CRETE - A Year in Review

WEEK FOUR​

Monday 01/21 through Sunday 01/27​

This week starts out with a tediously boring Monday once again. I have found myself doing a reset at another truckstop with nothing to do. I look around and see that they allow dropped trailers, but I really don't feel good about leaving mine here. I'm not exactly in the best part of Birmingham. I was going to get a hotel, but couldn't find anything with truck parking under $55 and had no desire to spend that much so I decided to suck it up and make the best of things in my truck. At least I had a chance to sort through some receipts to speed up my tax work when I get home later in the week.

Tuesday starts off bright and early, well not so much, it's still dark, but you get the idea. I have just under 500 miles via Interstates to go and I have a delivery appointment of 3pm. In my down time I figured I could run the back roads and cut it down to 440 miles. These would be slower routes but I can probably save 30mins in travel time overall (as it turned out, the back roads were a bit slower than anticipated and I was only able to save 15mins). Never know when that time savings can make a difference later in the week, plus I'll get to run some roads I've never been on before. There aren't as many of those left as there once was.

The trip went uneventfully and I found myself a little ahead of schedule and decided to treat myself at Stake N Shake and take a shower at the local Pilot. I was wishing I had started a little later so I would have more time on the 14 Clock after my delivery but I wanted to make sure I wouldn't be late for my delivery and since I was taking unfamiliar back roads it would be best to be cautious with my time.

The qualcom tells me that the receiver begins taking deliveries at 3:00pm on a first come first serve bases so I arrived at 2:30 and try to check in. Well when the said 3:00pm they meant it. I'm told to leave the property and return later. I return a little after 3 and go to the gate that was pointed out to me earlier. Well, it's still locked up so I call the number given to me earlier and am told to wait until he was done with his meeting. I tell him I'm blocking traffic which is answered with a grunt.... 20 minutes later the gate opens and the guy on the speaker gives me a door assignment. I dock and wait another hour before unloading begins. This is rather annoying because my load is just 18 bulk rolls of insulation and I should have been unloaded in 20 minutes. But since this is my first live unload in almost 2 week I wont complain (too much). Loading begins and 15 minutes later I'm empty and put in my MT call.

Within 15 minutes I was given a single load offer that has a drop/hook PU and DEL going to Ardmore, OK (1173 mi) with a delivery anytime Thursday. Awesome load but I had a home time request in for the weekend. I have been out for over 3 weeks and all I would have to do is send a message that I want to get back to the house and I would have been pulled off the load. Here's were I have problems getting home and it's not Crete's fault. It is usually a product of my own greed. The way I look at it, there is a $500 bill sitting on the ground and all I have to do is run up to Oklahoma and pick it up.

Add this to the fact that I was able to get in my reset the day before, I will be in Oklahoma early Thursday and have plenty of hours available to get me home by late Saturday or early Sunday if the right load came along. That part of the country has a strong freight base for us and I know I have a good chance of getting a load close to the house.

I accept the load and get ready to head over to pickup my load 90 miles away. The load is scheduled to PU the following day, but I figure it is already loaded and if I get there tonight I can do my drop/hook and still have time to put another 100 miles behind me before I run out of hours.

This hope is almost immediately squashed. Just as I'm ready to pull out I get a message. "Can you shag a trailer with tire problems to a local shop and DROP it there before you PU your load, pays $35"? That's a new twist; I'm usually hit up for favors before the good loads. Well, I'm definitely not thrilled about this, but I figure it's the least I can do for the past couple of weeks. I let dispatch know "happy to help out, where is the trailer and where do you want me to take it."? Ten minutes later I get started.

As I'm driving it occurs to me that by the time I hook to this trailer with the bad tire and get it to the shop it will be after 5pm and I don't know if this is a 24hr shop. I call them and they inform me that they will not be open but I can show up anytime after 7:30 the next morning. I told them that I was suppose to drop a trailer there for tire repairs and asked if I could leave it on their property after hours. He's seems to be oddly amused by this silly notion and lets me know that they have no room for dropped trailers and I would have to remain with the trailer during repairs. "See ya in the morning"

This puts a serious wrinkle in my timeline. I had planed on being in OK early Thursday so I could get an early start on a load going back to the house. This little mess has just set me back at least 6hrs. It does occur to me that if the tire in question is just a flat and not off the rim I could plug the hole and fill it myself and be on my merry way. Yeah, I can be a little too optimistic at times. I arrive to find the tire in question has seen its last days.

