CRETE - A Year in Review

I'm having such a wonderful time at home, I'm extending my vacation by another week!

My MMR for June is going to look horrible, but I'll be tanned, rested, and ready to go when I return!

 

I just saw this thread and started reading a few pages. You or someone else may have answered this but I havent seen it yet, Do the trucks have APU's?

 

Here's a great answer -- it depends.

Some of the older Century trucks only have the factory installed Opti-Idle.

Some of the newer Century trucks have either a ThermoKing or a Carrier APU.

The newer International and Freightliner trucks have an additional battery pack installed, along with a electric A/C and an Espar heater.

So, it depends on what truck you get as to what auxillary heating/cooling it will or won't have.

The older Century trucks with only the Opti-Idle are about at the end of their service life. If you were assigned one of these, I wouldn't expect you to be in it for more than six months before it was due to be traded.

 

Seems like a decent company. My only complaint? Those god-awful trailers with the huge arrow and font that reads something like: FIND OUT WHY THIS DRIVER IS THE HAPPIEST AT HIS COMPANY

Talk about over-exploitation. Goodness gracious!

 

Well folks, I'm making the plunge. After many phone conversations with jdrentzjr and talking with a few other Crete owner/operators, I'm buying a truck.

It took quite a while for me to talk my wife into letting me do the deed. What clinched it was, I took my pay stubs from April, extracted the miles from each run, used Google Maps to determine the portion of those miles that were deadhead, and made a spreadsheet of the month and what I would have made as an O/O. I used the "Option 1" sliding pay scale (shorter trips pay more for loaded miles, longer trips pay less). I got with a guy from the used equipment purchase program at Crete and he sent me an info packet that lists each fixed expense. I figured on $0.20/mile net fuel cost after applying fuel surcharge (jdrentzjr does a little better than that with a same model-year truck, and I plan on buying a truck with an APU, so I should actually do a touch better what with no idling, but I wanted a "worst case" scenario). I also figured on $0.12 per mile for maintenance/repairs. Crete requires $0.08 per mile be held in a maintenance escrow, and that's about what jdrentzjr spends on maintenance/repairs, but again I wanted a "worst case" scenario - so I added 50% for a total of $0.12 per mile for maintenance.

After all that, and with buying health, dental, vision, life and short-term disability insurance (again, through Crete - they offer policies to their O/O's and I got the quotes directly from Crete) - I would have made somewhere in the neighborhood of an extra $900 in April had I been an O/O, using the numbers I stated above. About $250 of that would, of course, go to the Federal government, as a self-employed person pays twice as much Social Security and Medicare tax as an employee of another entity, but it's still worth it to me. The slight increase in freedom, the pride of ownership, the slight increase in earnings, all add up to enough benefit to be worth the risk I'm taking on in the form of a truck payment.

July 2 is my anniversary date, and I'll accrue 2 weeks of vacation then. I plan to cash that in, go to Lincoln, pick out a truck, sign on the dotted line, and if the truck I like the maintenance records of best doesn't already have an APU, it'll go to the Thermo-King dealer (I can get an APU at Crete's cost, and they'll put that price in the loan).

If anyone is interested in the spreadsheet, I'll be glad to take out the trip numbers and send it along.

BTW, my miles have been on a massive upswing since the end of winter. I don't have numbers handy, but on weeks when I'm not at home, I've been averaging around 3000 miles. Life is good.

Of course, there are always headaches - particularly when dispatchers are involved. Welcome to trucking

 

Wish ya the best of luck...i seen that they have 3 petes left for sale and i want one. (more room) been tryin to twist the wifes arm but shes puttin up a good fight..lol another friend bought some dvd set about the do an dont's of becoming an o/o really like to see that. talk to a driver today that bought a pete cept he got his new thru crete and havnt had any major things go wrong with it in the 5 years he's had it. and he jus got his truck paid off...to me thats the key to stay afloat til the payoff..keep us updated i really like to know what you think about it and what truck your gonna buy.

 

Best of luck to ya RB, keep us updated.

 

You might want to seriously reconsider your decision. By your own accounting (and it seems you are being realistic for the most part) you will make $ 162 more a week. Even if that was accurate, it is certainly not worth the investment. One major repair before you have saved up your escrow will wipe you out.

I have not seen the fixed expense list you mention, but there are probably some things missing. Does it include truck washes, permits, etc.

What I am trying to say is that $162 margin is WAY too thin for the risk. And the independence you are looking forward to? Not likely at Crete. You will still be micromanaged and your truck governed.

If you really want to own a truck, get a loan, buy your own truck, and lease on somewhere like Landstar. You will have the independence, and you will make more money if you know what you are doing.

 

Al I know you say your only concerned about us OTR drivers, and that's why you post what you do. Just remember, we are big boys and girls, and those of us who have been a part of this industry for a very long time already understand what the pitfalls can be.

 

I also spent 5 days at home in April

I would've netted about $650 more, but in 25 days that's $26 extra dollars a day - or about what I spend for food while I'm on the road. There's also the benefit that, in a truck I own, particularly with an APU, I can put a microwave oven in there and eat healthy, for quite a bit less. That part will be hard to quantify until after I've been at it a while.

That said, there's more to it than the money. The money is important, but it's not everything.