CRETE - A Year in Review

This is what I totally don't understand. In one of the orientation videos, Tonn says that the minute he sees an uptick in turnover, he investigates the reason in order to mitigate it. Turnover definitely has a cost to it. Some of the mega-carriers like Swift have used other ways (ike ghetto wages) to get around that. I always thought Crete was so picky in hiring (like when they used to require 2 years experience) and screening out job hoppers because they wanted to reduce turnover % as much as possible. Now it seems like they don't care at all and are taking the Swift route.

 

im about 95 percent through the shaffer hiring process...i should be recieving a call from them tom. i will be on the road for 6 days then home for a couple....after reading all these posts about the crete family i may put my cards back in the schneider home weekly deal....any advice lol

 

Im supposed to start next week at Shaffer myself. The last few pages here have been really bad, does make you question your choice.

Everything that is said here (with the exception of low miles) I experienced at Stevens. So really it comes down to this for me. Will I do better with Crete/Shaffers pay and lower miles or Stevens crappy pay and tons of miles. Since I need to be regional at this time due to some personal reasons Im gambling the lower miles and better pay will be worth it.

 

I came from Schneider. I'm glad I'm here and not at Schneider. I actually thought about going back to SNI, but reconsidered and am still here.

I'll be the first to admit that my frame of mind hasn't been very good of late, so take my comments with a grain of salt. Yes it IS frustrating that as well as we do, we could do so much better with a little effort from Lincoln. We all have our pet peeves...what really gets the goat of one may not bother another in the least.

My miles are still decent, and I'm making .04 per mile more than I made topped-out at Schneider. Unfortunately, most of the standard OTR-type companies are becoming more and more numb as to driver needs and driver concerns. Crete falls into that category, as does SNI. I can't address Schaeffer specifically, except for the fact they're part of the Acklie family and will likely be prone to the poor communication that the Crete side is.

However, my last three months at Crete have been over 10,500 miles, with November being over 11k. I also stay out about 24 days at a time.

 

I'm actually considering writing a letter to Tonn. I've never been one to shy away from such an action, and I may do it. If I get fired, so be it.

 

Don't make a decision based on this forum. Crete has what, 4500 to 5000 drivers? You are only reading a microscopic sampling here. I enjoy and really appreciate using this forum as an outlet to share what is going on with other Crete drivers and learn tips from them. The bad experiences I share are totally real, so I'm not minimizing that. I'm realistic enough to know there are other drivers getting tons of miles and love their asset manager. Again, part of my bitter attitude is that I worked for Crete in the past and so since coming back I am in a state of shock as to what has happened to it. On the other hand, since I haven't worked for any other carriers in the interim, all these hassles and nightmares might be industry wide. I don't know.

I just read my Dec MMR and I got 12,284 miles. But as I stated before, it required constant raging on dispatch and driving nonstop day/night (I had to use the 8hr break to stop the 14 several times). Also, I never took any days off whereas in November I was off a week (when I almost quit) and got less than 9,000 miles for the month. I'm happy with the Dec miles but the stress level caused by the dispatch 3 stooges act pretty much cancels that out.

 

Bored outta my skull, sitting at the Atlanta Petro, been here since 1800 yesterday and not a peep from ops. Money says they send me something tonight around 2100 or so with a pickup window from 1400 yesterday that gives me about an hour to go 53 dispatched miles to get it or it's a service failure. Any takers?

 

I don't even worry about so-called "service failures". Until Lincoln gets it's own tail in gear, we as drivers can not be expected to perform up to standard 100% of the time. I just let 'em know the time I'll be there. If it's good, fine. If not, oh flippin' well.....

 

Do you have the little MCP200 q/comm? If so, I'd send a msg 0 "function test" about every 30 minutes. Either it's hung up, or it'll get their attention and then you can push for a load

 

I got a whopping 8605 last month. But I was home 6+ days. 3+ in the beginning, 3+ at Christmas(over Christmas it wasn't my choice to be home 3 of those days, but I was fortunate to be able to cruise thru home under a load that delivered the day after)