CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK THIRTY FIVE
Monday, Aug 31st through Sunday, Sep 6th
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Well that home time flew by.

I spent the first half of the week at the house and headed on down to the yard Thursday morning looking for my load out of town. I had made repeated attempts to contact dispatch via phone from the house, both yesterday and this morning, but no one was answering the phone. Each attempt garnered no more that an immediate transfer to hold which eventually ended in my call being disconnected, either by someone in dispatch simply clearing the lines or perhaps the system simply disconnects a call after 20mins or so. Whatever the reason, I was never able to talk to any one. I was hoping to avoid a repeat of my last emergence from hometime when I pulled into the yard (30+ miles from my house) at 6am only to be put on a load that didn’t pickup until 3pm. It would have been nice to know that before leaving the house then and I certainly didn’t want a repeat performance this week. It would have made my life a bit better to know when I had to leave town, but alas, all I could do was cross my fingers and get out of bed much sooner than I really wanted to.

This time around it wasn’t quite so bad with a noon pickup and it helped that there was 90 miles of deadhead to get there. By the time I managed to put my truck back together and get underway there wasn’t all that much downtime left to deal with.

As many times as I’ve pulled loads out of AZ for this company I had never been put on a copper load out of the mines up in the Superstition Mountains, but today would change that. Even though I had never been to this particular mine, I had made many trips to nearby stone quarries during my dump truck days and knew exactly where I was going. This mine was just outside of Globe, AZ and it was what you might call a “big” hole. Not that you could actually see the mining operation, but what you could see was the mountains of spent debris in the area. They actually dwarfed the natural landscape, showing evidence of many years of excavation in the area.

I arrived about an hour early which turned out to be a good thing because it took all of that to get through the security gate. What a cluster that was, compounded by what appeared to be the guards secondary duty of heating up and passing out Hungry Man TV dinners to all the employees in the general area. You would think beef or turkey would be a simple choice? Not for the yahoos at this place.

I was finally allowed to proceed down to the loading docks with somewhat vague directions which eventually got me to where I was going, but at no time up to that point did I think I was where I was suppose to be. Especially when I found what appeared to be the scale I was to pull on. It just so happened to double as a scale for train cars and was integrated into the actually train tracks. It kind of goes against the natural instincts of any truck driver, newbie or seasoned, to actually straddle a set of railroad tracks. Not to mention, it makes for one hell of a bumpy ride getting to that point.

It wasn’t what I would call a well conceived docking setup and I found myself wondering around looking for the shipping office while dodging meandering forklifts and extremely large cranes that where shifting copper plates around far above my head. It just didn’t seem like a place for a lost truck driver to be, but sure enough, there was a shipping office in the midst of all the confusion and I was soon given final instructions for loading and headed back to bump the dock. It was a union shop without a doubt, and took another hour to get my truck loaded which was ridiculous considering the fact that I was the only truck there. I was even more frustrated when I saw my load. All this time just to pickup my #45,000 load of copper that consisted of 6 skids (for a lack of a better word).

Wow, heavy stuff!




While I was waiting to get loaded I took a better look at my load assignment and realize someone had made a mistake when they booked this load. It had a noon pickup today with a delivery window that concluded at 1pm in Amarillo, TX the following day. With the time change that gave me a grand total of 913 miles to travel in 27hrs, and that included loading time. NOT going to happen in a 62mph truck. I informed dispatch of this and was later told that it was a drop load and it would be OK along with a request for my ETA.



I wasn’t convinced that this late delivery thing was going to work out for me. The load info showed a delivery window of 08:00 to 13:00 and I knew I was headed to another Union shop. They aren’t exactly known for their flexibility and I was halfway expecting to be turned away upon my arrival and being force to sit until the following morning to deliver. I hoped that by pushing as hard as this truck and my logbook would allow that I would be able to pull in no more than 30mins late.


It was a grand plan but only took about 45mins for it to be derailed. How was I supposed to know there was road construction ahead with one lane traffic and 30min delays? I didn’t want to take this road in the first place and I was actually routed along more truck friendly roads. The problem with that route was that it added 100 mile to the trip. By taking Hwy 60 through the Salt River Canyon I was hoping to gain a little time even though I knew it was going to be slow going through these mountains. I have been on this road many times in a car, doing it with a fully loaded truck was going to be, well, let’s just call it slow going.




No one has ever accused Crete trucks of being over powered and nothing was ever clearer to me. I spent the better part of the next 2hrs crawling through those hills and don’t think I got the silly thing over 30mph more than a handful of times. I couldn’t even pick up any speed on the downhill side of things because of the numerous curves. I definitely didn’t break any land speed records and at times found myself pulling over every few minutes to let the latest string of cars get by, but I will tell you one thing. That is one of the most beautiful drives in this fine country of ours.

If I remember correctly I was cruising along at 12mph when this shot was taken.




