CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK EIGHT
Monday, February22th through Sunday, February 28th
Miles include deadhead

It was a good week. I headed on back to the yard first thing Tuesday morning after my hometime and had a load offer within 10mins of my arrival. I had anticipated having enough time to load my stuff into the truck and get everything packed away nicely. Instead I had to throw everything onto my bunk and get going. I didn’t even have to worry about going to a shipper. My load was sitting in the yard waiting for me. It had been dropped by another driver the day before and was ready to go. Looks like I’m headed to Okalahoma(1147mi) and it’s a drop delivery to boot. Now that’s a great way to start the week off.

I had set my PTA for 3pm Wednesday, the following day and I was quickly questioned by dispatch. “Will you have any hours available once empty, did you mean to set your PTA for Thursday?”

“Nope, set it for tomorrow. I’ll have 3hrs drive time available once empty.”

I could have broken the drive into two 550mi days and started my next load on Friday, but then that’s not the way I like to do things.

Instead, it was Tucumcari by tonight and the last 500 miles on Thursday. I arrived in Ochelata the following day at 3pm by only making one stop along the way for fuel in Amarillo. I didn’t want to waste any time along the way because I wanted to get there ASAP in the hopes of securing an empty trailer for my next load. An early morning drop at a Wal-Mart DC almost always finds me in a situation where I can take my pick of trailers, but showing up later in the day can find me looking at an empty drop lot as far as Crete trailers are concerned.

The later I arrived, the less likely I would be to succeed. Even a few minuets can make a difference at that time of day and I was determined to do what I could to increase my chances. So with that in mind I barreled on through without any unnecessary stops only to pull into Wal-Mart’s gate to find another Crete truck sitting in line two trucks ahead of me. “Crap, I hope he doesn’t get the last empty trailer”.

He did!

And while I was running around in circles double checking all of the loaded Crete trailer in hopes of finding one that wasn’t, two more Crete trucks pulled in and joined the party. That made four of us trailerless and two others sitting tight with empty trailers waiting for load offers.

There were at least 10 loaded trailers on the lot, but none of them were in docks so I figured I was stuck there for the rest of the day. Not really that big of a deal because I already had 500 miles in the log book, but I had hoped to get a start on my next load. Oh well. That didn’t keep me from asking Wal-Mart control when I could expect them to start unloading trailers. I assumed it would be around midnight, but she told me they would start the process in a couple of hours, but there were over 70 loads sitting on the yard at the moment and there was no way she could know when or what trailers would be started first.

Well, that seals the deal. My 14hr clock will run out by that time and I set my sights on early tomorrow morning for my next load. With that I headed on back to the truck and put in my MT call along with a note that I had hours to run, but there were no trailers available at this time and to set my PTA for the following morning.

It was 5mins later when the QComm begged for my attention and the message was the last thing I had expected to see. “I’ve sent a message to Truck #(whatever) and told him to drop his empty trailer, hook to it and let me know when you are ready to go”

That made my day, but the other driver wasn’t quit as agreeable to the turn of events. I felt bad about it, but he didn’t have any hours anyway and there would be plenty of trailers available by the time he was ready to roll. After talking to him I found out that he had been offered a load but turned it down because it had an appointment pickup time that he couldn’t make due to log regulations. I, on the other hand was able to make the pickup and dispatch had me planed on the load shortly thereafter and I was soon headed on down the road Tulsa way.

This Roehl driver was headed to the same general area but came up a little short. For all you new drivers out there. Swing wide! Oh yeah, watch your mirrors too.


I had an 8pm appointment pickup, which I thought odd because I had been to this customer a few time before and it was always a drop/hook deal. 8pm was also the end of my 14hr clock and if indeed it was a live load at that time I would have to spend the night at the shipper which would pose no problems because I also knew that they had a large dirt lot across the street that I could hide in, but then that wasn’t the way I wanted the day to end and I arrived a few hours early in the never ending pursuit to bump the clock up on my appointment time. I also halfway expected to find a preloaded trailer sitting there waiting for me.

