I believe the reason for all of the "new hires" is the revolving door that most of these large companies are. Check the turnover ratio for your company and it'll help you understand why there are constantly new drivers in orientation.
Another good rule of thumb; If they advertise in your favorite trucking publication, don't even consider an application.
A "good living" in trucking is and should be no less than 900.00 per week. Of course, that is hard if not impossible to achieve consistently in the TL sector of the industry.
Crete Carrier Corp
Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by Abe, Apr 21, 2009.
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24/7 in a truck,while miserable,becomes a VERY LONG TIME.
I hope that you feel better now.
Now go beat the crap out of your dispatcher or at least exchange some sarcastic banter. -
Whew! My apologizes, my friend. I am sorry for you. I sometimes wonder why some people choose OTR when they're paid jack squat! I make very good $$ and am home 4 days a week. 1 of those days I am only home about 14 hrs, but the others it is more than 30 hours. I'm grateful I chose a great company to work for. Scratch that. I won't say great because sometimes they TICK me off as well, but no company is perfect. I just recieved a $1500 bonus along with my paycheck. (happy face)
And all I do is drive the same routes 3 times a week. I deliver to restaurants. I man handle all of the product on that trailer, but the pay is really good.
I don't know how many of you are up to intense physical labor, but if you are, I'm sure there is a job delivering food near you. It keeps you in shape, too.
I'm not trying to be mean, but when I look at myself and see all these truckers I see at truck stops, man, are they fat! Nothing wrong with being over weight at all. A close friend of mine is a big boy. But some of these OTR guys I see are just plain nasty.
Only thing I don't really like about the place I work is the trucks. If you are in a company truck (SOME ARE RENTALS) you can only top out at 60mph!!! AND most of all the company trucks are missing antennas. We don't have CB's either!
We don't sleep in our trucks either. We get put up in hotels. Great thing is, we get to choose which hotel it is! LOL, one time I stayed at a hotel that was $300 a night! Room service and all. And being SINGLE and going to all these hotels, man, you meet a lot of cuties with booties! The girls behind the desk! OH MY! I'm not conceited, maybe a wee bit, but I'm able to get some real nice girls into my room or to take me out. Fun times.
I fell in <3 with one. That is a whole 'nother story, though.
Anyway, safe trucking.
Peace. -
The thing is Crete is too stupid to realize that the drivers talk to each other all the time. I am at a Pilot in Georgia with 6 other Crete drivers. We all know each others empty time and pay rate and we pay attention to who gets what load. Dispatch hates this and tries to tell us we are not allowed to talk to other drivers (haha) but they can do nothing to stop it. -
From the airport a limo picks me up and takes me to my Freshly Detailed Western Star with a preloaded, air ride trailer, loaded with 1,500-lbs of Victoria Secrets edible undies.
I pull out tuesday morning for my dedicated run to Santa Barbara, CA. My company only lets me stay at Hilton's and Ritz Carltons - trip planning is a must becuz you can't find a Ritz in any podunk town. I normally park at truckstops out of town and call a limo to take me to the hotel - of course I put this on my Company AMEX Card.
We also get a daily food and miscellaneous allowance - so I settle into the hotel bar, have a few ####tails and mingle with the local snatch. Usually, about 10 I cut one loose from the herd and head to my suite. If I feel extra crisply I cut 3 or 4 from the herd and get really nasty.
About 10am I give the super model a kick in the rear get showered and meet the limo about 11:30 and back to work. The nice driver has a croissant and bloody mary waiting for me.
My truck isn't governed, so I can make good time. We don't use qualcomms. We have pre-arranged full service fueling at Petro's and Flying Js.
I get to Santa Barbara on Friday, limo takes me to the Airport, and back to Hawaii I go. My pay for the week is 3,866 Nautical Miles * $.50 + 2,250 Practical Miles *.50 = $3,058. I also get an on-time bonus of $500. If my Lodging, Meals, and Incidental expenses are less than $2000, I get to keep the difference.
It's not a bad gig, but the nautical mile pay from Honolulu to Dayton is a bit of a rip-off, the actual miles are 4,450 - Cheap B@st@ards. Plus this dedicated account crap gets a bit boring. Sometimes I take I70 just for a change of scenary.
Not trying to be conceited. Just telling it like it is. Oh yeah, and I look a lot like Michelangelo's David, except a lot bigger where it matters, if you know what i meanLast edited: Apr 28, 2009
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As far as giving the higher paid drivers the shorter runs as to save money,I simply don't believe that happens.
1.I don't think the dispatchers know or care what you make.Their job is to move loads.They have 15 trucks in Indy and they need to get them covered and they are not gonna waste their time trying to match up loads to pay scale.
2.I never made more money at Crete than I did when I was on the Advance transformer fleet.I was at the top of the payscale and ran all I wanted.There is A State Trooper in N.M who can attest to this.....he put me outta service.Got my hand slapped and was informed if it happened again I would be taken off the fleet.
3.When I was on the national fleet and at the top pay,I saw the loads come out both in my favor and not so much in my favor.The only thing uniform about it was it's randomness.Case in point: 11 of us in Rochester,I'm #7 in line.Every driver before me gets A load to KY or ATL, my turn comes up LA(and didn't mind telling everyone about it on the radio) ,the next guy OH. And many times it went the other way and I ended up cussing the ####### with the LA load.
I guess my point is,I don't believe in the "the co is out to screw the driver,they don't care if you make any money or not" mentality.That simply wouldn't be A sustainable business model.They know we sit and talk to each other.Hell, that's their biggest fear.Terminal mgrs walk thru the breakrooms, they hear us complaining about both real and imagined slights.
Turnover is A huge expense they would much rather run you,pay you and keep you happy than have you pissed and leaving and telling everybody how much you disliked them either here or on the radio.
I was there pre-qualcom days.It was not uncommon to be offered 12-15 loads when you called in.That was and still is one of the benefits they offer "choice of loads"
When the q/c came in Crete spent A bunch of money having it modified so as to still be able to offer the drivers A choice,albeit only 3.How easy would it have been to say"sorry guys,but the q/c doesn't allow for choice of loads so you get A load handed to you and you gotta run it"Don't get me wrong they didn't do it cuz they were feeling all warm and fuzzy.They did it to offer you something the Werners' Hunts' and swifts' did not offer so you would stay put and keep making them(and you) money.
L/B I hope it picks up fer ya. -
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450 a week is not good to have to eat on the road. PTL will not let them put in ref. and also charge them 300.00 for a pin and other stuff. they take is out 15.00 a week -
I also know how you feel man. I drive for Swift I usually bring home 400-500$ a week and I don't do in company Per Diem. Although I recently had a terrible week from a Friday morning to the next Friday morning I only got 360 miles!!! Nothing wrong with my truck, I've never been late or had any log violations, never hit anything(from what i read on the forums thats an accomplishment for a Swift driver ) and I never turn down loads. This is very frustrating and I'm married and like some guy mentioned earlier is it really worth it even if you bring home 900$ a week? Not really but it should would make it easier to make a living. It really is a lonely life for the OTR driver and it makes it hard when you see your company hiring when there isn't enough freight to go around. I don't care what business practice it is... hiring drivers when there isn't enough freight for the drivers you currently have isn't very ethical.
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I have a similar gig, except (1) my company flies me in from Martha's Vineyard , & (2) I AM trying to be conceited
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