Crete or Marten or Pride or Legend or knight

My little brother drove for Pride. He said they were one of the best companies he ever drove for. But he never got to see the "real" money with any carrier he worked for. That was about 5 years ago I think, maybe 6 even that he drove for Pride. He is an attorney now, so making way more than he probably ever would have in a truck.

Marten talks, a lot. I worked for Marten. I didn't really like their pay. The snow pay, detention and all that is capped. Its not like they pay you $20 per hour every hour of every day you sit in snow. I was on a dedicated account, restaurant depot when I worked for them. If I remember correctly my pay was in the 40 cpm range. It wasn't terrible, though. Biggest issue with them was not being paid for going on a expedition hunting for an empty trailer. And didn't like how they think driving from west Houston to east Houston is 0 miles, just because it's in the same city. That drive could take as much as two hours depending on traffic and such.

 

With Crete, I didn't have any issues with nanny devices on the truck. My truck was pretty bare. The dispatch is like dealing with call center reps. They are detached, they won't really remember anything you tell them. They are extremely anal about following their fuel routes... and they'll always give you like the worst fuel stops, lol. Seriously.

Example, there are a lot of good places to fuel around in Colorado. But they will tell you to go fuel at the TA in Wheatridge CO, which is Denver. Then you get there, all the pumps are broken except for two, and there's no def at all... and the right-side pump wasn't working. So I filled up the left side, then drove on down the road and filled up again down the road.... they called me over that. I explained the situation calmly and they told me that when that happens I have to call in for a new fuel route. Well, the TA was full and I was in the way, so I had to move. I couldn't just sit there and make phone calls. So I made a judgement call.

Yeah, it's annoying bro. BUT, the pay checks should be pretty good.

There's also HUNT, which is Crete's flatbed company and they are more hands off. There's less of the micromanaging and dispatch is more personal with you. They will remember when you tell them things and they work with you better. They still have to be anal about the fuel routes, because Crete forces that down... but it's not nearly so much of a meat grinder.

 

I’ve never heard anything good about Crete, as far as a driver’s day-to-day operations. Their fuel stop micromanaging was the #1 deal breaker for me.

To the OP, I’d look at Dot Foods, down in Bullhead City. They’re 104mi away, but, I was driving 106mi to work for them, in Mount Sterling, IL. Here are some reasons why:
• They make their money selling food, so they can afford to pay their drivers better. Their accessory pay is second to none. Think of them like a Walmart for restaurants and food distributors.
• Free healthcare. They have onsite medical facilities, fully staffed, at every DC. You and your family can walk right in, anytime.
• Excellent benefit package.
• Great work culture and still family-owned and -operated. They hire only the best staff, who were all fantastic to me.
• You can have a fairly predictable schedule, depending on the driver position you choose. 4-on/4-off, 6-on/3-off, and there’s another schedule option, which I can’t remember. There are customer delivery drivers (CDS) who can make over $100K, but, lump everything themselves. There are no-touch, transfer driver options (with some customer deliveries, which are receiver lumped and billed to Dot). I ran open dispatch, as a transfer driver. I went anywhere any DC needed something pulled. But, most Bullhead transfer drivers are going to run to Modesto or somewhere into the midwest to swap trailers with another transfer driver. Dot is heavily reliant on daisy-chaining trailers across the country.
• Dot has priority delivery at most regular customers. For instance, Dot goes into Sysco one hour before receiving hours, on their set delivery days. A bunch of lumpers will jump onto the Dot loads and get them worked as quickly as possible, before starting normal receiving for everyone else.
• Nice equipment, which is properly maintained. They have fully-staffed shops, where no maintenance expense is spared.
• From what I saw, anyone who wasn’t happy or couldn’t make it within their system needed to take a long look into the mirror. Attitude is everything.

If there’s anything Dot-specific you might want to know, just let me know. I’ve been gone awhile, so I won’t be accurate on current pay scale and such. I’d still be there, except serious health issues knocked me down for a few years.

 

Pick one closest to your home. Pick a color you like and just get out there!!!

 

@Hazardous2haul --

If you are thinking of changing carriers now--here are some other factors to seriously consider.

If you read other current threads on this Forum, you will see that (at the time of this writing) a recession has obviously started--freight volumes are down, & in some places, down by A LOT.

The worst of it is still very likely yet to come.

You don't say (yet) what carrier you're now with, or what endorsements you have (if any), but given the direction of freight volumes & the economy--it may make more sense to stay where you are--until things start to bottom out.

