CRETE - A Year in Review

I have not been doing this as long as you,so please help me understand.

Does deadheading not mean driving empty to get to somewhere to pick up a load?

How would hiring the right number of drivers eliminate the need for deadheading?

 

I'm going to sound like Methuselah here, but... back in the old days --

Layover pay was never a problem, because we RAN! You rarely waited for a load, there was almost always something that you could pickup and keep moving as soon as you were empty.

It was almost comical to watch the weekend races to Los Angeles - the drivers who got to L.A. late Friday night and Saturday would T-call their trailers at the droplot and get an outbound load that had been picked up Thursday or Friday and needed to get moving. The guys who diddled around in Vegas on the weekend, usually got stuck shagging a trailer or two in L.A. on Monday, but even then they'd get a run of 1,500+ miles out of L.A.!

But now, the times have changed. And with it, so have some of Crete's policies, but not all.

Load select seems to be all but extinct, and I haven't seen a Load Matrix sheet since I can't remember when. And when I had those two tools, I could make myself not only productive, but happy!

Used to be that you'd get a choice of two loads coming out of Minooka - say Breignigsville or Garland. Although you may not want to go to Garland, you'd have heard the stories about the 36-hour wait for loads out of eastern PA, and avoid going there like you'd avoid a lot lizard with HIV!

Now, there is no option. The computer selects the "best" load for you, and if that means you're going to PA, well... life's a b*t*h, then you die.

I understand that deadheading trucks costs the company money. I also understand that having two, three, four dozen trucks sitting in and around the Atlanta area on a weekend due to lack of freight makes no one especially joyous - especially the drivers!

But if I'm going to get involuntarily shipped off to an area where the company knows there is no freight and I'm going to sit for 24-36-48 hours waiting to get out of there, then I should be paid something for my unproductive time.

IMHO, it all boils down to this -- If they're going to put a sticker on the back of the trailer that says "Our Most Valuable Asset Is Behind The Wheel" (or something to that effect), then do something to make me feel like I'm a valuable asset - maybe put a little less focus on recruiting, and a little more focus on retention.

 

You are so ignorant on Crete's O/O program!

1) Crete DOES NOT do lease purchase. You must have money for a down payment (if you CHOOSE to finance through Union Bank, a Crete subsidiary), or have financing approved by a financial institute of YOUR choosing, or you pay cash in full. IT'S YOUR CHOICE!

2) If the truck is financed through Union Bank it must remain leased to an Acklie company and be governed at 65mph. I've yet to hear of any O/O forced to follow the 65mph rule. Also, the institute YOU CHOOSE to finance your truck through will not affect the amount of miles you get.

3) I've refused numerous loads because they were unproductive with no repercussions.

Now tell me Mr Know-it-all, how am I a sharecropper for being leased to Crete?

 

You have to be leased to Acklie and your truck must be governed? Who is paying for the truck, you or Acklie?

What are you getting, 90 cents a mile?

I bet your logs have to match your qualcomm? Yep. You are a glorified company driver.

I looked into that program when I was at Shaffer. I talked to a lot of drivers who did it. One of my friends did it (against my advice). Turned the truck in after 6 months.

I never figured why company drivers did it. They made more as company drivers, had benefits and didn't have the stress.

 

It would not eliminate the need. My point was, that if you insist on being stupid and hiring drivers, when you don't have enough freight for the drivers who are already working for you, then you should be obligated to either pay your drivers for sitting around or bounce 'em to the freight.

Ostergaard was under the delusion that he had to have all these drivers sitting around for when the big volume of freight returned. Which never happened. Of course he is not bright enough to realize that his actions just drove off more drivers. That's what happens when your only qualification to run a company is that you are banging the owner's daughter.

 

BIG AL, please feel free to start your own thread and stop cluttering evertruckers up. You are in the pro-crete section of the forum.

 

Doesn't Crete pay their O/O's for deadhead? Swift does.

 

Not unless they have changed their policy. I believe they had two plans to choose from. One that paid less per mile but included deadhead and one that paid more but didn't include DH.

 

BigAl, I have to agree that this is a forum for people that like Crete, your posts should be made on the 'bad company board'

 

It his defense, I must say that Mr. Ostergard has an M.Ba from the Wharton School of Business at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, and was working in private practice as a CPA when he met the young Ms. Acklie.

Also, it's unimaginable to me that Mr. Acklie would hand over management of the company to someone that he didn't feel was 100% qualified to replace him at the helm.

IMHO - Mr. Ostergard focuses on the bottom line, because that's what he's been trained to do. An accountant thinks that while $1,000,000,000 is good, $1,000,000,001 is better, and $1,000,000,002 is better still! And, again to his defense, he's doing everything he feels is necessary to keep the company afloat and viable during some difficult economic times.

However...

As I see it, running a company is like making a hamburger - you need a certain amount of "fat" in the meat. If you make a hamburger using meat that is too fatty, the burger doesn't hold together while you cook it, and turns out greasy. But, if you use meat that's too lean, the burger is bland and has no flavor.

I certainly understand and applaude Crete for keeping us gainfully employed during the past year or so, I'm glad that I haven't suffered like Arrow drivers, and that I still have a job - unlike Sitton drivers.

But I also think there are a few things that they could do that wouldn't cost very much, and would improve driver morale 110%! Personally, I'd like to see the return of "Load Select" - with the understanding that if there is more than one load in a given area, I'll get a choice as long as the deadhead miles aren't more than, say, 25 miles or so. I'd like to see the pet policy re-evaluated again, and I'd like to see more of an effort made in pre-planning drivers.

As I said earllier - I like it here, and they've been very good to me over the years. I just wish they'd put a little more focus on driver retention.

Stare at the image below, and keep repeating "I love Crete, and Crete loves me! I love Crete, and Crete loves me! I love Crete, and Crete loves me!" You'll feel better soon...