Crete Carrier - A Year In Review - Fall 2013 Going Forward

I talking to a crete driver on Friday afternoon and he said the company has completely changed and I should look else where I told him I'm coming back and will see how I do with crete after a full year

 

I spoke to Winston Ostergard last week about how automatic transmissions in *every* new Crete truck.
The (summarized) call went something like this:

Me: "Look, I know you guys don't go about buying 800 trucks flippantly, but I don't think you've looked at this from the point of view of a driver."

Winston: "How so?"

"There's no mathematical formula to determine when it's safe to drive, right? It's up to the driver, and oftentimes you don't realize it's unsafe until you're actually out on the road. Last year I lost control of the truck on I-80 in Wyoming going 45 MPH. When that happened, I immediately hit the clutch to match road and tire speed. I regained control but lost it and regained it twice more before coming to the first available parking area. I couldn't do that with an automatic."

"I'll run your concerns by the manufacturers and see if they have any thoughts".

"I honestly don't want their thoughts. I want to share how a truck driver views automatic transmissions. As a driver, inarguably, they give me less control and it looks a lot like you guys are willing to sacrifice some of my control of the vehicle (and the correlating safety) so you can save 1/10 of a mile per gallon on your fuel costs."

"Well there is undoubtedly fuel savings but that's not why we're doing it. They actually save money in reduced accident costs. Werner has been exclusively using automatic transmissions for four years and they've seen a sizeable reduction in accidents"

How odd, I thought, that Winston would use Werner as a benchmark for us. Crete was the carrier of the year for WalMart last year. If anything, Werner should be using *US* as a benchmark, not the other way around. The level of experience between drivers at each company is dramatically different.

Then it hit me. I felt pretty stupid afterward for not seeing it.

I think Werner is buying Crete.

Why else would you move your *entire fleet* to automatics so quickly? Because Werner has them and that would be a condition of purchase for simplicity in service.

Also, Omaha (Werner) is a driveable distance for old Crete (Lincoln) employees. They could conceivably grit it out for their last couple of years and drive the extra 30 minutes before retirement.

With the news of the recent Knight-Swift merger, carriers will be pressed to get larger. This would certainly do that. Culturally, however, they don't fit at all. Crete has many old school drivers who have many years in. From my view, Werner does not have that rep. They have a rep as only a little better than a starter company. I think there may be some very, very dark clouds on the horizon.

 

Great, as if I didn't have enough things to worry about.

 

Let me get my tin foil hat on.

 

Did you remember to bring popcorn too?

 

I really hope crete doesn't sell to Werner I want stay at crete then
And definitely don't want a automatic semi truck

 

As far as auto's go.....
I curse at mine daily because it shifts right at 1500 rpms no matter what you're doing. I forget to slip it into manual modes plus it's programmed for fuel savings. In manual mode I can "shift" it with the push of a button. When my company announced that new trucks will be phased in soon rumor has it that some will be 13 speed manuals. I will still take an auto-shift of any kind before going back to manual.

 

Werner buying Crete is a guess. You getting an automatic is not.

All 2017's are automatics and the purchase for 2018 will all be automatics as well. Call Winston and verify it if you doubt me.

 

what is the home weekly south carolina fleet about

 

The only thing good about TA truckstops is that Babybel cheese they sell for 69 cents.