USIT Talk

The rumor mill has it that nearly 300 drivers hauled butt a few months ago. I understand we've also lost quite a few trainers. If true, then I wonder if the recent events at the company might have been the result of this?

 

Makes sense, but it is sad that it takes things like losing drivers before you make changes. All of these companies have the mindet that if they keep hiring, then they can lose drivers and their will be more there next week to take their truck...But if they just keep the drivers that are there and pay them decent to stay and keep them moving, then they will be happy and you will save money in the long run.

 

One thing that pisses me off to no end is truck assignments. With 300 brand new Cascadia 10 speeds sitting around, I BEGGED to get one when they took me out of my Prostar that fell apart. First I was told that they were not assigning them until all the old trucks were assigned. Visually determined by myself to be false. Then when I confronted operations with this I was told that they were only going to experienced drivers so I didn't qualify. After seeing several upgrade students roll out in them (one I had to help back into a dock the other day) I also proved this to be false. Then I was told that neither the FMs or ops had any control over truck assignments. When I asked who did I was told that there is one person in Training who does that and drivers do not speak to him/her/it(???). Why they just didn't tell me that in the first place is beyond me. I suppose this individual just tosses up coins or draws names from a hat. The only reason I'm semi satisfied with this truck is because it's a T660. For that I can somewhat tolerate the autoshift.

 

They couldn't tell you that in the first place, because it is a lie, and they finally found something you can't prove wrong.

 

I know Karen Davis does the truck assignment for new drivers. She is in training, but I wouldn't think she does truck assignments for the whole company.

 

No, Karen calls the person that makes them. I am not sure who does it but I know for a fact Karen only calls and gets a truck number and location then gets new upgrade transportation to it. I was in her office the day she called and got several trucks.

 

Yea your right I do remember her saying she was waiting on "him" to call back.

 

So if you have the cruise control set and a belt strap around the steering wheel while you're in the bunk watching a movie......can you count that as sleeper berth time lol?

 

Ok this isn't really about USA it's about Crete but I didn't want to post in their section to avoid a flame war. Its become apparent to me lately that Crete has a geriatric fleet. A grey cadre if you will. Just for the record I don't have a problem with the elderly, just the driving style of Crete's elderly. Couple of examples I'll list. First, I've followed more than one Crete driver for miles with one turn signal on or no headlights. I've tried getting them on the radio to ask if they are ok or need to change lanes and get no response. Then the second example applies. Whenever I try to pass a Crete truck it's always a hassle. They are at 62 and I'm at 63. Now I'm not one of the ##### that jumps out into heavy traffic. I try to always wait on a long gap or no visible traffic from the rear. Well as I'm trying to pass steadily, sometimes a group of cars and trucks does stack up. About the time I get cab and cab I start trying to make eye contact so he knows im trying to pass. I'm never successful and I usually see Mr. Magoo propped way up over the wheel squinting straight ahead. Well then the drivers behind me will start talking crap on the cb and I'm getting frustrated trying to get around Crete and no answer on the radio even when I see they have one. I NEVER hinder a faster truck from passing in fact I usually try to facilitate it by backing off 1-2 mph to relieve the traffic congestion. Not Colonel Sanders, he just keeps plugging away. One time I got so pissed I just went ahead and changed lanes a little short. Not dangerously close but about 7-10 feet off his hood. After refusing to acknowledge me all that time he had the nerve to blow his air horn at me.

 

thats funny you mention Crete,there was one coming out of Houston this afternoon that stayed in the middle lane all the way down I-10 lol.He wouldn get in the right lane to save his butt i ended up passing him on the right because i got tired of waitn for him to move over