Darn the luck.

Call them and find out. Who knows.

 

Actually I did, I called my old terminal in Phoenix two days ago and the acting terminal manager hasnt returned my call.....

Can ya feel the love Crete has for me...... :lol:

 

Lol. Too funny. Don't worry they have the same love for the drivers that work here too. :shock:

 

I would go back just to see the look on the Weasel...er...Kerry Krewels face when he saw me in the Lincoln cafeteria....

 

I hear you. He is clueless about trucking. I still remember him asking to come to Licoln and see him. Went twice and he begged off both times and sent his secretary.

 

WEEK FIVE
Monday 01/28 through Sunday 02/03



Monday starts after a nice weekend in Raleigh with the wife. I have to deliver the load I was unable to Tcall Saturday. It’s an 8:00am delivery 60 miles away so I get started at 7:00 and make my delivery on time. It’s a very quick live unload and I send in my MT call.

I get a message “Thank you; enjoy your home time, what is your PTA”?

I am now MT and set to go home. I am 180 miles from the house; about average dead head to get me home. My dilemma is that it is now Monday and I’m looking at home time of four days. That would have me leaving the house Saturday morning (Monday is not counted as a day off even though I would be able to make it to the house by noon). This doesn’t work well for me since the wife works weekdays and I make it a point to be home over the weekend so we can spend as much time together as possible.

Considering I am coming off a very good January with somewhere in the area of 13,500 miles I know I would be able to take the rest of the week off and hit the road Monday morning. But I really didn’t want to take that much time off. With my down time in Raleigh combined with home time I would be looking at 8 days without pay.

With that in mind I sent a message to dispatch “I would rather not take home time during the week will the wife is working, do you have a couple of regional runs that can have me back in the area so I can take home time over the weekend”

Within a few minutes I am offered a drop/hook load that was sitting in the Raleigh area and ready to go with a drop/hook delivery in near Allentown, PA(551 mi) the following day. This looked good to me; I accepted the load and sent in a request for a pre-planed load to get me back to the house.

Quick note here, this will amaze other Crete drivers, I can’t believe it myself. I took a look at my previous trips and with the exception of a run to Middleboro, MA 11/23/07 this PA run will the closest I’ve come to the feared North East since late October. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been offered loads up there, but have had other loads offered with alternate destinations at those times. Prior to that I ran a 3 month period where I only made it west of the Mississippi 2 or 3 times. Go figure.

Meanwhile…….back at the ranch,

I had the hours to make it to the customer that night, but it is one of our customers that have drop/hook deliveries but still require an appointment. 11:00am in my case. No early deliveries. My truck is also in the need of an A service and I decide to swing by our New Kingstown terminal to have that done. It’s only 40 miles or so out of route, this way I know I will have a place to park and will be able to get the truck serviced without loosing any time.

I make every effort possible to take care of truck maintenance during my resets or extended down time periods so that I can stay productive. If you show up at one of our shops and expect to get in and out during you 14hrs clock, Good Luck. It’s not uncommon to be told “it will be the following morning before we can get you in”. This particular layover is about 14hrs for me, usually plenty of time with the exception of some of our major terminals, i.e. Wilmer TX, Marietta GA, Lincoln NE and Columbus OH. I avoid these terminals at all cost as far as maintenance is concerned; they tend to be very busy.

Upon arrival (how I despise DC traffic) at the New Kingstown terminal (it’s a technically a Shaffer terminal) I go into the shop to put in a work order only to be informed that unless my Crete truck is part of their dedicated fleet he could not work on it. Well isn’t that a dandy policy change. I guess I missed the “notice” that was sent out. Communications is not one of Crete’s strong points.

Crete is in the process of consolidating their operations with the Shaffer division and has caused some changes that I’m not entirely familiar with at this time.

Anyway, I’m not going to get my truck serviced today, that just means I’ll have to deal with it after my home time. I drop my trailer in the yard and head up the road and park at a Kmart, walk across the street to Outback and order a wonderful NewYork strip. Yum!

I wake up the next morning with my truck covered in a layer of ice. Perfect!

