CRETE - A Year in Review

I may be absent a couple days...I am in one of the most foul and vile moods. So rather than spew nothing but bitterness and hate on here (more than my usual helping that is)and possibly chase followers away...I'll just take a 'time out' over here in the corner. There's nothing any more unusual than my normal rotten luck going on here at Casa de Snackbar...it's just getting to me a bit more than usual...as Arnold said "I'll be back" (more like I'owl bea baaak).

 

Hope you feel better. The only thing that revives me is if I get the h#ll away from the truck. They gave me a load out of Alabama but it had too much time so they said I could tcal in Columbus. I raced up there last night arriving 3 minutes before my 14 ended (thinking an arrival ASAP would get me a better load). They didn't respond to my requests last night for my next pplan.

Then this morning I wake up to a pplan that is almost identical to the one I dropped - just 50 miles more and doesn't deliver until Monday. I started to get in a crazy mood, then finally said f@#% it! I will just make it into a 34 reset. Unfortunately it's raining in Columbus, but I'm still going downtown to go sightseeing, go to the movies, etc. so I can be away from the truck and the Crete prison compound.

* For anyone stuck at the Columbus terminal, I just found out the Ohio State Fair is happening. The bus leaves from Walmart.

 

oooooooops

 

ooooooopss

 

I hope things improve for you SSB.

I got very lucky in Minnesota. I reached my cons the night before. I guess the manager saw me circle the lot twice. I was trying to find a nice spot out of their way because I had an afternoon appt. He came out to let me know just park anywhere. The he said let's see if this trlr in the door is empty and you can just swap them out and be on your way. It was indeed empty so I swapped them out and went to the back of the lot to park for the night. I get a preplan for RockTenn in St. Paul with a Friday all day pick up to Joplin, MO for Sunday at 13:30. I bounced over first ting in the morning to find a loaded trlr sitting and waiting for me. Drop/hook hit the road! By this time I was waaaay ahead of schedule so I sent a note to my AM. He came back with a tcall in KC where I picked up the permit book (more in a sec). On the way there I get a preplan from KC, KS and a note to get back ASAP they need my loaner truck. I head over to drop/hook and back to the yard last night. I called the International dealership and my truck is ready (more in a sec part duex). I skeedaddle at 0415 and drop my trailer in Wilmer before 1400. Once I cleaned my stuff out. I went to turn in the keys. Now remember that lost permit book? I found it! In the center storage. The one way up high Never thought to look for a permit book way up there.

So I get to the International dealership and asked what was wrong with the truck. He said the mechanic test drove it a couple of times and it repeated the symptoms but he couldn't figure out what was causing it. No power, rattle/knock, smoke and no acceleration. Then all of the sudden a light finally came...it was the park re-gen light He did a parked re-gen and sure enough; it's fixed I feel sort of dumb about that as well but there is no way I was going to drive it under those conditions and doing a parked re-gen never crossed my mind. I do feel a bit better since the International mechanic was also stumped until the light finally came on. Sitting at home for the next couple of nights waiting on the Monday del of the load I brought down with the loaner trk. I will get a 34 in so come Monday I will be ready to go.

 

Hey Snackbar, end your hiatus, it got boring in here

 

Today was a perfect example of how the industry has been restructured so the driver works more and gets paid less, essentially the same as a wage cut. I parked at the consignee near Atlanta last night so I could minimize showing the unload time and delay starting my 14 as much as possible. My appointment was for 0700 and they didn't finish until 0830 (so I didn't include any of that at all in my 'work' day).

My next pplan was Social Circle to the Jacksonville rail yard (only 339 miles despite just completing a 34 reset over the weekend). From the rail yard I was sent on another short hop from Anheuser-Busch up into South Carolina. I never took a single break the whole day. I was literally running around doing my drop and hooks and inspections at the rail yard and the other facilities. Also a lot of the miles were slow back roads coming thru Georgia and the 18 miles from the rail yard to Anheuser-Busch show up as 0.00 on the pplan.

