Credible Cretin Critique of Crete Carrier Corp.

Check into Conway truck load

 

I was at Crete for several years . I agree with your assessment. They were really good many years ago. They are probably better than many other big companies. They do haul a lot of short loads. And communication wasn't so great. But they are not a bad company. Just ok.

 

You weren't making enough money to buy your own GPS?

 

Yep. You can buy a gps for about $100 or so.

I own 2 . I have a garmin car gps and a cobra truck gps. I use both. Each one has it's advantages. It's good to be able to get a second opinion.

 

I'm a new Crete driver. I use Streets & Trips with the Truck Stops Plus add-on and Google Earth. The Truck Stops Plus, besides having all the truck specific POIs that make your life so much easier, also configures Streets & Trips to do truck routing. Meanwhile, I look up my shippers and receivers in Google Earth, place a pushpin in the driver entranceway, and then access the properties of that pushpin to copy the GPS coordinates, which I then paste into Streets & Trips. That way Streets & Trips gives me turn-by-turn directions directly into my shipper and receiver's entranceways. I also save them once setup in my Truck Stops Plus Template for when I have to go back to them again in the future. If you have a laptop and most people do, total investment is about $80 bucks.

 

Shaffer was about the same... just ok

 

I love them because they are very quiet. However, they are not meant to cool down the entire interior of the truck, just the sleeper part. Hence, seal off your sleeper curtains. In any event, if your battery HVAC system is blowing hot air, then you need to get to a terminal to get it fixed ASAP. Additionally, when they run out of power, then you can idle to recharge it. The new 2014 trucks will idle automatically and as needed. Moreover, you can call breakdown for them to line up a hotel room for you to sleep in until you can get to a terminal to get it fixed.

Anyway, I'm a new hire also and I wish I had a battery HVAC system like I had in my previous truck with my previous employer in my current truck. Instead, I have a 2011 Cascadia that has 488,340 miles on it with an opti-idle system that doesn't work half the time. Not to mention that the OnGuard system malfunctions all the time and takes out my cruise control. I also have a check engine light that stays on constantly along with anywhere from 12 to 10 active faults. But hey...it runs like a champ, so I'm fat and happy as a lark.

It's due to the fleet you are on.

I'm on paper logs only, because I have an old qualcom in my old truck. However, if I had a truck with a new qualcom instead, they said we would have to do both paper logs and electronic logs for the first month. Anyway, I transflow my logs with my trips and save the carbon copy for 30 days.

Well...there really is no excuse for that, so don't do it. The rule is clear.

Anyway, I just completed my first full week with them (3074 miles), and everything has really been great, with the exception of the old truck of course, but I can deal with that and judging by the miles on it, I won't be in it too long. Indeed, it has been a really easy transition for me thus for. By the way, I'm on the national 21-day fleet.

 

Conway was my second choice. Had Crete not hired me I would have applied at Conway.

Anyway, I have a buddy that works for Conway who was regional so he could get home weekly, but his miles sucked so badly that he had to go back to all 48 states plus Canada.

 

Many years ago, they were a much smaller company. Today they are a much bigger company. Along with growth come more complications and much greater complexities.