The preloaded thing didn’t happen, but what I did find was the other Crete driver that was sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot with an empty trailer when I first arrived. He had pulled out shortly after my arrival. Now he was just pulling out of a dock with a freshly loaded trailer. I asked him what his appointment time was and I was delighted to find out it had been an 8:30. That meant I would be getting loaded early too and sure enough, once I checked in I found myself backing into his vacated dock. I also learned he was headed to the same place as me with a similar load of empty beer bottles. We would both be delivering our loads to a warehouse in Ft Collins, Co (798mi). I had a 1pm delivery and his was set for 3pm Friday afternoon. It was currently Wednesday, but I would only have a couple of hours of drive time left once loaded so I would be left with a solid day of running on Thursday and an unwanted delay waiting for my appointment time to roll around on Friday. I didn’t like that too much, but it was better than being stuck with the 3pm like the other driver, and of course, I can always try the early delivery thing.

The loading took a little longer than expected and I had the good fortune of having a trailer that refused to make tandem sliding a simple thing. I found myself fully engulfed in a battle of wills that lasted twenty aggravating minutes before I finally won out and after a wrong turn that resulted in an unanticipated sight seeing tour of the area I barely had enough time to make it to the closest rest area with only a few minutes left on my log.

Thursday was a pleasant day of driving under clear skies (always a good thing when driving to Denver in February). I had just enough hours available to make it to Denver and had started the day out early with the express purpose of arriving in Denver early enough to secure a parking spot at the TA or Sapp Bros. Everything was progressing nicely and I was on schedule right up to the point where one of my trailer tires exploded. I’m not sure why it chose this particular moment to scare the hell out of the truck driver that was passing me at that very moment.

It was smooth running at the time and there was nothing in the road to initiate the event and I was certain that it was properly inflated. I had checked all tires that very morning and not one of them was under 95psi. The tire had plenty of tread left and showed no uneven wear. Closer inspection did tell me that this was a retread with a rather old carcass, perhaps a third generation tire that had simply seen better days and today was the day that the sidewall decided to give up. In any case, I was now stuck with 44,000# load and a flat tire. I was less than 20 miles away from the TA in Limon and decided to limp it on down the road. I keep the speed down and managed to make it to the truck stop without any further complications and headed to the shop.

It didn’t really take all that long to get the tire changed out, but by the time it was done it was late enough that I was no longer confident that I would be able to find a parking spot at the TA when I pulled into Denver, so I just shut it down for the night.

After taking a nice hot shower I wandered over to a restaurant next door to the TA. Take note here. This place is called Oscar’s and I must say, it is one of the best restaurants I have come across that is walking distance from a truck stop. It is actually just across the parking lot and the food was Great! They have everything from sandwiches to steaks, lobster and Alaskan crab legs. Two pounds of legs and some melted butter, I was in heaven. Here’s to Captain Phil!

My appointment was for 1pm. I would have liked to pull in early that morning, but I had to be mindful of my 14hr clock. If I arrived too soon and was turned away, my driving day would have been shot as I sat in a parking lot. As a happy medium I got there at 11am. That way I might be able to get my day started a couple of hours early, if I had to wait for my actual appointment time, I would still be able to put in 11hrs of drive time if everything worked out with my next load.

I pulled in to find empty dock doors and was backing up to one of them within a few minutes. As the truck was bounced around by the forklift the other Crete driver that I had met at the previous shipper pulled in. You know, the one with the 3pm appointment that had been loaded before me. I guess he was trying some of my tricks and almost beat me to the punch. He too was given a dock door and we were both getting our day off to a good start.

He was also in a Blue truck like me and I had a very good idea where our next load would be coming from. The Bud plant was only 2 miles away and I was certain that would be my next stop and I wasn’t the least bit thrilled about it. My last experience with the place had left a bad taste in my mouth because they had refused to let me pull a Crete trailer out of plant with a Shaffer truck, even though there is lettering on the side of my truck that says “division of Crete Carrier”.

