CRETE - A Year in Review

Sorry, posted message in wrong thread.

 

Well good luck wherever you land.

 

yep, good luck to ya Ralph!

I delivered to Kelloggs in Atlanta and was greeted by another Creten leaving the place. He was somewhat upset that they were not releasing any of Mr. Acklie's trlr.s.. WTH(eck) is with these people. They're our trlrs! I made a quick call to dispatch as I was tight on hours on my 8. A short wait and I got the OK to BT over to my pick up. I knew of a short cut that was restricted but to trucks over 36K pounds and or 30 ft. I left a good 20 minutes after the other guy but as I was hooking up to my trailer I seen him bob in. I guess he went all the way out to 285 and around to I20. I guess the bright side is we both saved 30 min.s in on duty time. I will make Wilmer tomorrow. I hope to Tcall this load and start my home time but if I have to deliver on Tuesday, I will, but not count that day is one of my home days

 

Hey fellow Crete drivers, since I'm new I have a couple of dumb questions. First, I've noticed on most of the trailers that one hole is usually spray painted red. Is that supposed to indicate the hole to use to set the center of the rear axle 40 feet away from the kingpin when going to California?

In any event, I'm at the Flying Hook in Barstow, CA right now, however, my trailer didn't have a spray painted hole this time around. Thus, I measured 10 feet from the back of the trailer and used my ink pin to mark the 10 foot spot on the trailer. Then I slid the center of the rear axle to that point before I was loaded.

Anyway, my delivery is not till Tuesday morning because of Labor Day. Thus, I will do a 34-hour restart over here, plus sit for a day before I make that delivery.

My second question is if I need to purchase oil, antifreeze, or washer fluid while on the road, after the purchase do I send in the receipts with my trips to be reimbursed?

In any event, when I got this load, I had just did a drop and hook at Kimberly Clark in Pittston, PA with another real nice Crete driver at the same time. Anyway, he mentioned that he had been with Crete for about 15 years and also that the last time he was at Kimberly Clark delivering with another new Crete driver, he got a little 400 mile run, while that new Crete driver got a 2700 mile run to California. Then a few minutes later we both received our preplans, and you guessed it, he got another little 400 mile run, and I got the 2700 mile run to California. Man...I hated to show him my preplan but he nonetheless insisted on seeing it. Anyway, I kind of felt bad for him, but it was still pretty funny in any event.

 

I generally measure and mark 9 and 10 ft. from the back, slide tandoms all the way back for loading then set them before I leave.
There is a place on your trip sheet for expenses, fill that out and transflo your receipts with it.
When I was with my trainer, most jobs seemed to average around 1200 miles with more than enough time, my trainer always suggested calling the customer to see if it could drop early. When I first got on my own the jobs seemed to be more like 700-800 miles, not so much time but a lot of drop and hook. Now almost everything is 400-500 miles, usually live on at least one end and tight for time.

 

Just FYI, it's not 40' from the nose of the trailer(or 41' in the rest of most states) it's from the king pin from which you measure bridge length...and be careful, not all of the red holes are accurate

 

So SSB, is Tonn going to let you work out your two week notice or are you turning in your truck a.s.a.p.?

 

I'm in this p.o.s. until 1) I get home and get it cleaned to acceptable levels or 2) the thing blows up...the way it's sounding, either are a possibility.

When I emptied out at my final Alside stop just outside Seattle, they offered me a load that picked up at 20:00 Friday, which was 2 hours after my 14, that delivered just outside LA(the one in Cali)1160 miles away, Sunday morning at 8 a.m. 36 hours for a 62 mph truck in 2 55 mph states, and many...many long grades to pull. Not happening! They pulled it. I went down to the former Flying J(now a Loves) near Tacoma and scanned in my paperwork...and waited. They offered it again saying I had to pick it up, and that they would try to get the shipper to load me early. I was born at night...and promptly fell off the turnip truck, but it wasn't last night. I told them that as soon as I saw an updated pickup appointment, I would accept, but I have been falsely promised early pick ups before, only to be hung out to dry, and by that time, the one doing the hanging is sitting on the couch watching re-runs of NCIS, and unless I saw an authorization to exceed the HOS from Safety, or and earlier offer appeared, I wasn't going to be able to legally pick it up today. So I waited. Finally, a load that picked up Friday at noon, in the same town I delivered in Thursday...headed for Denver for Monday night. So now I'm in Johnson's Corner trying to use some free WiFi, but I think carrier pigeon would be faster...it's at 1 Mbps...but hey, it's free. I have been having issues with this truck. The wheeze has turned into a very scary shrill wheeze at twice the decibel level, and pulling 42,000 up Snoqualmie, Cabbage, Sherman...and all the other looooong uphill drags has me wondering if it's gona die before I get home instead of an 'I feel sorry for the next poor sucker that is assigned this truck' feeling. I truly cannot wait until I'm on that big ole' jet airliner headed for Grand Prairie.

 

This is why everyone should carry a tape measure. Measure from front of the trailer to the kingpin. Add that distance to 40 and then subtract the result from 53. The resulting number is the distance in feet from the rear of your trailer to the center of the rear axle for you to be CA legal. For 41' just use 41 in place of the 40.

 

I hope the Prostar you get in GP is in better condition than the one you have now!