Snackbar is chillin'....at Shaffer

The cold hard facts are that generally speaking, the money is not in OTR truckload dry van and reefer. You will almost always come out ahead at the end of the year by running out your clock or working 50-65 hours per week doing local work and getting a full 2 days off each week, then staying out for months on end with recaps and the occasional 34 reset. And that's with local guys getting 104 days off per year (2nd off per week), versus the OTR guys that are getting around 52-72 days off per year (4-6 days off per month).

For OTR trucking companies, I think there's only so much freight to go around. They have to try to evenly distribute the miles around to where the turnover doesn't already get higher than it already is. In this economy a lot of the loads are probably being given at a loss, so they give the drivers just enough to keep them moving but not enough to where the company loses more money than they already are.

I also don't think it's fair for fellow Crete drivers to say how they're getting great miles so "it can be done", and other non Crete drivers (hi Gentlerodger, hi Bm58, hi CDavis) blaming Snackbar for not getting the miles he wants as if it's Snackbars fault. Go do a search on Reddit Truckers, go look at Shaffer/Crete reviews on job board sites or google maps or Facebook, you'll see plenty of reviews about Crete/Shaffer saying they weren't getting good miles or that the equipment was garbage or not properly cleaned beforehand. So this clearly isn't a "Snackbar problem" like some of you make it out to be.

Honestly, the best way to consistently make the best money at these companies is to get in good with management or to have a second part time job doing recruiting for these companies by singing their praises on YouTube and getting a bunch of views and followers. The guys making six figures at Crete are doing exactly that on their YouTube channels, it's great publicity for these companies.For mid sized companies this will work on forums like this, you can see FCC and their thread for that example of the top posters over there making great money.

But Crete is so big that a forum like this isn't even really on their radar when it comes to word of mouth for them, this forum is basically irrelevant to Crete compared to the big social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.

But besides, Snackbar has way too much pride to suck up to companies and tell little white lies to financially enrich himself. That's why his threads are consistently the most popular on this forum, because we all know Snackbar is going to give it to us straight and that he has no ulterior motive and doesn't financially profit from these threads. Some of you walk on water types act like you've never thought in your head the same things that Snackbar says out loud, please. Give me a break.

Honestly, if Snackbar wants the miles he wants I think the best way for that is he needs to go LTL extra board/wild. You can stay out for months at a time doing that with certain LTL companies and they won't have the same BS that OTR truckload companies have.

Hopefully you find a good solution for yourself Snackbar. You deserve it after all you've been through over the years, you deserve a good company to retire at.

 

An OTR driver would refuse the load you have described as unproductive. I can't imagine a scenario where any company would even offer an OTR driver such a load as that.

 

You were paid a flat rate that was equivalent to 8 hours of pay but you were not actually paid for 8 hours.

Yes what you worked was piecework, a flat rate for a 160 pieces with an 8 hour deadline.

It took you 4 hours, probally took the next guy 6 hours. Both of you were paid the same.

Now as far as trucking, if two drivers were given identical loads and one driver completes his in 8 hours and the other driver takes 10 hours to complete his load, should the driver who worked 2 hours more be paid more?

 

That's a double edge sword for sure. Let's see...I'll get paid extra if the truck breaks down...

 

No that was my point.

 

I get what you're saying, but this guy has worked for them THREE times now I believe, he knew full well what to expect. None of his issues are new with Crete/Shaffer, he has literally been down this same road twice before with them. It reminds me of women who repeatedly agree to go back to an abusive spouse, because they have "changed" and others just look on in disbelief and shake their head.