Crete Carrier Corporation - Lincoln, Ne.

For a newbie that may seem like gravy, but for an experienced driver that is only about 70%(give or take) of a normal week's pay.

 

I understand. That would be a bad week in my daycare too. But did I read it right that is waiting for a load all week? Or is it a long day of local driving. If it's a normal work week then yeah I get it. I can live on short weeks like that so long as there are other weeks where the income is better. My best week now is about 1200. But my average is about 850-950. A bad week for me would be about 700 which stinks. For me though, these are my before expense figures. My expenses are about 25-30% of my pay sometimes. But if I'm really cheap I can do better.

Suzi

 

I have been looking hard at Crete and I think this is the company for me for several reasons. However, their site is confusing. They say in one section you need a minimum of 1 year exp. and then they say that they will hire new drivers from certain schools. I will be going to PIA in just a couple of weeks and would love to apply with Crete. Any suggestions?

 

hey Irishmike202,

i encourage you to apply with Crete if you really want too. i was accepted and hired with just 8 months experience driving with another company. i can say that from day one everything has been a positive experience with Crete. i came aboard early June 07 spent 3 weeks with a trainer and now making money rollin down the road on my own. goodluck and be safe out there on the road.


Haze1

 

Crete will accept students with good records from PTDI schools. Call recruiting and make sure your school is on their approved list. They also have a school in Nebraska that they partnership with that has very low tuition if you are near there. Crete ie s very good company if you live on a freight lane for getting home, otherwise it could be hard as it is for me. They take care of the equipment, get you miles and pay well.

 

"Why in the world would anyone gripe about sitting around for 5 days for 750 dollars? Am I missing something?"

um, yes, you are missing something. By 'live there' I mean you will be at the terminal, not at a truckstop with access to groceries, clean showers, etc.
You drive local, you make multiple stops at WalMarts while waiting for unloading, you get short notice on load assignments. You may wait hours at the terminal and hours more at the store.
If you prefer to run multi-stop local delivery for $150 a day versus running 500miles at a 46 cents/mile paygrade for $230, then have at it!!

 

I'd never choose that job and stay local. I couldn't live on the 750 on a regular basis. BUT... I would do it if the company gave me something else in return. I'm sure that if I was a driver currently I could think of all sorts of things to ask for and they would be willing to comp me something in return. Obviously the jobs need to be done and hopefully when the contract is up with Walmart they will not sign another.

Suzi

 

I very much agree with you! I had hoped with the intervention of my manager that a deal could have been worked out (only a couple of days instead of 5, a higher per diem rate, a promise that I wouldn't be targeted for that assignment again). But he had no balls, did not stand up for me, and when he started spouting a lie to support the company, I hung up on him.
(he stated the employee rules say that drivers will do anything the company asks, I read to him from the manual, that drivers will accept any load offering made by dispatch. period. Nothing about fleet changes no matter how temporary. If they wanted to dispatch me to Illinois for a specific WalMart load, I'd have gone.

 

The problem here is if you do these Wal-Mart runs and don't complain, you'll become the "go-to" guy who'll be expected to do them ALL the time in the near future. This is how it was at SwiftCo. Sometimes you gotta show 'em who is the real boss of you.

It sounds like they're experimenting a bit there at Crete to see if this scheme will work for them at more places than just Sterling and at more customers than just Wal-Mart.

If Crete falls into a black hole, that will leave only about one or two good OTR companies. The tiny sliver of light that is the prospect of my getting my CDL back someday has become even dimmer today as I read these latests posts about Crete.

What is going on at Sterling will spread unless drivers put their collective foot down right now. This may mean quitting, but you can always go back later after Crete has learned from this mistake. Yeap, if you have to, walk away from 'em for a little while. They'll get the message.

 

Have you thought about going over the guys head? I was once fired at a bank for making mistakes about 5 weeks into my job. I marched right into the company presidents office and introduced myself. I explained that they failed to train me as they had said they would. Then they took me just a few days into what was supposed to be a 2 week training and threw me into a busy drive through window when I was supposed to be inside the bank in a slower position in order to get used to the job. I was in no way ready to count about 70,000 dollars per day worth of cash after 5 days of training. The guy gave me another job in the bank instead. It worked out ok.

It's possible they are trying to make those of you that are making 46 cents per mile mad so that they can hire in new people at the 41 cents per mile. I read that they gave the drivers an increase in pay recently? Maybe they are trying to look all caring by doing that but then planning to make the more experienced drivers quit. It may not sound like a lot. But that extra 5 cents per mile would really add up if they had enough drivers making it.

Suzi