CRETE - A Year in Review

That's why we are being civil! A decent discourse, no one accusing the other being more or less patriotic.

Well et, how much home tme do you need?

 

I think et is gonna get a kick out of all of the "interesting reads" in his thread.

otrtruckerscott, I was trying to figure out what the heck your avatar was last week. I finally enlarged it. Funny! Brownies & Cherry Squares, yum!


supersnackbar

Speaking of New York, at least you get $100.00 bonus for driving in some parts of it.

 

I have a question for you Crete drivers concerning a couple of your customers.Do you guys still haul school desks out of Temple TX?And what about the cookies out of Interbake foods in E Orange NJ?
I pulled for Crete for 10 yrs and dreaded seeing that Temple to anywhere on the eastern seaboard come up.
Didn't mind the cookie loads,it just was a little tight gettin blindsided to the dock.
Just curious(nosy)

Best of luck to all you Cretins

 

Been with them 4 years and have never seen either place.

 

I didn't read all 214 pages of this thread but I did read about 2/3's of these pages. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank ET for starting this thread with such detail backed up with facts figures. It has been most helpful in my quest to better understand the business I'm about to enter. I don't like to go blindly into anything. With the volumes of information I've learned from this board in general and especially from ET's thread on life at Crete, I will begin a new career (I know its bad timing) with greater knowledge of what to expect than most entering this or any other line of work. Crete, should reward you monetarily for your post here, I'm sure they have recruiters on there pay roll that will benefit from the positive vibes you have generated for their company.

Supersnacker, I suspect one of the reasons you remain with Crete after being called in for the meeting, might be the folks running your company aren't dummies and
realize the balance you provide to the overall company picture. You make your point with humor, to me this is indicative of guy that is able laugh at life, even when life is not being overly kind to him at that point in time. I thank you too for your post on this thread.

I'm not sure I have immediate possibilities with Crete, as I don't see any school listed on the PTDI site for Florida. I will begin next week at Mid Florida Tech, it is
a state run and accredited school that has been around for a very long time. I opted to train at my own expense in lieu of attending one of the short course programs paid for by the unemployment folks. After much research into all the schools in this area, I feel the 8 week 320hr course offered at Mid Florida would prepare me to be a better and safer driver than the various short course driver mill schools. I hope that Crete or whatever company I am fortunate enough to be employed by will see it that way too. I may be overly optimistic, in seeking employment by anyone at age 58 and starting a new career..... that remains to be scene.

Once again thanks to all of you for the information and points of veiw you've provided to myself and others.

Stetson

 

Hey Stetson, good luck to ya. Just fyi....if you call Crete the will tell you what schools they hire out of in your area. If you go to a school not on their "list" there is a good possiblity they might not hire you. The good news is a lot of their schools they use are the longer tech schools....so you might be at the right place already. Good luck to you and I hope all goes well for ya.

 

I wanted to go to Mid FL Tech but Crete said I would have to have 4+ months experience somewhere else before they would consider hiring me. I'm planning on team driving so that wouldn't work for me. I ended up here at Southeast Community College in Lincoln Nebraska. It's a 10.5 week program and Crete will hire out of this school. (It's actually a lot cheaper than Mid FL too.) The instructors here are awesome. I will be finished in the June. I think any tech school or community college program would be much better than one of those 4 week deals.

 

I tend to deal with adversary with humor. I forget who said it, but it's something like "when something bad things happen to someone else it's comedy, when it happens to you, it's tragedy'. But humor on either side seems to be a better and less stressful way to deal with it. The meeting simply gave me the view from the other end of the qualcomm. I got a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes and made me realize that this company had been around quite a while through many economic down times long before I was here and probably long after I leave...and are still in business. So the decisions made are done to keep this company around. Do I like all the decisions? No...but Crete has been and for the planned future, a debt free and privately owned company. Sometimes you just have to trust the powers that be to do what is best to keep us in business and you have to try to stay on this ride for the full 8 seconds. Although without my extreme gripes and complaints, I don't tend to be able to come up with as much humor since most of my humorous comments came from simple sarcasm.

Best of luck, actually right now isn't the worst time to start doing this job. It feels as though the worst is behind us and things can only get better from here. But be prepared. Most new drivers aren't ready for the amount of time a person has to invest in the beginning in order to make a living out here. If you're a person that can put in the time away from family and friends while paying your dues to the job, then you'll be fine. The last time I talked to my terminal manager in Deland, she said that there was a hiring freeze in FL, so I don't think, even if you go to an approved school, you can get right in with Crete living in FL. But get a little experience, by then things will have improved enough down here, then come on over.

Keen - As for the desk company in TX, I have been there, but it's been a while. Back in June of '05. I have never picked up at the cookie company in 'Joisey'

After delivering in WI they put me on a load from WI to Macedonia, OH. That puts me over 2700 miles for the week, and it's only Wednesday. But I got the infamous 'short freight' msg once I got empty. I've been bumping my 70 since CA, I actually could use a little down time. So now I'm in the little Peelot in Richfield, OH just chillin'. Lincoln did a bang up job getting me out of the shop, except my alternator is one of those intermittent problems, and it wasn't acting up when it was there, so I got to keep it.

I got to see one of the new Cornbinder's interiors while I was there. I have to say - ME LIKE...ME LIKE!!!! There was a driver in Lincoln cleaning out his new Cascadia...I thought that he was bailing, but later saw him in a Cornbinder. Turns out his Cascadia was such a piece of crap, his last 2 paychecks were only breakdown pay, no miles because it's been in the shop so much... I would almost be tempted to trade my APU truck for a International. GASP!!!!! Did I say that out loud????....Perish the thought.

I hope ET gets out of home soon. I heard that it was suppose to be in the low 100's in Phoenix on Tuesday and Wednesday. April is too early in the year to be that hot. Look's like it's going to be one of those years.

I was wondering how Crete is going to deal with the 2010 Cali reg's that are coming up...The Enviro-friendly tires, trailer 'under body' fairings, etc. I haven't seen any modifications. I wonder if they'll just do without Cali after they take effect.

 

"After delivering in WI they put me on a load from WI to Macedonia, OH. That puts me over 2700 miles for the week, and it's only Wednesday. But I got the infamous 'short freight' msg once I got empty."

Great. I wonder if I'll even be able to get out of the house Friday.

 

"Although without my extreme gripes and complaints, I don't tend to be able to come up with as much humor since most of my humorous comments came from simple sarcasm."

They've ruled your best material as off limits! This is a temporary but serious set back to your comedy act here at the forum. I have faith in your ingenuity to come up with new material.

"The Enviro-friendly tires, trailer 'under body' fairings, etc."

What makes a tire Enviro friendly? Less noise? Cleans up after itself when they come apart on the road?

While I'm asking questions..........you mentioned in an earlier post something about "opti idle" how exactly does that work?

"The last time I talked to my terminal manager in Deland, she said that there was a hiring freeze in FL, so I don't think, even if you go to an approved school, you can get right in with Crete living in FL. But get a little experience, by then things will have improved enough down here, then come on over."

Many companies have quit hiring in Florida, not the best location to live for trucking jobs. I live on the west side of Lakeland, couple miles off of I-4, I'm told many companies don't hire south of I-4 period.

Thanks for your advice, I do appreciate and take into consideration all pointers given. I figured going into this that I would have to go through at least year of pure h--l maybe longer. I believe I'm up to it and hopefully my family is too.

Later

Stetson