How Good is Shaffer?

drvrtech77 · Jul 25, 2025 at 12:55 AM

Millionaire Trucker said: ↑

Honest Review of Crete and Shaffer

After a year of working for Shaffer and Crete combined, I feel that I’ve gathered enough evidence to give an honest review.

I was assigned to pick up a truck at the Walmart DC terminal in Cheyenne, WY. My very first night in the truck, the bunk heater was broken, so I woke up freezing cold at 4 a.m. while it was snowing outside. My first load was assigned, despite having a broken sleeper bunk heater, to deliver in Denver at 4 a.m. the next day when it was 20 degrees outside.

I was then sent to the Salt Lake City terminal to have the bunk heater repaired. I told the shop that it was absolutely filthy when given to me at the Cheyenne shop in the Walmart DC terminal, and they did not inspect it at all before giving it to me. I asked the shop at Salt Lake City if they could check if everything was working properly on the truck, and was told they can’t do that, but they can do a DOT inspection.

While talking to other drivers, I learned that the Salt Lake shop is the slowest and most dreaded shop by drivers. When I asked if it’s because they are understaffed, I was informed, “No, it’s because they are just lazy.” I suspect they didn’t even do a DOT inspection.

I also told the shop that the air compressor was building air slowly and would get stuck at 100 psi. Obviously, the shop was too lazy to repair that, and I had to drive the truck with weak compressor output until being put in a new truck. Sometimes while stopped at a red light in an intersection, a warning would appear that the transmission may not shift due to low air pressure. Going downhill became dangerous if I were to use the brakes too often with weak compressor output.

After having the bunk heater repaired at the Salt Lake City shop, my next load was to California. Since the Salt Lake City shop refused to inspect if everything was working on the truck, it broke down in Barstow, CA, where I spent the weekend at the truck stop waiting to be towed on Monday.

The truck had to be towed to the dealership in Hesperia, CA. The towing company towed the truck from the back, and the wind broke the fairing. Crete reported that I could run with the truck until they got around to having it fixed.

My first paycheck from Crete was $471.76, and my second was $635.81.

Previously, I had told my terminal manager that both of my parents had died from Covid.

The mattress in the truck was old, caved in on one side, and had a hole in it, which was unsanitary given the pandemic considering I could get Covid from the mattress and die but the company only cares about money like Judas sold the location of Jesus to be crucified for a few pieces of silver.

They told me I was enrolled in Per Diem pay from the start, so by the time I found out I was not, I had already lost much due to increased taxable income. Compared to orientation at Shaffer, I was never given the option to opt out of 401k deductions at Crete and had to have that fixed months later when I discovered it.

My objective findings show that my asset manager was subpar. The evidence tells the story in which my first five paychecks were severely anemic, and I did not have enough miles to qualify for the quarterly productivity bonus.

My next asset manager would be the straw that broke the camel’s back and my reason to resign and no longer desire to buy a truck from Crete and continue on as an owner-operator for Shaffer.

From the beginning with my second asset manager, when I had a pickup after a delivery in California, the fuel solution was to fill before picking up the next load which reported by dispatch was to be over 40,000 lbs.

In the past, when I worked for Marten Transport, I’ve was told not to pick up a load over 40,000 lbs. with more than a half tank of fuel.

After my previous delivery, I didn’t have enough time to make it to pick up my next load if I had stopped to fuel, so I went straight to pick up, running out of hours of service at the shipper before shutting down at the closest safe haven.

After explaining the situation to my asset manager and asking nicely if I could fuel where I shut down, I was told: “We don’t get to hand-pick where we fuel,” then was instructed by my asset manager to backtrack 15 miles to fuel, wasting fuel and precious time as being a truck driver sometimes feels like you’re constantly racing the clock to make on-time deliveries.

That incident from the very beginning set the tone and foreshadowed what was yet to come—a menagerie of depressing, unproductive, mediocre loads, with many trailer moves in between, resulting in an unrewarding, exhausting, depressing decrease in overall mileage. I didn’t make the first productivity bonus and barely qualified for the second one, with much unfilled earning potential left.

It would appear that changing asset managers would be the simple solution, but I’ve learned the hard way through experience with four different asset managers from and Crete combined that they are all the same. The problem extends from all the asset managers to all the load planners, who have the same retarded paradigm unable to stack you on 3 loads at a time and run 3400 miles a week. My asset manager at Shaffer told me that the didn’t have the loads available to run more that 2500 miles per week and running more than 3000 miles per week was a rare occasion.

Crete looks for reasons to punish you and not pay you a bonus, as another driver told me his story of how he made a U-turn in a bobtail and hasn’t received a bonus for the two years he’s been there. Crete is the only company in existence that makes you pay for Per Diem by decreasing your cents per mile by one cent, kind of like Judas sold the location of Jesus to be crucified for a few pieces of silver.

All I can do is ask myself: What am I supposed to learn from this? What do I do now? I’ve learned that I would not recommend to my worst enemy to work for Shaffer or Crete.

When I started with Crete, I wanted to buy a truck from Crete and work for Shaffer as an owner-operator. Experience has taught me that nothing could be more miserable.

While I was having my bunk heater repaired at the Salt Lake Shop, I was talking to other drivers in the driver’s lounge about quitting Shaffer since they made you take a mandatory 10-hour break at the shipper. Shaffer is the only place I’ve ever worked as a company driver that issued a mandatory 10-hour break at the shipper with no paid detention.

