Originally Posted by RedBeard

W00T!

I hired on with Crete around July 4, in the Southeast Regional fleet. Turns out I'm more of an OTR kinda guy, as I discovered. I kept burning up my 14hr clock sitting at docks, running little short runs up and down I-85 between the Greensboro area and down around Montgomery for the most part (with a few northern FL runs tossed in for good measure, and one run down to around Baton Rouge). Then I'd get home every weekend - just long enough for a 34hr restart. I've found I prefer to stay out a bit longer, then come home for a few days at a time.

I talked with Ray, my fleet manager at the Marietta terminal, about my predicament a few weeks ago, and mentioned I'd like to switch to National. He noticed I live real close to Chattanooga and asked if I'd be interested in trying the General Mills dedicated fleet instead, as there would be an opening on it soon. I agreed.

After leaving the house almost 2 weeks ago, I made a run with 2 deliveries - one up in Elk Banner, NC and the other in Hickory, NC. That's when I noticed how much antifreeze I was leaking. Dispatch had me go to Spartanburg after the last delivery, for that and a B service. Once there, I was informed by Ray that I was now on the General Mills fleet, and had a load to pick up in Covington, GA the next day.

After just under 2 weeks on this account, I must say that I'm happy as a hog in slop with it so far. I just got home this morning, having run out of my 14hr clock yesterday evening about 60 miles away after picking up a load in Rome, GA going to Kansas City for 7am Wednesday. It's been almost all drop/hook, 24-hour windows on both pickups and deliveries so I can run hard if I feel like it and not have to wait, or kind of take it easy when my disposition and/or logbook call for that.

I think I'm going to switch to evertruckerr's method of running out the 70 in short order, then taking a reset along the way somewhere - I spent 3 or 4 days in the last week fighting the 70 - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it means I'm getting miles, but if I can get the same or better miles and take a day off for R&R along the way, I'll take that.

Thanks again for your comments, evertruckerr and all the other Crete drivers who have posted in this thread. I'm sooooo glad I left USA Truck for Crete. There are a couple of USA Truck drivers I still talk with on the phone every now and then, and it's sounding like that company is going quickly downhill, from Bad, straight through Really Bad, and fast approaching Even Worse.

Originally Posted by truckdriver402

Hey Redbeard, I got accepted to run the SE regional fleet. What kind of mileage and money can I look forward to? I don't need to be home every weekend, in fact, I planned on every 3 weeks to a month out.

I would be living in Greensboro.

Originally Posted by RedBeard

Well, I got sent home every weekend whether I asked for it or not. I even told dispatch one week that I wanted to stay out that weekend - after I was unloaded Friday afternoon I got the "Go ahead and deadhead home from there" message.

I think the best week I had on SE Regional was about 2300-2400 miles. There's just not much in the way of miles on regional, with the shorter runs and higher percentage of live loads/unloads.

I'm also pretty sure the policy on regional is that you can't bank hometime like you can running national or dedicated. Hometime is on the weekends, and only on the weekends. If you have to make a doctor's appointment or a dental appointment, they tell you to make them on Mondays or Fridays, not Wednesdays. I just didn't really care for it; thankfully Crete seems easy to work with in that regard, to get you into a fleet that fits your lifestyle - for me, that's dedicated or national.

Originally Posted by Drive-a-Mack

Freightshaker has a dealership/servc. ctr. located at the Hwy 77/I-80 interchange in Lincoln (56th & Arbor Rd.).. i have seen many of the new Crete trucks getting prepped for delivery to Crete there, so i would guess FL is shipping them to the dealership & from there delivering to Crete.