CRETE - A Year in Review

While Crete was a company that I was really considering, they weren't my only choice. The one thing that bothered me about Crete was they told me that, provided I passed my test, they wouldn't have a trainer available until November or December. So, although they were in my Top 3, they were actually number 3 on that list.

The other 2 companies on my list were not concerned about whether I passed the test the first time. One company has a little shakey reputation. I've read some good things about them here and I've read some bad. The thing is that some of the bad just sound like people whining because things didn't go their way. Only problem is that there is alot of them whining about the same thing. I'm new to all this so I chose to go into this, regardless of the company, with a positive attitude and fully expecting the worse and hoping for the best.

The 3rd company has had a reputation as an excellent company to work for, however, recent threads are showing that, faced with current economic conditions, they are making changes that bring them down to the levels of other companies out there. While veteran drivers may find it hard to drive for them after these changes, coming into this new, I think they will still be an excellent company to work for and they are my choice.

So, as soon as I pass my test and get my CDL next week, I should be heading off to orientation! WooHoo!! The reason I asked my question about Crete was just in case things don't go well with choices one or two after a year or so and I want to fall back to choice number 3.

 

After a 10 day vacation with the family in Salt Lake City,UT, I left there August 16th, and over the past five weeks I've avg. 3132 mpw. 1)3945 2)2625 3)1835 4)3610 5)3645.

Hope this continues!!!

 

Dodge are you going to Clark State? I see that you live close to there.

 

So spill the beans- who is the No. 2 or No. 1, I may need to look them up if I can't learn to keep from mouthing off to High Command .
Gar- to answer your earlier post -
As far as thinking about going to Smith, it's not out of the question. But due to the economy falling as far as it did, every company was hurting for miles/freight. Here, I'm at .47/mi. There, not that good, but no improvement in miles to offset the cpm cut. And I know the way they like things done here - so I sorta' know what to expect. Who knows what the future will hold - I am a trucking mercenary - my loyalty lies with dead presidents($moolah$). Who ever pays me enough to pay my bills gets my service(almost sounds like a prostitute's job description doesn't it---after all I do feel screwed sometimes . I always thought it was spelled 'trucker' not 'truckwhore'...Who knew)

 

Super, am I reading your post correctly? You've taken a pay cut?

 

Not too bad for the 3000+ miles weekly average.

KH

 

Au contraire, mon ami. It's the push for better that usually gets me into trouble. However, had I done things your way, I could have done better. But---I feel the "surprise t'call tactic" is similar to what others do when they leave a trailer that needs cleaned out or repairs- leave it for the next guy, "because if I don't, it'll hurt my miles". I mean, maybe it's the old school - O/O in me talking, but when you say you're going to move a load it should be picked up and delivered by you. Unless you set it up with op's in advance to taking it or at least before you pick it up, so it's not a surprise and then they have to find a 2nd driver to move the same load, say from Knoxville to NYC. It only doubles their workload when all of a sudden there's a driver deciding not to finish what he's started. The only exception to this is: A - Mechanical breakdown delays will cause a service failure, B - When another driver could use your load to get home closer to his/her requested time off, C - When op's request that you t'call for whatever their reason, but again - their call, so they're expecting it, D - After accepting load, shipper, weather or unusual traffic delays cause delivery to be late and a much later delivery appointment is made, E - driver illness/injury or sudden emergency (like death in family or family illness etc)--- there are probably many more, but just pulling up and suddenly requesting to ditch the load, even with miles left to go for the next guy, is still not right. Even running out of hours isn't an acceptable excuse to t'call unless it's pre-arranged, improper time management or inadequate load planning on the drivers part is inexcusable...if you didn't have the hours to finish, you should have said so before accepting.

One of my previous companies that I worked for almost never allowed you to 'relay'. Landstar, which is a franchised broker system(their name for brokers is -agents-). The only time you got out from under a load is in an emergency, and then you took such a huge hit on the pay, you would barely make enough to cover the fuel you used. And if you had an emergency too often, then it would be tough to get an agent to trust you with another load. Their axiom is "your word is you bond" if you say you'll haul it, you better haul it from beginning to end, or that agent wouldn't put you on another.

When I spoke to my terminal manager a few weeks ago, she even stated that the National fleet's average is down to 9200mi per month...So I guess there's a bunch of us slackers working here now, not just me.

As far as refusing a load. Refusing is a little too harsh a word... Requesting a more productive load offer is more like it. When people hear 'refusing' it makes one think of "H### no, I won't take it" instead of "is there anything more productive, I really could use a little better run"

