CRETE - A Year in Review

As a junior member, (1 yr) I am not disappointed. I am from corporate mis-management and in-humane resource experience. Crete has held their side of the agreement to a Tee, and held me to the same. All said it has been agreeable.

 

Don't hold your breath...I had a good time for the most part for the first couple years...then it went down hill...at times it plateaued like it was going to get better, but...we can see otherwise.

 

Well, knock wood...I have gone a week without getting yacked at, yelled at or even noticed for the most part. I guess they're reloading. I've had a busy week. Since leaving home last Thursday, as this load that del's in Edison, NJ Friday afternoon, I will have run 3870 in 9 days. I had decided to slack off, but Crete has a different plan. Even with 4 days off, I'll be at 8200 by the 24th and could be over 10k in February. I did get 2 long runs in this week...McDonough GA to Loveland, CO(pu Friday, deliver Monday) and a Lincoln, NE to Edison, NJ(pu Tuesday del Friday, but trailer was overdue for a T1, had 2 very leaky hub caps, and a landing gear foot plate about to fall off. So it ended up being a Wednesday departure from High Command). After all the attitude and friction with Lincoln lately, I get a bit on edge whenever I am in the Lincoln area...no telling what kind of retraining or attitude adjustment classes they might try to make me teach....I mean attend...

I did speak to a number of drivers that have been suddenly audited on their logs and got points for much of the same things I have been getting hit for. I am sensing a trend...perhaps they're gona clean house, and get rid of us 'thinking driver' riff-raff's.

The e-log times this week would have been usefull instead of the paper's hours. E-log says I have 1 hr 34 min available, paper says 15 minutes...I guess the log-nag will be beeping me next week.

I beeped ET...but haven't heard from him...maybe since he's not trucking...he doesn't check the email I have much.

 

I'm glad to see you had a good month. Hopefully you can get a decent load out of NJ. The reason I left Crete was because once I delivered in NJ, they would bounce me from PA to NJ to PA to OH for 2 weeks until my hometime (in PA). Needless to say my wife had a few choice words for me everytime I came home and there was a 300 dollar check in the bank. Thanks Corey..

The log thing is probably just a learning curve for both you and management. Plus it's good CYA policy on their part just in case you screw up royally. Be safe!!

 

I did get an acceptable load out(way out) of 'Joisey'. 3 stop, pu in Avenel, stops in Pelham, AL(Birmingham), Abita Springs, LA, and Ft. Smith, AR. The bad part, finals out Weds. 11am. 1877 miles. But at least it isn't running like a N/E regional driver. To show how wizz-poor planning this place is...another driver there had to be in either Lenoir City or Marietta Tuesday for bad boy class, his load - MT and ID. Do these yahoos even know what a map looks like? Either TN or GA is way the flip outa route. I swear these people couldn't plan their way out of a wet paper bag...they couldn't find their head w/both hands (because it so far up their butt).

And as for the log crap...they think they are scoring points with the DOT by showing 30 min for all this...which is B.S. The DOT doesn't care about that...as long as it is acurate. The reason they do it....$$$$$...they want at least an hour on line 4 every day...so you have less hours to run miles. Since they pay you by the mile, it limits how much you have to run, so that way it justifys some of the crappy short hauls that they stick on you(that make the company a better profit per mile).

 

Well, nothing about new HOS requirements?

 

I hear alot of good things about Crete

 

The only thing new this year was, I thought, the manditory 30 minute break rule was suppose to kick in as of 3/1...the rest of the new regs don't start until next July('13) unless the pending lawsuits delay or force changes. The ATA is talking about suing, and one of the other side's (PATT or CRASH or CRAP or MORON) is suppose to have filed suit blocking it... But I don't think it's to the point of being leagally on hold yet.

As for my personal HOS battle w/Crete...nothing new to report

Well, as of Thursday, I am an official e-logger. Just got the news yesterday. The only thing that makes me ask WTF is...according to the log-nag I still send in my hours every morning like normal...rounded to the nearest 1/4 hr like normal...but e-log does it by the minute. So the hours my e-log shows and the hours op's see will only match after a restart... what, was it too expensive to reprogram the system to work w/the e-log times the unit sends in? Typical half-aced way to do things...s.o.p. here at Cow-tip Trucking Inc.

 

You must be talking to drivers that have been here 3 yrs or less. I've been here 8 1/4 yrs and never worked for a more anti-driver, micro-managing, self righeous, conceited, hypocritical company in almost 20 yrs of driving. The ONLY thing that keeps me here is .47/mi pay. Crete use to be THE company people tried to work for, now it's just a stepping stone company on the climb to better

 

Well, Please don't think that the grass is greener ANYWHERE else. You definitely won't match even the pay. It is the corporate mentality of maximizing profits. The human element suffers first.