Crete Carrier Corporation - Lincoln, Ne.

#1
I live an hour away from my terminal and have even bob tailed home while dispatched and nothing is said. Don't think of the terminal as your "office". You live in and drive your "office". The terminal nearest you is just like a "home base" of operations. With almost 6000 drivers they need to split the load up so we always have someone to speak to when we have questions or what not, but also someone to keep an eye on us to ensure we are doing what is required of us.


#2
Miles are unpredictable in this industry and are controlled by the shippers and receivers. They decide they need frieght and who they want to ship said freight. Now that being said, my mileage goal is 10,500 miles a month and I have had some bad weeks. When I say bad I mean I had to do a reset on my 70 cause I ran to hard and still pulled down a little over 2,800 miles that week. Sat for two whole days. I could have dispatched after my 34 reset at 22:00 hrs but don't want to drive at night unless I have to. The miles and freight are there it's up to you if you want to run it.

 

From my experience in this business, which means nothing to the experts just out of truck driving school, or with a few years on the road...

Living close to a 'full service' terminal is to your benefit, PROVIDED they will do scheduled maintenance when you park the truck on your time off.
Due to Crete cutting back shop hours, this is not possible at a lot of the smaller shop locations. I prefer to work for a company that has a terminal near to my home, so I can avoid some wasted, UNPAID downtime...and go home. 'Call me when it's fixed'.

I won't do the 'bus ticket' thing again for any company. I'd rather drive my personal vehicle an hour or two home, once a month, than drive a longer distance, or try to find a place to park a bobtail or tractor and trailer near my house. If you fired for some reason, the company has the obligation to return you to where they hired you. If that is a terminal 800 miles away from your home, even though they gave you a bus ticket to get there, you are at their mercy to get home. If you quit, you have the obligation to return the truck to either the terminal you work out of, or some companies allow you to drop it off at any terminal. You better be sure what the company policy is before you get out a truck or you could face 'abandoned vehicle' notations on your record, and DAC.

Miles vary. The only thing that matters is the miles you get paid for, not what some other driver tells you he gets. Drivers lie, some drivers are lucky, some drivers just get more miles, some drivers have no desire to have a life outside of a truck....too many variables.

I doubt I'm averaging 2400 miles a week here, and I take less time off than I have coming to me. The money is not enough, and I'm not at the bottom of the pay scale. You only determine how many miles you can get at crete but not taking much time off, what they have, what they offer you, and what they need to move, NOW. I just emptied out and was given a 200 mile load.
I think the guys who get more money at crete do everything, not related to work, in the daily ten hour break period, shower, sleep, eat.
Crete is happy if you put in 14 hours a day, you sure as hell don't get paid for all that time.
I don't screw off, but I will stop and eat a meal during the day when I feel like it, instead of eating another #### subway piece of crap (or some other fast food) while driving all the time. I want to sleep 7-8 hours a day, get a shower, and sometimes eat a decent meal. If this happens on my 'break', the break may extend to 11 or more hours. I'm not a robot. I've been out here for 25 plus years. I can burn the miles, but since this is my 'life', I'm not going to act like a #### machine.
If I want to stop, delivery/pickups allowing, read a book, watch tv, or scratch my ### for an hour during the day, I'll do it sometimes.
Crete 'offers' you loads, but most of the time you'll only see one load offered. I've never turned down a load I can't handle physically, or legally.
In the rare cases they offer more than one load, I'll take the longest or one going to an area I know I can reload quickly at.

You want to know the truth about trucking? Stop listening to trainers, recruiters, and new drivers.

 

I appreciate the advice. Right now my current job isn't paying the bills, plus things aren't going so great home. I figure I can jump in a truck get away, and get paid a little more than I do now. If it turns out OTR trucking isn't for me, so be it. I'll grit my teeth for a couple of years until I get enough experience for a local job. I'm not completely blinded, but I need to make some changes in my life. Whether this is for the better or worse is still to be seen. I know trucking isn't for everyone, and I salute the men, and women that make it in this industry, and I hope I'm one of them. If I never try I'll never know.

 

I don't know if you have student loans for truck driving school to pay for, or what? If so, you're kind of stuck trying this. It's not the best solution for somebody that needs to be home a lot, or have regular income.
I've run into a lot of new drivers with obligations to pay off the trucking school, and after a few months hate trucking.

Don't forget you spend money on the road, unless you can lay in a supply of peanut butter and jelly and bread, and tolerate eating that day after day after day, it's easy to spend $30 a day eating.

Somebody will pop in and say they eat ramen noodles every day and cook in the truck, or something. You can do that, I do it part of the time. You still have expenses, and too often you can't find a supermarket you can get a truck into due to all the #### 'no truck' signs.


The $40,000 or so a year gets chipped away pretty hard by the time you take your living expenses out, taxes, insurance, etc. I'd swap what I make for a $30,000 a year normal job, 40 hours a week, with benefits, if I could find one.

 

With a good tax adviser taxes shouldn't be too bad on $40,000. If you are out 300 days you can wipe out almost half of that income for tax purposes on the IRS's daily allowance. Cell phone bills, cleaning supplies, etc. Talk to a CPA not one of these strip mall services like H&R Blockhead.

 

My schooling was paid for by Hope scholarship. I had to pay $300 out of pocket for fuel, physical, permit etc. My current job I made just short of $30,000 last year. The work is seasonal, during the summer, and fall we're slow. I may get 40 hrs a week. During winter, and spring it's a different ball game. I was pulling 60-70 hr weeks alot so I'm no stranger to long hours. My hubby swore I was having an affair for a while, lol. I don't mind putting in the hours, but what I hated is finding out Friday mid-day that a customer just called and they need 600 more parts to ship for Monday morning. I hated having to cancel my plans for the weekend, and as a supervisor I hated screwing up my workers' weekends as well.