The end result of that was that I had to sit there for a good three hours before I was able to wave down another Crete driver (in a red truck) and get him to pull my trailer out before getting his own.

When my MT call went in it was immediately answered with a load assignment from Budweiser. I asked about the Red/Blue truck situation and was assured that it had been resolved and I would be allowed to pull out a Crete trailer (That’s what they told me last time too). I proceeded to Bud with low expectation, but this time it was smooth sailing and soon thereafter I was headed to Lincoln with my load of Bud, after waiving goodbye to the same driver I had just left behind at the last receiver. I did stop along side him long enough to find out he got a load going to the same place as me. Geez, I can’t shake this guy.

I had plenty of time to drive out the 490 miles to Lincoln and shut down for the night at out terminal. The moment my 10hrs concluded I drove the last few miles to the customer. This was a first come first unloaded kind of place and I knew there was another driver close behind me and I wanted to get there ahead of him. Not only so that I didn’t have to wait for his truck to be unloaded, but also, if there was only one load left, I wanted to be the one to get it. Although with the way freight has been for us lately, I wasn’t all that concerned.

Unloaded started almost immediately upon my arrival and before I was empty my shadow pulled in. He didn’t have to wait too long because there were only a few more skids on my truck and he was soon taking my place at the dock. While he was backing in I got my next load offer. I wasn’t overly thrilled about it because it was a two drop load with the final delivery very early Tuesday morning going to some place in Ohio with a total of about 850 miles on it. Not great because that would close out my week with somewhere in the neighborhood of 3200 miles. I would have preferred a few more miles, but beings how this was a Saturday morning, I could have just as easily been saddled with a 300 mile run that didn’t deliver until Monday. At least I would be able to get in a reset along the way. I accepted the load and awaited the load info, but I didn’t awaited to long.

Moments later I got a message from dispatch, “I didn’t mean to send that out, can you deliver this load on time instead?”

That was followed with a load of cat food sitting on a preloaded trailer in Crete, NE going to Tipton, GA with a wonderful 1237 miles on it. How sweet! Drop and Hook on both ends to boot. I didn’t beat that other driver here by much, but the difference just added 400 miles to my mileage total for the week and $200 plus to the paycheck, if he had the hours to do the run that is. Now that I think about it, based on our previous conversations, he probably didn’t.

“Why yes, I can deliver that load.”

Before leaving I had a little chat with the other driver and asked him how he felt about going to Ohio.

Within an hour or so I was pulling out of Friskies with my trailer as that same pesky driver was pulling in. I rolled down my window and demanded that he stop following me. He simply said, “That won’t be a problem as long as you’re not going to Ohio”

The rest of Saturday was a great day as the miles were adding up and I was trying to decide where to put in for the night. I had a little lea way as to where I could stop. My first choice was to pull into Mt Vernon, IL because there was a Wal-Mart there where I could stock up on supplies and I knew there would be plenty of parking at one of the three truck stops nearby. Stopping here would also make it possible to make it to Tipton, GA with one 11hr driving day, but only barely. It would be a very tight and I would have to squeeze in a couple of 8min stops along the way to make it work. But it was interstate driving the entire way and was doable if I didn’t hit any snags in traffic along the way and I shouldn’t being a Sunday and all. It was also imperative that I make Tifton by Sunday so that I could put in a reset on Monday. If I failed to make Tifton on Sunday, I would be forced to drive out the final few miles on Monday to make the delivery. That would nullify my reset and I would be completely out of hours after my delivery and that in turn would require me to spend the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday in a tuck stop waiting to regain hours. I had to get there by Sunday and I had to do a reset.

My other option of parking for the night was 50 miles down the road in Marion. My concern with that choice was that by the time I pulled in it would be getting a little late and parking in the area was limited. If I pulled into a full parking lot I would be out of hours and out of luck, but I wasn’t comfortable with the tight schedule a layover in Mt Vernon would put me on and I decided to take my chance. Who knows, I might just need that extra 50mins tomorrow.

