CRETE - A Year in Review

wasted my time?

 

Welcome to the show...

I use to have good things to say about the SLC shop...Until they screwed up my truck, and my APU. In fact, I thought Lincoln had solved the problems the SLC started, but lately the front end shake has started to return under moderate braking under a heavy load...It wasn't doing it before the SLC guys worked on it, and no one, including Freightliner, has been able to track it down. I hope the Knox shop doesn't go the way of the KC shop. I use to have no trouble getting in and out, and repairs fixed right the first time, until they built the new shop...now, I can say, they have never gotten the chance to work on my truck...I've never had that much time to wait.

 

I just happen to be at the right place at the right time sometimes...sorta' like a blind nut finding a squirrel, you might say.
I got another one of your loads after delivering in Phoenix...at least from the shipper side of things. I'll post the details later.

I would have been happy to help...But it would have cost ya'...at least a steak dinner...(with beans to provide that extra special umph to get the insulation moving) At least you used the wool fiber instead of the fiberglass...I use that at home...much less itchy.

The only thing I hate about the desert SW is the fact that there isn't enough humidity to work up a good sweat... That's why I live in FL...once you are dripping wet w/sweat, you cool easier.

I wondered if you would remember that one.

 

Well my deliveries didn't go as good as I wanted, but it all worked out. My first stop in Tucson, was shorthanded due to someone being on vacation, and it was a little 1 dock place, you had to back in off a little road in a small industrial area that reminds me of the Hialeah area outside Miami. Nice enough people, but the only guy in the warehouse had to load stock on their delivery truck in order to make room for my delivery, then move all their vehicles out of the way before I could back in. He said they needed these units last summer but couldn't get them in fast enough, but have little demand right now for them. So, they just keep stacking up. They have several remote storage places he has to take the extra to. All in all it only put me 15 minutes behind for stop 2, which I warned dispatch about, and they in turn passed the word to the next stop.(really...they did...honest)

Stops 2 and 3 went quick and I was empty 15 minutes after my last stop.

The next load was out of a place ET posted about a few pages back. Miami, AZ, 60 miles east of Phoenix. But before I could go pick up the load, I had to hunt down a newer trailer. The shipper requires a 7 year or newer trailer, my trailer was a 2000. So I got the 2 cent tour of Phoenix. My last delivery in Phoenix was on the NE side of town. Ops had me roll over to the yard, which is on the west side of town and check for newer equipment. While I was there, I looked for ET's truck...no luck...on either part... no newer empty trailers, no ET's truck. So they had me go switch at another customer in Goodyear, then back to the shipper in Miami.

Now I believe in safety...but the shipper is very, very, very safety conscious. It took me longer to go through their safety training video, and get myself acceptable in their eyes than it took them to load...all of 6 pallet/rolls of copper rod. At least this plant(we pick up at a number of their places) not only loads you, but they have a portable air nailer they use to nail the 'goal post' of 2x6's and 2x4's to secure the load... Only thing they require from the drivers is that you place these little pieces of 2x6 between the pallets to keep the copper from rubbing together. The other places hand you a big hammer and point you to the stack of wood and the box of nails. By the time I got my trailer swapped, got to the shipper, got cleared and loaded, my 14 hr clock was tight, and the route they had me travel was through some decent size grades. With my briggs/stratton powered putt-putt mobile, I chose to put in a break at the shipper. If anyone picks up in Miami, AZ(there's only 1 shipper) they have a large gravel/dirt lot, access to a bathroom and have no problem with you staying there for a break. The load I picked up went from Miami, AZ to Richmond, KY for Monday morning, 1844 loaded miles.(1960 total miles with the deadhead and the extra they paid me to hunt down a newer empty)(I think ET's was from there to TX) Since I was leaving Friday early morning after a break, I would have to run 3 full days with 45000+ lbs. to get it delivered on time...It'll feels good to have to push myself for a change. I wish I could have taken off a little later in the morning in order to see scenery in the area I was running. But then again, maybe I'm glad I didn't see...might have scared me to see how far up in the clouds I was ... Routing had me go up US60 to Show Low, AZ then grab AZ77 to Holbrook. Right through some of the steepest grades and windiest roads I've seen in quite a while. Some of the grades had me down to 25mph, and the speed limit was only 35. I recently picked up a Garmin 'Nag-a-gator'. It projects your route with a purple line on the road you suppose to follow...on the screen for this route, there were sometime 3 purple lines going back and forth...because it was, as CW McCall's lyrics say,- 'It was hair-pin county, and switchback city'.(even though his song talks about Wolf Creek pass in CO, it would have fit this road as well) Right through 2 different Apache Indian reservations. After I got through that, it was smooth sailing. I managed to pull into the Loves in Richmond, KY by Sunday early-afternoon. With specific instructions to 'only deliver on the date shown or risk losing the account'. That was 1844 miles in a 62 mph drag-n-fly w/45000+ lbs in under 56 hours of total time...my tires didn't see much whoa time. In fact other than my 2 10 hr breaks, the only other time I took more than a whizz break was to fuel and to stop at the local Wally outside OKC for supplies.

