Crete Carrier Corporation - Lincoln, Ne.

That would probably be the worst thing for anyone. Having a death in the family. Imagine being 3 to 5 days drive from home and have an emergency happen.? You need to get home ASAP. What if you have a pet in the truck? No load going home? Will the company fly you (and pet?) home coast to coast and leave truck where it sits or a yard nearby? Then fly you back? I hate thinking about the worse case scenerio.

 

By what I've heard, when Mr. Acklie was in the office running things and something like this happened, he would see to it that they found a place to safely park the truck, had transportation, if needed to the airport, and home. Then once you were ready, back to the truck. And they would even set it all up for you so all you had to worry about was your family. (I call him Mr. because he is probably the only person in that office I had any respect for) Now, huh...you're on your own.

I called my terminal manager after I got through with the funeral. The response I got is "you didn't give enough notice for them to get something planned". Geeeeez, guess grandma should have called them with the life the support tubes hanging out of her mouth, to schedule a convenient time to die. Heartless s.o.b.'s I just wonder how they would handle it if my wife or one of my kids had something happen like a bad accident (God forbid) and I had to get home with only a few minutes notice. They can't even plan to get you home on regularly requested home time when you give them a week notice. I enjoy the money working here, when it's going good. Even the bad weeks pay the bills, but sometimes the extra cash isn't worth the hassle!!

Thanks for the outlet to vent a little!!!

 

I worked for CCC back a few years ago, and they dead-headed me from Moses Lake, Washington to Salt Lake City for Christmas. How many of the bigger outfits would do that? Not many, brother. They also bent over backwards for me when I needed to get some tires changed out. I asked for one tire, and they changed out the entire axle's worth. And they let me take three weeks off after getting some minor surgery.

At my first outfit, I had to beg to get a simple spare light bulb. At that same company, a guy was allowed to take only three days off (including travel days) after his mother passed away.

In my view, Crete is a good company.

 

Maverick deadheaded me for 8 hours to get home for thanksgiving.

 

I've heard a lot of good things coming from Maverick. That's the outfit I'd go with if I were going flatbedding. Well, maybe Hunt'd be on my list, too. Shaffer would be the reefer company, and Crete would be my van outfit. If I were going tanker? Hmmm. Don't know, but there are some flour drivers around who seem pretty happy at one company.

 

Crete DH'd me 300 mi for my sons hs graduation. Dhing to a load not very likely, more apt to sit for a day......

 

Deadheading for a load isn't a major problem here from time to time, because they see some revenue out of it. When they need to deadhead you for personal reasons they have a problem. If it hadn't been on the weekend, things may have worked out different. If dispatch/ops gave me a problem, I would just have called up corporate and talked to someone in upper management and the problem would have been solved. But on the weekend, they don't have the authority to scratch their own butt, and unless it's a major emergency, they don't have contact numbers, they just tell you to contact your terminal manager on Monday.

 

I've been with CCC for 13 months now and have no complaints. There's been nothing to complain about. I run national and get all the miles I can handle. Have had no problems getting home when I wanted to. I run out of Deland, FL. I was with Covenant for many years before Crete and stayed in a state of upset, anger, and/or frustration. With Crete, I have not experienced any of these emotions the first time. Cretes way of doing things took some getting use to, but adapting didn't take long. I feel I've found a home with Crete and have no plans of going anywhere else. They treat me well.

 

The reason things are going good for you here is... you've only been here 13 mos. I too run out of DeLand... or as my cell phone speed dial heading says...Worthless. There was a terminal manager there that cared, but they ran him off. He was there for a long time, but once ole' Tonny Boy got to run things, he made sure all of the driver friendly managers got excused. The one thing I can say about Crete is, when things go right, I mean no problems, all is cool.(and how often in the trucking industry does that happen?) But if a problem comes up, it's like the Three Stooges doing a Chinese fire drill in a Keystone Cops movie!! A comment I have made to dispatch many times. In fact I asked them if Workers Comp covers all the injuries they get from bumping into each other while running around is circles... They weren't amused.

I spend many a day cursing the name of Crete. It wasn't like that in the beginning for me either. But just wait. They'll find something that gets under your skin, then keep digging at it until you pop. I use to get all the miles I wanted, but now that I am at the top of the pay scale, all I hear is, 'freight is a little slow, check back in a couple hrs.' Then the drivers sitting right beside you that were waiting for freight that sent in M/T calls later than you are pulling out headed for loads, and you're left sitting.

I've spoke to drivers that were here back in the days Mr. A was in control, they hate what this company has become. A once great company to work for that has turned into another Swift/JB/Schnieder clone.

Home time to Fla. is usually a problems no matter what company you're with... Except the first company I was with. Arnold Transportation (years ago, not as good as they use to be) But they only stay east of the rockies, I got tired of seeing the east coast, especially south Fla...

 

Just a retraction...The management of Deland is worthless. The people that answer the phones and actually do the work there, are good people. The manager and assistant manager aren't worth spitting on if they were on fire!!!!!