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Originally Posted by ninelives
I'm new to the board and have really enjoyed your posts.
I'm recently laid off from a T/L carrier in Tennessee and I have applied to Crete a few days ago. Recruiter in Neb. called me Fri. and said they have approved me for Nat'l fleet starting at 42 cpm. She is to call me Mon. with details about orientation, etc.
I've got @ 25 yrs. experience, have only had two jobs since 1990 and Crete was the first carrier I applied with when I lost my most recent job. I've done my share of OTR but I'm still learning. Really enjoyed reading your posts, learned lots about Crete. I plan to read your entire thread as I have time.
They said they would base me in Knoxville since I live @ 1 hr. from there. Can you give me any insight about what to expect in orientation, etc? I'm a little leery about getting a truck with high miles, opti-idle, if/when I would get an APU. Also not knowing their freight base, what to expect about their dispatch system and fuel solutions, I just want to find out as much as I can going in.
I hope you have the time to reply to me in the next few days. Be safe out there.
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Knoxville is a great central location. You should find it very easy to get home unlike some of us that live one the edges of the country.
Crete is in the process of building a very nice new terminal in Knoxville. At the moment we have two very small yards on the west side of town not too far from the TA.
As far as getting a high mileage truck assigned to you, that is the best thing that could happen at this moment. We will soon be getting a bunch of new trucks and the oldest ones will be the first ones to be retired. Mine is an '05 with 645,000mi on it. I will be one of the first to get a new truck with an APU on it. If you get an '07 you will also be getting an APU in July or so depending on how fast Thermo King and Carrier can produce them, but if you get an '06 you will be stuck with the opti-idle for a while. I have no love for it, but it's not exactly the worst thing in the world either. It's just something you have to get used too.
What truck you get will be the luck of the draw. Whatever happens to be next in line when you are assigned one.
As far as our freight base goes I will refer you back to my posts. Its all there in detail, but if you don't want to be board to death just check out the weekly result and it will give you an idea of the areas I go.
The fuel routing we follow is given to use along with our load information. Basically you can plan on fueling once a day. For the most part you are allowed to fill up at most stops unless you happen to be in a part of the country where the fuel prices are way out of line with the rest of the country. In that case you may be asked to get 50-100 gals and then fill up later down the road. You are also allowed to fill up at any of our terminals without prior approval. If you really need to get fuel somewhere else all you have to do is call for a new fuel routing. I don't do this often, but have never had a problem switching things up. You can also stop at any approved fuel stop (you will get a list at orientation) where you can stop and get up to 50gal w/o previous approval. All of this is subject to change with the ever increasing fuel prices though.
Your initial orientation is really nothing more than a paperwork session. What generally happens is that a rental car will be set up for you unless you will be leaving your own car at a terminal. You will be setup with your own hotel room, no sharing here.
Your first day will start with a pee test and a physical. When you get back from that they will set a stack of paperwork in front of you and give you the standard tapes to watch. Logging, safety, sexual harassment, etc. You will also be sent out with someone for a short road test on day one or two. Usually just a driver sitting in the lounge with nothing better to do. Day two is more paper work and videos. You will also be assigned a truck and allowed to start setting it up to your liking. If your drug test and physical results are back on the second day you will be set loose and given your first load.
You will then be routed through one of the main terminals for your actual orientation sometime in the near future. Somewhere in the neighbor hood of 1-3 weeks. (This can be an interesting time because you will basically be winging it as far as company policy and procedures go. But at least you making money from the start). You will be looking at a two day official orientation that you are payed $140 for. At this one you will sign up for your insurance, 401K and things along that nature. Another set of videos and go over company policy and procedures. You will again be assigned a hotel room during this time. Just your basic orientation. Not what I would call an exciting time, but it could be worse I guess.
Once that's over you'll be sent back out on the road and burning it up at 62MPH.
Welcome aboard!
