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

What kind of car show do they have in Carlisle this week? That can be a good town to be broke down in

 

Not sure. Haven't heard anything. I am at the Thermo King dealer getting APU fixed. I was pushed to get here by the shop. Got paperwork from shop. Bobtailed over and....you guessed it....shop didn't call so I have to be "fit in." Dispatcher is livid that they didn't call.

 

In 3 years and ten days I will have driven 357, 031 miles. Take out the 60 days of FMLA plus vacations and home time that averages to over 400 miles per day that I drove. Not a bad average I think.

 

Clarion, PA this evening....headed to Breinigsville for tomorrow at 1300. This will make the week about 3350...still need to check my numbers for July....


EDIT: 11,815 for July....though it says my fuel compliance was 5%! Huh?

 

July 11,354 and 4% fuel compliance

4083 for this week!

 

It's 06:30 and I'm sitting at the cons of my last run with Crete. I have a 08:45 appt but my bags are already packed. I have twenty miles to drive to Wilmer to turn in my truck. I want to give some final thoughts about Crete since this thread is all about the "Pros" and "Cons" of life here at Crete.

Training: I came fresh out of CDL school in Waco, TX with had very little experience behind the wheel due to the quantity of students. I went with Crete because they have one of the longest best paid training requirements of the companies I explored. Two months and a very good trainer later I was ready to continue my learning on my own. I hope every driver learns something everyday. Young or old you can always learn something if you chose to.

Equipment: These trucks are fairly well maintained and the Maxforce engine aside I had pretty good luck out of the Internationals. My second truck left me in the shop on four or five occasions but with Crete's breakdown pay I at least got some compensation for my time. All of my trucks had A/C problems and left me in hotels from time to time. Not to mention one very long run over the July 4th holiday in 105* heat across Kansas.

Dispatch: One of the reasons I became so frustrated here is the lack of actual planning. I grew to dread my MT call because I never knew what they were going to throw at me next. For some it's no big deal and go with the flow better than I do. I like to have a plan and/or time to plan. Some of the preplans were late when the offered them and some were impossible to make on time delivery. If I heard "just get the load underway and give us your best ETA" once I've heard it a thousand times. I started to just say "No" to those because it only leads to me sitting somewhere because someone sent an email and is "waiting to hear back". I sympathize with them though because I understand if there was a way to properly preplan over 5000 trucks I'm sure they would have that system in place. This is where a smaller company has it's advantages. I truly believe they are understaffed at Lincoln.

Shops: It seems as though nobody like the shops where they work. I know I had more than my fill of the attitudes at some of Crete's shops. If these guys were in the actual free market they wouldn't last! I know one guy was looking for a job after I was told "to get on down the road" when I merely wanted to write up my trailer for a T1. A nice long convo at the behest of his boss the next morning pretty much sealed his fate because "I wasn't the first to complain but I will be the last" as he promised me. There is no reason for them to be the way they are. A perfect example was the young service writer at Wilmer. He was always nice and pleasant to deal with. They lost a good employee when he left but he's now a teacher so best of luck to you!

I really have enjoyed my time here at Crete. I feel they offer a new driver more than enough tools to make a success at driving. Some may argue that fuel solutions, route suggestions and monitoring of OOR miles was hand holding but for a newbie they can make your job less demanding. That's why I'm of the opinion that Crete is one of the better training companies out there. I know as a rookie you would be hard pressed to find a better paying company. If you find that you have outgrown their regiment then by all means move on. I'm moving on to something else but hold no grudges against Crete. In fact I thank them for the time I had here. I know I was written up once for hard brakes and it changed my way of driving for the better so again: Thanks Crete!

 

They were just trying to make you re-think leaving by giving you killer miles...or maybe it was your "goodbye, it's been nice" parting gift.

 

or a 2600+ miler carried over

 

Gotta run over 500 miles again to make consignee
In waco, tx by 10am CT in arizona 865 miles out

 

Still in Lincoln waiting for the truck to come back from Detroit Diesel. The guy that drove me back to the terminal said Crete would be getting "a bunch" of new units in September and while it would be good for the drivers he expected his shop to get slow as we move away from the Internationals.
Stayed at the downtown Holiday Inn last night. Nice location but not so good for my food budget. Was told the four tour buses at the curve belonged to the Doobie Brothers.