CRETE - A Year in Review

Is there any truth to the rumor that it's moving to Jacksonville?

My string of good luck ended very quickly, lol. I came off the 34 reset very refreshed and in a positive state of mind. The first pplan required me to drive 110 miles in 90 minutes to make the pickup appointment (it was a nice 1000+ mile trip). I message: "I will arrive 20 later than that appointment time, should I accept pplan?". 10, 20, ... 30 minutes go by and then they cancel the pplan. I don't get that. If it was automatic dispatch, doesn't the computer know the truck can't do 100 mph? If it was the planner, I was only going to be a few minutes late so why would they cancel if they knew that already from my position?

20 minute later another pplan comes that has a pickup time already 2 hours late. It's a 400 mile trip delivering in 2 days, ughhhh. After a back and forth they tell me it doesn't matter. I go to get the preload and drop my mt in one of the few remaining spots. My drives go into those little ruts. Hmmmm, interesting - I don't seem to be moving. After rocking back and forth and going nowhere, I try a new tactic. I take my trash can, fill it with gravel and try to smooth out the ruts. After awhile I decide that may not work, and try the opposite. I take a crowbar, a sledge, and two hours later have the drives dug out.

After I'm on my way, I ask dispatch to try and get an earlier appointment. No response, so I message them a few more times. The I get a message: "we're working on it". 4 hours later I still haven't heard anything. I finally call the customer myself and they change it to 2300 tonight. So now am at a grocery warehouse in Houston probably for the rest of the night.

 

Deliver in GA early in the morn, then head to Social Circle for a shorty to SC, then....for the first time since we moved into our new place last month, I'll actually sleep in it. 3200 this week....averaging right at 2800 for the full weeks out, which is right where I want to be.

 

A full day for me. Started in Elkton, MD went to Greensboro, NC (BTW US29 from I66 to I64 is now on my no fly zone list. At 79740 lb.s it's not fun) then to Cary, NC and now Ft. Chiswell, VA. I deliver in W. Jefferson, OH. tomorrow. A full 11(thanks to the aforementioned US29) and a full 14.

 

I used my credit card there to pay for a scale at the CHEX truck stop in Henderson. The lady charged me $100 instead of ten. She got the manager to come up and show her how to credit the card. Instead of doing it on the cash register the manager called someone to void the transaction; I thought nothing of it. So I get an email about fraudulent activity at two Food Lions in that area of North Carolina. I go online and sure enough they charged nearly $300 to Food Lion within two days of me scaling and there was no record of them voiding the $100 transaction

 

That's messed up. I've already had my credit card cancelled two times since returning to trucking. I forewarned them about extensive travel, but they still cancelled due to "suspicious activity". When I asked them which vendor was the problem at, they always refuse to tell. I've never understood that because how can I avoid them then.

 

I had the same thing happen back in '08 when I was rolling in Texas. Luckily my bank caught it and shut off the card before I even knew what happened. Since that day, I ALWAYS take $100 out of my banks ATM before leaving for the road each week. If I run out of money on the road, I use a truck stop ATM(no choice) but won't use my card unless it's a must. Glad you got it shut down before they racked up more charges.

 

Having worked several years in the cc industry, I can tell you your bank probably has no idea who the suspect merchant is. Visa/MC have risk departments that track these things down. Your card issueing bank may have one or two customers (maybe) compromised at one location, Visa/MC get data from ALL processing, so they can detect patterns your bank never sees.

 

Hey guys, I talked to the owner of CHEX today. He sounded like a very good person. He was genuinely concerned and somewhat stumped. He gathered the people together and had a meeting. He said he will get to the heart of the problem. He knows a manager at the local Food Lion and will see what procedures they use should someone try to make a charge without having the card in hand. He called his c/c processor and they said they had the credit pending but had not sent it through yet. Anyway, I won't be out any money because of the fraud protection Capital One has. I was once scammed in Kuala Lumpur with this very card. They were great in taking care of things while I was overseas and kept my card open. I had to call them on each transaction but I wasn't stranded.

Ralph, You might try Cap One. I have no problems with them....what's in your wallet?

 

Discover, great cash back program as well as fraud protection. Had great fraud protection five or so years ago, and if there is suspicious behavior they contact me or temporarily shut the card off till I call them.

 

Likewise. There was an extended period of time when I didn't use my card at all, then I moved and put a bunch of stuff on it. They contacted me to make sure the charges were legit.