CRETE - A Year in Review

1, That may also include fleet managers. I was out of Marietta. I have to admit that I was not impressed with my first visit there back in 2006. I should have known from the start that Crete would not be the company that I would spend the rest of my driving career at. Given how well taken care of that place is (I'm being cynical) and the high rate of turnover for the FM's assistants, that should have told me something in the coming months. The fact that my FM told me to "hang in there, things will get better after Easter" while I'm sitting 5 days out of 10 and repeatedly getting shirt-losing runs to SE PA/NJ was bravo sierra. On top of that, the one prevaricating line that he AND dispatch kept feeding me was "things shut down around Easter". In my entire trucking career, I have NEVER been lied to like that - until now. So, having weighed my options when I started sitting for 72 hours in Keasbey, NJ, I called my old company to see if I could get on. See the following...

2, I left Crete over a month ago to take a dedicated account over at Georgia Pacific. As gutsy a move as it was, given the current state of the economy, I felt like I had nothing to lose. Let me tell you: I've been running my butt off like you wouldn't believe. Granted, I do catch the occasional appointment, but I have a load waiting for me to pick up BEFORE I deliver the one that I am on.

Crete has definitely put a very sour taste in my mouth. While I left my FM a nice departure message on my qualcomm, thanking them for their help over the past 2 1/2 years (and getting a reciprocating message back from them in kind), I do not ever see myself driving the hockey sticks again. As it is, here is a comparison from when I left Schneider in 2006 and when I left Crete over a month ago. Schneider sent me post cards asking me to come back. To this day, I have yet to get one from Crete. I used to think of Schneider as being a baby-sitting company that micromanaged its drivers. However, given my experience with Crete and contrasting it with Schneider, I'd rather haul a pumpkin that actually shows that they care about their drivers (for the most part) instead of a company that has such a laissez-faire attitude that I have to babysit them in order to get them to do their job.

And (this is just IMHO) I don't see Crete staying in business once that lawsuit is done in Florida. That family is out for blood.

 

I've pretty much stopped reading here recently because all the off-topic political b/s is a little more Tomfoolery than I'm willing to suffer, but things have been picking up for me lately. I had 10,000+ mile months in both April and May. I don't know if it'll all add up to making the raise at my year's end, but there's been a definite improvement over the first quarter so far. My only complaint has been an almost blanket refusal by dispatch to allow me to t-call anything.

 

I got TWO invites to come back after I left last June 30. One from the director of recruiting, then a second from Kerry K. However, after I disputed a crap entry that safety put in my DAC, I was put in a "do not rehire" status. Nice, huh??? Seems that while they wanted me back, they didn't want me to be able to go anywhere else.

But llike you, I have a bitter taste in my mouth the way Janelle (SLC) whacked me for a cleaning fee for at truck that was cleaner than when I picked it up.

A pity since it was a once great company. I was there twice, and could see a HUGE difference (in just under a year). My first time thru, I talked with many drivers that had been there 20-30 years. To a man, they all said it was just going steadily downhill. I think Ostergard is probably an idiot. It's makes one wonder if he would be as far up the ladder as he is, had he not married Duane's daughter. RUMOR MILL has it that Duane don't like him much, and he ever splits up with Holly, the old man will can him. So I've heard; but again RUMOR.

Boo

 

upsizer,

Am I to understand that your raise is based on how many miles you drive over a given period of time? I always thought it was based on length of service.

Also, what does "t-call" mean. Thanks.

Drive safe

 

t-call is the Crete term for when you "relay" a load at a drop yard/terminal for another driver to take it on to it's final destination. Good for whe trying to get home.

for example you're trying to get home to Phoenix from, say Newark. They get you a load out of Newark for SLC. You could t-call it on the Kansas City yard, where (ta-daaa) a phoenix load is waiting for you. then someone else takes your original load on to SLC. I'm bopping along, happy as a clam going to Phoenix and looking forward to getting there. ten minutes later I'm headed to Canada. YUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!

Most carriers do the same thing under different names. Werner also does load "swaps" where you actually meet another driver at a truck stop, etc and just swap trailers and paperwork.

Also if you get into Atlanta (for example) and you're a day or so early, you could t-call to the Marietta yard and let some other schumck "shag" it for local delivery in atlanta in a day or two. Keeps you productive and not sitting around waiting for two days to deliver.

HTH

Boo

P.S. I used to HATE "swaps" at Werner. I once had a great load going to Phoenix in january. Got a "panic" qualcomm to swap loads with a joker that had a load into London, Ontario (we swapped just north of Wichita at a turnpike rest area). Shi*, just where I want to go in Jan. The other guy had a criminal record and couldn't go into Canada legally.

