CRETE - A Year in Review

Not to mention, I'm not going in with just the down payment in my hand and nothing in the bank. I've got enough savings to handle a couple of major repairs without sweating it too much

 

I posted earlier in the thread that I was applying to Crete as a student driver, but was concerned about previous employment history. Crete will indeed deny your application if you have been unemployed for longer than a year. Stay at home dad's need not apply.

This is in NO WAY intended to be a negative post about Crete. I understand their reasons, and respect them. They don't want low life, irresponsible drivers who are just looking for a pay check for a few months. I just figured they might have a way to screen for responsible individuals among the rif raf. Instead, I was lumped into that category. I am sadly disappointed.

This also seems to be a common thing among the better carriers, I received the same response from Stevens and Millis. Which only reinforces my confidence in them.

Looks I'll be going with Swift or one of the other driver farms for my experience.

I'll see you guys on the road. (Please don't think too poorly of me because of the decals on my truck, LOL)

I guess I'll be a Cretin next year.

 

Good luck tarzan528, I know I had quite a time because I had been self-employed for a few years. They were diligent with their investigating my previous employment.

 

Hey RB, you had better listen to Big Al since you have obviously got this all wrong and are going to fail. Big Al has it all figured out and is making millions in his new career as a motivational speaker.

 

Before I begin this post ide like to add that of all the OTR irregular route major carriers, Crete is still probably the best one out there.But having said that im still not too impressed from my short time working here. Well after about 8 months with Crete Im home for a few weeks recovering from a much overdue hernia surgery ive been putting off, and debating or not if ill be coming back to Crete once ive recovered. ... Now dont take this post wrong IM NOT BASHING CRETE !!! If your a person that doesnt mind living on the road as an OTR driver for months at a time ide highly recommend Crete to you. For the most part you can make a decent living driving for Crete. I have 2 issues with Crete that I concider ligitiment issues ..Issues that in orientation sounded like would not be a problem !!

Issue number 1
LOAD CHOICES
One of the biggest recruiting points for me to come to Crete was that they offered load choices. Now before you start saying freight is slow etc...blah blah blah !!! The main reasons we dont get load choices all the time is because dispatchers dont do there jobs !! How many times have you unloaded at one of our exclusive customers where we are the only carrier pulling frieght from there and was only givin one load offer ? ie Chattanooga ...Knowing good dam well that at least 20 loads are sitting on that yard that you could choose from. How many times have you turned down a load offer because of hours etc.. and then low and behold they offer you other loads 5 minutes later..They had these loads the whole time , but never bothered to offer them to you. .. Freight isint as slow as Crete would have you believe, but the load choices still havent came back.. If I leave Crete this will be the reason

2 National Fleet
I sometimes think that Crete dispatchers need to acually look at a globe or a map of the United States !! I was under the impession that If I was on the national fleet ide eventually get out of the midwest..Crete's idea of national fleet is OH , PA , MD, NJ,IL,IN... Also I understand that every run we get cant be in the 1000 -1500 mile range, but these 300- 500 mile runs are for the birds.. These runs would be much better suited for a regional driver that wants to be home weekly..If im giving up months at a time on the road for Crete they should at least concider im a national driver and look for longer freight... Im from the northeast, I can get a truck driving job anyday of the week running 300 mile trips and be home nightly..I came to Crete because I wanted to run long and get out of the northeast !! If all Crete has to offer is these short trips in the midwest or northeast ide seriously have to concider leaving.

I guess if I only have 2 bad issues with this company , its not that bad of a company. Like I said in the begining of this post..IM NOT BASHING CRETE !! But I think if Crete would put a little more effort into dispatching trucks ide probably remain here for a good long while.
Oh I guess should say this about Crete ..Allthough you will do alot of 300-500 mile trips , they will keep you running and you will make a paycheck every week..
Just my opinion

 

Mdtrucker is 110% correct about the loss of "Load Select" - it was the primary reason I came here from MS Carriers twelve years ago, and it aggrevates me to no end that they've done away with it.

I've said this to many people, and I'll repeat it here - I wholly understand the need to keep deadhead miles to a minimum. If there are five drivers in Omaha, and five drivers in Lincoln, it makes no sense - except to get a driver home, or something to that effect - to send the Omaha drivers to Lincoln for freight, and vice-versa.

But on the other hand, if I T-call a load in Lincoln, I KNOW that there is more than one load coming out of there - there are one or two dozen other T-calls sitting on the lot, plus the two big shippers in the area - the one by the airport, and the one in the town we're named after.

