CRETE - A Year in Review

A couple months ago there was a message sent out that we would no longer see the "NO PREPLAN" message.

the first three days of this week were spent doing short runs with live ld/unlds and lots of detention time turned in. On the fouth day I got an other ld offer for more of the same. Told dispatch I'd had enough and asked for a more productive ld. They gave me a 1000+ mile run with drop/hook on both ends. Delivered that ld tonight and guess what...another 300 mile run that's a live unld Sunday 0730.

However I will have 2700 miles once unld and still have Sunday to produce a few more miles. It could be worse....think 2009! I don't mind doing short runs, but when they are live ld/unld on both ends with lots of delay, it gets old very quick. If this trend continues through December, I will be looking to lease somewhere else. I would rather not, but if I can't generate the revenue I want, I will have no choice.

 

####, even JD is thinking of leaving. That ought to tell you something right there. I'm dreading the new year. Especially since I don't have someone in Lincoln looking out for me like ET does.

 

Then its time for you to get on the phone and get someone on your side in Lincoln instead of repeatedly being jealous of ET. It ain't looking good on ya man. Just my 2c.

 

Just as I suspected, after I got done live unloading a load that was suppose to be a drop and hook (after 5 hours), they offered me a little piddly load, but the p/u time and delivery time wouldn't jive with my 14, and no one in Lincoln could find out if the receiver had parking...so they punished me with a load to Johnstown, NY instead... Then I fought through some of the windstorm that blew threw the mid-west (tornado warnings were popping up in many counties behind and south of me). I think the NWS warning tone machine on the radio was almost worn out by the time I cleared it. Got up to NY and delivered, and then MY Buddy Cory decided to play. He offered me a 232mi 2 day run (I actually thought it was a 1 day run because when I see 232 miles, I didn't even look at the delivery date) or a choice of a 188 mile run that was beyond my 14 to p/u or a 270 mile run that picked up even later...so I ended up doing a 'snackbar' eruption on his sorry butt about the extreme unproductivity of my loads lately and how a national driver shouldn't be anywhere under 23-2500 miles in 7 days(the load to NY gave me 1550 by Wednesday). Plus I reminded him that the best thing he could do is get me the heck out of his zone since we don't get along, because working with him only stirs my trouble making 'attitude' side. Then I sat for an hour. Low and behold a load appeared...that was ready at 8 am (an hour before I was empty) and needed to deliver to Black Mountain, NC on Friday. Funny, I could've swore 10 messages ago he said that 'these were all I have', but hey...it beat what he originally offered, so I took it without a peep. Once I was empty there, I got a load that wasn't suppose to be picked up until 1400 on Friday, but I found a Wally in the same town, so I decided to go to the customer, drop my trailer (it was a drop/hook pick up at a Kimberly Clark plant) and bobtail to Wally....but wouldn't you know it...my load was ready 4 hours early, so I had to take my load with me...#### the luck . Anyway, I am on my way to deliver in Conway, AR for an appointment delivery at 11 am Sunday...with specific instructions on the load not to attempt to deliver in Conway early(similar to the 'canned' message attached to every Wally del)

I ended up with 10800+ miles for October w/4 days at home, and 2 days in the Marietta shop. However...once Marietta did my APU service...the #### belt squeals now when you have to use the A/C...it wasn't doing that before...and they changed the other belt on the front of the motor that drives the water pump..they supposedly didn't touch the A/C-Alt drive belt... Good thing I only need the A/C in the late afternoon for a bit. It only squeals for the 1st 10 seconds after you start the A/C...it doesn't do it any other time, so I hope it's an easy fix the next AMS shop I get through.

I just did the calculations since I am approaching my hire date anniversary. I need 7300 miles by Thanksgiving w/e to make the required pay raise mileage (even though I am max'ed out, I still like to see if I can hit their quota) Much better than last year. And for my 2010 year-to-date, I am less than 4000 miles from my entire 2009 year end mileage total, so even though things have tapered down a bit lately, it is still a huge improvement over what we all went through last year... I am actually looking for a little more improvement in the economy and job market once the election is over...at least if it goes as many are predicting...I don't mean to start a political topic, but if we can get these 'tax and spend-a-holics' out of office, and the next bunch don't pick up right where they left off, maybe companies will start hiring again, and we'll have to start shipping more and more...just in time for the FMCSA to change the HOS rules again.