I just parked only a few minutes before my 14 ended. I only ran 430 miles at $0.41, so that is $12.59/hr straight time with no overtime and no paid break or lunch. Pretty depressing.

 

I'm back, kinda. Still not in the greatest of moods, but not as bad as I was...so if my post's are lacking the usual snackbar witt and humor, please forgive. After I was empty in Liverpool, NY they sent me to pick up glass jars out of Auburn, NY. It was going to Pinnacle foods in Imlay City, MI. I pulled out the old laptop and google mapped it...and Seneca foods was there, so I was thinking jars for apple sauce...but when I got there Pinnacle owns Vlassic Pickles. The load delivered at 2345 on Friday, so there was no way I was getting empty and scanning in time, so last week was indeed a 1400 mile week. After that they sent me to Post in Battle Creek on a load that delivered anytime Sunday in Sterling(one of the 1st loads in weeks that went w/o problems). Then it was up to Rockford for a midnight pickup going to Carbondale, IL for Monday afternoon. My 1st question was "just started my day, do we have anything that picks up earlier so I don't waste my whole day?". It was quickly responded to with a "messaging load planner to see". And that was it. After an hour of the sounds of silence...I assumed the answer was no, but they forgot about me.(I rarely assume anything because....well, you know) accepted the load and headed for the shipper. Occasionally, Rockford get ahead of the game and loads early. I figured that if it wasn't ready, I would drop my empty and bobtail to one of the truckstops north of there. As luck would have it, it was ready, and I was on my way south. I pulled into Mt. Vernin for the night. Got up the next morning and walked across the street to the Verizon store to browse...and didn't make any new friends. After they happily and enthusiastically spewed their new rate plans out like it was such a great deal, and how much money I'd save sharing data....blahblahblah. until I informed them that I use between 8 and 10 gig a month, and that their new plans only screw customers like me..."but I guess you have the fastest 4g LTE network for casual users, Verizon wants guys like me to leave". Then I walked out.

I made it to my Lowes store about an hour and a half early with the intention of doing some shopping...but the guy came out with the bolt cutters and said that they were ready and that I could go ahead and swap. So I did. Went to open the doors and...Rockford does a lousy job of securing the load. We could only get one door open, then back to the dock and unload the back rows of freight, then pull forward open the other door and then put it back to the dock. They were grateful I took the extra time to safeguard their freight...then I went shopping.

After that, I'm now under a good load. Pick up in Union City, TN going to Shelby, IA for ASAP. The problem, I forgot that they were repairing the Mississippi river bridge on US 51 near Cairo, IL...until I was exiting I57 at the IL/MO line, and saw the sign. Had I remembered earlier, it would've only been 40 or so mikes farther to go from Carbondale to Union City through Paducah...but now we're talking 70 miles. I get the load and haul out.

I can't complain about the miles this month. Even if you take out the carry over load from last months paperwork screwup I did...I still got over 10,000 miles(for only the 2nd time since November). But it has been a non-stop battle. A real grueling endurance test of my patience...I was actually contemplating leaving trucking for good, going bankrupt and living with the inlaws for a while until we got back on our feet...I am as close to being totally burned out as I' ve ever been.

 

I'm right there with you on this. The load I had a while back in Ft. Smith paid 0 miles because I delivered in the city of Ft Smith. But then they send me to the wrong Graphics Pkg plant, and it was 21 mikes to the other plant. I was told that I would be paid for the extra stop, but payment was denied. So I honestly quit worrying about extra deadhead and added miles. I use to average under 4% OOR, now I'm much higher...and really don't give a flying flip if the suits have a problem with it.

 

I just got the message that my truck has been sold, so I will get routed to one of several terminals to switch trucks. I wasn't expecting them to take it for 2-3 months. maybe I'll get a red one this time.