CRETE - A Year in Review

I've been following this thread for a year or so and it's fairly interesting. Especially having been with Crete for a few years now and reading your experiences from "afar" without posting. I always enjoy seeing if other driver's days sometimes mirror mine.

ET's posts are always brimming with drama of one form or another. I must admit though, based upon what i've read so far he rarely has anything break on his truck and somehow always manages over 3000 miles per week. Not always, but it seems more often than not. I only wish i could say the same for my miles. Far from the case. But good for him.

I'm a Western driver, and yes I stick to my region. I know some other "Western" drivers go whereever and that is up to them if they want to run all over the US and get paid as if they are not. I choose not to run in the N/E for all the reasons that i read on this board. In fact I only go as far as Kansas City, Council Bluffs, or Texas. It frustrates dispatch at times, but that is what they agreed upon when they told me "Western". And Virginia is not "Western" to me, unless I was a Crete driver who took hometime in the U.K. There is a price for the easier driving and that price is in c.p.m. I'm willing to accept that.

This Labor Day weekend tested the boundaries of what i perceive (and i could be wrong) as decent behavior for a motor carrier... or any employer for that matter.

After what was supposed to be one day in Salt Lake securing my Med Card for another two years, and a routine B service - I was told I needed to run over to International for a couple of recall's that could be done that afternoon. Well, they were done that afternoon except for while doing those recalls they found that my exhaust system had some breakage due to stress. Parts were needed, and i was whisked off to a motel room via the motel shuttle. I was told the work would be done by Friday. This was Wednesday.

As luck would have it, the parts were scavenged from another CCC truck to get me back moving (later i would wonder why they bothered) and the work was completed a day early. Nice. I put in my MT call Friday morning.

I received an offer that picked up in Sandy, UT right away and took me to the Absolute-Middle-of-Nowhere, NE. Deliver the next day, which was Saturday afternoon. No problem. Except it was Saturday afternoon on a holiday weekend, and getting an offer after MT had me shaking my head while enroute from Wyoming. I figured I was gonna be on ice.

I pull into the consignee, and was greeted by a nice enough employee who then told me which dock to drop the trailer in. I asked him if this was a live unload, and he said he was sorry but he was a fill-in and could not unload the trailer. That in fact he had no MT trailers, only loaded ones but unfortunately none of those were quite ready for shipment as the paperwork had not been completed yet. He also informed me they would be closing for the weekend shortly, and not re-opening until Tuesday, which by the time they got things ramped up i might have an MT trailer or outbound load by sometime Tuesday after lunch. He apologized. I reluctantly accepted.

So off to the truck i trudged to put in my MT call, and inform dispatch that i would not have an MT trailer available to me. They responded with a cherry 1700 mile run, and then followed it with a "void" message and told me to let them know when i had an MT trailer. That they could not dispatch me without one. I told them that i would not have an MT until sometime Tuesday and today is SATURDAY. They said: "Get with your terminal manager on layover pay when they re-open after the holiday."

I had never up until this point actually thought seriously of abandoning their equipment and finding my way home. But those thoughts weren't coming in little the lapping waves that massage your ankles while beachcombing. These were the kind of waves that destroy entire intercoastal communities.

What to do.

By luck or chance my FM was working on Saturday afternoon when I called. (I will refer to my FM as my FM so not as to give away gender and thereby letting you deduce who they might be.) My FM informed me to "Sit tight, I'll see what I can do." So i sat tight... and sat... and sat. I get a message the next day (Sunday) around noon: "I appreciate your patience, upper MGMT has been informed of your situation". What the message didn't say was that i was getting out of here any time soon. I informed my FM that i appreciated the intervention, but did not understand how Crete could berate someone like this.

So...here i sit. Left on a side street in the Middle-of-Absolutely-Nowhere, NE. Waiting until tomorrow for the gates of this company to open and at some point get an MT trailer. If it's after lunch tomorrow, that will be a 3 day wait. And to me, that is unacceptable. Crete should not, in good conscience, let someone sit this long in a tractor waiting for a trailer whether they get paid detention, or layover, or whatever the nickels and dimes add up to. They should bobtail you out of that location when the delay is this excessive.

Maybe i'm wrong. But after being in this tractor hour after hour, i don't feel wrong. And honestly, if i knew that they would not black mark my DAC for vehicle abandonment, i would have been long gone by now. But i know better than that.

Thanks for listening, if any of you guys or gals read this. I'll try not to post again for another couple of years. Be safe.

 

HD I feel for you. How did you get approved for the Western Fleet when your header shows you live in Atlanta? Also, if you don't get any satisfaction from your FM on layover pay, go directly to Mr L Hoffman. Use the canned 23 msg to contact him.

Good Luck

 

HD did you get a mt yet?

 

If anyone is passing through, or stopping for the night, in Effingham,IL I'm at the International dealer across the freeway from the Petro. I can walk across and say hi. I'm bored and need something to do! Truck should be ready to roll tomorrow.

 

Hi, I am thinking of going to work for Crete. Was wondering how orientation is? What kind of drug test do they do? When I worked for J.B Hunt they gave me a hair test and it took 2 months for the bald spot to go away! I don't use drugs or even drink for that matter. Seems like Crete is good to work for? Do they go into Canada? Also I've been off work for a year but have 6 years experience (due to surgery). Will they make me go with a trainer? Will the pay be low cause of my time off. Thanks in advance.

 

Orientation for company driver is three days +/- and you get paid for it , don't remember how much.

Drug test consists of urinating in a bottle.

Canada, not so much any more. But you will need HazMat.

A year off, you will be sent with a trainer. Any where from 1-8 weeks, dependent upon how fast you recover your skills.

Advice, call the recruiting department for clarification to all QA.

HAPPY TRAILS!

 

Must be BD in Holdrege, NE where you were stuck over the weekend. I usually have great luck getting a load out of there to Redlands, CA after a drop. Great in the winter time because they wnat it run the southern route (no I-70). Sitting there for 3 days would be a REAL bummer.

 

Cool thanks jdrentzjr

 

Hey cool35, why would you wonder what type of drug test they do? You are either drug free or not. Just wondered.

 

Welcome to the 1 dimensional zone...aka the Crete Carrier planning department. Where the motto is similar to the roach motel's motto only there's is something like - we can get you in, but we may never get you out. Sounds like you might have been in McCook, NE. If so, you're right, they are nice people, except a bit confused and disorganized(is it something in the water in Nebraska that does that to people?) The last time I was there, I delivered and picked up at the same place....but they received the load I brought in on the shipping dock side of the place, and my load was being loaded at the receiving dock...(the signs at least said receiving/shipping...maybe in Nebraska they're in some sort of parallel universe where everything is reversed)

Oh,and by the way, with the exception of places in and around the cities of Omaha and Lincoln...everywhere else is 'in-the-middle-of-nowhere', NE.