CRETE - A Year in Review

My miles have finally picked up too and I've been working nonstop. Got into it again with my asset manager (have been trying to change to another one for a week). He kept sending whacked out messages. Like I would send detailed messages about my location or eta and then he would ask for the exact info I had just given him. I'm pretty sure I'm being canned later this morning. I didn't use any bad language but I knew how to turn his nonsense back on him and that infuriated him ... so therefore retaliation. I've never been fired before my whole life, so this is a first.

 

If you didn't use foul language and just were on his case(and not in a polite way) went off on him...I'm not sure they'd fire you w/o several written warnings. I go off on mine, and tend to be excessivly arrogant about the way he and his co-workers screw their job up...and thus screw my paycheck up...and I have yet to be verbally warned. But I also word my messages so it shows how his screwup hurts not just me, but the company in general.

 

I was warned once before because I wrote via a diected message to my assistant fleet manager that something the asset manager did was "idiotic". Somehow later on someone spun that as me calling him a "stupid idiot". You know how it is when they keep asking the same thing over and over on the QCOM (and don't seem to even bother reading what you write). Let 's just say I know how to push their buttons without using foul language, so they had it out for me. I finally started getting over 3000 miles a week. But of course they were nonstop strings of short runs, live loads, etc so super exhausting. What I like(d) most about trucking was being on your own and rarely communicating with the office people (when I was with Crete around 10 years ago). But having constant nonsense come over the QCOM and having to repeatedly clarify things that dispatch messed up is what did it i think. Of course I am not 100% innocent either - I am pretty impatient. That is why trucking was a good fit in the past because they pretty much left you alone. Now though, it is totally different with office people that don't seem to even know the basics of the industry, h.o.s., etc.

* oh yeah, am editing because am remembering more bad things I did, lol. I don't have a cell phone, so only use the QCOM. Well sometimes if they don't answer me or leave me hanging, I will start messaging them like every couple of minutes (up to 8 or 10 times!).so I'm sure stuff like that pis$ed them off too.

 

I still think you have to be written up...a verbal warning is just step 1. I have a cell, but it isn't for company business so I too do everything via q/comm...plus over the q/comm there is a written record of what was said. I also do the same thing when it comes to getting an answer...I give them more time than they deserve, then I bug the crap out of them...sometimes just a blank message, which drives them nuts, but it usually get a response of some sort.

And as far as you coming back to Crete after you left...that falls into the 'WTF were you thinking' catagory. If I deem it necessary to leave a company for what ever reason, I have a personal rule to never return...once I'm outa here,(then go through years of therapy to stop the nightmares) I won't look back. Not that it was all bad, but this is by far the most disorganized, micromanaged, driver unfriendly company I've ever been with. I will be glad when I can afford to leave....be it after the tax refund or bankruptcy.

 

When I left Crete before, it was on totally good terms. I was getting great miles and they had the 3 load offers etc. I only left because I was offered almost twice the pay - ie the overseas gig. I only came back to Crete because I left trucking for over 5 years and that is considered starting all over. I don't think I could have gotten on with anyone else. Crete had all my previous records so they re-hired me. But yes, I had no idea it was such a different company now. Anyways heading up to NK now where they'll put me on speaker phone and do the dressing down.

 

The joy of this load continues. I had a 1900 appt time delivery Tuesday night, I was checked in and weighed by 1845...it is now almost 630 Wednesday, and I am still waiting in the staging bullpen. I normally don't name customers, but if you are forced to deliver to Novelis in Oswego, NY...bring lunch, dinner, and tomorrows breakfast...it is one of those never-never companies. A place I never-never want to visit again!!

 

LOL, the scenario was even worse and not what I had expected - the most clear case of retaliation I have ever seen. The company wants you to log very strictly and accurately. That 's fine. I have complied, been audited, and my logs are spotless. Yet in certain situations (only to their benefit and not the driver's, they want to bend the rules). Mid-way through a trip, they suddenly told me to reroute and tcal a load in NK (even though I was on my original eta which had been previously approved). OK, no big deal. But I was short of hours to make NK, let them know that, and they set up a trailer swap at a truck stop with another driver.

Since now I was losing money, time, and being majorly inconvenienced, I was curious about the now problematic logging protocol. I called logs and said "if I'm in the middle of a 10 hour break and do a drop and hook (0.5 hrs which is exactly what I had left), doesn't that negate the 10 hour break?" the clerk said "oh no, you can just show it as occurring at the end of the break". I asked how is it possible to be performing work and be off-duty or in the sleeper at the same time. She became very irritated and then said "well you're on private property aren't you?" and I responded " yes, but shippers and receivers are private property too, so we don't have to show that as it occurs either?" She couldn't explain that and became very rude and patronizing.

So then I called the head of logs (yes, the lady in the video). Without revealing the previous conversation, I asked "if I am doing a drop and hook and some adverse event or injury occurs, can that all be shown as off-duty?" She said of course not. Then I explained that is the exact possible scenario that could occur and how the clerk had told me I could perform a drop and hook in the middle of a 10 hour break, yet magically reassign the time as though it happened hours later. She was now caught in a catch-22 and became ultra patronizing and angry with me. She wouldn't explain the reasoning as I asked and instead just dismissed me. I tried to call Ray Coulter, but he always goes to voice mail.

So I was told yesterday to go to NK and call my fleet manager. I was pretty sure they were going to terminate me, but after chewing me out, she said safety had required I be switched to an e-log truck. So now that I have everything perfectly set up in this truck, pre-pass, etc, they want me to take another day to detail both trucks, move everything, etc. This is 100% retaliation, no question about it. Yet they denied it over the phone which I really. Found incredible. I don't have many other employment options, so am trying to decide now if I should just terminate. It's not about the e-log truck, which I can deal with. It's just their total disrespect, dishonesty, and the immense aggravation they cause.

 

Welcome to the new Crete. Where, unless there has been a serious safety violation(s) like accident(s) or punching some suit out in the parking lot, they'll screw with you, short your miles, nitpick all decisions looking for fault, but won't fire you. That way, the cookie cutter, follow the leader, mindless robot drivers get the miles, and those of us drivers who buck the system because we know that they're not the end-all and be-all company they advertise will get fed up and quit so they won't have to pay unemployment. But I have this forum to advertise their treatment, and they know it...which can be a blessing and a curse.

 

So true. I am trying not to make a rash decision. I found out they won't switch me to another asset manager but want me to go to Lincoln for some "discussions" (aka they will lecture me and deny and rationalize all the problems the asset manager caused me). LOL, when I suggested the possibility of terminating, my fleet manager's voice suddenly brightened and she sounded almost elated. Then when I asked if I could route back to where my car is, she started talking about a bus ticket. Since I have a lot of belongings, I shut down that option immediately. So now I will have to spend a whole day detailing trucks and lose a lot more income. I'm going to request home time ASAP and try to make it until then. Sorry for my rants, but these have been some of the most frustrating, stroke inducing, chest pain causing, days of my life.

* During a safety meeting, 'Bones' said something about Crete having a good (high?) CSA rating, but one or two other carriers having a better rating. Does anyone know what those companies are? Thanks

 

This is my 6th day of training. My trainer is a Shaffer driver. I'm absorbing all I can while I'm with her, & what you guys have to say is being read with great interest, at least by me. Keep the rants coming.