I'm going to Crete orientation and otr training in a couple of weeks at the Wilmer terminal, and I was hoping someone (or many) would share their experiences with me. I've searched and really could'nt find anything specific. I'm really interested in what to expect, what to take, info about the training...all the "real life" stuff the recruiters don't tell you. Especially out of the Wilmer terminal. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Crete Cowgirl,

As far as what to bring with you, Crete will provide you with a list. Do your best not to bring anything more than what you need to get you through the training period. Space is very limited. Once you get your own truck you can get the rest of your things.

I am a trainer with Crete and here is what you can expect in general.

I am going to assume you are an inexperienced driver and you will be going through the 8 week program.

First and foremost, Crete stresses that this will be a training operation, not a team operation.

Your trainer will teach you how to safely operate a truck and how to run a legal log. You will spend the first 1-3 days in the passenger seat to acclimate you to the truck, depending on your trainers preference.

Once the trainer feels you are ready to drive you'll be put in the drivers seat. I personally spend about 5 hrs with a trainee in a parking lot practicing maneuvers before I allow them to drive on the road, but that will very with trainers.

When you start driving the company likes to see the trainee receive no more than 40Hrs of supervised(driving) training during your first week, week two 40-50Hrs, week three 50-60Hrs, week four 60+Hrs and weeks five through eight is up to the trainer. Basically, after week four on you will be doing all the driving, trip planing, etc. The idea is to put you in a position to succeed when you get your own truck. The trainer will only be there as a supervisor. Crete also requires that trainees show an average of 4Hrs a week on line four, On Duty practicing maneuvers.

You will be running miles equivalent to a Solo driver, 2500-3200 miles per week. Any time you are driving the trainer will be in the passenger seat and will be logging On Duty. As your training progresses, your responsibilities will also progress. If things are going well the trainer has the option to go to a so called super single schedule during the final weeks in which you will be doing the vast majority of the driving and the trainer will pick up a few extra hours a day. You may be running slightly more miles than a solo driver, but no where close to a team schedule. The truck will not be allowed to run more than 16-18 Hrs a day.

Crete is selective about who they allow to train. Crete has about 5000 drivers and somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 active trainers, so you can be confident that you will be trained by a professional driver.

This is somewhat of a condensed description of what you can expect, but I hope it will at least give you an idea of what is ahead.

If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.

Good luck and drive safe.

Not to infringe on your thread, but I was wondering if you or if anyone else who might respond to this thread know if Crete pre-hires people who are going into or currently attending school? They're the main company I'm looking at currently, and I didn't see an address on their website to contact a recruiter through email, so I figured I'd ask on here first to see if anyone could shed some light on that.

I was able to find their address just by Google-ing "Crete Carriers" and scrolling to the second or third result.

__________________
Keep that diesel burnin' and those tires turnin', but get there safe to keep on earnin'!!

Thanks for the detailed info. I'm anxious to get started.

You guys who are going to Crete--rest assured you're making a good decision. You're staying away from the rotten apples that fill the trucking company barrel far too much. When I started driving, I assumed all trucking companies were the same. It didn't take long to see I was very naive. My first company was SwiftQuit, a company I lasted about 4 months with, including my month-long training phase. I later worked for Crete, and I know Crete is a great company, thanks to my stints at both Crete and Swift.

You're making a great move. Just be sure you take everything you need to take with you to the orientation. I'm not talking what you'll take on the truck. I'm talking things like employment records, such as bosses' names, addresses, and phone numbers. Make sure all those are up to date and the company can contact every employer you've had the last ten years (if you've been in the work force that long).

When you get on your training trucks, come to an understanding with the trainers that it's a training phase...it's not their chance to make money off of you by turning that eight weeks into a team operation. You're not gonna run team. You're students who are going to learn how to drive and, hopefully, remain in the industry for longer than a few months. I don't think you'll have this problem at Crete. Hopefully you'll get trainers like Evertruckerr.

If you'd have gone with Swift, I bet you'd have had problems, as drivers there can become trainers with only 6 months' experience. This alone should tell you that company sucks. Using drivers who are still wet behind the ears as trainers? Obviously they don't care about your training. That's okay with them, though. If you have an accident in your first year, you can be kicked to the curb and easily replaced by yet another trucking school graduate. Yes, you guessed right--you didn't learn much at your training mill. For the money you paid, you learned just about enough to get yourselves killed.

Count yourselves lucky that you avoided the likes of SwiftQuit and are going with a great outfit (relatively speaking). You'll get great training at CCC, and then you'll have a great job in the OTR segment when you're all done. It'll be a job you'll want to keep WAY longer than 4 months. I wish I could go back in time to 1995 knowing what I know now. I'd be doing what you guys are doing. I'd have gone cheap on my training at the mill, too.

Good luck, and keep us updated here.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

I went through Crete's training and my trainer was in the sleeper with the curtains closed for the ENTIRE 8 WEEKS!

8 weeks for training? I've wondered how long training is at CCC for true rookies. Mine was 4, but I already had two years' experience (gained over 5 years). After 3 weeks, it wasn't training--it was teaming. This was fine, though. I already knew the ropes. A true rookie won't.

I definitely wouldn't allow a trainer to keep those curtains closed if I were a true rookie on his training truck. That guy would have been in the passenger seat while I was driving. And I wouldn't have been his teammate, either.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

I was talking about a recruitment email address, not a physical address. If you found an email address for Crete recruiting however, please send it this way

Your best bet is to give them a call. I've sent numerous e-mails to the recruiting department at different companies and never received a response.