I bobtail over to the yard (yeah, that was a blast, these things should come with skates) to hook to my trailer and fuel up. During this time I have been listing to the radio for traffic and weather reports and find that the roads are in horrible condition. Somewhere in the neighbor hood of 70 accidents on rural roads in a 50 mile radius, the 76 turnpike is shut down in both directions, etc. I’m in luck though; I-81 is currently accident free. OH GOODY, this is going to be fun.

Once I get on the Interstate I find the roads to be in fair condition. Just take it easy and things should be just fine. Hopefully no one will do something really stupid up ahead and shut the interstate down. The trip takes a little longer than normal, but I make it unscathed. The east bound side wasn’t as lucky. A handful of 4 wheelers decided to mix it up and traffic was backed up for at least 10 miles. What a mess.

I arrived 1 3/4 hours early, they allow 2hrs, and drop my trailer. I’m thrilled to see 5 MT trailers sitting there waiting for me. This particular receiver is notorious for holding our trailers. This is a pleasant surprise because I had fully expected to spend and hour or two waiting around or trying to steal one of our trailers from another customers in the area without being caught. I’m running about 50/50 in that department ;-)

My MT call gets me a one load offer in 5 minutes going to southern Mississippi (1200+mi), drop/hook on both sides. Another gravy run, but home is in NC. To tell you the truth, if I didn’t have to go home to PU my 2008 permits that had to be on the truck by the end of the month I would have accepted the load and worried about getting home later.

I then send in a message “I can PU load, but must TCall it at our Greensboro yard (525mi). I’m due home time and must get to the house to PU permits (ace in the hole here, they have to say yes) Do you want me to PU this load or do you have something else for me. And “yes” it is, I do my drop/hook PU on the outskirts of Philly and head to the yard. I’m there by late evening Tuesday night. I drop my trailer and am now ready for home time. Unfortunately I’m out of hours and have to spend the night in the yard and head to the house (210mi) in the morning. Now instead of taking my home time during the week I will be home Wednesday morning (doesn’t count as a day off because I had to drive 3+ hours), I will be able to spend the weekend with the wife and catch the Super bowl with our friends. WOW, what a game that was, eh!

Wednesday is now here and I’m ready to go home, it’s early and I will be at the house well before noon, but the wife is still working. I send a message to dispatch that I’m getting ready to head home, but if they have a shag load or a quick hitter (there were two trailers in the yard with deliveries within 150 radius) I would be willing to help out. Got a message back, “everything was covered; enjoy your home time, when do you want to come back out”. I set my PTA for Monday morning and pointed the truck home.

I was in town before noon and on the golf course by 1:00.


WEEK FIVE RESULTS:
Monday January, 28th through Sunday February, 3rd
Miles include deadhead

Mebane, NC to Henderson, NC………………………….58mi
Cary, NC to Breinigsville, PA……………………………511mi
Oaks, PA to Greensboro, NC……………………………..525mi


Total paid miles…………………………………………...1094mi (Home Wednesday through Sunday)
Actual miles………………1365(included 214mi DH to the house)

1094mi x .42 = $459.48

 

Hey evertruckerr, did you know that you can get a blog from the friendly folks here at classadrivers.com :?:

Either way keep up the posts.

 

Hey Evertruckerr,

for future reference-- in the past even Shaffer Drivers couldn't get serviced in NK unless they lived there- out of terminal. The number of local and near by Shaffer drivers-- always home on time off kept that shop in business 24-7. We were always told we had to "make an appointment" for service at least 48hours in advance and be ready to give a day or maybe take a "loaner" truck( which I refuse to do).

 

I have watched the NK terminal pull shaffer trailers and truck ahead of Crete's. Now it was awhile back and I do know they have changed by firings and being forced to do them. I prefer to go anyplace else but NK because they always had done shoddy work. Many have complained about the place and it surprises me not at all that they are known throughout the company for that.

Now the other ex shaffer terminal in york was awesome and if ever anyone is passing through there I say to get it done. They are awesome and make no distinction of color of truck there. They are true professionals there. I even went there for fuel and the guy there said he saw a couple of things he saw needed done and asked if I minded bringing my truck in. I did and was happy with the work. I am so hoping with the merger that this shop and people stay around.

 

I got very good service at the Indy IN yard.