 

Jealousy ain't got nothing to do with it. What has everything to do with it is that Crete has virtually eliminated all the tricks of the trade that we used to be able to use to up our productivity. No multiple load offers. Constant refusal to allow a driver to tcall a load in order to stay productive. Continually sending a driver into areas where dispatch knows there is no freight even after that driver begs them not to. Constantly assigning way too much time to a load that cannot be delivered early under any circumstances. Need I go on? ET's success is based on one thing. This blog. As long as he continues to blow smoke up everybody's butt about how great things are here Crete will continue to make sure he gets the miles.

 

I'm not going to flame ET - it isn't me versus him, it's me versus Operations!

You're absolutely 110% correct - all the little tricks we used to do to insure our productivity have been taken away from us, and we seem less and less like national drivers, and more and more like drivers for a local cartage company.

T.O. made the comment in the "July 2010 Results" memorandum about how we need every truck to haul just two more loads per month in order to get our numbers where he thinks they should be. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that...

• Back in the day when we had trucks that ran 65mph instead of 62mph, we didn't have issues with productivity.

• Back in the day when we had "Load Select" and a choice of where we ran, we didn't have issues with productivity.

• Back in the day when we had a quarterly mileage bonus of .20/mile, we didn't have issues with productivity.

I'm sad to see that JD is considering leaving - when someone who has as much experience with this company as he does is beginning to think the grass is greener elsewhere, I begin to feel like I'm onboard the Titanic and we've just struck an iceberg.

Capt. T.O. thinks all is well, but maybe I need to put my lifevest on and find a lifeboat...

 

My terminal manager tells me he has a whole slew of drivers who can't even get 8000 to 9000 miles a month. And he tries to tell me that it is primarily the fault of the driver in those cases. How can that be? We no longer have voluntary dispatch. That doesn't mean you can't ask for a different load but when you get turned down the vast majority of the time what then? To me the only tool we have left is to attempt to deliver early and even that strategy fails more often than not. When dispatch tells you that the load they send you is the most productive one they have left how in the world do you know if they are telling the truth? I have caught them in so many lies over the years I no longer trust them to tell me what day of the week it is. One load out of 4 this last month required me to wait 24 hours or more before it was ready to pick up. I had 34 pick up and deliveries 15 were drop and hooks and 19 were live. That's a rate of 44% D&H. It used to be over 90%! My daily avg driving miles was 379. That's 379 for crying out loud!!!!!!!!!!! If I stayed out for an entire year that's only 138,000 miles. I've done that many being out only 290 days!!!!!! If this trend continues we are really going to be screwed when the traditional slow down starts this January. It's going to look like 2009 all over again and that's pretty depressing.

 

This weeks productivity: On Sunday at 1330 I delivered a Cetainteed load from KS City,KS to a Menards store in Onalaska,WI. Wasn't empty till 1930 because the person responsible for unloading insulation was also responsible for helping customers in that department.

Once empty I recieved a load offer to pick up in Hastings,MN going to Chicagoland for Tuesday am delivery. I accepted the offer then noticed the deadhead miles were 132. As I began to type a response of "I don't want this load, too many d/h miles", I received a second load offer with a question of "Can you do this load instead?". The second offer p/u in Hastings,MN also but had a second stop. The first stop delivered at 0300 Tues. and the second delivered 1800 on Tues. just 10 miles from the first. Both in Chicagoland. I sent my message of too much deadhead for 400 mile trip and asked for something with less d/h. Got a load offer to p/u in Prairie du Chein,WI on Monday 0800-1000 going to Piqua,OH for delivery on Tues. 0700-1400; 64 d/h miles and 518 loaded miles. A much better senerio.

I arrived at delivery Mon. night and went to bed. Empty by 0730 Tues.. Load offer, a stop pick up with final delivery in Benseville,IL Wed. at 0900. A total of 350 miles, but I figured since it put me in the Chicago area I could get something decent once mty. In and out of first p/u in less than an hour. Drove 30 miles to next p/u and arrived at 1000 for a 1345 appointment. We'll call you if we can get to you early. No such luck. Finally leave there with just enough time to reach consignee before 14 hr clock runs out. Check in at 0630 on Wed.. We'll call you when we are ready for you. Bump the dock at 0900, mty at 1200.

