CRETE - A Year in Review

I haven't looked at this forum in quite awhile. Wow. ET went home!

I'm just curious if anyone else has noticed an abnormally large discrepancy in paid miles versus those you've had to run in recent weeks. I've been running my routes exactly as suggested and have given away over 180 freebees since I left the house last Wednesday. I was speaking with another driver awhile ago who reported the same and am starting to get suspicious that our magnanimous employer may have decided to give us a pay cut this month without telling us. Class action attorneys drool over this kind of thing ...

One bit of good news is that they may have done some tweaking on the e-log system when they realized how much productivity some us of were losing. It seems that they've included some lag time as evidenced by reviewing my logs and finding 18-20 minute pretrips on days I had to go through several lights to get from whichever truckstop I was at to the interstate. I've also found I can save some drive time by going back and forth between off duty and sleeper every 3-4 minutes or 2 miles - whichever comes first - when I get stuck in a long backup or find myself in a stoplight jungle and then changing it all to off duty later. Whether or not I end up getting in trouble for doing this is to be seen. I'm currently sitting at 25 "good" points, so I'm not too worried ...

 

let me know how it goes...may be joining you soon.

Last week went o.k. got to Forest City, IA, delivered, and asked again to be routed thru a company shop. The previous loads hadn't given me the time or timing to get my truck worked on. So, I was given another same day load. Pick up in Fort Dodge IA, deliver to Lincoln asap. I delivered it Thursday evening, then to the shop. Since it was late, I beeped my terminal that I was going in the shop, put my name on the list, and waited until morning. Friday afternoon, my truck was taken in(there were a lot of trucks ahead of me) but by 5pm, I still hadn't heard a peep from my terminal, so I had assumed that they had learned from the last half dozen times of asking me to check on the truck, and just called the shop about my trucks eta for completion themselves. However, since my mind reading helmet is in for a tuneup, I missed their thoughts in Deland...and the lady that handles breakdown pay just happened to be off Friday, and nobody read the message until she came in on Saturday...and wasn't happy that I didn't check in...sorry...I did my part, it's not my job to make sure others do their job. Since I had a lot of work to be done, including diagnosis of my apu issues, my truck wasn't done Friday...not even close. The mechanic said if the apu needs parts, then it'll be Monday since they don't stock apu parts. So off to the motel I went. Saturday morning Deland was calling me, then she called Lincoln, then called me back in a panic about getting me moving. Then the shops day shift says they figured out the apu problem (they think) and my truck was done. I finally get picked from motel, get back to the shop and what is still sitting inside? My truck... 8 hours later, I pull it out, fire up the apu only to be greeted by a horrible grinding noise as it's running...back to the shop. Now the funny part, the shop forman claimed they ran the apu for hours and think it was an air bubble in the coolant line that caused the sensor to read an overheat condition, and trip the apu's ecm breaker. But if he had...he would have heard the alternator grinding against the case because some idiot put the wrong belt on it, and had it adjusted as far out as it could go.

After I got it back again, sent diapatch a message that I thought that maybe the truck would stay fixed and that, since I had been up all day waiting, I was going to bed but I could accept a load that could pe picked up in the morning, or one off the yard that could leave after a break...the offer, a load off the yard, that had to be in Socorro, TX (again) by Monday 5 a.m. the only problem was, it was 2200 Saturday night. Which means, no sleep and run tonite, or a little sleep and run the crap out of it... I choose a little sleep, and turned 975 miles in 27.5 hrs. My reward, a return trip back to Forrest City, IA for Thursday 5 am, but...the paperwork didn't make it to me until 10 am Monday...which didn't leave me enough time to roll since I started my day at midnite and was going back up US54 through no man's land again and there isn't much to choose from on truck stops, and I didn't have enough to make it to Santa Rosa. So I waited until Tuesday to leave. Now it's mid day Wednesday, and I am 24 miles from the delivery. That's 1260 miles, through a lot of back roads in 34 hours... I guess the ole' man still can get the job done if he has to.

Now...the apu ran fine, for 1 day. When I stopped for the night in Tucumcari Sunday, it tripped the breaker again...so much for figuring out what was wrong. So, I bombarded both the pay lady and my terminal manager with messages about it. 1st thing Monday, my terminal manager sends me a message telling me she is calling Lincoln and pressing them for a new truck for me...which is going to be tough, they were almost out when I was there over the weekend. Then Wednesday morning, I get a beep. I am ordered to work with dispatch to get me to Lincoln...my POJ has been sold...no matter what, I am outa this thing asap......yaaaaaaaaaahooooooooo!!!! The only problem, Ryan says that they're out of freight headed to NE for the day....but I told him that I wasn't delivering until Thursday, so save me a load for tomorrow!! Hopefully there is at least 1 new truck left...that's all I need. I ended up last week w/3250 in 6 days, took 2.5 days off in the shop and if they get me to Lincoln, I could still clear 25-2700 this week. I guess it did some good to go home more often. But, if I get a new truck, then I won't have any reason to do that, they'll expect me to run like I use to....oh boy, decisions, decisions.

