Crete will not pay you a dime regardless of how long you sit. They will however hound you to no end if your idle percentage is too high during that period. It seems that they want you to get a hotel in those situations but are no willing to reimburse you when you do. I don't know about anybody else but I couldn't afford a Hotel when I was averaging over 3000 miles per week. I most certainly can't afford it now.

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One
Big
A**
Mistake
America

Liberals: Brave enough to kill our unborn children, just not brave enough to kill our enemies

Crying about only making $800 a week is taking a complaint a bit too far for a 5-day work week. In this economy, there are lots of OTR drivers out for much longer only hoping to do that well. In fact, there are lots of drivers with those $.30/mile companies that aren't doing nearly that well and staying out much longer.

Socialism?? How exactly is a poor world-wide economy and resulting low freight socialism? Seems there are two answers: 1) you do not understand the concept or definition of socialism, 2) you listen to conservative talk radio too much.

I agree...in fact, shortly after that comment, I hit stop and closed it out... He could have had video of him being a 'Goodyear Highway Hero' rescuing a family from a burning crash, and all the general public would remember(which more of the general public view Youtube than a trucking forum)...was a truck driver wishing he had some hookers and drugs.

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I use to think the greatest thing that ever happened in my life was when I became a father, that was until I became a Grand Father... Grandpa's rule

To be honest, the new home time program has worked for me, but have only used it once. From MS the other week, they got me a load that dropped and hooked in Tifton, GA and authorized me to head home to handle my legal affairs. But when I dropped, there were no empties to hook to at the receiver, so I checked the Tifton yard and there were no empties there either, but there was a load going down to central FL with enough time for me to handle my affairs on Tuesday and get the load delivered on time. So I offered to handle it for them... This way, I get paid to go by the house. And they had no problem putting me on it. The last few home time loads to FL, I have been offered freight out of central FL, but had to remind them of my home time and turn down a decent run. This time, I was ready for a decent run and home time was done, but....you guessed it, nothing to haul. Only had to wait a couple hours, and an 1100 mi run to Ardmore appeared... Oh great...south OK/TX area again!!! Looks like I'll be camping out for the weekend. But I can accept a little down, the last 2 weeks have been the best miles I've seen all year. I had 2552 last week and 2830 this week. I was beginning to feel a little like ET.... I guess it was just my turn to make a mile or two, now who's next??? I'll hold the door for you. Number 17, your miles are ready, Number 17 please report to dispatch for your miles....

I did make them a little unhappy though. Since I've had this truck, I have never gone more than 5000 mi before the see-thru bowl on the new style fuel filter is full(they say to have it changed when the fuel is at the top of the filter, but that often, I would be in the shop way too often)... After talking to mechanics about it, they say to have it changed when I notice a problem with the truck pulling instead fuel level, but they have never had to change a fuel filter at the 'A' service mileage because the truck pulled fine right up to the 'B' service mileage. And since these new trucks have very few grease fittings to grease because of the 'lubed for life' bearings Freightliner installs, and the new fuel filters are a 'change only when needed' filter instead of a 15k mile 'must change', an 'A' service isn't nearly as 'critical' as it use to be...I've been known to occasionally skip an 'A' (mostly because any extra down time isn't near a shop, and when I'm near a shop I don't have extra down time. By the time I have down time and a shop, it's 'B' time)But I really try hard to never exceed a 'B' mileage. Well, somewhere in the panhandle of FL, well past Marianna, my truck all of a sudden started to fall on it's face really bad on the 'hills' in that part of FL. I must have picked up some bad fuel for it to change that fast. I purged the fuel filter and pulled a little crap out, and the truck ran OK for about 20 miles, then started running bad again. I messaged breakdown for the nearest shop, so I could get a filter change to see if that was the problem. The only shop in that area now is the Freightliner in Pensacola(the Lucky 13 at exit 70 is now closed). Holy crap...after 3 hrs and $130, I had a new filter. (the filter was $16). Once I saw the bill, I wished I would have just purged it on out of FL and found a local shop in AL to stop at before saying anything to breakdown. I knew it was going to be more at Freightliner, but man....that's nuts. Breakdown told me they wished I had messaged them closer to Marianna and they would have had me stop at the T/A...Man I wish I had their Crystal Ball so I could have predicted I would be needing to stop ahead of time.