I arrived in Marion to find two parking spots left. Close, but I only needed one and settled in for the night. The extra push put me within 630 miles of Tifton and I saw no reason why I wouldn’t be able to make it to Tifton the following day with time to spare. I could drop my trailer upon my arrival and start my reset. By the time Tuesday moring rolled around I would have a fresh 70hrs on my log and I would be ready for another 3600 mile week.

As soon as my 10hrs concluded I was back on the road and made great time right up to the time I hit Chattanooga. That’s where it all fell apart in the form of a solid line of traffic that stretched as far as I could see. Details were sketchy, nonexistent actually because there was not a single truck in the west bound lane and only an occasional car. If you ever want the definition of a bad sign, That’s it!

The cause of the delay eventually became known thanks to a driver with a scanner. Word was that an east bound truck had crossed the median a few miles down the road and came to a stop in the west bound lanes. Hey, wait a minute. If that truck is sitting in the west bound lanes, why am I sitting at a virtual stand still in the east bound lanes. This massive backup couldn’t possibly be caused solely by rubber-necking. Of course it was.

Almost 50 minuets later I finally made it to the front of the 3mi line only to find that there wasn’t a single thing to slow traffic down on my side with the exception of this view.

; ;

From what I’ve been able to google, the driver and co-driver only receive minor injuries and no other vehicles were involved.

Well, so much for my 50min cushion. It’s a good thing I went just a little further the night before. If I hadn’t I would have messed up my reset and would have been sitting around until Wednesday before getting any hours back.

I did make Tifton with all of 3mins to spare and am now spending a relaxing day in the back of the truck with the widows open enjoys a beautiful south Georgia day.




WEEK EIGHT
Monday, February22th through Sunday, February 28th
Miles include deadhead


Phoenix, AZ to Ochelata, OK……………………………………………….1147mi
Sapulpa, OK to Ft Collins, CO………………………………………………..798mi
Ft Collins, CO to Lincoln, NE………………………………………………....490mi
Crete, NE to Tifton, GA……………………………………………………...1237mi

Total Paid Miles…………………………………………...............3672 Miles
Actual Miles…........................................3692 Miles

3672mi x .44 = $1615.68 (Tue-Sun)

That was February, Right?


Paid miles for January……………………………………..12,007 Miles (4 days home)
Paid miles for February…………………………………….11,427 Miles (5 days home)

 

Oh, how innocent. The things that you have yet to learn.

Drop and hook as a general rule refers to taking a loaded trailer to a customer and dropping it on their property. You then pickup an empty trailer from them and head on down the road with a minimum amount of time lost doing the exchange. From that point on they take over the responsibility of unloading it, (or reloading it depending which side of the supply chain they are on).

If I read your question correctly you are assuming that if it is not a drop and hook load, then the driver is responsible for unloading the trailer. This is not the case(at Crete), but instead the driver does what is called a live unload(or load). That just means that the trailer has to be backed up to a dock and then the products is removed by a warehouse employee. This usually takes between 1-2hrs but at times it can take much longer.

Occasionally we are asked to do what is called an unload assist, but I have never had a load that required me to touch it (I have unloaded a few trailers to speed up the process or make an extra buck, but it was of my choosing to do so). The only driver assist unloads I've heard of at Crete are insulation loads where the driver has to push relatively light bundles of insulation to the back of the truck at which point the customer takes over.

There are loads that require "Driver unload" by the customer and depending on who you drive for you could very well be expected to unload your own truck. But you won't have to deal with that at Crete because they pay lumpers to unload trucks.

As an over all percentage I would estimate that I have to make arrangements with lumpers maybe 2-3% of the time. It is somewhat rare and for the most part only comes up when delivering to grocery store warehouses (there are exceptions).

Now if you drive on the Shaffer side that number will be significantly higher just because that is the nature of the reefer business, and one of the main reasons I no longer pull one of those noisy contraptions behind my truck. Dry van freight comes with far fewer headaches. There are those that would argue that point, but they are so wrong.

As for insurance, I pay $20/week for myself (the wife is covered by her work). I have no idea what spouse or family coverage is these days. Like everywhere else it keeps going up.