CRETE - A Year in Review

I'm not aware of what the policy is or if one even exist. What I do know is that I never had a problem taking some of my home time in other places. I believe most of it is with your TM. If they are cool and you give them fair notice I believe they take care of you. If not, then you probably get stuff like Ralph is going through. My TM was always good with me on it. Not like I did it a lot but never an issue when I did. In fact, most times it was easier to get me to some of those other places since not much freight went to my home area. Good luck finding out a better answer. I personally think your TM's aren't taking very good care of you. Maybe some drivers have messed it up for the rest of you or whatever. Hope it gets better for you guys. Take care out there.

 

JJ Haines over by BWI Airport in Glenn Burnie. I made it there after a 10 hour break in Jessup. Barely had enough time for the 30 minute clicker on the ol Qcom before they had me unloaded. Made it to Elkton now doing another 10 before my final delivery. The four extra stops sort of makes up for the lost time on this load

 

I don't understand the logic in this. I started at 0500, drove 1 hr and delivered to North Platte Walmart. They then send me a pplan that won't be ready until after 6pm, goes 450 miles, but the 2 stops don't deliver until late the 23rd. That means a whole day was just erased. This is the exact opposite of productivity.

 

I figure there's a lack of freight but why is there a lack of communication? When there's an open window I always send a note that I am so and so miles from cons, can del. any time, is there any freight that you can preplan me on so my day will be as productive as possible. I have found the following results: w/weekend dispatch I usually get no response, when my AM is there it's a 50/50 shot of getting ANY response and with weekday night dispatch I get the best response. I know that if any of us spent a day in dispatch's shoes we would have a better understanding of what they're going through. Just as if they spent a week in our trucks they would have a better understanding of what our job entails.

P.S. this is coming from a guy who spent 10 hours waiting to unload 2 pallets and then another 10 hour wait to del the last stop

 

That's the first thing I did. In fact I sent 2 messages asking if there was anything more productive and also telling them I had 43 hours available. I got 12,500 miles in July, but only because I rescheduled over half the loads they gave me. Unfortunately, I don't think I can do that with a Walmart store, but I'll give it a shot.

 

I have come to the conclusion they're trying to piss you off or get rid of you

Well I got the last of the tile load delivered. A quick run from New Castle, DE to Aston, PA where we do the intermodal account. The dude was real nice there. He said for me to wait on the door in front of the driveway so I would have an easier back-in instead of the doors they use for the short boxes. I got a call about 15 minutes later to go ahead and try for one of the other doors since the poor Creten in the easy door was gonna be there a while. Sure enough I was loaded and sealing up and the poor driver was looking all sad still sitting there when I left. At least I didn't wave, point and laugh at him like the gawd forsaken' son of a bisuit eater Creten did to me at Kelloggs in Lewisville when I was the sad looking driver sitting in the door. I made it to Breezewood where I tried to get a B service done. It was all approved and written up so I went to the restaurant with my coupon for a free steak dinner. Gobbled it down and headed back over to the shop. The service writer called and said there had been a problem. They didn't have the filter so Crete said don't do anything. He said he was sorry then laughed sayen' he waited to make sure I got my free meal before calling me. That was nice of him Heading to Aurora so it's a stop tomorrow in Indy. A stop Saturday at KC then Limon, Co and the T/A there for another shot at the B service. Deliver on Monday morning FCFS.

 

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that they just dont care. If your not working inside that building in Lincoln you mean nothing. Your as replaceable as a pencil on their desk. All that matters is that their assigned loads are delivered no matter what hassle it puts on a driver.

 

Very true. I'm finally getting my applications underway, so they won't have to wait long. I found out the delivery times on the qualcomm were fake once again. It had very specific times like STP 01 1811-1911 and the final 2100-2200. When the load was finally ready and I got the paperwork, I asked the Crete worker about that. She said they receive any time from 1100-2200. I asked where the other times on the qualcomm come from and she said (exact quote): "They just make those up."

 

Things just got worse for me. I was on a load going to Social Circle and preplanned to pick up also at Social Circle for my load home delivering in Brooksville. Then I was gonna leave my truck in Deland for repairs. Well I got a qualcomm message this morning saying my truck has been sold and I needed to get routed to a terminal to switch. Marietta was enroute, so I coordinated to go there. When I get there they give me the keys to a brand new Freightliner Midroof. I measured the bunk in the new truck and then measured the bunk in my prostar and they both measured only 40 inches. My wife and I both have the Middle-Aged spread going on so we already know a 40 inch bunk win't work. I inform the shop and they say not their problem. So I contact my FM and she gets with Lincoln. Lincoln informed her, my FM, that all the new trucks will be Midroof except the Trainers trucks. So I am to do my loads and then turn my old truck in at Deland. She claimed that they will try to find me an old double bunk if they can but no guarantees. I advised her that earlier this month my wife had retired from her job of 20yrs as a school cook to go out on the truck with me to improve our quality of life, atleast in our minds. So now I will be on hometime with the mutual understanding that if they find me a double bunk truck during my hometime then I still have a job and if they don't I can't continue here.

 

Time for a job switch? Or if the finances allow it consider buying a truck and leasing on with Crete or someone else.