CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK THIRTY TWO
Monday, August 9th through Sunday, August 15th
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I was feeling pretty good about myself at the end of last week. I had managed to run 3898 miles last week and was able to pull off a reset by tcalling my final run of the week in Columbus. This thrilled me to no end because that particular load was destine for one of my least favorite places in the country, Breinigsville, PA. Not only would I have found myself in PA at the end of the trip, it was a 4am delivery and it was going to a Kellogg’s DC which is notorious for not having any empty trailers. I wanted nothing to do with any of these problems and my simple tcall in Columbus assured me that I would not have to worry about it.

After my day off in Columbus it was time to get started again as Monday morning rolled around. As thrilled as I was about tcalling my load last week, I knew I was far from out of the woods. I may not have to worry about what kind of a load I would be getting out of PA (almost always some kind of short mileage, NE bound freight), but for the last few months I really haven’t gotten anything more than “stinker” load out of Columbus either and I wasn’t expecting anything of note this morning. I just hoped my load offer wouldn’t be too disappointing, holding out hope for the slight possibility of a sweet load going west in the back of my mind.

Probability won out over optimism and I found myself looking at a load offer of beer from the Columbus Bud plant going to Jackson, MI(226mi) on a preloaded trailer, just sitting there waiting for me. Not a great way to start out this week. Short load? Yes it was, but the good news was that I would be delivering it as quickly as I could get it there. That kind of a short haul I can deal with. No down time and I would be off to get my next load before noon. I might just be able to salvage this day!

My pickup was the usual hassle that goes hand in hand with any Bud load. Slide tandems before getting on the scale, or be forced to leave the property and come back after doing so. Check-in, scale for the first time, wait for security to get around to approving the cleanliness of my trailer, drive two miles away on their property to drop my empty trailer, drive back to the scale to get a bobtail weight, go back to the same place I dropped my empty trailer and hook to my loaded trailer. Now it’s time to get out the load bars and straps and make sure every thing is tight and snug before going back to the scale for the third time and make sure axel weights are all copasetic. Next, watch a Crete driver in an International go back to have product taken off his truck because he is too heavy, or drop it and leave (not sure which) as I walk into the guard shack to make sure my product weight is correct (Hey! I’m not short product today, Woo who!), get my paperwork and once again wait around for someone to come out of the guard shack and verify my seal. Blah, Blah, Blah.

As noted, this was a rather short run and it took very little time to get to where I was headed and the MT call went in before noon. Where might I be going next? The QualComm beeps, the load offer is in. Son of a *^%*#! Battle Creek, MI to Breinigsville , PA. I’ll just have to chalk this one up to “Ironic Justice”.

It’s now Monday and this is only a 670mi run. I have the rest of today and all of tomorrow to get it there and what do you know, a 4am delivery on Wednesday morning. Well, I certainly wasn’t going to be in any hurry with this load. It gave us plenty of time to take the scenic route through PA. Not that I wanted too, but Crete is somewhat adverse to routing us over the PA turnpike and opted to send us across I-80 to US322 down into Harrisburg. This may save the company some cash by avoid the toll road, but it adds a good 40 miles to the trip in the process, (unpaid of course). Oh Well, the trainee will get to practice some more “baby mountain” driving, although I don’t think he agrees with that analogy at this point. I’m sure his opinion will change should he ever find himself tooling around in the Rockies someday in the future.

My delivery to Kellogg’s in Breinigsville actually went much smoother than I though it would and they even had an empty trailer for me. The only hiccup was that after dropping my loaded trailer in the yard where the guard gate gal told me too, I went into the shipping office to get my paperwork taken care of and was asked to put my trailer in a dock door. So I had to drop my empty trailer, go back and get my loaded trailer and place it at the appropriate dock and then return to my empty trailer.

That was the smooth part, now it was time to go into battle mode with dispatch. During my trailer roulette, I received my first load offer, and a stupid one it was at that. As I looked at the clock that read 4am, I found myself looking at a load that picked up across the street at 1pm or something to that effect and delivered in Marcy, NY(255mi) at 10pm. Huh! OK, my day started at 2am to get this load from my overnight holdup in our New Kingstown terminal about 100 miles away. Now I’m expected to pickup a 1pm appointment load and deliver at 9pm. How is that suppose to work? No time to fit in a 10hr break, therefore no way!

Dispatch is informed and I ask for something that picks up earlier in the day or something that delivers the following day along with my reasons for not being able to accept the first load offers. I was counting my blessing because I was able to wiggle out of what would have been my second 250mi run in the last few days and anxiously awaited a follow-up offer. Beep! Ugh! I hate PA!

