Crete "Good R Bad"?

[Sal]

Looking for any information on Crete, good or bad.
Thanks for any Info.

[Bumper]

Good pay. Getting home to Calif wont be as easy as you may think.

[bluebeetle]

Western Regional out of Sacremento, CA area will have you home on a 7-10 basis, keep you west of the Mississippi and get decent miles. OTR is also available but you will be out longer (generally 3-4 weeks and run all 48 states).

Debt free and privately owned means you won't have to worry about loosing your job to buyouts or foreclosures.

Good benefits and decent pay averaging 2400-2800 miles a week.

Downside, no pets and 62 mph trucks. :sad:

But hey, I am a recruiter and according to others quite biased so go figure!

[headborg]

good.

They listen to their ex-drivers--- after said drivers terminate their employment. And then make changes to stem the tide of driver's leaving-- take the recent APU and pet policy "adjustments".

Guess it's better to listen a little late--than not at all.

[belpre122]

Layover/detention pay?

[Sal]

Good pay. Getting home to Calif wont be as easy as you may think.

Still not bad as long as i'm not sitting days in a truck stop away from home. (?)

[headborg]

Layover/detention pay?

they do pay hourly detention-- so that's a plus.

but, no layover-

of course, when I hired on-- the recruiter stated that-- Crete/Shaffer doesn't
layover drivers--- they will bounce you out of the area after a load.( Not!)

Or( as I found in practice) extend a delivery schedule appointment to "slow" you down-- until a day or so longer until there is freight in that area..

But lack of freight--- was mainly just a Shaffer problem-- there always seemed to be plenty of Crete dry freight around.

[Sal]

Layover/detention pay?

they do pay hourly detention-- so that's a plus.

but, no layover-

of course, when I hired on-- the recruiter stated that-- Crete/Shaffer doesn't
layover drivers--- they will bounce you out of the area after a load.( Not!)

Or( as I found in practice) extend a delivery schedule appointment to "slow" you down-- until a day or so longer until there is freight in that area..

But lack of freight--- was mainly just a Shaffer problem-- there always seemed to be plenty of Crete dry freight around.

Headborg
What i'm dealing with now is 5 day 900 &1200 mile loads.
So there is no layover pay cause your under a load. This means your sitting 2-3
days with no pay. And getting a "sorry" it's the company policy.

[headborg]

Layover/detention pay?

they do pay hourly detention-- so that's a plus.

but, no layover-

of course, when I hired on-- the recruiter stated that-- Crete/Shaffer doesn't
layover drivers--- they will bounce you out of the area after a load.( Not!)

Or( as I found in practice) extend a delivery schedule appointment to "slow" you down-- until a day or so longer until there is freight in that area..

But lack of freight--- was mainly just a Shaffer problem-- there always seemed to be plenty of Crete dry freight around.

Headborg
What i'm dealing with now is 5 day 900 &1200 mile loads.
So there is no layover pay cause your under a load. This means your sitting 2-3
days with no pay. And getting a "sorry" it's the company policy.

sitting 2-3 days with no pay or driving 5mph to your consignee( which it's breaking company policy to show up early or even phone them to see if you can deliver early- right?)
at least, I'm not the only one noticing what's going on in this industry.

Well, looks like the same ol same ol-- no matter where you go.

Just stick where you're at- gut it out-- and run them bad loads into those consignee's early and kick the freight off the back of the truck-- do that just once and either your company will fire you-- or they'll get the message not to schedule you on that kind of b.s.

[married to the road]

good.

They listen to their ex-drivers--- after said drivers terminate their employment. And then make changes to stem the tide of driver's leaving-- take the recent APU and pet policy "adjustments".

Guess it's better to listen a little late--than not at all.

Have they equiuped all their trucks with apu's? I heard they were starting to and was curious how long this will take. thanks

[dipstick]

Western Regional out of Sacremento, CA area will have you home on a 7-10 basis, keep you west of the Mississippi and get decent miles. OTR is also available but you will be out longer (generally 3-4 weeks and run all 48 states).

Debt free and privately owned means you won't have to worry about loosing your job to buyouts or foreclosures.

Good benefits and decent pay averaging 2400-2800 miles a week.

Downside, no pets and 62 mph trucks. :sad:

But hey, I am a recruiter and according to others quite biased so go figure!

Your right you are a recruiter. Running western regional expect to sit, expect to get lots of trailers needing tires or repairs. In SLC the western regional terminal I have been stuck sitting with no empty although 10 mt's sat in the yard needing repairs. SLC mechanics are slow and are scary to trust your life to. Crete has only one terminal out west and Crete won't pay drivers to drag trailers in to get fixed, expect lots of bad tires. Expect a lot of QC messages " short freight call back in three hours. Crete has joined the ranks of Swift and Knight. It's too bad, good safe drivers with half a brain are leaving as the new deal of trickle down economics has no interest in treating drivers with respect. I am a workaholic but I refuse to be stolen from or lied to. Back to self employment for me.

[repete]

Western Regional out of Sacremento, CA area will have you home on a 7-10 basis, keep you west of the Mississippi and get decent miles. OTR is also available but you will be out longer (generally 3-4 weeks and run all 48 states).

Debt free and privately owned means you won't have to worry about loosing your job to buyouts or foreclosures.

Good benefits and decent pay averaging 2400-2800 miles a week.

