CRETE - A Year in Review

As usual, I'm falling behind. I've got a trainee on the truck again, so my time is a bit limited. That's a good enough excuse, right?

WEEK TWENTYONE
Monday, May 24th through Sunday, May 30th



This week started out with a Shag from the Crete yard. I had been in town since yesterday before noon and supposedly there was no freight heading out of the SLC area yesterday and they asked to knock out a shag Monday morning before getting a real load. Weather that was the truth or not I will never know, but I do have my suspicions.

Now I don't mind doing shags in the least bit, but I do mind sitting around for 20hrs waiting to do so and it put me in a less than agreeable mood. The frustration was further exasperated by the preplan that I was put on after delivering this load. It had great miles, over 1300 going to Missouri, bud it didn't delivery until Thursday morning and would result in yet another down day on Wednesday while waiting to deliver the load. I had already asked dispatch to pre-approve a tcall somewhere along the way, but that request was simply ignored.

Back to the moment for now. I had parked in the customers lot for the night so that I would be the first one unloaded. It was a building supply place and I assumed there would be more than one truck showing up in the morning to deliver their load. My first choice of parking spots was right in front of the gate to assure that I would be number one, but I decided to locate to the front of the building after observing a number of no parking signs that specifically said, "do not block drive".

Of course, when I woke up the following morning there was a flatbed sitting in that very spot and immediately pulled into their yard when the gate was opened and block any other trucks from getting into the property. That left me and another truck sitting in the parking lot.

The customer was conducting some kind of safety meeting and my 7am appointment was 30mins past before anyone got checked in and 30 more before the flatbed that jumped the line got his freight off. It was now my turn and I pulled around the building to open up the doors. I was also in a situation where I had to maneuver my way around to their lone dock which also involved pulling into the 4 lane road infront of the place and blocking rush hour traffic while I tried to wiggle into a rather tight spot.

I had a load of insulation that was packed to the very tail of the truck and teetered rather precariously. It was obvious that there was no way I could get this trailer into the dock without losing a good portion of my load in the middle of the street and I hunted down the forklift driver so that he could pull off the tail end of my load. He went into a tizzy fit when he saw the individual insulation bundles, stacked floor to roof. Apparently they were suppose to be shrink wrapped in groups of bundles that would make it possible to easily pull them off with a forklift. Instead they would now have to be individually stacked on pallets, one at a time.

I didn't catch the entire rant as he stormed back to the office, but what I did hear was something about what would have taken 30mins will now take 4hrs and some kind of threat about "I told them if they pulled this bull #$#% again I'm gonna refuse the load".

Oh boy, so much for my preplanned load that was suppose to pickup at 10am. Not only did I not get a load after making my delivery a day early yesterday, I am now stuck with a shag that is going to burn my entire Monday morning and I have no idea what kind of load, if any, I will get once empty. There is only one way to explain my mood at this time, Not Happy!

I let dispatch know that I wasn't going to be able to pickup my preplan ld on time so that they could cover the load and proceeded to wait for my trailer to be unloaded. That feat was finally accomplished by 11:30am. What a fine little shag that turned out to be. At least I made $35 doing it plus whatever detention pay I end up getting (I was guessing nothing at the time and that's just what I saw on my last paycheck.) Who knows, it may show up some day. About two weeks ago I saw detention pay on one of my checks for a Wal-Mart load that I delivered months ago.

I can't say that I was in a very good mood but there wasn't all that much I could do about it. I just took another deep breath and enjoyed the scenery. Surprisingly, here it is, the end of May and snow is falling at a rather steady pace. I'm sure winter is supposed to be over by this point. Guess not! Sure did make for some beautiful mountains though.


My next load pointed me in the direction of Texas(906mi). Once again, good miles but it didn't deliver until Wednesday and I would be there the day before. Oh well, at this point in the day I had expected worse. I didn't have any trouble at the pickup and made my way on down to El Paso, pulling in by 4pm the following day. Not having anything better to do, I showed up at the receiver a day early to try my luck and it worked. Minutes later I had dropped my trailer and soon thereafter I was told that no empty trailers were available, "What about the three empty trailers over there?" I ask.

"Those are scheduled for loading in the morning", I'm told, my good fortune continues.

Time to bug dispatch again and I shoot off a message asking if they have a load I can bobtail to or if I should head up to the drop yard to find and empty trailer. More than a few minutes pass and the response that follows, "Nothing to offer right now, you can head to the truckstop". Even though that was a simple sentence that took moments to read, the actual time frame that elapsed consumed 50mins of my life.

Well, that's not what I wanted to hear, nor did it answer my question about going to the drop yard for an empty trailer. I knew that if I parked my butt at the truckstop without an empty trailer I wouldn't have much luck at getting a load. So I took it upon myself to go to the drop yard in the hopes of procuring a trailer. I arrived there to find a line of eight empty trailers and picked one of the newer ones. There was actually one of our brand new trailers available, but I opted for one that was about 2yrs old because it was on the end of the line and out of everyone's way. That way, in the event that I should have to spend the night there, I wouldn't have to worry about moving or having someone back into me. I would like to note at this time, I don't usually go into this much detail on such and insignificant matter unless there is some impending dome associated with it.

