My Daily Experience With Crete Carriers

Tuesday 2:30am the damn alarms on my phone start going off.. LOL Planned on an early start to get over the GDub before rush hour. The plan was successful. It was a good drive in to Mechanicburg minus the heavy fog on 78 & 81. I arrived at 8:30 am. Dropped the load, turned in some paperwork for my wife to be able to ride with me and met with my Asset Manager (dispatch) .

The gave me what I thought was a little puddle jumper load to finish off my day. DC to a DC, Mechanicsburg to Breinigsville, Pa for a drop n hook headed to Pottsville, Pa 100 miles and then back to the terminal. The shipper was kind of an organized chaos. In and out in about 45mins. Got to the receiver at 2pm. Easy check in and drop. Just needed the hook portion. No empties to be found. I ask the guards and the say check all the trailers even if they are in the loaded section. Nope, nothing. So I head into the office. They say they have 4 and their all loaded and not sure of an et. to being empty. Dispatch?!?! "bobtail to this customer and grab an empty" Ehh ok.

Needless to say, My clock ran out sitting in traffic getting back to the terminal. I figured it was going to but with no place to "safely" park I PC'd the remaining 20 mins back and shutdown.

This should be an end to my NE Regional run that I've been doing for the last 1 1/2 weeks. Decent miles for the NE. If the dedicated thing doesn't work out then I do have that. lol

3/3- 483 miles 3/2- 557 miles 2/29- 519 miles 2/28- 378 miles == Buffalo to Palmyra (Blizzard warnings, winds) 2/27- 515 miles 2/26- 592 miles 2/25- 346 miles == 4 hour live load

Got up Weds. Made some coffee and cooked some breakfast. Awaiting that magical message that my load would be ready early. Shortly after eating it came. Fired up my clock, did a pretrip and headed to Shipensburg, PA to do a D/H Pretty easy DC to get in and out of. Headed to Johnstown, NY to deliver Thursday morning. On my 30 I was searching trucker path & found the Betty Beaver and TA truck stop right down the road from the receiver. Google earthed them and decided on the TA.

I got there around 5 and found a few spots on the left after the entrance all the way down. A little tight but doable. There was a Pete 379 sticking out and kind of crooked making it a little tougher. Made some dinner, grabbed a shower and called it a night.

My pickup on Thursday was in Rotterdam, NY for 12pm I didn't want to burn up my clock so I timed the delivery so that I would be at the pickup at 12. Both were easy in and out D/H's

This load was headed to Chambursburg, PA and I could deliver it early. So to get a jump on My load going home I delivered it Thursday night and got back to the terminal around 10:30 pm

Had a 10 am Appt for what I thought was a live load in Mechanicsburg, PA. I get there and it's a D/H.. Sweet i'm going to get home early Sat. am. one thing i've learned out here is that nothing ever goes according to plan. My load was actually loaded onto another carriers trailer and no one knew why. 4 hours later after emails and phone calls they finish transferring the load to my trailer. The load was headed to Raymond, NH for a Sat. delivery then home.

It was a time for a choice. 81 to 84 through the mountains and the radar was showing snow. Or over the Tappen Z during rush hour? Decided on traffic. Made it to Manchester, NH with 10 minutes left on my clock and decided on the Hookset rest area to shut down at. My wife even came down to spend her first night in the truck. Delivered in Raymond Sat am and got home for my 34. Headed out tomorrow for a water load in Maine going to Elizabeth, NJ Same day Live load and unload. This will be interesting as my calculations have me running out of time in Elizabeth

Live load/unloads anyone....

Headed out for Maine Monday morning. a 3 hour deadhead to Hollis center. I had read the reviews previously and expected a bit of a wait. Got there at 9:43, checked in and awaited the call to a door. Finally got the call at 12:06 40 minutes later the first pallet went in. 14:00 I finally got my paperwork and headed out. Had to stop in Greenland, NH at the Tiny TA to fill up. Had some guy blocking the entrance for about 5 minutes while we all lined up the street.

I caught several areas of heavy traffic down 495 and 90. But not as bad as I thought. I made it to the Wallingford, CT rest area again and shut down for the night.