Next load offer, p/u in St Charles,IL 0700-1400 going to Springfield,OH for 0700 Thurs., and a total 369 paid miles. I accept thinking this is close to Columbus and should be a good area for more productive freight. Arrive at shipper 1300. They are way behind due to a personnel shortage. Depart at 1630 and luckly don't encounter too much traffic. Arrive in Springfield around 2200 and go to bed. Next morning I'm mty at 0900 and am offered a 300 mile load to PA. ENOUGH!!!!

I send a reply that "I don't mind pulling my share of short runs, but back to back to back is enough. Especially since they are live ld/unld with lots of delay. Do you have anything more productive?". Another offer is rendered, 30 extra miles of d/h (90 mile d/h) to p/u a 1005 mile ld that's d/h on both ends. Delivered that ld Fri. night and get ld offer of 309 miles going to Searcy,AR that delivered today at 0715. I took it because AR had been a decent location for good mile freight. Not so today. Load offer of 93 ld miles, 90 d/h miles, but the info said it was to p/u by 0400 today and deliver by 0600 today. So I ask if this is a live unld thinking that if it is a drop at consignee I would take it and see what happens when mty this afternoon. Was sent a second offer to p/u in West Memphis this afternoon at 1500 and deliver in Dayton,TX at 0700 on Tues. for a total of 630 miles. Not all that bad but I didn't want to deal with another live unld when I know there should be better freight coming out of Conway,AR, plus it would be less d/h.

I tell dispatch I'll just take the rest of the day off. Then an hour later I decided I would at least ask if there was any productive freight coming out of Conway. A few minutes later, p/u today 1700-2359 and deliver in Sealy,TX tomorrow at anytime for a total of 559 miles. Called shipper and load will be ready about 1500. I will have the load delivered by 1500 tomorrow. That will give me about 3250 miles for the week.

Productivity for the week turns out good, but the hassle of having to fight for them is the problem. Plus it took me 8 days to get the miles instead of 7, or even better 6 days.

I'm under no illustion that the grass is greener somewhere else. I'm just tired of having to fight to get good miles, and having to deal with all these live ld/unlds and make them fit a restrictive log book. The problem is that the customers needs are changing. Many are not shipping long miles via truck unless it goes to rail. This is not Crete's fault.

So I've been looking at companies the don't use satelite tracking (these are very few). The problem is none pay as well as Crete. However, if I can run a consistant 3500 mile week in 6 or 7 days with mostly d/h, I can make it work. Yes there would still be a slight cut in revenue, but the reduction in stress is priceless.

That being said, I really want to stay at Crete. I know the system and love the pay. But there is that stress factor of fighting for miles.

 

There is still some of the long-distance freight out there - the load of insulation I picked up at Wilmer and took to San Jose came out of Fairburn, GA. There are still Keebler/Kellogg's loads going to Tracy, CA. Motorcycle loads going from Ontario, CA to New Jersey or Savannah.

As you said, I don't mind doing my fair share of short loads, but throw me a bone every so often! If I'm going to run 3-4 little 300-350 mile loads back to back, hook me up with a load that goes 1500 miles to the WalMart DC in Apple Valley, CA and is a D&H.

I think Crete is actively persuing the shorter runs, because they can make more profit on them, then they do on the long-distance runs. What I think they fail to understand however, is that most truck drivers feel, as the saying goes, "If I wanted a short run with a lot of stops, I'd drive a school bus!"

Have you looked at Schneider or Landstar? IMHO - the system they use where the O/O selects their next load(s) off of their website would seem to be a pretty good deal...

 

I agree with your assesment that Crete is activly seeking the shorter runs because they pay more. I don't fault them for this, just pass some of those extra $$$ our way to make up for the lack of miles.

As for Schneider, they are on elogs and they freight rates stink (I know an o/o on the choice program), plus they don't pass on the the full fuel discount to the o/o. So, no thanks.

Landstar could be an option, but if you pull their trailers many have tracking devices and their log book dept is making drivers match trailer position. Plus from what I hear, the majority og van freight doesn't pay that well. So by the time you deduct their 35% I can't make anymore per mile than what I make at Crete, and in tough economic times (2009) I would make less at Landstar.