I resign myself to the fact that things don't always go as planed, drop my empty trailer at the customer, PU the one with a bad foot and park onsite for the night. Oh yeah, the loaded trailer I was to PU was on property and ready to go.


Three hours later I wake up from a dead sleep and am very annoyed with myself because 1. Why did I let this wake me up? 2. The stupid trailer only needs a new tire, I have a spare on the truck, all I have to do is pull the trailer to a truckstop and there is one less than 30 miles away. If I would have been thinking I could have had the tire replaced before shutting down for the night for a total cost of $30 to the company instead of letting some local shop fleece the company for $400 for the cost of a new tire. All is not lost; I am able to get going early the next day.

Wednesday starts at 3:30am; I'm able to get the tire switched out at the Petro. Nice short lines that time of day. I'm out in 30 minutes; head back to get my loaded trailer and I'm on my way to OK by 6:00am. This works out much better than what the company had set up. I saved Crete allot of money (no one will ever realize this, but it makes me feel good) and I'm rolling by 6:00 instead of 10:00 and am almost back on my preplanned schedule. I put in my 11hrs of drive time and shut down for the night in Louisiana.

Thursday starts out early and I drive the final 463 miles and drop my trailer before 1pm. I put in my MT call and let dispatch know that I have till 16:30 before my 14hrs is up and I wait in anticipation for that golden load to get me home. 10 minutes later I get a one load offer that was to PU 100 miles away at 18:00 (Uggg! There's that automated "Load Offer" button again) and delivered to St. Louis (600 mi) Friday morning. Not a bad load but I don't have the hours to PU the load and although it doesn't get me home, it's in the right direction. I send in a message, "can't commit to load, PU is after my 14hrs window. PS I'm trying to get home".

Within 15 minutes I was giving a load offer that was a drop/hook PU north of Wichita, KS(300 mi DH) and had a live 7:00am delivery in Henderson, NC(1300 mi) the following Monday. This offer is followed by a message "accept this load only if you have the hours and can pickup and deliver on time". What that basically means is NO TCALL! I'm not all that excited by that because I can have the load to our Greensboro yard by Saturday morning. I decide to take the load and take my chances of talking the weekend dispatch into T-Calling this load at a later time.

The scheduled PU for this load is a drop/hook the following day at 16:00-23:59, which leads me to believe it is a preloaded trailer and ready to go. I can't get there today, but I figure if I drive out the rest of my hours for the day I can get within a 100 miles. This is important because that will leave between 1300-1400 miles to my final destination and that can be driven in (2) 11hrs shifts. Thus making it possible to make Raleigh, NC by noon Saturday "IF" the trailer is ready to go when I get to the shipper at 5:00am. Why do I want to make sure I can get to Raleigh, well, even if I make it there I will be out of hours. But at least I will be close enough to the house so the wife can drive up for dinner and we can get a nice room for the night. I take off and am able to drive 230 miles before running out of hours.

Friday rolls around and I get going at by 3:45am. I am taking a big chance here. Once I start driving so does my 14hr clock. If I show up at 5:00am and my load isn't ready for hours I will loose significant drive time for the day and will not be close enough to the house to be able to spend the weekend with the wife. Also, it will make it impossible to fit in another 34hr reset before my delivery. I could start later in the day, but for every hour I delay I will be looking at a later arrival in NC.

Throwing caution to the wind I arrive at the shipper at 5:00am and check in. Anyone want to guess. Nope, trailer is not ready and the crew doesn't show up to load until 6:00am. I am told to put my MT in a door and unhook. He also told me that he would make sure my trailer would be the first one loaded and should be ready by 7:30am. This makes for a tight schedule over the next couple of days but is doable.

True to his word, the trailer was ready when promised and I was off.

