Crete Carrier - A Year In Review - Fall 2013 Going Forward

Actually, to some veteran drivers, your post does come off as such, if only a little bit. And forgive some of us for feeling this way, but we have seen a proliferation during the recent years of "drivers" coming into this industry with a very skewed sense of what is important and what needs to be prioritized.

Not long after I started at Crete, I was parked at a customer right next to another Crete. He hadn't been there long, and had a dog with him. He hadn't been there long enough to have been grandfathered in, so the dog was with him against regulations, and he knew it. Didn't care. I'm sure he's no longer there.

It is similar to my experience with one employee I had working for me in another industry. He was part-time, weekends only. But unfailingly, each time he would hit the door, and before the door was even closed behind him, he would ask "If it's not busy, can I leave early?".

After the third time this happened, he did leave early. I fired him.

Too many drivers that are entering this industry now are concerned with stupid stuff, instead of the important things.

Not saying this is you, but again....to some of us, well....we've just gotten a little tired and weary of some of it. Good luck to you.

 

A post like this i can understand completely wile keeping in mind the person that made the initial comment states on his profile to have only 0-1 year's exp . I understand what is expected of me i also know there will be down time at some point was simply seeing if it was possible to have some from of entertainment wile stuck in a small box in a shady truck stop. im not a social person and will spend most of my time in that small box.

 

I hear ya, man. I don't hang out in the truckstops, either. But neither do I have a TV or video games. IPad and my phone and a few books. But then again, I'm an old guy. It's all I do to figure out how to get my brand-new wallet out of my pocket without tearing anything!

 

Don't worry jormm14, some of us actually read your post and understand you just needed something clarified, and did not leave with the impression that you were more concerned about xbox more than you were with the job,or getting trained.

And when you are out there,you will find that it is almost orgasmic for some to find reasons to give a new driver grief. This will come from both 'veteran' drivers and new drivers themselves.
Don't worry about it. That is more a reflection on them (and their insecurities) than on you.

 

The only insecurities I have are over these new "professional" drivers I described in my post. And it's not limited to trucking. It's a societal ill. And it's not getting better.

"All for one....as long as it's me" is the new mantra of humankind. So forgive me for being a bit jaundiced in my original response. But I stand by it.

 

Now wait a doggone minute, don't make us old guys look bad ...I'm an old guy too and I have a flatscreen tv(had a dvd player until I wore it out), 2 laptops (one is my movie player), a tablet (that I've almost worn grooves in the screen playing that *bleeping* angry birds app)...plus now I have a Galaxy S3 that I have a special cable I can plug into my hdmi on my flatscreen to stream Netflix and Youtube...when I worked for Crete...it was a must to have this much to kill off all the down time after they allowed me to run my 8000 mile limit then wouldn't talk to me anymore.

 

And just to add,jormm14, often these insecurities are manifested in the claim that there is something wrong with either young or new breed. If you are out here long enough,you will find older drivers. and the 'old breed' guilty of the same things that they accuse the young and new of being guilty of. Obnoxious behaviour knows no age or experience group.
They will try and say,'well,it happens more often now', to which my reply is,'did you do a census or survey to come to that conclusion'?
Selfishness is not a new phenomenon and it is not exclusive to the young or inexperienced.

Try and get in touch with the safety dept,to get an answer to your question.
When I was with Crete, I remember seeing a company truck at the Deland terminal with a small generator on the ground outside with an extension cord running into the tractor. I thought it might be something I could do,so I asked one of the shop guys if it was allowed and he said he didn't know. I didn't pursue the isue though.

 

No argument....it is not a "new" phenomenon. But 53 years of living (just as you, apparently) has shown me we are on a downward spiral. One needn't be a scientist or have massive empirical data at their fingertips to see this. What is sad is that there are some "old-timers" who at one time behaved as professionals, but have adopted the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality, which I think is a sad statement of how things are going.

Again....it's not new, nor an exclusive trait exhibited by newbies. If you're one of the ones who genuinely try to do the right thing, that's great. I wish more were like this.

 

I've got an iPad Air, but I don't do any gaming (other then Scrabble....). Don't watch much TV even when I'm home. I've still got my laptop as well, pretty much for playing movies.

...and we old guys don't need no help to make ourselves look bad!