CRETE - A Year in Review

They have a web site Poly-Truckingdotcom. Their main location is in Grand Prairie,TX with additional facilites in Cottage Grove,MN, Henderson,NV, & Mont Belvieu,TX. They haul their own product out & pick up backhauls to get them back to one of their facilities. They pay .48 cpm on the hub mile to all drivers. Stop pay is $30 for ANY stop except the first two. Stop pay is calculated starting at your home terminal until you return.

Read more here...http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...e/181506-glad-i-moved-over-poly-trucking.html

 

48Packard.....Is our terminal at Spartanburg still closing in the next month or so? .... I will really miss Ms. LeeAnn and the other woman...I think her last name is Rottman...They have allways been so helpfull to me

 

Sitting here on the street in Cheektowaga for the 2nd day in a row. Took 8 hours to unload me. Got a preplan to pick up guess where? The same place I've been sitting at since Monday morning. At least this one will get me out of the northeast for a change. Its a 2 stopper too.

 

Home at my brother's house in MO. Enjoying vacation! Tomorrow join my lifelong friends at the Lake for some boys' time! Just like the good old days, just now we are the old ones!

 

Yes, they're still on the chopping block, but still have no idea when the axe will fall. I was just there an hour ago, and they're making the best of it, though Leeann seems to be, uh, fantasizing about doing a few things prior to departure! She's a hoot! And you're right....I'll miss them, too.

 

Is it just me, or has Crete become a substantially less safe company than in the past? Almost half the load offers they send me are close to impossible to make. I message them that if there are any unforeseen delays, I won't be able to make it. Recently they had me try to deliver near Newark during the peak of rush hour (a short t-call someone had dropped at New Kingstown). I was very near the end of my 14 (another load all night). I predicted it was going to turn bad, but they just said "go ahead and try - you are still the closest". Lo-and-behold several delays happened and I was going to be 30 minutes short. I was going to run anyways but the last part was on a toll and too much documentation. When I told them the exact situation, they kept feigning ignorance and kept messaging variations os "so you can make it?" I put it all out in the open and said, sure, I have no problem running illegal, should I continue on in? Then they suddenly came back "oh no, don't do that". Then when I tell them I'm shutting down for my 10, the guy messages back "you really can't make it? But you are soooo close." it seems like with all these ridiculously tight loads they are implicitly encouraging us to skimp on pre-trips, inspections, planning, etc as everything is rush rush rush (ie take shortcuts - which we were told there are none).

A safety video I was watching recently seems to symbolize the whole situation perfectly. A safety big wig (RC) is lecturing on the seven defining principles that govern CCC. He prefaces with this big build up about how the first principle is the most important, the most critical, the foundation of everything else, the guiding key value, etc, etc (almost like it should be ingrained in our very DNA). Then he says "and that FIRST principle is ...", makes a noticeable pause to look down at a script (like he has no idea what he is about to say), and says "safety first and foremost". My impression is that the company has become obsessed with papering over everything with a big show of safety while in fact doing the opposite. It reminds me something like the whole TSA boondoggle and 'security theater'.

 

Woo hoo! Got a pre plan for a 76 miler picks up today delivers tomorrow.

 

Is it a live load? that'd suck if it is.
Better hope there's a good along or near the route.

 

Maybe it got 3 stops

 

Drop and hook both ends.

And once again, for like the 7th time in a row I pick up a trailer and get the old invalid trailer location message on the qc. Doesn't this company have the slightest clue where any of their equipment is?