CRETE - A Year in Review

As far as getting out west, good luck. I haven't been west of Denver but 1 time in years, and that was to Golden, CO to pick up Coors. They have changed my usual visits to Chigcgoland a bit. Now I am thru Birmingham every other trip. I have been across I20 between Birmingham and Atlanta so often, I think I know every chuck hole personally. But miles have been decent, so this is just a comment, not a complaint.

 

It seems that if you live on the east coast you have slim chances of getting west regardless of the how long you stay out. I've noticed from facebook and here that those who live in the midwest go everywhere. I don't want to run just west either. It seems most of the freight is around the Ohio valley, but at least they will have to send me west for my hometime when I want it. I'm fortunate not to have a family or home to time me down. But I guess that will change as soon as the grandkids come along...circle of life and all that.

 

I delivered in Crete so went to Lincoln to get my 'A' service (3K overdue). Yesterday they said they might get to it today. Now they say not until Monday. I was told that 'A' services have to be done at an Acklie shop so I guess I'll wait it out. I'd estimate that I've lost probably 10-15 days at least over the last year waiting on services (not even including breakdowns).

 

I'm over for my 'A' service by 19,000. It has gotten so ridiculous to have anything done at our company shops, I stack up a bunch of stuff to be fixed before I even show up. Most of the delay is what you're going thru...the wait to get in. Once it's in, it gets done somewhat quickly unless they find something else wrong like a recall they never told you about.

I got a message about my truck having a egr recall on it last month before vacation. After my 4th or 5th problem load, I told my A/M to get me through an AMS shop, I need a break from this circus and have to get this recall fixed along with a whole page of other stuff. He said "what recall, you're not on my recall list". He looked back and can see the message, so I called Deland because it says to contact your fleet manager to get this resolved...and the asst manager, who handles equipment issues, said he would check and get back to me...and it's been several days, and I haven't heard a word. So, it's another case of the right hand completely clueless as to where the left hand even is, let alone knowing what it's doing. I still have a page of repairs including losing a gallon of coolant every 3 days...but can't get them to get me through a shop.

 

Wow, 19K, that's pretty extreme! I probably should have just kept on moving too, but I'm still dealing with that mismounted fairing that I wrote about before. North Salt Lake was supposed to have fixed it, but the fairing still rubs against the hood and is continuously causing damage (which I know they will eventually put on me).

BTW, what's Crete's policy when you are waiting for a service like this? Are they supposed to pay breakdown or anything? I've never investigated that because of my ongoing war with the office people. I know if I so much as talk to them on the phone, they will say something crazy like "we need to get you into another truck".

That's pretty messed up. I thought you already had your EGR fixed (but maybe that was a previous truck). I started burning up coolant like crazy to the point where I had to buy a $17 gallon of the yellow almost every day before they finally fixed the EGR. Crete must have a very creative accounting system for all these losses.

 

As far as 'A' services, not a big deal anymore. It use to be a grease job, but since almost everything is lubed for life, they just check things out, squirt some grease in the slacks and the 5th wheel pivot and your done.

My EGR was done on this truck in April. The tech said it was a new design for the unit that is suppose to last longer. When they sent me the message I thought -it- was defective. It still has a shrill sound when it spools, kinda like a real bad belt squeal, but it does it on accel and when the jake kicks in and builds boost. The coolant loss is a leak in either my heater core or my heater hose...it has turned my heat shield of my turbo yellow and the inner fender under the heater box yellow. But the hoses go behind there and you can't tell exactly where it's coming from.

 

I'm over at Shoemakers for the night. Have a delivery in Waverly in the morning. Had dinner with an old buddy from Crete.

 

Define midwest. I live in Illinois, can throw a rock and hit Iowa, and the farthest west I've been in almost a year is North Platte.

 

This is not a joke...Mclanes in Brookhaven, MS asks for $270 unload fee for a load that was double stacked already. Not a floor load that had to be finger printed. How much more breakdown could it possibly take to finish a load already double stacked. Not to mention the new tactic of not telling you a price until after the load is removed. If the government wants to do something useful in this industry, reform the rules about lumper fee's and who pays... Your mechanic has a set limit on how much labor to charge for certain repairs...why not this since eventually the costs filter down to the consumer anyway. I am truly in the wrong end of this industry.

 

I've never understood the whole lumper scam thing. Since the consignee is ordering the product, it seems like everything down to the last detail would be known in advance. Yet I've had the same thing where the lumper service wanted to proceed without even telling me the price. I haven't had Crete refuse any of the prices yet, but it always feels like some kind of shake down.

Plus they get away with murder. Recently they refused two cases filled with bags of pet food. Yet the cases had fresh marks the exact size and shape of the fork lift fork. Another time they unloaded a pre-loaded trailer and I found a 6" gaping hole in the roof of the trailer. It had been raining, yet totally dry inside. So all the evidence pointed to the unloaders doing that damage too. But they denied it and got away with it again.