Crete Carrier Corporation - Lincoln, Ne.

Well, I'm back on this line, I noticed at associated grocers in Nashville and at Toro in El Paso the crews stopped loading my truck and loaded 2 Crete truck before finishing me. This is happening regularly, thats gotta be a plus. I keep hearing 2500-2600 miles a week and SLOW trucks. I get 2000-2700 miles a week @.27 cents after 6 months and a 62 mph max truck. So what If they are a bit strict on dispatch/hometime. I guess if a driver aint complaining somethings wrong.

 

Yep starting pay with no exp is $0.34 CPM and 62 MPH trucks. So what on the truck MPH it is only a matter of a couple of minutes on a 500 mile plus trip anyway. Great company in my eyes so far.

 

Like I said, a new driver or one with little experience will be happy here.
I would have been too, 28 years ago when I had to settle for a job with a crooked small fleet,driving a ratty old cornbinder cabover, with no A/c, no powersteering, no bennies.

Partially the purpose of complaining on a forum like this, is, Crete is unlikely to pay attention to a driver, otherwise, If something I say hurts recruitment....maybe they will pay attention.
They're not likely to listen to a driver unless some bean counter says it's costing them money.
OK, I accept that. I'm not looking for a handout, just a fair deal.
I'd love to see things get a little better at Crete. I won't bet on it happening, as long as they can fill the seats with drivers who don't expect much.

Let's see, in the last ten days I've been at a standstill for 24 hours or more TWICE due to 'no empty trailers' in that area. In one major city the ######### in Lincoln sent me to 6 different places in a 75 mile radius, to pick up an empty trailer. Each place I went to were no empty trailers, and usually bumped into another Crete driver leaving, who had been sent there by the same idiot to look for an empty.

Eventually I went back to where I unloaded on my own, and waited 12 hours for an empty.

A few days later.......different city..at a terminal....no empties. Wait, Wait, Wait. Give me some load that is sitting there, already t-called? Whoever was on duty was too busy, or had no authority to make a decision.

My truck is overdue for service, and needs a few minor repairs. The last two terminals I have stopped at, the shop told me 'next week before we can get to you'.

Oh yes, our weekly message on the qualcom last friday informed us due to maintenance backup, load requirements, and the need for driver productivity.......we may be expected to swap trucks instead of waiting for maintenance.

Why do I bother to take care of a truck I got new, and expect to keep until it's sold, if the next hiccup in maintenance means I get forced into a piece of junk or some truck with unknown problems?
I went through something like this 15 years ago, with another large company that went out of business. If something fairly minor needed repair on the truck, they pulled you out of it, and assigned you another, whether that truck was 100 feet away, or 2000 miles and a bus ticket away. I went through 3 pieces of junk in 6 months before I moved on. Of course, that practice made sense to some desk jockey.

They claim this is for 'driver productivity'. It's not real productive for me, personally, to spend 6-8 hours detailing a truck to turn in, moving into a different one, instead of waiting for maintenance that should take 1-2 hours.
AND, there are specific requirements when you swap trucks, the shop needs to inspect it, sign it off after you've detailed it, or they charge you $100 plus dollars. (forget the exact amount) OK, that's nice, but most of the shops are open limited hours now, so chances are I'll lose a day or more swapping trucks. Doesn't sound productive to me. Oh I forgot, any work or time wasted by the driver, doesn't cost them anything.

 

20 years of trucking explains your 2 post to this forum. If your so unhappy go work somewhere else. Wouldn't that make more sense then to complain about your job everyday? Why is it that every trucker that I run into that has more than 5-10 years experience does nothing but complain about EVERYTHING under the sun? Not enough miles, to many miles, the traffic sucks, my truck sucks, this and that comapany sucks. Blah blah blah!!! Do us all a favor and quit complaining like a spoiled little brat kid, man up and roll with the punches or move on to the next thing. It's a JOB it's not supposed to be fun and everything isn't always going to go as planned or go the way YOU want it to.

 

Well said. I've noticed that most of these truckers are a bunch of sad sacks. You can tell just by looking at them; filthy, dirty, obese, unhealthy, grumpy, etc. But every now & then you encounter someone like yourself, who has a positive outlook on life. I just wish there were more out there like you. Unfortunately there isn't.

 

Welcome to the trap, then. Get out in a few years. Trucking is OK for a temporary job for a few years to survive, but as a career, it's steadily going downhill.

Crete is not the worst. I doubt there is any 'best' in large, dry van carriers.

Welcome to the world of lots of unpaid work, wasted unpaid time, no time at home, and being treated like a second class citizen by the company you work for.

Come back to this thread in 5-10 years and see what your opinion is, then.

Your lack of experience explains a lot.

 

Don't mean to barge into the thread at such a riveting moment in the discussion but I am on week 6 of my training. The first 5+ weeks went by super fast but the last couple of weeks are draggggggen on! Anyway hope to be in Lincoln soon for orientation and then head out in my own truck!

 

Enjoy your time out cause orientation drags by like the last few weeks! It's so time consuming and repetitive and you get to do exactly what you did on the pre qual stuff minus drug testing and DOT physical. But I hope your training is going well and you are learning and have a good trainer. Welcome to Crete!

 

People should listen to OFTOTR. He is right. Put 20 in and then talk about it. Crete is the only company I've known that has a detailing fee, the only company that expects the driver to do a professional detail. Turning in a clean truck is the right thing to do, but expecting a professional detail is too much. Lord knows I don't clean the bathroom spotless when I leave a hotel, but I pick-up towels and put trash in the trash can. My time with Crete was good time and it's a good company.

 

Hi. I'm in school, 3 weeks from getting my cdl. I know I meet all of their requirements and crete is at the top of my list. I've talked to a recruiter, but everyone tells me that recruiters are payed to lie to you so i wanted to ask some experienced drivers with crete a couple of questions.

#1 I live 2 1/2 hours from their nearest terminal. I drive an hour to work one way 5 days a week as it is right now so I won't mind making the drive every now and then, but is living so far away going to end up being a pain in butt? How often will I have to report to the terminal in my person vehicle

#2 The miles. I hear that alot of companies regulate your miles. If you get great miles one week, they'll fix your next weeks miles to be low to even out your paychecks. Does Crete do this, or can expect good miles all the time?

Any advice you have for a rookie I would be glad to hear.