If you jump ship now to another carrier--you are then the "new guy"...& have the charge of proving yourself....all over again.

With freight volumes dropping, as the "new guy"...you are the one most likely to be laid off, furloughed...or spend the most time waiting...for new loads.

The drivers there with more tenure/seniority will naturally get the better loads/lanes.

If you are waiting for new loads, you are very likely not making any money.

On the other hand--if where you are has grown absolutely & completely intolerable...instead of focusing on which other carrier has the best miles, cpm, etc...also look for which ones will most likely have the more consistent freight volumes, in a severe economic setback.

An easy example: carriers that haul food are some of the most likely to keep you busy & running in a recession.

The suggestion given above, Dot Transportation, is an excellent candidate for consideration.

If I were to go back to reefer duty--Dot is probably the carrier with which I would run.

Another example: household staples.

In my area, Marten Transport pulls dedicated loads for Walmart.

If you could score the same dedicated gig where you are--that would likely keep you from sitting, or worse.

Given where things are now headed--I would suggest staying away from general freight--& go instead with something a bit more specialized, like that above.

Think about it....

--Lual

 

Do you think they can provide a more "traditional" OTR experience for those who want to stay out longer and see more of the country?

Also, how much night driving would be involved with them? Do they have weird delivery hours like 1am?

Also, are they big on the drive cams, automatic braking, "safety coaching", etc etc?

 

I was an OTR transfer driver who ran “open dispatch”. What that means is I’d go anywhere they needed loads moved. Generally speaking, most Dot drivers are set up for out-and-back. I wanted to travel and turn miles, with my best 70hr week being 4277mi, in a 65mph truck.

I was based out of Mt Sterling, which is advantageous. It’s the headquarters DC and the only one to stock all 120K products they offer. That means loads are going everywhere, out of there. I’d try and set up myself for Modesto, CA, out of there. That’d be 2006mi, to start my stint. Then, I’d go wherever, from there. It got me away from my home DC and gave me options to travel. I managed to stay gone 18 days, for one stretch. But, I also did trailer turns and customer deliveries (no-touch), too. Whatever they needed.

They pay $50/day, for every day out over 8. If I got held up without a load, somewhere, they paid detention on that, at $280/day. Detention is $20/hr, after 2hrs. The accessory pay like that adds up, running like I did.

They can have messed up hours. However, most times, it’s for the driver’s benefit. For instance, I did a live unload at 1am, in Los Angeles. From there, I went to their Paramount lot, D&H, and got out of town before traffic got nuts. Some customers gave priority delivery to Dot, which meant early appts, before normal receiving hours. On some return loads of their own products, other DC’s would set up things to run all night. I’d just tell them “I don’t do that”. I’m not an overnight driver, plain and simple. Yes, I’d get dinged for “late delivery”, because of the arrival time that DC entered into the system. But, I didn’t care and no one ever said a thing. I’d drop a trailer at HQ and it’d still be sitting in the same spot, 3 days later, reefer running. That taught me, return loads aren’t as crucial as some dispatchers would make things out to be. My home dispatcher knew I liked a 5am-5pm schedule and he did his best to keep me close to that. Plus, if you know what you’re doing, you can plan for yourself, as well. So long as you were where you needed to be, all was good. Again, I ran a little differently than a traditional driver, there.

They do have in/out cameras (Volvo sun visor blocks the inward). Their main use for them is for accidents and verification. They do have a parameter system that picks up sudden braking, mitigation, speeding, etc. Safety will view the footage, just to see what went on. If you have repeated things/trends, yes, they’ll talk to you about it. If the system flags for speeding, they double-check the footage to see if the driver was speeding or if the system was incorrect. The system is not necessarily used against drivers, per se. Each month, drivers receive a “report card”. On it will be everything for the month, in a scorecard fashion; not a list of incidents. If a driver wants to see what the incidents were, safety will pull up each incident and let the driver see the footage. None of it is ever done in a disciplinary manner; they simply don’t do that. It’s a team environment and they just want everybody to be safe. If a driver is struggling, the help is there. If it’s severe, the driver could be sent back out with a trainer for remedial training. Have an accident and remedial training is guaranteed. Again, they’re not there to pin blame or whatever. They just want drivers to be the best they can. The head of safety is my former dispatcher, who was the best dispatcher I’ve ever had. The dude is awesome and runs safety as it should be; like a partnership.

As I’ve repeatedly said to many, DTI is the best place I’ve ever worked. I ran hard for them and they took great care of me.