As far as my weeks have been...surprisingly enough, almost nothing to complain about. Since leaving home, in the 1st 15 days I have turned 6200 miles. 1st full week 3300, last week 2460.(I left on a Thursday on a 490 mi run) The 2460 was a gift, after starting out w/a 930 mi weekend, and being empty on Monday morning with hours...in Ohio, I wasn't expecting anything since Ohio has been a freight dead zone lately. But to my surprise, a load, that picked up at 1500 only a few miles from my delivery, but...delivered Friday in Houston. Since I had gotten in trouble for my previous attempt at setting up a T'call before taking a load, I decided to shut up and drive. To my surprise again, I arrived at the shipper way early, only to have them flag me down and put me right into a door and start loading. Turns out they had been sitting around all morning wishing they had trucks to load their freight on. And I don't know where the mix-up happened, but many of the Crete drivers that were picking up there, had late afternoon or evening p/u's, but the shipper goes home at 1700, so they would have to wait until morning...not sure who set the appts, but they were way off. En route to Houston, between Memphis and Little Rock, I had inquired, politely, about the possibility of an earlier appointment being available, and I could be there mid morning on Wednesday. I got an almost instant reply, 'sorry, these are the earliest appointments we can get'. Thanking them, I planned on a 34hr in Houston. After all, it would have been 5300+ mi. in 2 weeks, still not a bad avg. after the way it's been the last year. An hour later, I got a message from the same dispatcher telling me I should have T'called in Memphis... But after I explained why I didn't request, I rolled on. The next message was, "msg from - his name withheld - I" (all I could see on the dashboard screen) so I figured it was 'I understand' or 'I know what you mean' and kept rolling. A few minutes later, customer directions, and another message from the same person. OK now I have to find a place to pull over and check...who knows, maybe they want me to meet someone who needs to get to Houston. To my surprise, his 1st message was "I can't expect you to sit under this load that long if there's freight to move in Houston, I'm checking with the Houston area board to see", then directions to the Houston drop yard, and instructions to T'call ASAP, there's freight to be moved. Now, I didn't ask to T'call, and I certainly wouldn't have requested to T'call in Houston after running all the miles off of it, but since I was asked by Ops to do so (see Reason C in the 1st paragraph), I won't look a gift-horse in the mouth. He made me feel like he was going out of his way to help...and I graciously thanked him for it...and will be much more tolerant of any loads from him in the future that aren't the most opportunistic simply because he made me feel like I was getting the best of what was available. Afterward, I had a roll paper load from the middle of nowhere(which could be almost anywhere in rural TX) up to the Dallas/Ft.Worth area which gave me my miles for the week, plus allowed me to get through Wilmer to sign my 'bad boy' warning and not have to pay for 2 faxes. Now I'm under a load from the Mesquite area to Madison, WI for 1st thing Monday. Not the longest weekend miles, but my logbook is off balance, and it will give me time to do a reset, hit Wally, do laundry, and catch up on this thread. Plus, I'll have 1065 mi on Monday and almost a full 70 to run the rest of the week. In the 18 days since I left home(including the delivery Monday) I will have turned over 7200 mi. I had less than that for the whole months of Feb and March (separately, not combined). It's nice to know I can still run with the big-dogs.(if they all decide to trot along at 61.2mph and make me feel like I part of the pack, that is)

 

Not a pay cut, just a drop in pay... less miles = less money. I started out 6 years ago at .42/mi. But as my years went up, my pay/mi. went up, but my miles went down. Until I hit the top of the pay scale, my annual raise offset my drop in miles. If the pattern continues the way it's been, I will have dropped almost 20,000 miles just this calendar year alone compared to last years paid miles. And since I'm at the top of the pay scale, drop in miles = drop in gross pay.

 

Ok wasn't quite sure, thanks for getting back. Crossing my fingers for all of you to get better miles... Besides, I might be joining the ranks and Crete is my #1 choice after doing my homework.

 

Luvtheroad...No, I did not go to Clark State. I looked at them briefly...and then moved on. Can't remember exactly what it was, but they just didn't interest me. I just finished attending Napier Truck Driver Training in Hamilton, Oh a couple weeks ago and I'm really glad I went there. In my opinion, they were an excellent school. I took the CDL exam last week and passed two of the three sections. I failed the road driving portion because of a mistake I made, not because of any fault of the school. I'm scheduled to take the test again this week, you can bet I won't make the same mistake again!

Supersnackbar...I'm almost embarrassed to mention what my number 2 choice is, and I'm sure I will catch some ###### for it, but it is what it is. My #2 choice is Werner. I know they do not exactly have a stellar reputation, but as I've said, many of the complaints just seem like people whining because something didn't go their way. Granted, I'm sure some of the complaints are legit, but I'm willing to bet many of them are all based on the drivers attitude. SS, your own posts on this thread would indicate that you would almost classify Crete in the same class as Werner, cutting your miles and just generally bending you over every chance they get. Went in your last post, you tell how your DM went above and beyond getting you out of a bad situation and into some good miles without you even asking for it. I know that I'm new and have yet a lot to learn about this industry, but I have read enough good stuff about Werner to give them the benefit of the doubt...until I get screwed. I think that is the least I could do. That's better than some companies I wouldn't even consider at all, unless I had absolutely no other choice.

My #1 choice is TMC. From what I've seen, they are a good company that pays well, takes care of their employees, and after talking with a couple drivers, just seems like a really good choice. Granted, I've read a few posts here about how they are doing away with some stuff that sets them apart from the other companies, but I still think they are a good company and, provided I can make it thru their orientation, I hope to be driving one of their big, black, shiny Petes!