CRETE - A Year in Review

You are partially correct. I am a Crete driver...Have been since I started with Acklie. As of last December, I was assigned a Shaffer blue truck as a permanently assigned unit. Evertruckerr, the original author of this thread, is likewise assigned a Blue truck, but is a Crete driver. I have never pulled a Shaffer refrigerated load. (I did pull a reefer trailer, but it was a preloaded Coke-water load, which was done as a last resort by the dedicated Coke dispatch and the shipper...IE the shipper says 'we can load it on Shaffer, or on another company'... Once empty the reefer was later dropped at a terminal, and a Crete van was picked up) I have offered many times to pull a reefer rather than sit or have to hunt somewhere else for an empty (regardless of the freight type, most dry freight will fit in a reefer, and I don't have a problem pulling a reefer load either) but have always been told 'no'.

There use to be a Crete meat fleet. They had some Crete reefer units, but they were old worn out units(the trailers not the drivers), they usually used Shaffer units instead because of the availability and reliability. The fleet has been dissolved. But I have talked to many ex-meat fleet drivers, in Crete red trucks, that are now pulling Shaffer trailers on the Shaffer national fleet. They chose to do stay in a reefer division, but since we are all one unhappy family now, they won't swap to blue trucks until trade time. Then, only if a blue truck is available.

The color of the truck no longer matters here. Except in a few customers eyes. (the 3rd line on my Shaffer truck says 'A division of Crete Carrier Corp.') The only division of this company that stays strictly within their own freight/trailer type is Hunt. They even have their own office and dispatch. Imagine the cussing the dispatch would have to deal with if they asked a flatbed driver to pull a van or reefer!! (not saying that flatbedders are bad, but they are very insistant that any fool can pull a van/reefer, it takes a real driver to pull a flat...or something like that) I have never seen a Hunt pulling a van/reefer, nor have I ever seen a Crete/Shaffer pulling a flat. It may have happened, but it's like spotting that rare white elk, or seeing Dick Cheney appear from his hiding place. Then he see's his shadow and we have 6 more weeks of recession. (I think they keep telling him they're expecting more attacks on the US so that he doesn't come out in public)

 

Snack..... your awesome, man. Thanks for the great response and the witty humor, too.

BB...you, too. I appreciate you guys taking the time to give me an in depth answer. I know you guys are busy and tired.

The drive to Talladega and back was great. Lots of Crete, Shaffer, Prime, TMC, and others. I even went out to the fuel island at a Flying J just to get a closer look at those hotrods you guys drive. Well....I kept my distance so as to not disturb.

Thanks again for the response.

R/

Frat

 

We are Professional truckin drivers and you are a professional fan!!! DRIVE SAFE

 

Yeah, but I don't have one of those nifty air card thingies that would let me get online from anywhere with a cell phone signal. My phone also will not do tethering (Motorola V750 - at least the guy at my local Verizon store says it won't tether). I also don't have a scanner in the truck with me. I'm just too ###### cheap I suppose

I got to Chattanooga today, made my delivery, got a pickup tomorrow morning in Gordonsville, TN going to Geneva, IL. Pickup is anytime between 7am and 3pm tomorrow, delivery is anytime before 3pm Friday. As it happens, my home is about 10 miles from where I delivered today. Guess who's spending the night at home tonight

 

While I'm happy for you, your posts are actually ticking me off. I drove GM for over 3 years with Crete and when I rehired last month they told me there were no positions on the fleet. It is the reason I now live in Chattanooga, because I was hitting Wauhatchie Pike every other week at the end of a day.
It just reinforces my opinion of Crete, even to a veteran 12 year employee with Acklie, as being a bunch of untrustworth lying jerks.
Well, at least now I AM on General Mills and getting better pay, but it STILL ticks me off! have fun, its a great fleet.bb.

 

Well, I would and all but I have too many employers since I started in the summer of 07, even though one doesnt report to DAC or leave any record........ or pay........ I just sued them for pay and won pay, interest and penalties totaling $7934, so I could leave them off.

But the real thing is that I'm setting up a Health Insurance brokerage. Doing odd jobs to put together marketing and lead money, and so on. Got a 5 year old in his first year of school. I think I need to stay home for a while, no matter how much diesel is in my blood. It would be selfish of me to go back.

Maybe in 15 years or so.

 

Awesome Dick Cheney joke... I gotta pass that on elsewhere and make you famous man. If I end up workin for Crete, it's because of you all on here. Be safe..

 

Man it must be nice to be able to take a whole week off.... I'm jealous.
Enjoy, dude.

They did finally get me a drop number ahead of my arrival to Opelousas... and it was correct the first time. *note to self: mark this date on the calender, will treat as a holiday... Then another 4 hr wait. I guess this area is still getting up to speed after hurricane Ike. Even the mid-south regional guys are sitting, they say they haven't seen much of a slow down until Ike hit. Only thing OP's said they had was a load to MS for Friday and nothing going to FL to get me home. Too bad, I am planning on being in St. Augustine for a couple days. After repeatedly asking for something I could T'call...and politely as I could, offering to deadhead home, they found a load to Atlanta, and then a load I could drop early Saturday morning in Macclenny, FL. Hopefully they will have the correct drop number on this one, I hope that I didn't blow my one piece of good luck on the last load's drop number. That way I can get home, do a quick load of laundry and head out for our weekend. Another acceptable week(2660 mi., acceptable for my standards, a suckey week for evertruckerr )...Geez that's three in a row...now what am I going to complain about....??? I won't know what to do with myself with all my free time... The way things are going, I may get my APU next, then my complaint bucket will be empty. Holy Cow.

Redbeard, I had the same problem with a Motorola phone I had. I also heard that Verizon doesn't like, or maybe won't allow, normal phones to be used as a data card without paying a separate subscription for the data use. (never saw the reason for this, but any way they can make money i guess) My wifes laptop has a bluetooth setup built in, I am thinking about seeing if it will pair up with our phones.

C'yall

 

Do any of you cretans know anything about the ICL1 Dedicated. It runs out of the Ports in Chester, PA and Richmond, VA - south into NC and west to Indiana. Any information is appreciated.

 

Ive been seeing your posts on here for awhile, and I personaly never heard of it. Hopefully someone will come along who knows what your talking about, good luck.