CRETE - A Year in Review

Discussion in 'Discuss Your Favorite Trucking Company Here' started by evertruckerr, Jan 11, 2008.

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  1. Jazzman

    Jazzman Bobtail Member

    17
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    Aug 8, 2004
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  3. RiverOtter

    RiverOtter Light Load Member

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    Feb 13, 2009
    Lexington, KY
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    They're doing us who are based out of KCMO at present, then I'd guess maybe Lincoln or Indianapolis next - the ones that they shouldn't have too much difficulty routing into Wilmer.

    FWIW - For anyone who is about to be issued an APAP machine, I recommend the "Opus" nasal mask. The full-face mask is like trying to sleep with a gas mask on your face, and the "Zest" nasal mask doesn't want to stay in place overnight and leaks air, requiring re-adjustment 2-3 times per night. The "Opus" mask is somewhat like a nasal cannula, and seems - at least to me - to be more comfortable, especially if you like to sleep on your side.
     
    Weazz Thanks this.
  4. EaglesTrucker

    EaglesTrucker Bobtail Member

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    Jul 22, 2010
    meridian, mississippi
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    whats the closet crete terminal to meridian, ms, got an application in with them hope to hear back soon, i just got my cdl a couple weeks ago, whats there starting pay, and orientation pay, how long does it last, and do you take your truck home when it comes time, anyone who can help me with some info would be greatly appreciated
     
  5. 1laidbacktrucker

    1laidbacktrucker Medium Load Member

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    May 3, 2009
    CHATTANOOGA TN
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    Marietta ga is the nearest terminal to you, orientation pay $142, orientation is 3 days and yes you take the truck home
     
  6. Weazz

    Weazz Light Load Member

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    Aug 5, 2008
    Florida
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    Glad i jus got my new card..i know they would tell me i need it.but im out of deland prolly be 2 years before it gets to them..lol
     
  7. evertruckerr

    evertruckerr Heavy Load Member

    742
    1,107
    Oct 14, 2007
    Phoenix, AZ
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    WEEK TWENTY NINE
    Monday, July 19th through Sunday, July 25th

    This was a rather rough week. I had my new trainee fresh out of truck driving school which is always a bit stressful in itself and the tension was only intensified by a barrage of short runs.

    Now, I don’t mind a short run every once in awhile, but this week was a non-stop line up of pickups and deliveries and a number of tight schedules to contend with, all while trying to teach the student along the way. I kept thinking that after this short run they will surely give me something better next time around but it never happened.

    Monday started out with a short hop to Greensboro to finish off last weeks run. It was a beer load and didn’t take all that long to get off the truck. The MT call that followed was answered with the one thing I didn’t want to see on a Monday morning. Not only was it a rather short run, but it was going to Pennsylvania which would almost certainly garner me another short run once empty because I rarely get any decent runs out of the Pittsburgh area these days.

    The only good thing about the run was that it had a deliver ASAP the following morning, so I wouldn’t be losing any time on the load. Short, but productive! Now I just had to hope I could make my pickup appointment 20mins from now – 15 miles away. Just made it, only to find another truck in their only loading dock and proceeded to wait for a half hour or so for my turn.

    The forklift driver was motivated and I was loaded in short order and headed north. I contemplated putting the trainee in the driver’s seat for his first experience with mountain driving through West Virginia on I-77, but chose to hold off until a later date because up to that point I had not seen him drive on anything but flat roads and he was still experiencing considerable difficulty with my fine Meritor transmission (as most students do, newbie or experienced). That later date eventually rolled around and confirmed my caution in the matter. There’s nothing like coming to a dead stop in the middle of a road halfway up a mountain.

    The delivery in Pittsburg the following morning went about as “good” as I expected it too. Pittsburgh remains very near the top of my “Places I never want to drive a truck in” list. I don’t know what’s worse, the surprise low clearance bridges on truck routes, the insanely narrow roads or the poorly marked and impossible to see road signs.

