anyone remember caretta trucking out of paramus nj ?

Yep, I remember them. I was hauling cars out of Linden and when we went on strike some of the guys went over there for a couple of weeks. They folded up, probably through bad management.

 

Sorry for misspelling there. Meant to say. Caretta teamed up with Isothermal Community College, to train trainees. Wasn't any 2 weeks or less training. Close to 5 weeks, along with going on road with a trainer. Then, they were required to do team driving, with another trainee before, getting their solo position. Oh. The good ole days. Especially, riding out to our little drop terminal in Fontana, Can.

 

"FONTANA, CALIFORNIA!

 

I believe ole Joe Caretta, pulled the same thing as ole DIRECT TRANSIT INC. (DTI) out of Moosic (Scranton), Pa. ended up doing. Bad management etc & running away with the money. Believe Swift, gobbled up the remnants of DTI!! But Caretta, DTI as well as "Jevic" here in N.J. each left myself & many ole timers fuming, wen they shut the doors on us!!

 

I worked for Carretta for over a year and they closed the doors on me. There were several factors that played a role in Carretta's downfall.

Firstly, there was some poor middle management in the area of dispatch operations, and also in the repair shop. Joe Carretta allowed these managers to assume responsibility but as in many companies, the president can't make all the decisions all the time-thus many poor decisions were made costing them money.

Secondly, at that time, the mega carriers were coming on the scene with cheap freight rates and paying cheap wages along with flooding the industry with trucks. Carretta was one of the highest paying at that time (I was making 30 cents with them in 1992). Being located in a 'high-cost' area like Paramus, wages were high for all company personnel along with taxes and other operating expenses. Joe Carretta could not compete with the cheap freight rates and they lost a lot of customers (even though their subsidiary -Load-to-Ride down in Carlstadt was still running strong. With the loss of revenue came cuts in repairs, trucks became worn-out, old tires, older drivers were leaving due to the equipment failures, and new drivers were hired daily which all cost the company money. Cost cutting was evident everywhere and drivers and office employees both were not happy.

At the last moment, Carretta hired a former high management person that was working for Emerson Electric. He was; in my opinion a nice, highly intelligent man and listened to our problems. His first decision was to try and move Carretta out of high-cost Paramus west and beyond Patterson were costs of living were cheaper for all personnel and operating costs would be lower. However, it was too late to save the company form being sold and dismantled. The trucks were returned or repossed-I am not exactly sure but anyhow, focus shifted on Load-to- Ride, and eventually it was sold-but not closing the history books completely on Carretta.

The company is still in a way; in the trucking industry. Joe Carretta's son runs a mulit-million dollar highly successful load shipment firm but owns no trucks. They still have a DOT number and this new generation operates out of Paramus also. They were in my opinion, a good company to work for when I first started as the equipment was still decent, but in a year things went to the wall. We mainly ran coast to coast and 4,000 miles a week was common. Many of my checks from them were around 12-1300 a week-good for 1992.

Carretta operated with the 'old-school' mentality when companies respected each other and drivers had lots of freedom. As mentioned, when JB, Celedon, National Carriers and the likes came around, they (they new megas) lowered the industry standards all the way around as far as being honorable in the industry-everything became.... lots of it, and all cheap.

 

The drop terminal was later moved to Chino-a small dusty lot were the owner came out screaming at you if you did over 1 mph.

 

Loved Jevic's last equipment-double bunk K 100 E aerodynes.

 

DTI was my first driving job in july 96. By January 97 the owner was facing fedral prision time for tax evasion and swift them bought up..js