Headed out in the morning around 5:00 to Elizabeth. Traffic was good till about 5 miles before the GW. Got to the shipper and of course I drove by the entrance. Drive down the street and turn around in an open lot. I pull in the staging area, get backed in, go to the guard shack and check in. The call to the door only took 5 minutes.. "Sweet this is going to be a quick one" Because I didn't make the 18:00 delivery the night before I was fit in. Was told $110 for the lumper and they'd call me when they were ready for me. 1 hour to unload and another 2 hours before they called me in. WTH were they waiting for? myself and 3 others who got a door all had to wait..

Get to the next Shipper down the road in Linden, NJ around 12:00 4 hours late for the Appointment. Yup another live load of water.. Surprised me and was out within an hour... Shot off for the short drive to Bethlehem, PA. Knowing it was going to be a live unload It was going to be time sensitive... Yeaaa those words do not go together in the same sentence. 3 hours later and 2 minutes left on my clock.. Had to PC to the next available parking.. Well at 19:00 this is not an easy task.. Ended up paying for the horrid reserved parking. I've got to get to know some of these hidden gems for parking..

Today was a good day.. Drive to Shippensburg, do a D/H and head for Wilton, NY for another D/H. Nice easy drive up 81-84-87. I will say 84E is getting better. Around mile marker 21 to CT. Soooo The drop part went off without a hook. Seriously, No hook. LOL 3 trailers there and 0 empties. Ended up going up to Glens falls and grabbing an empty from another customer. I had to have one because..... Yup live load tomorrow in Saratoga Springs. 6-12:00 is the window. The reviews don't sound to promising.. We will see. This one is heading to Winchester, VA...

So far good miles and good pay. I'm still getting used to the schedule compared to local and when I was flattbedding. Going to try and get back on a daily schedule of posting instead of these long winded posts every 3 days.. There's not much up here in the way of truck stops but the Wilton Travel Plaza has a ton of parking. 6 showers and Scotty's restaurant

Friday was a decent day. Got to the shipper a little before 6am. A little over 3 hours to load. Was a nice easy drive to Winchester, VA . Decided to stay at the welcome center 9 miles from my 8am delivery. The welcome center is a very nice spot vs the flying j up the road... 1 spot was left when I pulled in.. Currently 2.5 hours into my live unload of....... yea u guessed it.. 29k lbs of Toilet Paper. I heard it's all the rage these days. Lol

Picking up my D/H load in Shippensburg and headed to NH for my hometime. It's going to be another time sensitive trip. Delivering Monday at 4:00am in Danvers MA. After that a live Leominster, MA load to Shippensburg, PA

Well I made it home Friday night around 21:00 with 5 minutes left on my clock. The only way this week was going to work was by heading out Sunday night and staying at the receivers for the 4:00 delivery due to my live load not being scheduled till 13:00. Lets just say that it worked great even got loaded in Leominster at 11:30. Took about an hour then I headed for Shippensburg. Talk about NO traffic in NY during rush hour. ####. I took 287 and went through around 17:00. No jams and traffic was flowing freely.

Delivered and picked up in Shippensburg Monday night and shut down at the terminal. Next problem. This load didn't deliver till Weds at 19:00 ugh.. Called Dispatch to see if I could deliver early or did they have something for me so I didn't have to sit in NY for 26 hours. They found me a nice little $200 puddle jumper from Milton, PA to York, PA. Even had enough time to drive up here to NY last night and stayed at Jims Truck Plaza. Where I'm currently 15 minutes away from the receiver and I'm waiting to start my clock as late as possible. This is a live unload and I'll gaurentee they will burn up 3 hours of my time. Hoping to do my pick up in Buffalo tonight and get to Palmyra at some point overnight. Flipped my schedule around to stay ahead.

Side note: PA shut down all rest areas including parking Monday night. Stupid move but I'm hearing they are going to open them back up. Truck stops are nowhere near the capacity they used to be. Pulled in here at 23:30 last night and at least 20 spots open. Others I've driven past are near empty most afternoons. A lot of non essential freight has stopped from what I've read.

