Crete Carrier Corporation - Lincoln, Ne.

About once a week I will treat myself to a sit down meal at a decent restaurant. The rest of the time it is an assortment of cold cuts, ChunkySoups, chef-boy-r-dee, some banana's, and a few heads of lettuce. My biggest "food" expense is coffee. A 12V coffee pot will eliminate that expense.

I bought a can of shaving cream at a Pilot. The girl apologized at least 5-times for how much it costed.

Everything is a rip at the truck stops. JC, they tagged me $16 for a haircut at a Petro in Wisconsin, they barely cut off any of my hair!!!

 

I got tired of waiting and will be going to Averitt.

 

Well the best of luck to you geargrinder. To bad it has taken so long for Crete to get back to you. I honestly cannot remember how long it took for my safety to come back but when I started looking I had my eye on a lot of companies. so I cannot remember who said or did what

 

If you take this attitude forward with you, might want to look at another trucking company. Safety is not always right but they are always safety and they have the FINAL word. (AND MOST OF THE TIME THEY ARE RIGHT)

 

I don't want to debate what safety is all about in the USA. The best safety (in any industry) is the individual thinking about what he is doing, why he is doing, and a common sense approach to execute the task. FWIW, I am probably more sensitive (or perhaps "desensitzed) to safety than the typical gear grabber. I have managed environmental projects handling toxic, reactive, explosive and radiological materials. On Department of Energy projects the priorities were/are: 1. Security. 2. Safety. 3. Applicable law. Getting the work done was 4th or 5th on the list.

That being said, CRETE did call me and affirm my acceptability to operate their equipment. Only stumbling block is they are talking about National Solo, and my interest is in one of their regional positions that advertise "90% of drivers get home 90% of weekends "Weekend" may start Saturday night. Usually home under a load."

I made my interests known early in the process. Actually at the very beginning! I'll see what Crete says when I talk to them today.

Of course it my be safer for me to wait until the end of summer to start driving again. Too many distractions out there during the summer!!

Good night and good luck.

 

Hey there. I can't complain about Crete. Man, from the first contact to through the hiring process to the human resource side getting me set up for my orientation, they have been the best.

Can you contend with a company that rents you a 2008 Impala to drive from Southern California to Lincoln Nebraska. Can you complain of a company that pays your hotel on the road? Can you be offended that they reimburse all your fuel and hotel expenses in cash when you arrive for orientation? And their training pay? $600 a week is as much as some of the OTR drivers get at the lower end companies. I can't complain.

They have an on-site grill at the Lincoln Terminal. Breakfast and lunch are on them. Beats the roach coach that showed up for our 15 min meal break at CRST orientation. It even blows the Subway sandwiches that Gordon Trucking provided for our lunches.

Hey, I know companies put their best foot forward. Who doesn't? But so far, every point in my journey has been better than hoped for.

Will check back in after orientation.

Varmit

 

When I hired on at Crete, Janell in Salt Lake gave me rides to the clinics and to restaurants. She then got me a rental car, a car I had all to my lonesome to take to Lincoln. When I hired on at Swift, I had to walk everywhere during testing and orientation, and when it came time to get trucks, 5 guys piled into a personal car at Greer, SC and went back to Virginia to wait up to two weeks before getting assigned. This is because there weren't enough trainers to take on all the new freshies from that orientation. This should have been a huge red flag, btw, but I let it pass. Crowded orientation classes and not enough trainers for those coming out of those classes mean something is definitely wrong at a trucking company. It means the experienced guys are quitting is what it means. And you don't want to play the fool by replacing those guys.

I don't think the driver of that car got reimbursed for gas, either.

Crete is one of the best, if not THE best TL outfit, but I wonder what will become of that company once ol' man Acklie passes away. I predict it'll go downhill fast, so enjoy it while it lasts.

 

10/4 Tip. Things can change fast. And I know what you mean by swift, had a similar experience with CRST.

Varmit

 

Sounds to me they was waiting on their "own" safety reviews, being not sure they would pass their audit or not?? Or possibly safety has to review files and they was to busy with a DOT audit. Some people prefer to give you less information instead of explaining whats going on and making you understand why you must wait. They might not have wanted to scare you away and gave you the lesser of the information. That's my opinion only, not sure how they do their process, but "safety review" is basically a trucking companys profile which leads to customers which no customers, no need for new drivers or old one's

 

Hey there.

Now lets not get all misty eyed, but I am officially off for Lincoln in a couple hours. Thank you all for the posts and in depth answers to my questions. Logs R Us, you have cleared up the fog on the log. Safety Babe thanks for the legal counsel on pre-paid. I am sold. Slick50, when I go O/O I will always give you the credit for making it plain and simple for me. MedicineMan, maybe we'll see you over here at Crete one day when the house sells. Dance694U, well, no thanks. But I have always gleaned good stuff from you. And to all the others, well, let's all watch "Convoy" and get inspired.

See ya'll on here in a few weeks.

Varmit