Downside, no pets and 62 mph trucks. :sad:

But hey, I am a recruiter and according to others quite biased so go figure!

Your right you are a recruiter. Running western regional expect to sit, expect to get lots of trailers needing tires or repairs. In SLC the western regional terminal I have been stuck sitting with no empty although 10 mt's sat in the yard needing repairs. SLC mechanics are slow and are scary to trust your life to. Crete has only one terminal out west and Crete won't pay drivers to drag trailers in to get fixed, expect lots of bad tires. Expect a lot of QC messages " short freight call back in three hours. Crete has joined the ranks of Swift and Knight. It's too bad, good safe drivers with half a brain are leaving as the new deal of trickle down economics has no interest in treating drivers with respect. I am a workaholic but I refuse to be stolen from or lied to. Back to self employment for me.

I rarely had a problem getting a load or repairs, sometimes finding a MT can be a challange but all you have to do is ask dispatch and they will send you a QC msg of local places to get one, no biggie. I did find out that people that complain alot have a tendency to be starved out! I don't know if Crete does that but the last place I worked did.

[-FlyByNight-]

Western Regional out of Sacremento, CA area will have you home on a 7-10 basis, keep you west of the Mississippi and get decent miles. OTR is also available but you will be out longer (generally 3-4 weeks and run all 48 states).

Debt free and privately owned means you won't have to worry about loosing your job to buyouts or foreclosures.

Good benefits and decent pay averaging 2400-2800 miles a week.

Downside, no pets and 62 mph trucks. :sad:

But hey, I am a recruiter and according to others quite biased so go figure!

Your right you are a recruiter. Running western regional expect to sit, expect to get lots of trailers needing tires or repairs. In SLC the western regional terminal I have been stuck sitting with no empty although 10 mt's sat in the yard needing repairs. SLC mechanics are slow and are scary to trust your life to. Crete has only one terminal out west and Crete won't pay drivers to drag trailers in to get fixed, expect lots of bad tires. Expect a lot of QC messages " short freight call back in three hours. Crete has joined the ranks of Swift and Knight. It's too bad, good safe drivers with half a brain are leaving as the new deal of trickle down economics has no interest in treating drivers with respect. I am a workaholic but I refuse to be stolen from or lied to. Back to self employment for me.

I rarely had a problem getting a load or repairs, sometimes finding a MT can be a challange but all you have to do is ask dispatch and they will send you a QC msg of local places to get one, no biggie. I did find out that people that complain alot have a tendency to be starved out! I don't know if Crete does that but the last place I worked did.

I ran WR last summer and would have to mostly agree with Repete. Yes, there were 'dead' areas where I sat. Union Gap/Yakima comes to mind in particular. I do feel the communication was better on that board than on National though since I only dealt with John & Larry for the most part. Ultimately what made me return to National was that I never really got thru the house, made less $ due to the .05 CPM less to run WR and there seemed to be more live load/unload and less D&H which eats up time.

By and large I've been very content working for Crete.


*Edit*

I had some personal issues that demanded I come off the road, so on saturday 9/6 I turned in my truck at Crete's NSL, UT terminal and on monday 9/8 started a new job as fuel tanker yanker that allows me to be home every night. I have the utmost respect for Crete and it's people. Especially Ruth and her two assistants Becky and Terri in the Cheyenne, WY terminal. I stand by everything I've ever posted about Crete and highly recommend them.

[okie]

I never understood why the Dedicated and Regionals have a cpm ceiling. Isn't the idea to keep people around. I have no intention of leaving since terminal is 20 min from house, i'm just sayin. If I was to leave it would be about the crap insurance, not impressed with it at all. Talked w/ benefits today. No chance it is changing anytime soon. The 62 mph trucks I can live with, seems a little dangerous when someone is coming off on ramp. I give up and slow up, can't get over, no one will let you -can't speed up, no pedal left. Have not really noticed any change in the mileage myself. Sure when you get a good interstate mostly run it is up their. But for the town hopping our fleet does, i believe it is worse.

[Jeffro]

Very good company. Debt free, capable of running plenty of miles, APU's are quickly filtering onto all trucks. They also own Shaffer (Reefer) and Hunt (Flatbed) if you are interested.

[okie]

All was well and wonderfull till I went out on Medical with Gall Bladder Surgery. I am quickly learning it is all about the CRETE and nothing about the Okie. I feel bad about it but Dr. wont clear me till next week. I worked for the state for 15 years and had 5-6 call ins in that time so this deadbeat employee stuff is new to me.

[headborg]

I hope that was a typo Okie-- the employee don't you mean deadbeat employe(r)? else you calling yourself a deadbeat? just razing you...I knew what you mean. Where's all the post controls and how do you get the emoticons up here... I hate this new board..http://www.classadrivers.com/forum/i...ons/icon10.gif
Talking

[scythe08]

Headborg
What i'm dealing with now is 5 day 900 &1200 mile loads.
So there is no layover pay cause your under a load. This means your sitting 2-3
days with no pay. And getting a "sorry" it's the company policy.

hehe, sounded like you drove for Knight there for a minute.

[MARINEDAD]

no it sounds like Interstate Dist

[headborg]

no it sounds like:

Shaffer Trucking
Westside Transport
Heartland Express


wait a minute--

sounds like Trucking Companies In General

I think they all have the same secret "Black" Play Book-

How to stick it to your drivers, chapter 1-10.