the following day, but if he wanted to unload me today I was available. Good news, “Back it in and we’ll get you unloaded”. Yeah for me!

It took a couple of hours, but I wasn’t about to complain. The MT call went in along with a message that I was able to get unloaded early. “Looking for a load out and have until 10pm b4 my break”. I didn’t really expect a load out of Houston this late in the day and figured I’d get a load offer for the following morning which would have been fine with me. It would be better than delivering my load the following day and sitting around until Friday to get a load out. I was amazed to get a load offer within 25mins, good news. A bud load going to MS(456mi) that didn’t pickup until after 9pm tonight followed by more bad news. Not only would I have to wait around Houston all day before picking up my load, I would then have to drive all night to make the delivery in time and basically be out of hours once empty and looking for a load in the late evening of Thursday. Well, that’s not going to happen in MS and I could basically count on sitting until Friday morning before getting a load.

I was actually in a position where I had a legitimate reason to turn this load down based on a really messy sleep schedule, but I was content with being another 500 miles away from Houston by the end of tomorrow. With that I headed over to the Loves next to the Bud plant and was amazed to find a 100% filled truck stop at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon. Ouch, freight must still be hurting down here. I was just getting ready to head over to the drop yard a few miles down the road when I saw a truck pulling out and grabbed the coveted spot for myself and put in for the rest of the day.

The load was ready by 7:30pm, but due to my log book I had to sit until Midnight before getting started. Not wanting to start my 14hr clock to soon I stayed put until 1am so that I would arrive at the receivers just as they opened. That way, if they unloaded me in a timely manner I would still have 3-4 hours left in my day and a couple of hours of drive time should a load be available in the area.

The pickup went without a hitch and I made my way to MS and arrived close to opening time only to find two other Crete trucks ahead of me. So much for having anytime to get a start on my next load once empty. Unloading of our trucks proceeded at the standard Southern pace and time crawled as I awaited my turn. Once in the dock I was able to continue my conversation with the other Crete drivers. Both of them were AZ drivers that were trying to get home. The first driver hit the jackpot and got a Cali load that he could Tcal in Phx. The other driver was told no freight available at this time. He wasn’t too happy about that one because he had pulled in about 10mins after the first truck. It’s all about timing.

My MT call got the same reply as the second driver and I wondered off looking for a place to park. It was only noon, but my 14hrs was all but shot and it was time for me to go to bed. I hadn’t quite recovered from my bout with manual labor and my messed up driving schedule hadn’t done much to remedy the situation. I woke up in a couple of hours and resent a request for a load offer for the following morning a got myself a load going to KY(562mi). Reasonable miles and acceptable appointment delivery the following morning.

I picked the load up very early on Friday morning and pointed the truck in the direction of Nashville. That would find me about 60 miles short of my final destination, but I was going to a Dollar General DC and they are always out in the middle of nowhere and seldom allow you to park onsite overnight. So I had decided to hold up at the TA in Nashville and get a good meal in town. I would be able to get an early start the following day and make my 6am appointment without any trouble. The early morning drive up to KY would also allow me to avoid the evening rush hour heading out of town that I would have to deal with should I choose to go on past Nashville tonight.

Ok, Nashville is my destination and I’m on my way. I managed to make it about 1hr down the road and crossed the AL boarder into MS and noticed a DOT car sitting in what has always been a closed scale house. I have been over the road many times and have never seen this rundown scale open. I do a quick double check of the sign and note that it is still closed and plan on continuing down the road. It was at this time I noticed the blue lights come to life on the DOT car. “That’s odd”, I think to myself. Next I see the officer get out of his car and walk toward the back, he was also waiving at me. I had to assume this wasn’t just a friendly gesture to welcome me to his state and pulled into the POE to go through what at this point could be nothing more than yet another DOT safety inspection.

Sure enough, hand over the license, physical and registration followed by the standard questions. What are you hauling? Where are you coming from/going to? Etc. That was followed by a, “I’ll need to see your logbook too”, and then he wandered off to do a once over visual of the truck. What a nice officer. Most officers I’ve encountered have demanded my logbook on the spot and stood there until it was handed over. If you are not up to date you have yourself a problem. This kind officer was actually making a conscious effort to casually stroll around the truck, in effect, giving me time to make the logbook look good before taking it from me. In my particular case it wasn’t necessary, but I have to respect him for giving me the opportunity to do so.

That makes two random inspections in my last two weeks of driving, albeit, I spent the 3 weeks between them at home. And like the last officer I dealt with, this one was also as professional and pleasant a he could be. I’m starting to think there are actually good people out here.

Thirty minutes later I was once again rolling with my clean level 2 inspection and the promise of another $25 from Crete for a clean report. The rest of the day was uneventful and I made it to Nashville as planned. I found a good meal in town and hit the sack early, still trying to catch up on sleep.

I arrived at Dollar General about 30mins before my appointment time and spent the next 40mins waiting for my turn at the guard gate. They were working at the blistering pace of about one truck every 10mins or so. Upon pulling up I had been expecting a door assignment, but instead was instructed to drop my trailer. That was a welcomed change of events and I put my empty call in shortly there after. It was now about 7am and I was ever hopeful that something good would be offered to me. Call me stupid!