Oh, surprise of surprises...I was sitting here in Ardmore typing away, and a load appears. Picks up tomorrow in Muskogee, delivers ASAP in N.Platte, NE. Not great miles, but it gives me something to do instead of sitting all W/E.

Cheers

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I use to think the greatest thing that ever happened in my life was when I became a father, that was until I became a Grand Father... Grandpa's rule

One small thing I saw in the video I didn't like (besides the bad joke about coke) was this big G.0.A.L. sticker on the bottom part of his PASSENGER SIDE mirror, right about where you'd look for 4 wheelers in the blind spot.
I don't need instructions for toilet paper, and I dang sure dont' need that.

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"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
~George Orwell

If you would have watched the remainder of the video, you would have had the chance to see and hear what the video was really about, the friendships he has developed while working in such a demanding industry.

While the joke might be in bad taste, it was a joke, and anybody who has watched any of his other videos would immediately realize this. As far as exposure on YouTube, his videos have done a lot to promote the industry, both the good and the bad. I hope you take the time to view some of this other stuff and see for yourself.

For the record, I don't think his dad worked in the circus either, he was a truck driver too!

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Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

I agree that specific line was crap. However, I think it was a joke and I took it as such. I have had a chance to watch some of Trucker Steve's videos and like some and hate some.

Just like everything else in life brothers! Like some - Hate some. Wouldn't life be boring without?

What we really need back here is another Ever update.

emtepockets wrote:

Damn, that was the one state I could actually speed in. Guess we will be holding up traffic in Ohio now too.

Longbow wrote:

I can relate to that. It's one thing when you are out here getting all the miles you want. I don't think much of living in the truck for weeks on end, but when the miles are there at least there is some kind of a justification for it. At least when you are busy you don't have time to think about it as much. These endless days of sitting in the back of the truck definitely gives me time to lament over my situation. There really is nothing more aggravating than spending and entire weekend in a truckstop when the wife and family are on the other side of the country. I'm not exactly what one would call a happy camper these days, but I'm sure my discontent is being shared with most drivers who currently find themselves in the fine world of OTR. Most of what I read on these threads seems to confirms that suspicion.

rolllin stone m wrote:

I'm willing to give Crete a big thanks on this one. With all the complaints that I have heard (and givin) in regards to their hometime policy over the years, it is nice to know that some effort is being put toward alleviating this problem. I give it an A+ rating at this time. My last two attempt at hometime showed a marked improvement, especially last time around. They actually put me on a load that would have found me at home early. It didn't come through, but only because the shipper canceled the load. After delivering one more load I was once again planed on a load to the house and arrived on the exact requested day. I don't know if this trend will continue, but the new system has been very effective so far and for that I am grateful.

jdrentzjr wrote:

Well said.

therobot wrote:

They still pay nothing for layover and it is something that gets under my skin from time to time. BUT, that was information that was readily available before I hired on and made very clear to me at orientation. I can hardly justify my complaining about it now. In all fairness, when the freight was strong layover wasn't an issue. During my first 2 1/2yrs I had a total of 3 layover days. That has obviously change of late, but you certainly can't blame a trucking company for a disastrous economy.

Many companies do pay layover, but it is often a meager amount. The superior pay package that Crete was offering at the time more than made up for the lack of layover pay. Sure, I could drive for a company that pays $50/day layover, but then I would be running for 32cpm instead of 43cpm. Even with the layovers that I have experiencing lately I still manage to get respectable miles. My first quarter of this year has netted me 31,198 miles and over $14,000. No where near as good as last year, but acceptable considering today's economic climate, not to mention the fact that I've actually spent 15days at the house so far this year. A far cry better than last. It's a trade off I'm willing to make at this time.

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

Supersnack wrote:

I've been having the same problem. A couple of months ago I had to have my fuel filter change 4 times in a span of 3 weeks. I can only assume it has something to do with the winter fuel mixes or the bio fuel. Prior to this winter I never gave the fuel filter a second thought. Of late I've had to watch it like a hawk and if I find myself in a situation where I can't get it to a company shop when it gets to close to the top I head to the closest TA. I've discussed this with a couple of the company mechanics and they say it is becoming a major problem through out the fleet.

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

From the Business Journal (4/3/09) :
"FEDEX has confirmed that the company has cut 1,000 jobs worldwide, including 500 in its headquarters city of Memphis, Tenn." This is following the 900 layoffs in FedEx Freight in February.

Also I heard the other day that ABF layed off a bunch. Same with Con-Way. And so it goes. . . .