Now that I had a trailer I thought I might just have a chance at getting a load out today. I had a few hours left in my day and was anxious to get going but my message that I sent to dispatch informing them of my new trailer and request for a load offer, (either for tonight or the following morning) went unanswered. Wow, that almost never happens, grr!

What that basically meant to me was that there were no loads available today, but I still wanted to see if I could get a preplan out of them for the following day. I waited about 30mins and resent the message. I have vowed to never be ignored by dispatch again and will continue, relentlessly to send messages until I get some kind of response, plus it was imperative that someone in dispatch attach the empty trailer to me in the computer system so that I would be inline for a load out, even if it were tomorrow morning.

After 20mins or so I was just picking up the Qualcomm to send yet another message when I received a response to the earlier one, "OK, I've attacked the empty trailer to your truck, will let you know when we have something." Was that so hard now, "Thanks, that's all I needed to know" and I went about my own business for the rest of the day. There was a Suns game on and I wondered off to find somewhere to watch it.

A load offer didn't show up until much later that night and I didn't really like what I was reading. It was another one of those "miles are great, schedule is horrible" loads. It picked up the following morning and went 846mi to Oklahoma but didn't deliver until Friday and I'm reading this on a Tuesday night. That makes two great runs in the 900mi range in a row, but leaves me with only 1700 miles as of Friday morning.

Not exactly a productive week and I decided to take a stab at getting a different load by politely asking dispatch if perhaps, maybe they might have something a little more productive. Night dispatch answered in a much timelier manner than the day had, but the news was not good. There were five other trucks waiting for a load and the offer I received was the best they could do for me. That I could deal with, even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear at least I received a response and a quick and simple explanation.

I left the drop yard first thing in the morning and noticed that another Crete truck had shown up during the night and had attached himself to the very shinny, brand new trailer I had passed up the day before because of where it was parked and headed on over to the shipper and found myself behind three other trucks (should have left the yard a bit sooner). The gates where opened at this first come, first loaded shipper at 8am and I waited my turn, which amounted to about 45mins, at which time I was waived over to the trailer inspection area. This shipper was picky about what kind of trailers they loaded, but I wasn't at all concerned because mine was only a couple of years old and was in great shape. But my false sense of security was soon shattered when the guard asked me where the "date info plate" was on the trailer.

This info plate is always stuck to the front of the trailer on the driver's side and shows, among other things, the production date of the trailer. I new this was an almost new trailer by the trailer number when I hooked to it, but what I didn't notice was that a panel of the trailer had been replace sometime in the past and the shop personnel that did so had not bothered to transfer the info plate. Without that to prove the production date of the trailer (they required all trailers to be eight years old or newer) they would refuse to load me. They wouldn't even accept the trailer registration that made it very clear that this trailer was less than two years old.

This left me with three very unpleasant facts. One, I had to go back to the yard to get a different trailer, return and get back in line. Two, I had just come from the yard and of the seven remaining empty trailers sitting there, only one was new enough to meet the requirements of the shipper (the one I had passed on the night before simply because of where it was parked) and it was currently hooked to another truck. Three, dispatch had made it very clear to me the night before that there were five other trucks waiting for a load and they also pointed out that they could very well end up sitting for most of the day waiting for a load out.

So I now found myself headed back to the yard wondering if the other truck was still sitting in the yard with the one trailer that I needed. He was. Now I had to talk him into switching trailers and fortunately for me he was a very understanding and courteous driver and agreed to the switch. Had he not been there I have the feeling this could have turned into a very long day. Soon there after I was back at the shipper and by 11am I was on my way to Oklahoma with my entire morning shot, but what did it matter. I had a load instead of sitting and this was an appointment delivery two days down the road with plenty of down time on it. Like the song says, "Amarillo by morning" and the missing verse, Tulsa the next day after a messily 375miles and wait for your delivery the next day. Doesn't exactly roll of the tongue does it?

My final destination was just outside of Tulsa and I decided to make the best of my excessive downtime by stopping off at the Hard Rock casino on the east end of town for a little R&R and catch the Suns playoff game. If I couldn't make any money driving down the road, maybe I could add to my bankroll at the Blackjack table. OH Yeah! Great idea. That worked out just as well as the Suns bid to make it to the NBA finals. It was an amazing game, but it was not to be for my Suns.

I did get one little treat while watching the game though when all the members of Buckcherry walked in and sat at the table next to me.

Ok, not the greatest pic, but I was taking it incognito because I didn't want to bother them.


I latter found out that ZZTop was also in the house, but I guess they were doing room service. The upcoming weekend was the Memorial Day holiday and they were performing at Rocklahoma Fest in the area or something like that.

Friday morning finally rolled around and I delivered my load in a timely manner and soon found myself waiting for my next load offer. Beep, looks like I'm going to Royal Front, VA (1236mi) for a Tuesday morning delivery (Monday holidays reek havoc on delivery schedules). Good grief, won't this ever stop? Once again, great miles, horrendous delivery time that will result in an average of 300mi/day for this trip and end the week with a disappointing 3006mi. Not horrible I guess, but I really don't want to sit around all day Sunday and Monday when I have plenty of hours to run.