 

^ The reason one typically wants to t-call a load besides to get home is that a lot of loads have as much as two days' worth of extra time on them which can be great when you want to take a restart. However, it's not so good when you're only thirty to forty hours into your seventy. Typically, it's best to execute the t-call somewhere enroute when the load still has some miles on it, but sometimes it's gotta be close and somebody will need to shag it. I think a lot of the problem with doing it these days is that some drivers whine so much when they're asked to take a shag that dispatch just doesn't want the headache of trying to force it on them. I don't buy that they don't have trucks available to do it and I don't mind taking a shag myself as long as they give me a good load afterwards. I've done it several times with no drama.

It's based on 121,000 dispatched miles between your date of hire and anniversaries.

 

It won't hurt this company as bad as you might think. They have Catastrophic Casualty insurance that will cover most of it. The 'self insured' part is minuscule compared to what that will cover... So far the only lawsuits I've heard about are from the birth parents (all of the kids killed were adopted)...I haven't heard about any from the adopted parents. If Crete was in the least concerned about covering the cost of any of the lawsuits cause by that FL fool's screw up, they wouldn't have broken ground on their $8mil dollar Knoxville terminal recently. It started out as $5.? million, but it's up to 8 now(per their own website) Not sure what caused it to go up, hope it's some drivers jacuzzi rooms and free massage area to help relieve stress and help us relax better.

As for me, I made it out of WI and am under a load sitting a hour west of Detroit waiting for my Thursday morning delivery...I actually made it (or will make it if nothing goes wrong in the morning) over 2500 mi. this week. Whooooohooooo.

A very close friend sent me the following story. A friend that has, believe it or not, worse luck than me. When ever my life seems as though it couldn't get any worse, I simply think about this friend and all the problems he's gone through...and think to myself 'if he can keep going after all he's been through, I have no excuse not to do the same.' I thought it might be a useful read. It doesn't have much to do with Crete per say, but it's good food for thought:

Law of the Garbage Truck​

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.

Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, say a prayer for them and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so . . . love the people who treat you right. Forgive the ones who don't. We're not always responsible for everything that happens to us, but we are responsible for how we react to what happens. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a wonderful, garbage-free day!

Actually Charles Swindoll said that last part a little different, he said 'life is 10% what happens to us, and 90% how we react to it'...(I just read that at one of our customers the other day, and this friend happens to send me a story with a very similar quote....spooky - or someone is trying to tell me something)

Perhaps if we enforced the 'Law of the Garbage Truck' more often, maybe this world wouldn't be such a negative place to live and work. Even I need a dose of that medicine once in a while...(like Weazz's signature line says - I point out that advice for the world, and I have 3 fingers pointing back at myself)

Cy'all gang

 

Geez, looks like everyone but me is busy...no one posting... I got a load right back out of MI. Grand Rapids to Minooka, IL a whopping 198mi. And Minooka is usually a hot spot for freight...Not on Thursdays I guess. Got there 2 pm, was only 46th in line and now it's Friday at 2 pm, and I finally got a load offer, multiple offers to boot, but none pick up until Saturday. So 1st week of June, I manage a 2900 mile week after that short hop to Minooka, but now I'll be able to get in another 34, before heading to Bartlesville for Sunday... Info says not to deliver until the delivery window, which doesn't start until 9am Sunday. The other loads were out of the same place, but went to AR or RI....So I opted for the middle of the country. The area around N. Texas has been doing decent for freight, hopefully some of it spilled over into OK and I can get right back out'a there. 650mi by Sunday morning...not a great start to the week, but 2 weeks ago I had 900 mi on Saturday, and was only able to manage a 1500 mi week, so who's to say.

Hope all is well, the Peelot here in Minooka looks like a Crete yard. I see at least 8 or 10 just from where I'm sitting - not counting the Shaffers(pulling reefers) so at least I know they weren't pulling my leg when they said they didn't have anything to do.

L8tr

 

SSB we just missed each other. I delivered at 0600 in Minooka and got the last load available for that day. A crappy chlorox load going 372 miles to Cleveland. Just finished delivering it and got the dreaded no freight message. So now I sit at the Pilot in Richfield with one other Crete and about 6 Shaffers all of whom have been sitting at least a day with little hope for a load before Monday. Crete has become just another trucking company. There is absolutely no reason to look at Crete for a job than any of the 100's of other run of the mill trucking companies out there.