Crete Carrier Corporation - Lincoln, Ne.

That does sound pretty bad.

That company points thing reminds me of the military when they give "gigs" for doing something wrong.

 

Umm the only Advice i could offer you is that if They or Anyone Else Ever Attempts to Get you to do something Illegal, Like say you 34hr restart wont be up for another 5 hours but they planned your next Pickup right after your Restart is over but 3 hours away and then demand you pickup it up ontime simply make sure u get there demand for ontime pickup over the Satcom and then inform them that its inpossiable given the distance and pickup time if they insist Via Qualcomm Pickup your motor carrier atlas and flip to the Department of Transportation page and find the number corrosponding to the state your presently in and Give them a Ring tell them that your company is harrasing you on your 34hr brake and demanding you run illegal they should send a DOT guy out to you and Validate your info via Qualcomm take down a statment and then Fine your Trucking company depending on the situation... thats the best Advise i have other than Call OOIDA and ask if they have any say on the matter

 

which company did you work for crete or schafer?i worked for crete in 2000 and had none of these problems you mentiond i left to run local regional in ohio and if the place i work now doesn't improve in the next month i am going back and i don't expect to have any problems this time either.they tell you they are strict on logs in orientation didn't have pay problems because i keep track of those things and if i wasn't shure what something paid i asked.getting home was also a non issue send your macs on the computer call your terminal mgr to make shure its there and that was all it took for me last thing i did b4 i went home was call dispatch and let them know what day i was coming back out of the house and i also sent a message saying the same.loved the points system allways got my bonus good log audits and lots of trl inspections,but i realise not everyone is going to have a good experiance everywhere they work hope you find a place you like

 

i will do what i did b4 i worked for them the first tiime thats ask everyone of there drivers i see how they are treated and see what i come up with and if i don't get the same answers i got b4 i will reconsider.i didn't want to sound like i was blasting you i just didn't have the problems you had when i was there but as you said things can change.good kuck with the new job stay safe out there

 

This really sounds like Shaffer, rather than Crete, with the exception of one point raised.

When assigned to satellite terminals, in the capacity as a regional driver, some of the terminal managers are bad about pushing time off to a minimum. Why?

Because they receive bonus checks when their fleets hit those high mile averages each month and each quarter. They are paid to push the drivers to maximize their time on the road. It's really the only way they can push the drivers, because they don't dispatch them. But they'll sit behind their desks and count up each mile on each assigned driver, and will do practically anything to get them rolling again.

Now...Shaffer, on the other hand, before they were folded completely into Crete's MCS-150 filings, held a much worse safety record than Crete did. Most of what I read, was or may still be typical of their dispatching out of Pennsylvania.

Whether or not the combining of the records of all the Acklie Holdings into one file, was voluntary or not, it has hurt Crete severely. The high profile accident earlier this year has not helped matters. Their ISS-2 stands at 92 today.

Crete has also went downhill since Dwayne Acklie has turned over the day to day operations to Tom Ostergard. I've heard several long time drivers begin to grumble, and even when he was second in command while I was there, and leased to them, he was not known for being a man pleasant to deal with, or on the side of drivers very much of the time.

The rumor flying around is that after the accident in Florida this past January, Mr. Acklie stepped in for a little while and slapped some well hands, and basically shook up the place for a little while.

Still, overall I consider Crete to be one of the better players out there. They don't play games with drivers in the same way as many others out there that are well known to do so.

 

I've been driving here @ shaffer for 6 years and I have never had any of the problems you speak of. I live in Oklahoma and they have only called the house once and that was because they were curious as to when I was going to come out of the house. I forgot to tell them about my estimated time out.

As for the money issue. I have only had one paycheck issue with them in 6 years. That was my fault as I thought I had transfloed a lumper reciept and it didint go through. I told then I had sent it and they sent me to the transflo site where I could look at my scanned reciepts for each trip and I saw for myself that I didnt send it in. I transfloed the reciept the next day and I got that reimbursement in my next paycheck.

The key to working at Shaffer is communication. If you dont let the company know whats going on while you are working, then they just start making thier own plans for you. LET THEM KNOW whats going on. Thats where I see a lot of drivers go wrong. You also can't be afraid to tell the dispatchers NO when they want you to do something and you can't do it legally.

I see so many drivers who get mad because they expect the company to read thier minds and kiss thier butt. Then they get mad when the company doesn't do what they want the company to do. This happens in a lot of companies.

Reality check: Drivers work for the company, Not the other way around. Shaffer gives respect when the driver respects Shaffer. It's a 2 way street.

I drive 100% compliant at Shaffer and that is no truckers lie. I made just over $51K last year and that was not running hard.
I have been through a dozen log audits. No bad points assessed. I get no points on my safety record. I got my 5 year safety award last year for no accidents and no tickets. Don't be a supertrucker and you can do the same thing.

If a driver has a problem at this company, it's of the drivers own making.

Dispatch at Shaffer is willing to work with you if:

You are NOT lazy,
You are NOT a whiner or prima donna,
You ARE safe and compliant,
You DON'T take chances,
and you COMMUNICATE!! with them.

It takes a bit to get used to the system to work here but once you learn it, you shouldnt have any probelms with anyone.

Thats just my buck and a half on the subject. No BS

'nuf said

TL

 

I had a three year association with Crete, and I consider them to be night and day, when you make the comparison to any or all of those three companies.

I personally made good money with them. I rarely sat still while with them. My drivers were extremely pleased working for them. I truly do not remember any payroll issues, and in the rare case where there was, it usually showed up on the next week's check(s).

Most of the issues you raised were never an issue for me, but that's not in any way a contradiction to what you offer. I've heard that they have had some issues over the past couple of years, but that they are slowly getting things under control again, as I offered in the other post.

The were a couple of issues that I had, and the worst one that stands out, was the lack of empty trailers at certain customer locations, but then that's not necessarily their fault all the time. Customers that utilize drop and hook services, routinely take advantage of companies, and use trailers for storage. It happens. Wally World was always the worst, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin was the worst of that bunch too....

On another note, a Crete driver here in Chattanooga, who worked local on the Pillsbury account, had a little train track trouble the other day. He tried to beat a train, and lost. 47,000 lbs of brownie mix wound up scattered all over the train tracks and a good portion of Wahatchie Pike.

I've never seen a trailer so destroyed, but then it was a plate trailer, and those things are as flimsy as a piece of paper.

He might not lose his job though. The railroad could not prove that the signals were working at the time of the accident.