    Once I found the receiver the unloading process went by rather quickly and I was once again awaiting a load offer and expecting the worst load imaginable out of the area. After all, why would today’s load out of Pittsburgh be any different than the others that I have pulled out of here?

    Well, I wasn’t disappointed; the load was everything that I had feared. One, it was short,389mi. Two, it was going to Ohio (almost a guarantee that my next load would be yet another short haul). Three, it was going to an independent grocery warehouse. And finally, it didn’t deliver until 18:30 the following day leaving me 24hrs of dead time.

    The one bright spot was that I would have time (plenty of it) to stop off in Columbus to get a slightly overdue B service out of the way, if they could fit me in that is. I pulled in by 4pm an was told the shop was booked for the day, but I could be the first one in by the following morning.

    So when opening time rolled around for the shop on Wednesday morning I was standing at the door to make sure I would be the first one on the rack, and I was. One would think that if my truck was in the shop by 7am that they would have more than enough time complete an oil change and put on 4 new tires by 5pm or so that I could make my delivery ontime. As it turned out it was barely enough time, even with a number of visits to the shop to stress my time frame, only to be told each time that it was almost done. I heard that line for hours. The last time was around 3pm and was told they would come up and get me when it was done (they knew I was now under a very tight deadline).

    As zero hour rolled around I once again went down to the shop only to find that my truck had been pulled out infront of the shop door, key in the ignition, widows rolled down and every shop employee was in a meeting. I just had to assume all work had been complete and hooked to my trailer, wondering if I was going to make my appointment.

    I had about 15mins to spare, at best, and I would be hitting Cincinnati with the strong possibility of hitting some solid residual rush hour traffic, and hit it I did. My 15min cushion was soon gone and I had to resort to side streets to get to the final destination. I missed my appointment by only 10mins but sometimes that is all it takes to lose your place in line at these grocery store warehouses.

    I arrived to find that I was the only one at the guard gate. As a matter of fact there wasn’t even a guard and I ended up having to call the receiving department with my phone to find out what was going on. What I heard just kind of rattled around in my head for awhile. When I told them that I had a 6:30pm appointment the only reply I got was “No you don’t!”

    I was a bit confused, but assured him that I did, or at least that’s what my load info said. He then assured me that I didn’t because they stop receiving loads at 3pm. After a little back in forth I found out that this load was suppose to be here by 06:30am and I was not 10mins late, but over 12hrs late for the appointment. He was kind enough to let me know that he would “try” to fit me in the following morning.

    At this point I knew my day (what was left of it) was toast and expected no resolve from dispatch, but that didn’t stop me from relentlessly bugging them for a solution (of which I knew there was none). I don’t know what angered me more. The fact that some bone head typing in load info didn’t know the difference between 6:30 am and pm in military time, or that dispatch ignored every message for well over an hour (like I was just magical going to go away). I can tell you one thing, if I showed up 12hrs late due to my mistake I would be held responsible, but I’m willing to bet their mistake was swept under the rug by dispatch.

    The following day started out much better than I thought it would. I had someone knocking on the door at 3am and I was backed to a dock shortly thereafter. All I had to do after that was come up with $185 for the lumper and I was ready for my next load by 6am.

    After what I had just been through during the last two days, I was sure dispatch would shoot me a “sorry about that” load, but noooooooo! Instead I find myself looking at an Illinois bound load of 335mi. At least it was ready to be picked up within the hour and could be delivered as soon as I got it there. All I had to do was deal with morning rush hour (Cincinnati is a nightmare), and what I will put in my top ten list as the tightest, most difficult, blind back dock I have ever had to deal with. The only thing that kept it off the top of the list is that I was on a side street with no traffic to deal with. Wow that was a nasty one.

    A couple of hours later we were on our way to IL with a drop load just outside of St Louis. That went simple enough and when the MT call went in I was sure I would be getting a beer load (always short runs with next day deliveries). That certainty was soon realized and I was blessed with a 466mi run going to the ###### state of Ohio once again.