Friday and Saturday was spent driving and I was able to make it to the Greensboro yard in hopes of T-Calling my load early Saturday. I didn't really expect to get away with this and was not surprised when I was told I had to deliver the load. This wasn't the end of the world, even if I had succeeded, I didn't have the hours to drive home and the wife would have driven up to meet me in Raleigh either way. I left the yard and found a truckstop outside of Raleigh.

While I waited for the wife to pick me up I got a room at the Hilton Duke, $140 room for $45 through Priceline (love that website) and did a little research on the net and found the best restaurant in the area and made reservations. It wasn't home but it was a wonderful weekend and I was able to fit in that coveted 34hr reset.

WEEK FOUR RESULTS:
Monday Jan 21 through Sunday Jan 27
Miles include deadhead

Montgomery, AL to Jacksonville, FL.........................501 Miles
Alachua, FL to Ardmore, OK.....................................1173 Miles
McPherson, KS to Mebane, NC.................................1567 Miles


Total Paid Miles..........................................................3241 Miles(5 driving days, Monday and Sunday were reset days)
3241 miles x .42= $1361.22 plus $35 shag pay.

Actual Miles........................3284

 

WEEK FIVE​

Monday 01/28 through Sunday 02/03​

Monday starts after a nice weekend in Raleigh with the wife. I have to deliver the load I was unable to Tcall Saturday. It's an 8:00am delivery 60 miles away so I get started at 7:00 and make my delivery on time. It's a very quick live unload and I send in my MT call.

I get a message "Thank you; enjoy your home time, what is your PTA"?

I am now MT and set to go home. I am 180 miles from the house; about average dead head to get me home. My dilemma is that it is now Monday and I'm looking at home time of four days. That would have me leaving the house Saturday morning (Monday is not counted as a day off even though I would be able to make it to the house by noon). This doesn't work well for me since the wife works weekdays and I make it a point to be home over the weekend so we can spend as much time together as possible.

Considering I am coming off a very good January with somewhere in the area of 13,500 miles I know I would be able to take the rest of the week off and hit the road Monday morning. But I really didn't want to take that much time off. With my down time in Raleigh combined with home time I would be looking at 8 days without pay.

With that in mind I sent a message to dispatch "I would rather not take home time during the week will the wife is working, do you have a couple of regional runs that can have me back in the area so I can take home time over the weekend"

Within a few minutes I am offered a drop/hook load that was sitting in the Raleigh area and ready to go with a drop/hook delivery in near Allentown, PA(551 mi) the following day. This looked good to me; I accepted the load and sent in a request for a pre-planed load to get me back to the house.

Quick note here, this will amaze other Crete drivers, I can't believe it myself. I took a look at my previous trips and with the exception of a run to Middleboro, MA 11/23/07 this PA run will the closest I've come to the feared North East since late October. Don't get me wrong, I've been offered loads up there, but have had other loads offered with alternate destinations at those times. Prior to that I ran a 3 month period where I only made it west of the Mississippi 2 or 3 times. Go figure.

Meanwhile.......back at the ranch,

I had the hours to make it to the customer that night, but it is one of our customers that have drop/hook deliveries but still require an appointment. 11:00am in my case. No early deliveries. My truck is also in the need of an A service and I decide to swing by our New Kingstown terminal to have that done. It's only 40 miles or so out of route, this way I know I will have a place to park and will be able to get the truck serviced without loosing any time.

I make every effort possible to take care of truck maintenance during my resets or extended down time periods so that I can stay productive. If you show up at one of our shops and expect to get in and out during you 14hrs clock, Good Luck. It's not uncommon to be told "it will be the following morning before we can get you in". This particular layover is about 14hrs for me, usually plenty of time with the exception of some of our major terminals, i.e. Wilmer TX, Marietta GA, Lincoln NE and Columbus OH. I avoid these terminals at all cost as far as maintenance is concerned; they tend to be very busy.

Upon arrival (how I despise DC traffic) at the New Kingstown terminal (it's a technically a Shaffer terminal) I go into the shop to put in a work order only to be informed that unless my Crete truck is part of their dedicated fleet he could not work on it. Well isn't that a dandy policy change. I guess I missed the "notice" that was sent out. Communications is not one of Crete's strong points.

Crete is in the process of consolidating their operations with the Shaffer division and has caused some changes that I'm not entirely familiar with at this time.