Even though I lost a fair amount of time due to the construction and ensuing turtle race I was still better off time wise than if I had taken the long way around and pushed on in an effort to make my appointment, or at least keep my tardiness to a minimum and drove on until my 11hrs had expired. Once my 10hr break had concluded I once again jumped into the drivers seat and didn’t stop again until I pulled into the receivers gate 5 ½ hrs later at 3pm. The reception that I was greeted with was pretty much what I had expected. Grumbling, grunting and a less than agreeable attitude (your standard union man) followed by the obligatory, I’m ignoring you, which lasted for another 5mins or so while he concluded his inane conversation with a co-“worker” about what they had planned after work.

His attention was finally directed at me. I presented my Bills and was immediately accosted with an accusatory “What was your problem? Why didn’t you show up with the rest of the trucks, they were all able to get here ontime, we stop receiving at 2pm” (it’s now 3).

I had two courses of action to choose from in this particular situation. There was the preferred response that was foremost in my mind that would surely result in an immediate expulsion from the property and then there was the more tempered, and what I was sure the wiser choice. I, of course, went with door number two and hoped he would later open door number three and be run over by whatever came flying out of it at some later date.

I suppose I could have tried to explain my situation to this half-wit but didn’t really see the point, nor did I really feel compelled to explain anything whatsoever to him. I simply looked him dead in the eyes, told him the delay had been reported to dispatch and the late arrival had been cleared prior to my arrival.

There was some paper shuffling, more grumbling under his breath and what was obviously a hard pill to be swallowed when he realized he would have to accept the load. He wasted no more words than absolutely necessary and told me where to drop my trailer. “Do you mean next to the other 30 Crete trailers, I’m a little confused.” I couldn’t resist, I just had to make him repeat himself. Amazing, all that attitude over a drop trailer.

I was actually surprised that I got away with that one, I was sure I would be sitting around until tomorrow with that load. But I was now empty and joined the other ten bobtails in the side lot. Three of them were Crete trucks and I jumped out to talk to the two drivers that had climbed out of their trucks to socialize. They had both deadheaded in to pickup loads. Both had pickup times of 2pm and were waiting for a call on the CB to let them know their load was ready to go. It was close to 2hrs past that time and I assumed everyone else there was in the same boat.

I had put in my MT call and was still waiting for my load offer, but assumed I would be pulling a load out of here. There wouldn’t be any point in deadheading other drivers in when I was scheduled to deliver unless there were loads for all of us. OK, even though that makes all the sense in the world, I may be overstepping my bounds in assuming that would be the case. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen it play out in such a nonsensical manor. But today, it went as perceived and I was sent a single load offer out of here going to SC(1242mi). Wow, all time record. I went from my front door to the east coast state in four days.

Shortly after that they started calling drivers in one at a time to pickup their respective pre-loaded trailers. As soon as one trailer was pulled out the next driver went in. I’m not exactly sure what the initial hold up was that necessitated everyone waiting around (some had been here for hours) because every trailer being pulled out was already sitting in the yard when the other drivers arrived for their 2pm pickup (everyone had the same pickup time). It was now after 4pm and they where just now allowing drivers to pull their loads out. More union efficiency I would imagine. Beings how I was the last to arrive I was also the last to pull my load out and wasn’t on the road again until almost 5:30. It had been a bit of a pain and I was thrilled to put that fine place behind me. I had pulled in with raw copper plates and left with the same copper, but this time it was in the shape of copper wire. One step closer to whatever final product it would end up being.

I wasn’t all that thrilled about finding myself on the east coast mere days after leaving the house, but I must say I loved the pace of it. Turn and burn. I managed to make it to the TA in Commerce, GA before Sunday midnight signified the end of my calendar week along with a reset layover that I defiantly didn’t need. But this stinkin’ load doesn’t deliver until Tuesday. That will happen on a Holiday weekend. Labor day for the rest of the world, unwanted time off in a stupid truckstop for the OTR drivers of the country unless you are lucky enough to get a run that keeps you moving. It just means that next week will probably be a real stinker too


WEEK THIRTY FIVE
Monday, Aug 31st through Sunday, Sep 6th
Miles include deadhead

Kelvin, AZ to Amarillo, TX…………………….…………………………...913mi
Amarillo, TX to Commerce, GA(first leg)..………………………….1150mi

Total Paid Miles (Thur-Sun only, Home week)…………2063 Miles (Short Week)
Actual Miles……………………………2011 Miles

2063 Miles x .43 = $887.09

 

Mason Jar, wow, that brings back some memories. The one's I can remember that is. Although I'm assuming you are referring to an actual device use to consume a beverage as opposed to a dive rock bar. Then there was alway the Devil House too.

 

I assume the somewhat sketchy failure to yield ticket had something to do with a budget shortfall to start with seeings how they were only going after trucks at the time. I was on of three trucks that I saw being pulled over while hundred of cars went on by without incident.

And yes, I dutifully funded an Indiana law firm, at a very reasonable price I might add.

Trainers get new truck around the 300K range or so. Whatever student is finishing at that time then gets the old trainer truck.

Mileage isn't an issue when trading in trucks with other company drivers. The truck is traded out 4yrs after being put into service (I think). Sometimes they are in the 500K range and can easily run up to 650K.