    By this point I had more than my share of short runs, and with a final destination of OH the following morning I saw no relief in the near future. This premonition also became reality after unloading in Chillicothe Friday morning. This time around I was being sent to La Porte, IN(349mi). That in itself was bad enough, but this load picked up at Graphic Packaging in Middletown, OH. The details of that was discussed a bit earlier in the thread and resulted in a 9hr delay getting loaded.

    That bit of aggravation was rewarded with my longest run of the week. I was to pickup a load just across the street and deliver it to Omaha (552mi) with an anytime delivery. At least it’s a turn and burn load. I was also very please to see the load because I had my hometime request in and this would put me in a good position to actually arrive in Phoenix on my actual requested date.

    All went well with that run until I arrived to drop my trailer, only to be told that they had no empty trailers available. I could have checked one of our two terminals in the area, but assumed I would have little luck. Instead I asked dispatch if they had any loads ready to go out of this customer (Kellogg) that I could pull out along with a request for something that would facilitate my home bid. If not I volunteered to take what they had to keep me moving.

    That garnered me one of those rare multi load offers. One of 1200mi going to Pennsylvania (NO THANKS!) and the other one going to the Chicago area (456mi). It’s another short run, but it will put me in position to get a Phoenix bound load when empty and delivered the next day. The PA load didn’t deliver until Thursday and would have had me sitting for two days.

    So, Chicago, here I come.

    This week does serve a purpose though as far as short runs are concerned. I don’t like them, I don’t want them, but if they are well planed (as most of these were with the exception of a blunder by a load planner when entering a delivery time and an extremely slow shipper) you can still get the miles running them.

    Eight loads in seven days and the final tally was 3151 miles. Of course I would prefer 2-3 runs and 3500 miles, but all in all, I still had a good week.



    WEEK TWENTY NINE
    Monday, July 19th through Sunday, July 25th
    Miles include deadhead

    Houston, TX to Greensboro, NC(last leg)……………………………………134mi
    Thomasville, NC to McKees Rocks, PA……………………………………....470mi
    Greenville, PA to Cincinnati, OH…………………………………………….....389mi
    Cincinnati, OH to Edwardsville, IL…………………………………………......335mi
    St Louis, MO to Chillicothe, OH………………………………………………....466mi
    Middletown, OH to La Porte, IN………………………………………………...349mi
    La Porte, IN to Omaha, NE……………………………………………………......552mi
    Omaha, NE to Bolingbrook, IL……………………………………………….......456mi

    Total Paid Miles………………………………………..3151 Miles
    Actual Miles………………………………3214 Miles

    3151mi x .44 = $1386.44 + Training pay $150 = $1536.44
     
  8. evertruckerr

    evertruckerr Heavy Load Member

    742
    1,107
    Oct 14, 2007
    Phoenix, AZ
    0

    Starting pay for a trainee out of truck driving school is $500/week during training (8 weeks). Once you are assigned your own truck I think the pay is 31cpm, but not certain about that because there was a 3cpm pay raise for new hires at the beginning of July.

    At the end of your first complete year you will then be bumped up to one year experience pay scale of 39cpm(again, I think, not positive). Call recruiting for solid numbers.

    Truck can be taken home if you have a secure place to park.
     
  9. Jmurman

    Jmurman Medium Load Member

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    Sep 8, 2009
    Baltimore MD
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    True on pay numbers. Payroll says that "students" that start out at .31 stay that way for a year and then so to .39. The .03 increase only applies to experienced driver and not students according to Payroll.

     
    evertruckerr and truckerim2055 Thank this.
  10. MaximumTexas

    MaximumTexas Light Load Member

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    Jul 15, 2010
    TEXAS
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    I have visions of screaming special needs kids bouncing off the walls of your bus. This is the quote of the year.
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2010
  11. dasco3

    dasco3 Light Load Member

    60
    15
    Jun 17, 2010
    Powhatan VA
    0
    Great thread. Thanks for all the input
     
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