 

I had the 1st load from the Eau Claire, WI area to Socorro, TX end up being 109 miles over what the load claimed, (only 18 over what the suggested miles added to) because of the fuel solution. It had me routed through the Abilene, TX area... I had always warned them that if I was routed 100 miles out of route for fuel, I would do like it said. The next run from Socorro to Forest City, IA was only 29 miles oor on a 1283 mile run, the Ft Dodge to Lincoln I was over paid by 23 miles. The Lincoln to Socorro, TX I was only 13 miles over, the 2nd Socorro to Forest City, IA I was only 12 over, which is odd, because instead of running US54 across KS to Wichita and then up I 35, I ran up to Dodge City, KS for the night then ran across US56 to Emporia then up I 35. That allowed me to get in range of Clear Lake IA in one days log hours, instead of 2, plus I didn't use the toll road.

 

Yup. I've been on elogs for over a year

 

Yes! I have noticed we're being shorted miles recently too. As much as 70 miles on one of our loads. We asked our dispatcher to look at it and he said it is correct. I'm too weary to fight it with him. Usually it's a few miles here & a few miles there. Did they get new routing software? Seems that it likes to route 250 miles of backroads to save you 20 miles of interstate driving.

 

Anything other than driving can be edited on e-logs. If you go over 15 minutes on your pretrip, you can go in & correct it before submitting them. Usually, right before I start my day, I go on line 4 for the pretrip. After 15 minutes, I change my status to sleeper. You don't go on the drive line until you have driven 2 miles down the road. You can also just start out the day driving & go back at you first stop & add in your 15 minute pretrip. In heavy traffic, if you are stopped or going really slow, you change your status to sleeper. It automatically goes back yo driving after 2 miles. (We have yet to hear back from anybody on this if it's not allowed.) Any time you stop your truck, turn the key off & it puts you on line 4. You can change that to sleeper or off duty later on. Fuel is logged as actual time fueling not 15 mins or time waiting in line. I log a block of 30 mins for drop & hook or load/unload instead of 15 mins on each end.
Only approve logs at the end of your day after you have had a chance to review and make sure everything is labeled correctly.

 

I called my terminal last week to confirm some hometime. They told me 'you now have a DM/Driver Manager, and you 'need to talk to him". So, I call him up and we chat for awhile. An Efficiency Expert, I'm guessing. Surely College Degree, but I doubt having a CDL. You know the type,,,'same ol', same ol' So we chat about miles and this and that. I tell him I'd like to run West a lot more than I do, since I'm National.
He tells me, "no more West Coast"... Only people who live on the West Coast get the West loads to get them home". No kidding, I say. I told him I hired on to run 48, and he said 'that is the way it is",,,'Big changes at the company". Wilmer has 3 DM's now running 100 drivers each, as they 'learn the ropes' to try and be more productive.

Any of you notice you don't West anymore? I ran a lot out there when I restarted in April, tho haven't been that way in awhile. Now I know why I kept getting msg's from some dude named Jim. I thought he was Disp. Noooo-oooo DM.

So far I haven't had to show him the ropes too much yet. I hope he doesn't get frustrated. I'm gonna run it like I wanna run, for the most part.
I haven't noticed getting shorted on miles; in fact I've made a few extra here and there!

I'm about a 9,500 mile/month average. First month went coast to coast to coast and over 12,000. Then, all downhill from that. lol. Hey, I'm old, and don't really care that much. Gotta enjoy it while you can.
Met this older cat out at the Mex. restaurant at the Shell n. of Anthony, TX a few months ago. Dude was 81,,,West Coast dedicated. Wow, that is some serious dedication to work,,,

 

This was a wonderful idea, I couldn't agree more, wish more truckers would do the same, present the data, not opinion! Thanks!!

 

I know that truckstop well. Vado, NM. Vado is Spanish for "dip" which is an appropriate description for that town, lol!

 

Well it's official. I am now back to Creaffer status. After going around in circles trying to get a load to Lincoln, op's, through a series of a mis-scheduled load(by the shipper, not Crete) a load to Indiana, that turned into a t'call in Ottawa and a load going thru Lincoln to Denver for Monday...I am getting a different truck. I am going blue again. Although based on the number, I don't believe it's brand new(never been broken down). I just hope it's not an opti-idle Freightliner Buttugly(Cascadia). Farewell old Century class...I won't know how to act, I've been in Century class Freightliners for most of the last 9 years. I'm liable to be walking around the truck stop looking for my truck for a few weeks. And even with all the breakdown time this week, I still managed a 2750 mile week(if they get the TONU load - truck ordered not used - paid right this time)...plus I'm starting out next week with a 1005 mile run to Denver, if they let me keep it through the truck swap.