First of all, someone at Crete really dropped the ball on this one. It is common knowledge throughout the fleet that when I come off home time in Phoenix, it is imperative that I be in Pennsylvania within 5days, one week at the most. Instead, I was actually being sent to the middle of the country. The land of plentiful freight. Someone is going to loose their job over this one for sure.

My initial reaction was hot ####. I’m not going to Pa and am getting a great load to IA. After reading a little bit of the detail that all changed. I could have just as well spent a day or two in PA waiting for freight. What a pathetic load. Not only did it not pickup until 3pm, it was to deliver in IA(584mi) on Monday, keep in mind, it is currently very early Saturday morning. Now, if it were a Monday morning delivery I probably could have swallowed that pill, but no, this #### load was delivering at 23:00. Not only would I spend 3 days under a 600 mile run, I would be sitting around until Tuesday morning at best before getting a load out.

Looks like the frustration is determined to continue. I probably should have put some effort into getting out of this load, but I chose to take my lumps on this one and take a shot at Tcalling it in St. Louis along the way. If not there I could always make a last ditch effort to dump in our Moline yard.

As usual, I didn’t plan on waiting around until 3pm to get my load. There is always the chance the load is ready to go and I headed to the shipper to check it out. One of the prominent things in the load info was a message to “make sure you drop your empty trailer in the drop lot before going to the shipper”. Sounds simple enough. Directions had been provided and I made my way to their drop lot which was about 3 miles away from the main building. Once that had been done I made my way on over to the main building to check in. I give the shipping clerk my info and let him know that I am very early, but wanted to check on my load while I was here.

Of course, the load wasn’t ready, but I was told they would go ahead and get me loaded right away. It’s at this time I must inform him that I don’t have a trailer because I dropped in their dirt lot across town. “Why did you do that, who told you to drop your trailer”? Oh Boy!

Back I go to get my trailer and then back to the shipper’s window to once again check in. This time I’m assigned a door and the loading starts soon there after and I’m on my way by 11am. St Louis wasn’t much more than 250 miles away and I pulled over when I was about 1hr away to request a tcall so that I wouldn’t have to spend two days sitting around in Iowa waiting to deliver a load. That was answered with a “no freight to offer when you get there”, and I continued on down the road.

Due to lengthty delays during the day I wasn’t able to make it to our Moline yard, even though it was only a 500mi trip or so and arrived Saturday morning. I could have slept in, but wanted to get there ASAP and got the day going by 5am. This made it possible for me to be in Moline by 7:30 with a solid shot at tcalling my load. Unfortunally there was one glaring problem. There was only one empty trailer in the lot and it had an Enforcer Lock on it. The basic rule is, no empty trailer, no tcall. I gave it a shot anyway and asked for the tcall. Sure enough, the reply was, “Do you have an empty?”. This meant two things to me. One, I could tcall this load if I had an empty. Two, there were no empty trailers and I was stuck with this load for the next two days.

Oh Well, not a great week, not a bad week. I’ll take it.



WEEK TWENTY THIRTY ONE
Monday, Aug 3rd through Sunday, Aug 9th
Miles include deadhead


Goodyear, AZ to Houston, TX……………………………………......1209mi
Houston, TX to Leland, MS……………………………………….........456mi
Crossett, AR to Scottsville, KY……………………………………......562mi
Bowling Green, KY to Maquoketa, IA…………………………….....584mi

Total Paid Miles…………………………………......2811 Miles
Actual Miles………………….......2861 Miles

2811 Miles x .43 = $1208.73 + clean DOT inspect $25 = $1233.73

 

Hey SuperSnack,

Haven't heard from you for awhile. I know you're out there. How's life on the road been treating you.

 

I assumed as much but hoped for the best none the less.

Not all is bad, at least the tornado actually missed you but I have a funny feeling there is a hurricane on the horizon headed your way.

Stay low.


This week hasn't been anything to get excited about at this point. I seem to be getting an endless string of load that either have a 23:00 pickup or delivery. This is making it very difficult to get into a smooth flow.

I delivered in IA last Monday night at 23:00 only to get a 500mi load that didn't pickup until 3pm the next day. That turned into a mid day delivery today with yet another 23:00 pickup tonight for 600mi run right back to the same IA DC I just came from and doesn't deliver until Friday morning. So that will have me sitting with 1100 miles or so as of Friday morning. That will put me in the uncomfortable position of possibly getting a short load that won't deliver until Monday morning and leave me with a really bad week. I'm finding myself being caught up in an aggravating cycle of 10hr days followed by a 1-3hr day, repeat kind of thing. If Friday doesn't turn up a decent run I think I'm going to have to start riding dispatch a little bit. This sitting back and taking what they are dishing out doesn't seem to be doing the trick for me.

 

Schwerner Cute, I got a chuckle out of that one.

No on Jackson, the place I delivered to was hole in the wall on the outskirts of Leland, MS. Not that the outskirts looks any different than the inskirts in those parts. If you blinked you missed it.