As far as cost of living while OTR, I'm no stranger to that either. I live an hour from my job so I spend around $80 a week on gas just to go back, and forth. I skip breakfast most days, and take sandwiches with me to work most days (left-overs are non-existent in my house). During peak season there are days I get home so late and exhausted I might not eat before I crash for the night.

The benefits aren't that great either. Health insurance through my company would cost $90 a week for my hubby, and me (I am a smoker), and I can't afford that with what I make. Thank God for Georgia PeachCare for my kids.

I am happy, and thankful to have a job when so many people out there don't, but if it's not paying the bills, what can I do?

 

While I agree with most of what you say, I find it troubling that YOU are a trucker for 20 years but tell everyone else to "get out" after a few.

To make a long story short, I started my trucking career with Crete in 2008. Miles were hard to come by then. I stayed for 13 months, switched to a local job and then another until I found the right fit (for me).

I now drive local for JB Hunt DCS division. I work monday through Friday and usually gross around 1,100.

I still talk to a few guys at Crete and some do very well. OTR is not for everyone but at least give it a year to get your experience and move on if you need to. I also stocked up on food when I was on hometime. I never spent more that 12 bucks a day for food. Probably why I am the right weight for my height,lol. I also learned that if you have a good relationship with your fleet manager you can usually fix most issues without crying about everything online and at the Denny's.

 

There is a reason why I stay out of drivers lounges at both truck stops and terminals. It's because of drivers like him complaining all the time. It so annoying. Then more post about us "experts" fresh out of school and new drivers. I was going to be nice but it's hard. I mean when I eat something that tastes bad and I don't like it, I don't continue to eat it for the next 20 years and tell people "don't eat that it's disgusting!". Your probably the experienced driver that will watch a newbie struggle while backing and not bother to lend a hand but then complain how us "experts" can't back for $@&# and forget about the drivers that helped you when you struggled. I have yet to claim to be an "expert" in this field of work nor have a said you will get 728276161916 miles a week and make millions in just a few weeks a Crete. I am just trying to help other people, cause that's what humanity is about helping each other, with a big decision with how they are going to keep the lights on and mouths fed.

Now I apologize Mr. Experienced driver but I will continue to be an "expert" in humanity and help my fellow driver out regardless of experience. Hell if we ever run into each other and you need help I wouldn't hesitate to give you all the knowledge I had to help you.

Have a good day and please pay it forward and remember, someone taught you and took the time to help you out I'm sure a time or two. Save the complaing for the TV room and lounges.

 

I didn't realize I had to join in the choir practice to post on this forum?

Like I said, come back here in 5-10 years, and see what if your outlook has changed.

Why is telling the truth about a company and the industry 'complaining'?


I enjoy trucking, occasionally, but wish I had gotten out while I was younger a found a different carreer path. The money, hours, and working conditions aren't worth it.

And yes, I did have other careers, (not working at the 7/11), before I started trucking.
I was warned by a family friend who owned a trucking company to get out after a few years, or it's hard to get out of trucking. There used to be a lot more freedom driving a truck, and it became difficult to consider going back to a normal job after a few years, not that things were wonderful, then. After 5-10 years, other than for menial 'normal' jobs, the world has passed you by.


If you need to put food on the table for a family, you can probably do it driving a truck, you just won't be sitting down to eat with them too often.


Little Red, I admire you're willing to do what it takes to take care of your family. Good luck. The insurance costs at various companies differ quite a bit, and too often will increase or carrier change while you work for them.

I'm glad you got into this without a lot of money out of your pocket.
Give it a shot.

Other than the gas expenses for the commute you had, after the novelty of trucking wears off, you may realize you're not making much more money than you were, overall. I hope I'm wrong.



Oh, I don't hang out in the TV room or driver lounges. Can't tolerate the smell of smoke, unwashed bodies, and the BS from shouting, deaf truckers.

 

Here I go, disrupting the choir practice again, but one of the big problems now at Crete is maintenance, the lack of it, or inability to get it done.

I wrote my truck up on my recent time off at my home terminal for some problems and overdue scheduled maintenance, and was told they were too busy to do it, but to try to get it done at another terminal when I went back out.
I tried 3 separate terminals I passed when I went back on the road, each told me there would be a 2 day, to a week wait.

I finally couldn't put it off anymore, and had to take my chances with the two day wait at the third terminal, but actually was the second attempt to get the work done there in a 2 day period. (Unloaded in area, ran a short load, and was sent back to that terminal)

I'm not complaining about the mechanics, maybe the lack of them?

They also have recently implemented a 'maintenance overdue' message on the trailers.
Maybe 50% of the dropped trailers you'll pick up, loaded or empty, are overdue for maintenance. You pick up the trailer, send in a loaded call, or whatever, and you get an automatic 'this trailer is overdue for maintenance' message on the qualcom.

The funny thing is, that trailer could have been sitting at a terminal with a shop for days.

I picked up two tcall loads at one of the larger terminals yesterday, both had been sitting there for 2 days or more. As soon as I sent in the loaded call,
the 'overdue' message came back.

I also dropped an 'overdue' trailer at the same terminal two days earlier, wrote it up for service, and asked whether to put it in the deadlined row or what? I was told to just drop it anywhere in the yard.

Of course, a few hours later, another driver picked up that empty and was long gone.