The Decline Of Crete Carrier

I came to this forum out of curiosity and tried to start crap to see if id get feed back..it was interesting..but the bottom line is i work for crete, been here a loooooooooooooong time..i aint going nowhere. Yes there are bad days and even bad weeks, but what i do know is i paid for this $1000 laptop working here, paid off my home and car and am paying for my kids education, for me its all about communication, yes there are dispatchers and other personel here that in my opinion (which doesnt count) arent qualified to flip burgers...for me it the managers, there willingness to actually do there job and be the voice of the driver...in that way im lucky..gotta great mgr. I dont always get what i want (who does) but theres a trust and that important..i get home whenever i want, i dont go home that much...drivers who want to go home everyweek are a sore spot, if i wanted to be home all the time id get a local or regional position..this isnt my first company but im pretty sure its my last, yes some of the changes suck and are very driver unfriendly but its the industry as a whole! As far as freight,,its down everywhere, personally even on a bad week i do pretty good...if you listen to the gossip it will eat you up inside, every case is different but i truely believe the mgr and your communication w/the mgr is a huge deal...there are games and favoritism ect..again its the industry..i feel it here and it sucks but like any job ya deal with it, get over it or move on..this otr stuff aint easy,,if you have a family its even harder...there are alot of annoying kiss**s drivers out here who are pathetic but i guess it works for them. I am not a crete cheerleader, i am a crete employee who is greatful to have a job and be debt free and all the small stuff,,,the dispatchers who do favorites the lies the bs ect,,its all small stuff. I avoid those people and those situations. Theres a bad area for me so i stay away from it...its a job and in todays economy...having one makes you pretty lucky, if your not happy where ever you are...go someplace else, your perfect job is out here,,i found mine, (well as perfect as its gonna get) god bless

 

BAILEY...
That's one of the best posts I've read since I've been coming on this site.

Thank you.

 

Thanx for the post!! I know nuth'n about Crete exept what my friend says and what I read here. My friend just started 3 days ago. He picked up a pre loaded trailer at the Kennesaw terminal, went to a small Texas town drop & hook and was given 3 choice's where to run. He is now on his way to Salt Lake. Not bad! He said the equipment is raggid but at least he's working. I let him know about this post and a few others. Ya'all be careful!

 

BAILEY...
I keep seeing posts on here about Crete and the rough, ragged equipment... I have never seen anything like that and I've been in a couple of their terminal facilities. Is this true? Or are some people expecting something more than the norm? What's your take on that?

 

I agree. I would much prefer to have a higher mileage rate for the times of the year when the freight is slower or when conditions create more delays.

The money the OTR carriers are paying out these days give the driver less spending power then when I started driving over 18 years ago.

If you adjust for inflation and the consumer price index you will need a penny per mile raise for every year you drive OTR just to break even.

Which means I would need to make at least .40 cents a mile to have the same spending power I had when I started driving OTR.

None of the carriers I have worked for are starting their drivers out at that rate which means that most companies are paying less adjusted per mile then almost 20 years ago.

In short you do not get any raises driving OTR. The best you can hope for is to keep up with the cost of living and most carrier pay does not even do that.

 

Well for me I was not comparing the 2 companies rookie starting wages ,So there woud not be a .07 cpm gain for me at Crete vs Conway ...I also get a chuckle out of 60k earnings advertised by crete drivers who are earning roughy .40 cpm ,as this would require roughly 150,000 miles in a 12 month period ,Which even if the driver stayed out 12 months straight he would need to average 12,500 miles every one of those 12 months and average 3125 miles every week of those 12 months ...

Now with sit time for things like maintainence ,repairs,waiting for loads,sitting on loads...AND HOME TIME ...It's much more realistic to base earnings on a 10 month period or 40-44 productive weeks ,which really make those upper 50's and low 60's I see claimed here and there on web sites seem even more embellished since now we're talking roughly 150,000 miles in about 10 months not 12 ...And let us not forget all these posts claim running legal ,and that Crete is beyond strict with logs , which makes it even harder to beleive one is running the mileage solo at crete that would be needed to make the 56-60k I see claimed on the internet so often since it requires 140,000-150,000 miles at roughly .40 cpm in 10-12 months solo ,And ...100%...legal .