I got empty Monday morning, and within a short time, a load from Red Boiling Springs to Savannah for Weds 2am. And once again the Red Boiling Springs water plant comes through again. My load wasn't suppose to p/u until 1700, I got there before noon, and it was ready to go. That's the only Nestle water plant we pick up at that seems to have their act together on a regular basis when it comes to loading trailers. That'll put me at 2640 miles in 5 days travel (I made it to Savannah Tuesday morning and I'm putting in a long nap before I head to deliver) I have enough hours left in the week to put in maybe another 750-800 miles without burning the book completely to the ground... So this is what it's like to run like the infamous ET...It's been a while since I've seen this kind of productivity...I could get use to this!! In fact today is my 14th day since leaving home. And I am in the low 6000 mi range...not bad...

And Weazz...you said you thought about coming to the red side so you could start hauling some lighter freight... My last 2 loads, were in the 45000+ side. In fact, the water I'm hauling now, put me at 79540 with 3/8's of a tank of fuel. I couldn't even fill up completely. I had to do the 50 gallon shuffle.

And once again so far this week...I have no complaints...This is going to ruin my bad reputation

Nighty nite

 

Don't be fooled by one driver that only shows a record two years ago. Ask some others and look at current info.

 

As unbelievable as it might seem I am actually going to get my pay rasie this year. I delivered in Albany Ga Mon morning needing to get 1906 miles by today and they put me on a load to Auburn, Wa. 2822 miles which makes it the longest load I have had at Crete. Even though it doesn't deliver until Saturday payroll goes off of dispatched miles rather than completed miles in determining eligibility. When you consider that I was only at 80,000 in mid July this is quite a feat for me. Hopefully things will stay solid until at least the end of the year. If that is the case I'll have enough saved up to pay cash for a new Toyota Tacoma!

 

I'm frustrated for the first time...

Put in for hometime about the 8th to have me home on the 20th. I was religious about canned 15 every time before sending 6. I was in NE early last week and I often can get loads heading west from there...not this time, went to IN then AL where I ran out of hrs. Called FM (who was out of the office)...was told I'd be late getting home, but they would work on it. Took a reset then the only offer i got, Palestine, tx...uh oh Almost never loads for TX to socal...Arkansa yes. (The only times I've gone to cali from Texas was a trade show from Dallas to LA for Kawasaki, and a repower on an AC load out of Arkansas) From palestine to Midland, tx. (Goodbye frying pan, hello fire) Took an unneeded reset due to lack of freight. got a load offer to Maine. 90% of the time that's great, 2,050 loaded and 247 mt But it's the 21st, I'm already a day late getting home, and I have a tooth that's gonna make my face explode any day. So I've called FM no less than THREE times since I got the ME load info yesterday, and THREE times was told they would find a tcall OR SOMETHING and get back to me.

...nothing. No message, no phone call.

If I'm a week late delivering a load, or am unresponsive to reasonable requests, I know I'm looking for work. Rightfully so. Now I'm gonna be a week late AT BEST getting home, I've been out +/- 54 days, and I can't seem to get even a phone call telling me I need to pull this tooth myself and deliver this load to Maine.

Now I consider my self a patient person. I know that hometime is never a guarantee on the day you request (the only real complaint I have with Crete, They could be somewhere in the 90% success on hometime if they gave a rats #####) I mean how difficult is a preplan once in a while to make sure someone gets to the proper freight lane? That #15 means NOTHING if a dispatcher has no incentive to do the extra keystrokes to try and get somebody home.

/end rant

Not a happy camper tonight.