So, then why on Earth do I get offered ONE load? I want to run the entire 48 states, I'll run Canada if they'll let me, and not be constantly running the Great Lakes states and the upper Midwest.

T.O. said in the last letter that 85% of the freight given to us by our customers is 500 miles or less, and that we must all adapt to shorter trips. If I'm going to run 300-400 miles a day, I'll sleep in my own bed every night!

There are other trucking companies that have programs where a driver can request to be routed to a specific destination once a quarter. I wouldn't mind the loss of Load Select so much, if I knew that I could occassionally request to go somewhere - that I still had a choice, like we used to have.

If the company has changed the matrix, if this is the "New Crete", then I guess I need to find a company that still does coast-to-coast longhaul trucking. I don't mind spending 8-10 weeks at a time on the road, but I'm not going to be stuck in one geographical area while I do it!

Simply put - They may say I'm their most valuable asset, but I sure don't feel that I'm treated that way!

 

Hey, he can take it with a grain of salt, I just put it out there. But I have been there, done that, got the T-shirt. And when I was gainfully employed by the Acklie Companies I saw that most company drivers made more than the O/O's and had about the same amount of freedom (none). The pay is too low for the financial investment. And when freight is down, that truck payment and insurance and permits, etc. is still there.

 

In a way I agree, that is a bit thin for a profit. But I #### sure wouldn't advise going to a company like Landstar, at least for a new or 1st time O/O. I know, I was there, and I lost my shirt. Landstar's orientation people say that it takes the average O/O 6-8 mos before they get themselves in with enough agents(their term for brokers) before drivers become profitable. Most of the Landstar drivers I talked to said it's more like 16-18 mos. That means you have to have a year and a half backup finances before you find your niche at Landstar. The reason for this, many of the agents might only have one or two customers, they might move a bunch of freight for those few customers, but those accounts hinge on on-time deliveries, and a few late loads and they lose their account. So, they only trust 'known' drivers...they don't tend to put loads on new people, or people they haven't used before, or that haven't proven themselves within the Landstar system. All in all, I liked the system, but didn't have the resources to withstand the 18 mos of just getting by until I found the right agents. And a new O/O most likely wouldn't either.

But I've talked to some O/O's here, some that have bought used equipment, some that took the plunge on new...For the payment/month difference, I think a new one might be the better choice, simply because it has a factory warranty and you know how the equipment has been treated since you're the one driving it from the start. Buying a used truck...even though it has a 2 yr/200,000 mile warranty, there's no way to tell if the previous driver(s) took care of the equipment or not, unless you are buying the one you've been driving as a company driver. With new, you may still have some down time because of repairs, but all in all, most likely less than with a used. And we all know, if the tires aint rolling, the bucks aint coming in.

 

I was thinking the same thing then i stopped an thought...how many reefers do you see on rail? no one to babysit to make sure the temps are ok an all...being on the shaffer side id like to see better hauls to but the biggest one is the one load offer... lets start with this offer i took.. im in st. paul mn i pu at noon in lakeview mn going to des moines il at midnight...thats great i can make the run, but when they unload me my 14 hours will be up an where am i to park at that time of night or even in that area...really thinkin about movin to crete side... they dont put alot of thought into stuff on del times and where your gonna be at

 

As far as the load select deal...I think this new system they are using has quietly put that to rest...Rarely have I gotten a multi-load offer over the past couple of years, but if you ask if they have something that has better miles, or a better time frame for p/u and delivery so you can utilize your hours more efficiently,ie more productive...many times, especially lately, another load or two will appear.

As far as the length of haul...that is the trend industry wide. With the exception of a few company's(mostly team operations) most are going to shorter runs....almost a 'super-regional' type thing. I had heard a rumor(keep that 'rumor' word in mind) that the eventual plan for us was that whole system was going to be a regional type operation...you stay in the region around the house, take a load outside your region to another terminal/drop yard or to another driver, then return back to your region...again, this was a rumor, I've never heard it from the horses mouth...(or the horses other end either )

And I have never seen a dispatcher that knew his/her head from a hole in the ground when it came to geography. Many of the dispatchers have never sat behind the wheel of a truck, and don't have a clue as to what it takes to plan, drive, or adjust on the fly to avoid weather/traffic/construction, etc...they see a number of miles on the screen, that's it. And those dispatchers that were former drivers that have a clue, many are from the old 'outlaw multi-logbook' days, and still think that we can run like that out here today.

And being from the northeast, it's surprising to hear that's where they keep you running. Most of the drivers I talk to that get stuck up there are from the mid-west, or mid-south areas...it's rare to hear that someone who lives up there is being used up there.