My old job, who delivered 98% retail stores are shutting down for a couple of weeks due to the stores closing for at least 2 weeks.

Crazy times..

So I started my clock at 18:05, did my pretrip and headed to the receiver in Lancaster, 15 minutes down the road. Checked in at 18:45. Got the call for a door at 20:10. took 15 minutes to get to the door because the check in process changed and no one knew it. Walked into the receiving office, sent to the lumpers desk, "$255 please and we won't start unloading until we have the check" ugh.. Back to the truck. over 30 minutes later someone from Crete dispatch answers. Get the code and walk back to the lumpers desk. 5 minutes later i hand him the check, he calls it in, then tells me We'll call you when we're done. I know what this means... 1 1/2 hours later my light finally turns red. After dozing of a few times i get a call at 1:55. 7 hours later.. Well there goes my plan..

I decided just to go to Buffalo and do my D/H and back to Jim's Travel plaza for my 10. Roll in there at 4:00 and it was 1/2 empty.

Up at 11:00, I make some breakfast, clean up the truck and do my daily research on what's closed now.. Head out after my 10 is up. Quick D/H in Palmyra. I get a message saying that my load home was cancelled by the customer... WTF. So now I sit here at the terminal awaiting a new load. It's been 2 1/2 hours since I messaged dispatch who was getting with the planner... Still nothing. Funny thing is we haul a lot of essential stuff right now.. So we'll see

Still rolling.....

Alright soooo I've been lazy! More like exhausted.. I've been spending my downtime keeping up and researching how this industry is reacting to the pandemic and watching different states daily briefings. While on home time we've been getting all of those little house projects done. Man that to do list just grows to a point where you're like "why didn't I just fix that before?"

I did get a load home 2 Saturdays ago after a little bit of finagling. I spent the next week hauling "Sailboat Fuel" to several membership type stores. PA to MA, MA to PA wash, rinse, repeat.

Last week consisted of 4 days out and a lot of deadhead. Still did well $$ wise. Had 1 load cancel.

This week so far. Great start to the week then had 1 load into NJ cancel and am now doing 2 re power loads. New Kingston, PA to Taylor, PA and then Taylor, PA to Cherry, NJ. The first one has a date of 3/11/20 on the BOL.. Hmmmm the next one has 4/2/20

What are you guys seeing out here? I'm in several truck groups on FB and it looks like "The Cliff" has started to form. The spot market on 123loadboard still looks ok but many are heading home stating and some are posting screenshots of $1-$1.50 a mile offers. I've seen the truck traffic slowly dwindle on 81/78 in PA.

Mike, your best off avoiding the "chatter." It's basically meaningless. If you were an O/O you could be worried about what's on the load boards, but your not. You're getting paid for hauling "sailboat fuel" and that's really great!

Just do your job right and your company is going to do whatever they can to keep you busy. It doesn't benefit them at all sending you home. Keep turning the miles and they will have your back.

I'm still just as swamped as ever!

Mike, your best off avoiding the "chatter." It's basically meaningless. If you were an O/O you could be worried about what's on the load boards, but your not. You're getting paid for hauling "sailboat fuel" and that's really great!

Just do your job right and your company is going to do whatever they can to keep you busy. It doesn't benefit them at all sending you home. Keep turning the miles and they will have your back.

I'm still just as swamped as ever!

Completely understand. I may have problems. LOL I like to take in all the information I can and come up with my own opinions and observations. Crete has done great keeping me running. I do have a plan in 2 years to buy a truck, run under their authority for a bit then go on my own. So I like to watch the lanes. See how they adjust season to season etc.

Mike, your best off avoiding the "chatter." It's basically meaningless. If you were an O/O you could be worried about what's on the load boards, but your not. You're getting paid for hauling "sailboat fuel" and that's really great!

Just do your job right and your company is going to do whatever they can to keep you busy. It doesn't benefit them at all sending you home. Keep turning the miles and they will have your back.

I'm still just as swamped as ever!

Oh.... And it's good to hear that you're still running hard. Be safe