CRETE - A Year in Review

Mdtruker, thanks for the posts.

 

Just curious, what happened at CFI/CWTL? Did they lay off drivers or was it your choice to leave 'em... I hadn't heard about any cutbacks over there.

anyway - welcome to the Crete family...or at least the Creaffer family (since you're a Shaffer blue Crete like so many of us are now)

 

It hasn't been the happiest of times since I came back from the bout with Gout. Last week seemed to be a collection of cleaning up for others or short - same day deliveries that only served to wreck my 14 hrs. After finding the closest place to park to my delivery so that I would have hours available after empty, operations would send me to pick up a load that someone accepted - but told op's they didn't have the hours to complete, so I would have to go help. Or else run this little thing of a load, and "we'll get you something better when empty". Usually that load ended up being 2-300 miles, but didn't deliver until the end of my 14 hour day. So I only ended up with 2100 miles last week (8 days, since I carried a 700 mi run from Friday thru the weekend into a Monday delivery) Plus Deland was beeping me about getting a necessary recall/repair on my Tri-pack taken care of. One of the loads, Ottawa terminal to Des Moines put me at 80560 lbs when I scaled it at the Love's west of the yard. When I beeped Op's about it, saying 'scaled at the closest scale I could find', I got a response that normally would have started the old Snackbar attitude machine. They said 'why did I wait until now to scale it'... My response..."13 miles...there wasn't anything closer going in the right direction." And a second msg, "I don't need your attitude, I have enough bad attitude of my own...just ask around!." This brought about a sorta' apology, saying he missed the fact that it was a repower, and that he didn't realize that I wasn't the original driver of the load which came out of the water plant in TN. I guess the best thing that happened all week is, while in Ottawa I decided to get a 'B' service since I was 1000mi over, and had plenty of time on the load. That shop needs to teach a class on how to keep us rolling. I don't think I was there more than a couple hrs...Got a 'B', had a trailer inspection done, they even put 4 new maypops on my truck.

The weekend ended up being where my attitude changed. I had been patient with the crappy loads all week(or didn't have the energy to waste on complaining)... and like ET, seemed like I was out of sync with the availability of productive loads. -except a bad week for him is 2500...a bad week for us is 2000 or under- But when I delivered Saturday in Spring Valley, IL (Wally) There weren't any loads ready, and I wasn't permitted to pull out an empty since we haul right back out of there, and they were below their required trailer pool level...So I waited....patiently at first, but after 4 hrs of beeping Ops to let me go get a load or an empty elsewhere - I kept being told no, or none available....finally I had enough, and started getting grumpy, primarily because dispatchers here don't have the authority to scratch their own sack without management's approval, so I was trying to get management's attention. The best way that I have found to do that is get noisy. After 6 hours, and numerous message barrages back and forth, a load right back out of there finally got loaded, and I was off to Ottawa, KS. But now I've been up all day, and I'm still feeling the effects of the med's I was on (lack of endurance and energy, not sleepy - just no energy) plus I wasn't in the best of moods, so I called it a day a little early. I delivered Sunday in KS, and was routed to K/C to pick up a fiberglass load that had 3 delivery stops in MI for Tuesday. 2 of which were driver assist (actually 1 was driver assist, the other I assisted because they only had 1 person unloading, and it was floor load, bales of blow-in type insulation that had to be hand unloaded onto pallets, and just sitting in my truck waiting would put me past my 14, and I was 50 miles north of Detroit - 30-40 miles from any truck stop...with my overall lack of energy, this just about killed me - at least it felt like it anyway. )

The next load, picked up the next morning and afternoon(a 2 stop p/u) that delivers Thursday night in the freight void of PA. That'll put me at 2600 and 3 extra stops. It has been quite a while since I was in PA, so I guess I'm due. I can't expect everyone else to cover all the loads into the black hole of freight, right?

I did see ET's truck when I was in Altoona, IA the other day, but the curtain was pulled and I didn't want to wake him from his beauty sleep...and I didn't have time to wait until he woke up to pester him... but ET - wash your truck dude....man, it looks like you have been getting all the 'snowy' runs the fair weather drivers can't handle. - (I'm kidding - sorry I didn't have time to shoot the breeze, it's been a year and I still haven't had the chance to regale the tail of last years corporate intervention session in person with ya'....The way things are going, I may have a second intervention before you hear the details of the 1st)

C'ya

 

As far as a NE regional fleet, yes, we have a NE regional fleet...whether or not there's any open spots to move into, you'd have to call recruiting. As for hometime, I think the policy for regional is every other weekend home(2 days)...I may be wrong, so much has changed around here because of the Great Recession(as it's being called now). I guess the biggest down side of being on the NE regional(other than the fact you have to run the NE)...your terminal is most likely New Kingstown, PA... and that shop is one of the most useless, disliked(and avoided) shops in the company. Especially since the county/state is changing the way Rte. 11 runs 'through' our property now.

 

Just curious, what happened at CFI/CWTL? Did they lay off drivers or was it your choice to leave 'em... I hadn't heard about any cutbacks over there.

anyway - welcome to the Crete family...or at least the Creaffer family (since you're a Shaffer blue Crete like so many of us are now) I left Conway to take a few months off from trucking. When I called to return to work I was informed ide have to get my passport to enter Canada . Im fine with going to Canada , the problem was that it now can take up to 10 weeks to obtain a passort. Since Conway wouldnt let me come back without it I came here to Crete. I still concider Conway a great company to work for.
Thanks for the welcome.. So far it looks like things might work out for me here at Crete... Not too big on the length of hauls , but I still managed to run 2500 miles the first 6 days out.

 

WOW!!

Nice miles ET!! Wish I could find a company who could put those kinds of miles on me.

Sux about the "load thief". I guess you'll have that anywhere though. If you find him, make sure you use his truck. You don't want his DNA on your drive tires.

 

I have to back up 20x a day and unload trailers (and at our facility it's all blind side). I've learned more in my local job than I ever could when I was OTR, and that's the truth!

OTR truck drivers come into our facility every day thinking they know everything. "I got 20 years experience, can you help me get my trailer out of this hole and put it in the dock for me?" Sure thing mr. supertrucker, drop your trailer and let me get it out of the way!

I know most of what you do is drive, you don't back 20x a day or unload 3 or 4 trailers a day.

 

Thats about enough of this garbage. Can you please take it to PM or email?

 

I agree 100%, take the negative postings elsewhere. Btw, some really good miles there ET. Hope everyone stays safe and enjoy the holidays.



signed satisfied crete driver