Not being one to give up, I picked up the load on that Friday morning and headed east. Tcall was on my mind and instead of stretching the run out into 3-400mi days, I racked up as many as I could for the day and pulled into our Knoxville yard by 11am the next day. The trailer I was pulling had a brand new, full tread, virgin rubber tire (obviously a recent blowout replacement) mounted next to a low tread tire and that low tread tire was being sanded down at an alarming rate, (I see breakdown is still wasting large amounts of money due to lack of common sense) and would be down to the belt in short order. The trailer was also due for T1 service and knowing that the Knoxville shop is always so accommodating and amazingly quick I wanted to get it into the shop for a once over so whoever was pulling it during the impending inspection blitz next week wouldn't have as much to worry about.

Once out of the shop I put in a request for a Tcall and offered to pickup a load in the area or re-power something that was sitting in the yard. I felt good about my chances because there were a number of trailers sitting in the yard with destinations in the Northeast that I assumed had Tuesday delivery schedules and needed to get rolling. Also, the trailer I wanted to Tcall had plenty of time on it and more than enough miles on it to make it a good run for the next driver assigned to it a day or two down the road.

Moments later the load was Tcalled and I was put on a re-power load going to New Hamphire (966mi)that another driver had dropped in the yard before going home for the weekend. Absolutely perfect! I had just enough hours to make it to a truckstop in the area and put in a reset that would conclude just in time to make an early morning drop delivery first thing Tuesday morning. It was a rough week from a frustration point of view, but in the end 3534 miles made it all better.

All I had to do was hook up to the trailer that was on the other side of the yard and put it into the shop also. This trailer had three badly worn tires and also needed a T1 service. Yeah for me, two trailer services in one day. Two more 'At-a-boy slips for me.

Spending my reset at the beach went along way in calming me down too. It's odd, even when you are out walking around a 12' 3" bridge gives me the shivers.


By the way, this is what a Lobster Pound looks like:


Mostly a large variety of deep fried seafood, seafood rolls and whatnot. I wasn't all that impressed with the menu offerings, but there must have 400 people in the place and the other Lobster pound on the other side of the road was just as full, so who am I to judge.

I found much more tasty street fair type of food walking around the small beach community of Salisbury MA. Personally, I think they should change the name of the place to Little Boston.




WEEK TWENTYONE
Monday, May 24th through Sunday, May 30th
Miles include deadhead

North SLC to Salt Lake City, UT (shag)...................................................18mi
Spanish Fork, UT to Socorro, TX............................................................906mi
El Paso, TX to Claremore, OK.................................................................846mi
Tulsa, OK to Knoxville, TN......................................................................823mi
Knoxville, TN to Raymond, NH(first leg)................................................941mi

Total Paid Miles....................................................3534 Miles
Actual Miles...........................3596 Miles

3534mi x .44 = $1554.96 + Shag Pay $35 = $1589.96

 

That is absolutely true, but how much longer I will be able to say that, who knows, but it makes little difference to me

Here's the exact breakdown of my trips so far this year:


You can not say, "Most of my loads are under 500mi, so I can't make any money out here". Simple math points that out

Note that even though 40% of my loads are less than 500 miles (4 out of every 10 load are less than 500mi), they account for only 16.6% of my total miles. That means over 83% of my miles are derived from loads over 500 miles. Just because you end up with more 400mi runs than 1200mi runs doesn't mean your average length of haul is going to be 400mi. If you put just a little thought into it instead of complaining (I am not referring to andrew5184, just pointing a finger at complainers in general) it doesn't take that much effort to see this. I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of short hauls, but I am still averaging 12,000+ mi/mth. My average length of haul has dropped to around 700mi, but the monthly total is the only number that matters.


Just because I get a 300-400 mile run, it doesn't mean that I only get 300 miles for the day. If I pick up a 300mi run on a Monday afternoon after a morning delivery and then deliver that load Tuesday morning, that isn't the end of the day. I may have just driven the final 200mi to the receiver during the morning. I then get anouther 400 mile run that delivers the next day. I drive to the end of my 14hrs for the day and end up with 500+mi for the day and drive out the remained of the trip the following morning and the cycle continues.

Crete has been very effective at adjusting to this shift in the trucking world and keeps me rolling.

Of course there are days that I get stuck with a poorly scheduled load that results in a 2-300mi day, but at the end of the week I get a paycheck well over $1000 on a continuous basis. And by continuous, I mean every week of the year except for home weeks.

Yes, we all love long runs, but nothing stays the same, EVER. Crete (and all other trucking companies) are changing to meet the new demands of the shippers. That means we as drivers will also have to change. Everyone agrees, yesterday was better.

But guess what, it's not yesterday anymore.

 

You keep trying don't you.

Have you ever heard the term, "Beating your head against a brick wall", "No sense in beating a dead horse" or simply "waisting your time"

I admire your persistence though.