Some of these finacial claims on the web have me wanting to visit the local area crete hang outs that are close by like the 2 T/A and the pilot in the Denver Area and maybe the brewery where I work ,and do a video interview on pay/miles and post it on youtube ...I wonder how many 3125 miles a week drivers I'll be interviewing making 60k yearly ?

 

It actually could be easily true. the top pay is $.47/mile and that would make $62,000 at 11000miles per month. That is possible, not likely in the economy, but possible. We all know that the earnings are always inflated by the advertisements.

 

I'm an O/O leased to Crete, and I can asure you that driving 150,000 per year, legaly, is EXTREMLY possible. In '07 I drove 151k, and in '08 I drove 144k. Would have been more in '08 if freight had not slowed to almost a hault.

In my conversations with other O/O and company drivers, I find it comes down to how much effort a driver is willing to put forth in contacting a shipper or receiver to see if the load can be p/u or delivered early.

While some may say that should be the dispatchers job, I say they are just lazy. It is true that there are a few customers we are not allowed to call, however I find if you communicate to dispatch your desire to p/u or deliver early, they generaly will work with you. For those ocassions you aren't getting any help, call the switchboard and ask to talk to the CSR (Customer Service Representative) for the area the load was picked up in and communicate directly with them.

Moral of this post: If you are a driver who needs your hand held while doing your job, you won't do will at Crete.

P.S. Just curious as to how a brewery plant emplyee thinks they know what REALY happens at any trucking company? Just sayin'.

 

When I've worked ltl I used to think truckload drivers were just blowing smoke. I ran hard and at over .50 cents a mile I was wondering about making the $60k mark at times throughout the year. Recently I went to work for knight and got a couple of paychecks that wouldn't pay my house bill combined. I quit and couldn't believe how many folks they have working there. I switched to another outfit that only pays .41 cents and thought, "well I guess i'll just have to run 4000+ miles a week." Work is kind of slow right now and I only got a pinch over 2k miles for the week. My check grossed near $1100.00. I thought their was a mistake and saw where I was paid by the hour on short local trips and I was paid by the stop and that was only 3 1/2 days of work. Now I can see how drivers can reach the 60k mark. I hear that all companies are the same just pay differently. I dont think so. It pays to shop around.

 

Why do yo find it so hard to believe? It would appear that you are not even a truck driver yet you feel that you are in a position to question the validity of those that are out here doing the job.

I can assure you 150,000+ miles a year is feasible while running 100% HOS compliant. I know this because I, like many other Crete drivers have done just that. The trick is to work for a company that is committed to achieving this goal and who takes actions to ensure it happens.

Our logs are audited on a regular basis and the GPS/Qcom readings are used to insure that we do not fudge our logs. We are not even allowed a 15min window. I have talked to more than one driver that has been disciplined for going 15mins over their legal limits. All Crete drivers run 100% legal at all times or their tenure at Crete will be very short lived.

Some of the tools used to keep us productive are extensive use of Drop/Hook loads, working closely with shippers and receivers to ensure that detention is kept to a minimum, proper load planning and efficient use of drivers available hours.

You also seem to be under the impression that mileage pay is the only way a Crete driver can make money. Income is also derived from such sources as Shag pay, extra Drop/Pickup pay, occasional detention pay, vacation pay (I get $2440/yr;2 weeks at $1220 - compared to many companies that pay $500/wk), for those with a little motivation there is referal pay (me? one last year, two this year at $1000) and training pay for those so inclined.

And to support my claim, here is my 2008 Mileage Spreadsheet. For those of you that want to call me a liar, that's your right, but I can assure you these numbers are 100% accurate.



A quick breakdown of the above numbers:


And my Adjusted Gross pay for 2008:

2008 Summary

Final Pay .........................................................................$65,366.47
Less: First paycheck of 2008 for last week of 2007................... -1,612.59
Add: First two paychecks of 2009 (all miles run in 2008...............+2181.00
Add: Accrued 2008 vacation pay (2 weeks # $1220) .................+2440.00

Net Pay for 2008 ........................................................... $68,374.88

Last year I made $62,025 on 139,000 miles. Yup, sure looks like Crete it going to hell.




I am currently at 43cpm. When I started with Crete the beginning pay was 41cpm, it has since been lowered to 37/40cpm depending on experience.