Crete Carrier Corporation - Lincoln, Ne.

This may come as a surprise to many that read the multitude of posts from me about Crete... I have nothing to add... You pretty much covered it with just one simple post... Bravo

 

This would be a fair description of most OTR company's IMO. The 4 company's I worked for seemed to have 1 thing in common, grumpy tired drivers. But what do you expect when the industry as a whole only discusses what the driver does to be safe and never how they need to operate so the driver is safe. They think it is safe to work 10-16hr days with a 75' 20-40 ton rig at all hours of the day or night for weeks at a time, getting paid more and being a star at the company if you stay out longer, and can fudge your logs without getting caught and don't whine about how many hours you have or when you started your day.

1 company I heard has a no drive policy between midnight and 0500 because they considered those times to be when it was most dangerous to be driving due to some studies they read or something. Yet if the load was going to be late to the customer, then the driver could run during those hours. That about sums up safety in OTR trucking, be safe and legal unless it affects the company's standing with the customer.

 

Crete has been awesome for me!!!! ive got 4 companies prior to compare to. Somebody in a previous post stated that they put there hometime down on the qualcomm..?? Thats where you screwed up! Company policy states that your supose to tell your fleet manager! ENOUGH SAID! Alot of people sleep through orientation, heres your sign! DRIVE SAFE

 

How long have you been here. Since you think this company is awesome, I'll bet it less than two years. That seems to be the limit for most, not all, positive feelings about Crete.
As for home time, it use to be call them at the terminal, but now since the Crete and Shaffer sides of the company have merged, one person handles all the home time requests for both at the terminals. So now it's q/comm to a specific person at the terminal (by their orders), then they put it on the computer. That way if there is any question about when your request was made, they can look back in the system. If you call, then it's your word against theirs. But putting it in 'writing' doesn't work any better or worse as for the 'getting you home' part. They still suck in that area, unless you just happen to live in the 'golden triangle of freight'. In fact when I have an exact day (like child graduation, or wedding, or doctors appt.) I schedule a week of vacation.

 

Like I said, I have a few companies to compare to.... Quit Crete and go somewhere else, I garuantee, you will wish you never quit........... Anyway, Crete pays me .42 cpm and thats more then any other company, and any trouble over here is gonna happen anywhere else. DRIVE SAFE

 

As a former Crete employee, I tend to agree with this post. In comparison to other large trucking companies, Crete is probably one of the better ones but, MAKE NO MISTAKE, they are still a large trucking company and they bear that mindset. They care about making a profit and getting the most bang for their buck out of their drivers... home time be ######.
I'm glad that the driver who touts thier virtues is having a good experience, but I'd also be willing to wager that he has been with them inside of 2 years. Any post which paints Crete as either "awesome" or "a terrible company", I'd take with a grain of salt.

 

Left Crete Oct 10th, the 23rd of Oct I would have been there 4 years and really enjoyed my time there. Will not say I was never unhappy that would be a stretch for working anywhere, even working for yourself. Was paid a good wage, checks never bounced, and except for 2 times they were always correct.

Guess I should say I left for medical reasons, came in for a doctors appointment and was unable to return. The people at the terminal checked on my well being several times. They pick up the truck, 170 miles from terminal, was not charged for this nor was there a clean up fee, truck was pretty clean when they got it.

The company provided short term disability insurance is paying like a slot machine at $500 weekly.

I did get tagged for damage to a customer parking lot, he said I did it, I say I didn't The company tagged me 2 points but said I could appeal. For 2 points it was not worth the trouble. I had about 30 points to the good at that time.

I do agree many of the shops need a good house cleaning. Most of the time I tried to get work done at a TA when that would work otherwise just took my nerve pills and waited in line.

So based on the way Crete treated me it is real hard to say anything too bad about them. I wish Mr Ackley, the Crete Group nothing but the best, just hope Tonn will keep up the tradition.

 

Knew I would forget something.

Home time, had very few problems with this, may have been a few days late a couple of times but that was a freight problem or break down.

I would dend a Q-Com to terminal about 10 days before I wanted to be off. Most of the time girl would send a conformation that message had been post to truck. If I did not get the conformation would call her the next day and check on it. About a week before home time I would ask dispatch if "Go Home" message was on truck. Then would start sending a "Request for home time" caned message on every trip. If I had a gripe it would be that many times they would get me in before the time I requested.

 

It doesn't matter how much they pay per mile, if they don't give you miles, it could be $1 per mile, you still make the same money as anywhere else. I was happy when I was at .42 cpm too. But as your cpm goes up, your miles go down...I didn't believe it until it happened to me, it'll happen to you. We got a .04 raise in Sept. of '06, and my gross in '07 was only slightly higher than '06. With a .04 per mile increase I should have made over $5,000 more if my miles were even close to the '06 miles. My miles were never big here, but up and until the '06 raise, were acceptable.

I am looking, but this time of year is tough. The problem, 6 weeks ago, my wife had to start seeing a doctor because of an unexplained and sudden increase in her BP. She is now on meds to try to get a handle on it and figure out why the sudden increase. Until they figure out what's up, I need to stay in order to have insurance coverage.

I did think things were going to straighten out here... guess I should have kept my mouth shut. As soon as I started writing about the improvement, things went south again. Sat most of the weekend across the street from the consignee and put in a 34hr restart under the only load I was offered. Delivered Monday. Was empty at 10 a.m. Only thing they had were a 650 mile run, and a 550 mile run. Both picked up the same place on Tuesday afternoon. Both didn't deliver until Thursday. Thats a 250 mi (or less)per day average. This means I'll have a whopping 1700 miles by Thursday. And getting these cow tippin' yuks to t'call a load is like pulling hens teeth.

We did get a letter from ole' Tonny boy. Stating that freight is unusually slow. What he failed to explain, if freight is so slow, why do we keep hiring drivers if we don't have freight to haul? Proves, the man truly only cares about himself. He probably has been getting pressure from Acklie about the way things are going here, and his future is in jeopardy. So he sends out a 'feel good' letter that makes it look like he actually cares. That seems to be the only time he starts acting like he gives a crap, when his butt is in a sling.