Anyway, I'm not going to get my truck serviced today, that just means I'll have to deal with it after my home time. I drop my trailer in the yard and head up the road and park at a Kmart, walk across the street to Outback and order a wonderful NewYork strip. Yum!

I wake up the next morning with my truck covered in a layer of ice. Perfect!

I bobtail over to the yard (yeah, that was a blast, these things should come with skates) to hook to my trailer and fuel up. During this time I have been listing to the radio for traffic and weather reports and find that the roads are in horrible condition. Somewhere in the neighbor hood of 70 accidents on rural roads in a 50 mile radius, the 76 turnpike is shut down in both directions, etc. I'm in luck though; I-81 is currently accident free. OH GOODY, this is going to be fun.

Once I get on the Interstate I find the roads to be in fair condition. Just take it easy and things should be just fine. Hopefully no one will do something really stupid up ahead and shut the interstate down. The trip takes a little longer than normal, but I make it unscathed. The east bound side wasn't as lucky. A handful of 4 wheelers decided to mix it up and traffic was backed up for at least 10 miles. What a mess.

I arrived 1 3/4 hours early, they allow 2hrs, and drop my trailer. I'm thrilled to see 5 MT trailers sitting there waiting for me. This particular receiver is notorious for holding our trailers. This is a pleasant surprise because I had fully expected to spend and hour or two waiting around or trying to steal one of our trailers from another customers in the area without being caught. I'm running about 50/50 in that department

My MT call gets me a one load offer in 5 minutes going to southern Mississippi (1200+mi), drop/hook on both sides. Another gravy run, but home is in NC. To tell you the truth, if I didn't have to go home to PU my 2008 permits that had to be on the truck by the end of the month I would have accepted the load and worried about getting home later.

I then send in a message "I can PU load, but must TCall it at our Greensboro yard (525mi). I'm due home time and must get to the house to PU permits (ace in the hole here, they have to say yes) Do you want me to PU this load or do you have something else for me. And "yes" it is, I do my drop/hook PU on the outskirts of Philly and head to the yard. I'm there by late evening Tuesday night. I drop my trailer and am now ready for home time. Unfortunately I'm out of hours and have to spend the night in the yard and head to the house (210mi) in the morning. Now instead of taking my home time during the week I will be home Wednesday morning (doesn't count as a day off because I had to drive 3+ hours), I will be able to spend the weekend with the wife and catch the Super bowl with our friends. WOW, what a game that was, eh!

Wednesday is now here and I'm ready to go home, it's early and I will be at the house well before noon, but the wife is still working. I send a message to dispatch that I'm getting ready to head home, but if they have a shag load or a quick hitter (there were two trailers in the yard with deliveries within 150 radius) I would be willing to help out. Got a message back, "everything was covered; enjoy your home time, when do you want to come back out". I set my PTA for Monday morning and pointed the truck home.

I was in town before noon and on the golf course by 1:00.


WEEK FIVE RESULTS:
Monday January, 28th through Sunday February, 3rd
Miles include deadhead

Mebane, NC to Henderson, NC...............................58mi
Cary, NC to Breinigsville, PA.................................511mi
Oaks, PA to Greensboro, NC...................................525mi


Total paid miles...................................................1094mi (Home Wednesday through Sunday)
Actual miles..................1365(included 214mi DH to the house)

1094mi x .42 = $459.48

 

Good luck with your CDL school.

PU means to "pick up" a load.
DH means Dead Head i.e. paid unloaded miles
D/H means Drop and Hook or to unhook from one trailer and hook up to a different one.
MT is and empty trailer

Crete's home time policy is 1 day off for 6 day out with no more than 4 days home at a time (that's full days, if you get home at noon or any other time during a day, that does not count as a day off). If you want more than that you are suppose to use vacation time. Crete also does not allow you to bank time. Meaning, if you stay out 4 weeks and go home 2 days, the other 2 days are lost.

These are the official policies(to the best of my knowledge that is), our terminal managers have the option to be lenient on these policies if you are a productive driver. It's at their discretion.

You can take your "home time" anywhere in the country that you want. I have family in Phoenix and have taken home time there a couple of times.