CRETE - A Year in Review

Still sitting in NJ...."no frieght"....but to be fair, I really haven't seen that message too often during my time here thus far....

Oops...spoke too soon....



Got a load to pick up in the morning 7 miles away to drag 140 miles over to the York, PA area. Then may have to trundle up to the New Kingstown yard to have 'em look at a tire that seems to be seeping air very slowly.....wonderful....

 

Just has a 31xxx series Century drive by me in the TA in Newburg N.Y. I thought for sure that all of those Centurys would have been changed out by now.....

 

There seem to be more older blue Century's than the Crete red ones still out there...

 

They held on to a bunch and bought an extended warranty for them. There were issues with our 1st batch of Internationals that cause a delay in delivery, so they kept the Century's on the road a while.

 

I'm heading to New Kingstown to begin orientation next week. They're forcing me to the Shaffer side. Anything I can do to get myself into a red truck instead?

 

You could very well be in a red cab pulling a reefer, if the recruiter said we are only hiring on the Shaffer side of the house...than get used to all the bs that occurs at grocery warehouses and early-early morning deliverys. I'd play hardball and say 'We will be in touch when the dry van side opens up'. Everybody is differant but I will not pull a reefer as a company driver for less than 50 cpm (Nobody pays that). I feel sorry for you bro..... earlier in my driving career I started out with a reefer only oufit and the free hrs I spent in the coolers of CA and the free days spent waiting at meat plants waitng for loads to get ready....HELL NO

 

Shaffer does not do the CA produce shuffle, and I have never seen one at any of the meat slaughter houses.

 

Out of that area, I'm suprised they said Shaffer. We don't have the customer base up in that area that we use to, so getting home and leaving back out would be a pain. If it were me, I'd say 'nope, sorry - it is Crete or nothing'. I don't know if they've changed the policy or not but for a while they weren't allowing Shaffer drivers to transfer to Crete when they got sick of no miles and all the hassles of reefer freight.

And as far as the color of the truck...Tarzan's right...it isn't the truck color, it's the trailer you're pulling that determines which side you're on. I'm a Crete, but I am in a blue truck(with the new door sticker that has both names). 2 of the last 3 trucks I've had were blue.

 

Well, I am on a yo-yo. Into Coryland, out to Illinois, into Coryland, out to Illinois. Once empty (Riteaid in Dayville, CT...another fast unloading customer...2 thumbs up.) Only took 5 minutes for my next preplanned load. Pu in the nw corner of Mass, headed to Rockford, IL (not Lowes) for anytime before 1700 Friday. While I'm not setting records for miles, given the fact that I've been in Coryland 3 out of the last 4 loads...I will have an o.k. week. 2300 for that much time up there, I can't complain (batter up Jdzr, another softball for ya)

 

Anyone headed into north FL the next couple of days, watch out. I10 is closed both directions as of Tuesday just east of I75, and they are talking about closing some of I10 over by Madison (the area around the scales near Lee) because a sinkhole has opened up within 10 feet of the road, and they need to evaluate to see if it is going to grow and swallow I10. There is major flooding, the town of Live Oak is waste deep in water, areas in Lake City are under water, and sinkholes are popping up all over the place due to the drought and now almost 1/2 a years worth of rain in just days. Ahhhh, the joys of living in God's waiting room -East wing. When we get water like this, the snakes head for high ground too, so if you're down there, watch where you're walking.