CRETE - A Year in Review

The fuel guages are never acurate. If you have the display on the dash for FUEL, just reset it after filling up and go by that when you put in your mt call.

 

My application was received today. I spent some time on the phone with Eddie in Recruiting. I'm really excited and hopeful about Crete.

 

The fuel gauge is one of the old ones with the needle. It'll read full when it's full, but when it reads MT and the red indicator lite comes on there is still 100 gallons left. Hell I cut an old wooden pool cue in half and THAT was my fuel gauge. LOL I'd be driving and doing calculations on my calculater to figure out how much further I could go. It's a pain in the butt.

The Opti-Idle wasn't working that well either, and I KNOW that they are bound to say something about my fuel usage sooner or later. I don't want to burn up alot of fuel anyways, I'll do my part. The display on my dash would read "2 faults" and the truck wouldn't shut off when the cab got up to the set temp. The fans would shut off and ussually not come back on for quite a while. I bought this electric blanket that plugs into the cig lighter, and MAN does that make alot of difference!!
SO I'll call the shop and see if it's fixed or if they are going to asign me some new wheels.
I'm gettin pretty good runs tho. I haven't really had to sit for long, so I hope we ALL can keep busy.
I saw on CNN today that sales are starting to improve, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Later
Dug

 

If your batteries are not fully charged the engine will continue to run until full charge even if the set temp has been reached. Watching TV, charging a laptop, running a cooler will all drain the battery quicker than you think. Sometimes it's caused by a bad battery or an alternator that is slowly dying.

 

Yea that's a pain in da butt when the opti idle starts up. I'll have to see if they will hook up something straight from the batteries so it doesn't turn everything off when the truck starts up, unless you's guys know any tricks in that area.(wink wink). LOL
Just called in and they said my rig is done, so I'll be callin dispatch 2morrow and see what's up. AFTER I get some much deserved rest. WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THIS $%^&* SNOW?!?!

 

*** A WARNING TO ALL!! ***

There is a place we pickup in Greenville, Mississippi called "Greenville Truckload Warehouse" that loads trailers for Uncle Ben's rice. The directions are confusing, and will cause problems.

If/when you go there to pickup, the building looks like it's Greenville Elementary School - there's two driveways side-by-side, and one of them goes underneath a low-hanging canopy. If you drive by the building, you'll see the droplot where the trailers are kept. There is a field with some gravel on it, and a driveway that leads into the field. The second entrance to the field is barricaded, and the QualComm directions make you believe that this is the appropriate entrance to GTW.

DO NOT USE THIS ENTRANCE!!

If you go out into this field, you will immediately get the truck stuck up to its axles in the mud, and have no choice but to call a wrecker to get unstuck. I made this mistake the other night, and found out from the wrecker driver that I had the honor of being the 8th Crete/Shaffer truck they've towed out this winter!

I've asked my terminal to make a note on the QC directions about staying out of this field, but I also wanted to pass it on to as many people as I can.

Beware of this shipper! When you arrive, you're supposed to take the 2nd driveway - the one immediately next to the drive that leads underneath the aforementioned canopy, but the QC directions aren't clear on that, and the drive isn't well-marked.

Trust me, there's nothing more fun than spending 4 hours waiting on a wrecker to put you into a wonderfully foul frame of mind!

 

This place was going through remodeling when I was there. I was there a few months back and it was totally different from what you're describing... so... Crete has a hard time correcting directions as it is, let alone trying to keep up with a construction site... When I was there, you check in at the warehouse, then they send you to the plant, which no one was there on the weekend, and then the spotter eventually shows up and tells you to take the main road back out and follow a side road past a fuel delivery company to the drop yard behind the plant, then bobtail back to the warehouse. Mississippi Mud Two Step.

 

I saw ya' and tried to shout back, but somethings up with the CB...I can see farther than I can hear. Have replaced everything but the radio(coax, antenna, mount, ground(power...not antenna) mounted it to solid metal), and according to the CB shop, nothings wrong with the radio either...so I don't know.

Sorry I haven't been posting much...I too have been busier than a cat covering crap on a hot tin roof, or busier than a 1 leg man at a butt kicking contest(or is it a 1 leg cat at a crap covering contest???) anyway...busy busy busy. This is getting me spoiled.

When you saw me I was on the way to Garland TX out of IL. After that they sent me on a 3 stop run TX to WI, and then a quickie run from Green Bay to Indy, and then off to MS. Since I reset my hours over last weekend, every day except Saturday was 10.75 or higher...burned a logbook to the ground in 5.5 days. But by the time I delivered to Brookhaven, MS on Saturday morning I had run just over 3000 miles in 5.5 days, and had the one load with 3 stops on it.... Most of the loads have been so close to either my 14 or my 11 that I would only have enough time to stop for a quick potty break, and hammer down. I hate running that close, but miles are miles.

I think they have a microphone in my truck. When I had that crap happen to me involving the false accusations by the Columbus backstabbers, I swore to my wife that I was going to stop pushing the early deliveries, and use most of the available window on drops for a while...if you don't run the miles, then that's less ammo they have to BMW at you...only me, my wife, and God-almighty were privy to the conversation...but since then, they haven't given me the chance to slack off...unless this is God's way of saying...Yeah right...I'll change you're mind in a hurry....zzzzzzzzapppo.

I did finally get the detention time sorted out from that 'truck ordered not used' from a month or so ago. (the delay is due to my procrastination, not because of a slow investigation) In fact, once I sent off a message to my terminal, I had an answer and the pay straightened out by 3ish that afternoon. Wish I would have gotten to is sooner.

 

I had a choice two different times this week, one after the 3 stopper. (offered 1 load at a time until I found one I could fit into my available hours) and the other was a multiple choice on same load offer.

And I have to agree, this new system seems to have improved things dramatically! The only complaint I have, I wish they would have had it up and running sooner.

As of my delivery in MS on the 13th of February, I am already within 700ish miles of my '09 Jan/Feb total miles...and I took a week of vacation off this year to boot. So the start of '10 is looking good. I just hope things don't peter out.

I heard(or read) from a mid-south regional driver a while back that said he's seen a major increase in paper, and cardboard loads. Which means more business all around....since they make the cardboard out of the type of paper we haul, and finished product is shipped in cardboard boxes... possibly a good sign that things are gradually picking up. More boxes means more people are buying. I also heard a report on the radio the other day that retailers inventory's are at the lowest point in a long while, which means that if business is picking up, even a little, they'll have to start getting more deliveries.

L8tr

 

I though you were thinking about coming over to the Red side, since you're already driving the right truck