Load offer two, Breinigsville, PA to Marcy, NY(255mi). Everything about this load was the same as the previous load offer except the pick up and delivery times. At least there was a slight improvement in those. Instead of waiting around until after noon, I would be picking up a preloaded trailer from the same place with a 7pm delivery instead of 10pm.

But really, what’s with this dispatch system. Why wouldn’t I have been put on this load to start with? Why would I be dispatched on a live load some 8hrs away when there is a preloaded trailer sitting at the very same customer with an earlier delivery time to boot. I don’t get it?

Load offer two was an improvement, but it still ranked in the poo poo category. It was destine to be I guess. I would take my lumps on this one and hope for the best once empty. I did make a fruitless attempt at making an early delivery (a virtual impossibility at a Wal-Mart DC). I arrived shortly after 9am for my 7pm appointment and took my shot with the lame excuse, “Oh, I thought this was a drop and hook, any chance of an early unload’? Instead of the immediate rejection that I had expected, I actually manage to get them to consider it. The guard called the warehouse and inquired about an early unload. Of course the answer was no, but I was given the go ahead to come back at 4pm for a door assignment.

There wasn’t anywhere to go from that point, so I just parked on the side of the road and watched trucks go in and out all day long (and admired the 4 empty Crete trailers sitting along the fence that I was not allowed to partake in).

When 4pm rolled around I once again pulled up to the guard shack, this time securing a door assignment, but as I had suspected, the unloading didn’t actually begin until a time much closer to my original appointment. It did help a little though and I was ready for my next load shortly after 7pm.

Next load please! And get me out of the north east. That request was help out significantly by the fact that I had just been instructed to get to Lincoln ASAP to get a new truck. That was my golden ticket to get out of this awful little corner of the country and it worked like a charm. Rotterdam to Topeka (1403mi) with an anytime drop delivery. SWEET!

Thinking that was going to be my last trip in my old truck, I was a little bit sad, but all things must change and I assumed I would be swinging through Lincoln when I got to that side of the country, but my request to do so was turned down because it was about 140mi out of route. “No problem”, I wasn’t all that keen on giving up my APU anyway. After dropping my load in Topeka on Friday night I followed it up with a request for a load that would get me to Lincoln, but by now night/weekend dispatch had their claws in me and they had it in their mind that I needed to go back to PA.

I contemplated trying to wiggle out of the load by pushing the truck trade in issue, but I was looking at a 1200mi run with delivery schedule that would allow me enough time to get in yet another presious reset along the way.

Once that was accomplished, I would delivery my load without worrying about the usual consequences that attach themselves to an empty trailer in PA. This time around I would have a solid, standing order to get my truck to Lincoln, NOW! It had been sold and they wanted it back, so I didn’t have to worry about dispatch bouncing me around with 200-300 miles runs for the next week.

My little plan worked like a charm. I finished this week with 3700 miles, got my reset in, delivered my load, and started out my next week with a 1300+ mile run going to Beatrice, NE; a mere 45 miles from Lincoln.

BIG GRIN



WEEK THIRTY TWO
Monday, August 9th through Sunday, August 15th
Miles include deadhead

Columbus, OH to Jackson, MI……………………………………………....226mi
Battle Creek, MI to Breinigsville, PA……………………………………...670mi
Breinigsville , PA to Marcy, NY…………………………………………......255mi
Rotterdam, NY to Topeka, KS……………………………………………...1403mi
Spring Hill, KS to Bethlehem, PA(fist leg)……………………………..1104mi

Total Paid Miles………………………………….3698 Miles
Actual Miles………………………3842 Miles

3698mi x .44 = $1627.12 + Training Pay $150 = $1777.12

 

Redbeard wrote:

So how much was that little bill. Was the cost covered by factory warranty or does Crete cover the cost of uncovered repairs for a short time after you take possession of the truck?

I have fantasies about what I could do to a truck if I could take my tools to it. The first thing to go would be the passengers seat. It would be replaced by something much more useful. The cabinets would also become far more efficient.

I got my new Freightliner this week and am going through major APU withdraw. So much so that I am seriously thinking about buying one of those trucks and having my way with it. It would be like home sweet home in no time with EVERYTHING built-in.

I want to see pics of your handy work when you done Redbeard.

My four year date-of-hire anniversary is coming up in 3 weeks and with it comes $2500 in vacation pay, added to the week I have stored up it would be a good time to do so.

The storage in this new truck is also for the birds, not that a sparrow could find any room to build a nest. What an awful redesign they did with this truck. I was livid as I pulled everything out of my truck and tried to find a place for it in the new one.

It didn't help that I had to deal with a trainee and his belonging too.

I'm working on a "What I despise about the Freightliner Cascadia" list, but it is so extensive that I need a new hard drive to store the word doc on.

I had no idea I would hate this truck sooo much. I actually long to be back in my old rattle trap.