Shaffer sent me to pick up beef loads at JBS in Greeley, CO, and it was mandatory to take my 10 hour break at their hide plant, which is inhumane, being a gravel lot that smells like manure and has no bathrooms.

The other drivers were appalled after hearing my story and said that was kidnapping, which I agree, especially if you’re not being paid detention.

When I worked for Shaffer, on one occasion I was having service done on my tractor at their Indy terminal. While at the terminal, I talked to another driver who had been with the company for three years and expressed her dismay, saying that in the beginning, they gave her a lot of miles but then eventually gave her less and less miles and many shag loads. She said they were always hiring new drivers and gave all the long loads to the new drivers.

My second asset manager at Shaffer would be my death sentence, causing me to resign. My weekly paycheck hit a rock bottom of $800, and with only nine months of experience, she could not get me home on time.

I left, and after a while, Shaffer told me to come back, so I decided to come back and give Crete a try, thinking it might be better. I had such high hopes of coming back and working for Crete, but that proved to be otherwise.

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, so it’s only fair I give you a review of how Crete/Shaffer compare to others in the exact same industry.

In conclusion, Crete and Shaffer will lure you with a high cents per mile compared to other companies but they don’t have the freight available to run you more than 2500 miles per week so you can make descent money as I was told by my asset manager.

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A lot of this is bs..

Bumper · Jul 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM

drvrtech77 said: ↑

A lot of this is bs..
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B.S. ... here???? LOL

drvrtech77 · Jul 25, 2025 at 7:05 PM

Bumper said: ↑

B.S. ... here???? LOL
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I said a lot of it was..not all…what i have personally seen is the crete side has more issues than the shaffer side does…

Bumper · Jul 25, 2025 at 9:32 PM

drvrtech77 said: ↑

I said a lot of it was..not all…what i have personally seen is the crete side has more issues than the shaffer side does…
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Oh, I was agreeing with you. I think a lot of stuff here about companies is b.s. Just have to wade through it and decide how much you can put up with.

JForce28 · Jul 25, 2025 at 10:49 PM

BigTime1980 said: ↑

I was contacted by a recruiter for Shaffer. We talked a little bit. It seems like they only offer mileage pay, and while they say they have consistent mileage, they don't offer a guarantee. I know they're not some fly-by-night company, but I have been burned a few times, and lots of those burns involve mileage pay, and short runs and long hours in the dock or stuck in traffic in Atlanta or Charlotte. I also know that unloading at food warehouses is famous for taking an eternity. Some of the longest dock times I've ever had were at food warehouses. Even a dedicated account I talked about is mileage-based. I'm trying to avoid that if possible. Most of the times I have been burned was with mileage pay. If it's not possible to avoid, I might get rid of my CDL. It seems like there aren't any good driving opportunities anymore.
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I see a lot of drivers on their Facebook driver page complaining about micromanaging of the fuel solutions. The pumps cut off after so many gallons and having to make four fuel stops a trip.

drvrtech77 · Jul 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM

Bumper said: ↑

Oh, I was agreeing with you. I think a lot of stuff here about companies is b.s. Just have to wade through it and decide how much you can put up with.
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They all have their bs..just some different eays of shellling it out..i agree with you that folks just need to decide what’s best for them and what they are willing to tolerate.

drvrtech77 · Jul 28, 2025 at 11:23 AM

JForce28 said: ↑

I see a lot of drivers on their Facebook driver page complaining about micromanaging of the fuel solutions. The pumps cut off after so many gallons and having to make four fuel stops a trip.
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The fuel pumps do not cut off after certain amount of gallons. That’s a misnomer that people are putting out…

dieselpowered · Jul 28, 2025 at 1:12 PM

I will say that anyone in Reefer will say that there will be many wait times, regardless of the company; that's the nature of the business. I know some companies that have long miles, but again, there's wait times. I hear people jump from one reefer outfit to another, expecting another outcome there will be no different outcome aside from maybe average pay. If you sitting hours on end and giving 2 hours free in most these companies every time you hit a dock. I would say reefer and likely even dry van are not gonna be your cup of tea.

OTR drivers generally give away hours of free work theres been a few studies say it around 20-25k every OTR driver loses out in just sitting around every year. Now you could join a union, they exist but then theres also other issues that union give, such as strikes, union dues and a strike in say, hypothetical in say Maine could trouble a guy in Texas only thing is a strike would be out of work no pay has something i describe happened no clue but when a union poses a strike you gotta strike or find another job. I had my best bud quit trucking between no life and his wife got tired him not being around she left him all while he was trying to provide. He's now a hibachi chef, no clue how that's going, I just know he got tired of what trucking industry and what it's taken from him.

wulfman75 · Jul 28, 2025 at 9:16 PM

I've never had a problem getting a new mattress with a new company. If the truck aint clean and a new rolled up mattress I hand them keys and call enterprise.

High Stepper · Jul 28, 2025 at 9:47 PM

I know when @ElmerFudpucker hired on at Crete, they wouldn't give him a new mattress. He sent nasty emails on the tablet about how he needed good rest if he was going to run 300 miles a day.

Management had a closed door meeting and the president read the emails aloud. He was given a new tempurpedic mattress, a dedicated run, and the direct line to the CEO'S office. This all occurred within two weeks of his hire date.

He fuels where he pleases, runs as many miles as he wants, and the CEO calls him and discusses the contracts of all accounts for his input. Seems like a pretty good company from his perspective.

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