CRETE - A Year in Review

Crete has a maitrix they put out each month showing you how many loads move in and out of each state. They give you a load select dispatch to supposedly get you there and you have to help them connect the dots, so to speak. When I drove for them I got a lot of loads to the LA area. I'm not sure why they couldn't get you there, especially from Texas. I once asked for a load home to Colorado (and I was in Fresno CA at the time) and they wanted to send me to Conneticut. So I told them I could T-call the load in Denver.

 

That's messed up! WTH! So that's how it works? Give me their number, I'd like to talk to them!

 

This is excellent work you've done!! There are good companies out there, finding them is what is difficult.....thanks for this.......

 

Great posts evertruckerr, and keep them coming.

 

Who was the customer? I may want to avoid them in the future.

As for the Crete hometime, it's a crap-shoot. Sometimes they bend over backwards to help...sometimes they make it seem as if they are ignoring you until you yell and scream. But the one dispatcher was correct in saying that KS is a better place to find west bound freight than AL. In fact over half of the trips to CA that I have had came out of the KS, NE or western MO area. 1st thing I do when they're having problems, can msg 15 every other load reminding them. If you are getting close to home time and nothing is going right, call the terminal manager and politely give them the scoop and ask them to see if they can do anything to help. Another words, tell them to do their job by stroking their ego a bit, and make them feel useful. The old saying fits here...you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

 

Were you the folks walking that little dog that liked to be rubbed on her belly? I was in the USA Truck that came in right after the tornado. I got loaded and out of there about the time they were closing off the roads, it looked like.

 

I think rr_riley2 was at Metal Container Corporation (MCC), just off Eastman Park in Windsor. I pulled in about 20 minutes or so after the tornado. That was fun driving through that thunderstorm down I-25 from Cheyenne to US 34, dang near blew me and my empty trailer off the road. The hail was nice too...

 

Thank you Thread !! I just turned 50 years old a few months ago, all the children are gone down the road, and I have been wanting to be an over the road trucker for many years !! And I am going to become one very soon......I have been trying to get the straight scoop from anybody, anywhere, and it is very very hard to come by ! Your info is the real deal, awesome and inspiring..... Guys like you are why guys like me will get into this biz, do well and treat others the same !! Thanks again..............[

quote=evertruckerr;323973]OK, My first full calender year with Crete (Jan-Dec) 2007 has passed and I thought I would show the actual numbers.

Anyone that has spent any time on this forum knows that there are endless opinions , good and bad, about every trucking company. What is often lacking is actual facts.

Anyone that has read my posts know that I am pro Crete. I am not a recruiter, just a driver that is proud of my carrier. They are not perfect, as a matter of fact they can actually get me hot under the collar on a regular basis. But what it actually comes down to is the paycheck at the end of the week.

With that said.

The intention of the following information is to give just that. Facts without opinions. I would love to see other drivers for all companies do the same, to some extent anyway. Let the other drivers on this board know what kind of money can be made. If people would stop driving for the bottom feeders, the day would come when these companies might have to stop paying slave wages.



The chart below shows the miles for each run of the past year. Please note miles are posted on the day the load was delivered and monthly totals are not adjusted to show partial miles for trips that begin in one month and end in another.




The following will show various breakdowns of the mileage chart above.



Days lost due to Breakdown: 0

Total Layover days: 0


I was going to post my final paystub also, but it seems the payroll website is acting up today and I can't pull it up. But for now, here an approximate but very close to actual pay information for the year. Please note that my pay increased from 41cpm to 42cpm in September.

My final pay check on 12/27/07 for miles run through 12/21/07 was aprox $61,500.

Final Pay 2007 $61,500.00
Less: First paycheck 2007 for last week of 2006 - 575.23
Add: First paycheck 2008 for last week of 2007
including 1week pd/vac # $1154 + 1612.59
-------------

Gross pay for 2007 $62,537.36

Some of you will note that if you add 139,453 by 41cpm that it doesn't come up to 61K+. The additional pay is due to Detention pay, Stop Pay and other various accessorial pay that is more detailed than I care to get into.[/quote]

 

I meant.......Thank You EverTrucker !!!!!!!!!!!!! Great Info.

 

It's very rare that we go to CA....(It's been 3 months) We're in the LA area today as we delivered a load here from Portland. (home time was in WA). Now we are waiting to be loaded at a shipper 16 miles from last delivery. Headed to Salt Lake City...thank goodness we are out of here soon!

We've never taken or picked up a load in NM. Is this the norm? We once passed through NM taking a load from Texas to Utah. But that was the only time I've seen NM.

Once we were on the road for almost 8 weeks. It really stressed us out because we had home time set a month before. (We had been on the road 3 weeks when we asked for home time a week advance).... And it was near tax time. We wanted to be home a month before turning in our taxes. Thank goodness, we were able to set up an appointment. But no matter what our dispatcher didn't seem to care! He kept telling us we had time to do our taxes... DUH, from where we live in WA, accountants are BOOKED to the max right before it's due. And it's not like we can sit down and do it ourselves. Oh well, it did work out. Terminal manager said they can only give us 5 days off no matter how long you've been on the road. so if we were out for 8 weeks, we can only have 5 off. We did get 7 days off thanks to our term. mgr approved that. He was nice to give us extra time off to do our taxes.