CRETE
 

Well I just got home, I had been told that I would need to be out with a trainer for 4 weeks but they cut me loose after 2 :D . I wont say their the best outfit out there but so far I impressed

They do pay for orentation and rented me a car to drive to Lincoln NE

Pay while out with a trainer is $500 a week

while training there is NO team driving

Starting pay is .40 CPM ( for me with less than 1 recent year exp)

So far I haven't had to sit at all (been 3 weeks)

All around so far so good!

If I can answer anyones questions just pm me and I'll get back to you

Re: CRETE
 

I too looked into Crete, but I was told 36 CPM and 41 after a year

What type of equipment is Crete running these days? Any autoshifts?

I haven't heard any thing about autoshifts, Almost all the trucks are Freight Liner and they raised the CPM .03 last September
They impressed me just by getting me detention pay after 2 hrs and it got
me a dock while the other guys were still sitting & b#tching about it. Just goes to show that someone does care! :shock:

Good that you are getting off on the right foot with them and like them.
Alot of folks have good things to say about them. The only negative I have seen show up on a regular basis is that they can be anal about the log book

Good luck to you.

true. Don't be a super-trucker and you'll be fine. You've made a good choice on what company to start out with.

anal about logs?well yeah they are, but if your having problems they will sit down and help you with it and not just hang you out dry. It all boils down to log it legal and do it as you log it.

when i worked there, they said they had no plans to ever buy auto shifts, but they were looking into getting apu's and getting rid of that annoying opti-idle

I remember when opti-idle first came out. It would come on in the middle of night, i thought someone was trying to steal the truck..... :lol: :lol:

it's even worse when you dont have it and you park beside soemone who does. the other night I parked by myself and a few hours later I was woke up by the crete on one side with his opti-idle and the superloud reefer on the other side

I noticed on cretes site that they do not require HazMat when you sign on but they do require it 45 to 60 days after sign on, my question is, is this mandatory that you get a hazmat endorsement? or is there another option?

It is mandatory. And they are very serious about it. My 60 day period was nearly up when Safety forced dispatch to route me home so I could check the mail. In two years I have yet to haul a single hazmat load but now that i have it I'm glad I do.

Cret also reimburses the application fees up to $125 I believe.

Well I know they reimburse you $100 and I've hauled 1 or 2 haz-mat loads since I've been here. Congrats on becoming apart of our team.

Going on 7 years with Crete....

I can count the hazmat loads I've hauled on one hand.

I saw a company Peterbilt 387 today with an APU. First Crete company truck I've seen with one.

Certified trainers?
 

Do Crete trainers go through any type of certification process? Do they "train their trainers"?
The more I read, the more I'm leaning toward this company. It seems to combine the good of the large with some of the driver-friendly thinking of the smaller companies.
Just this one question, since I've already begun the application process!
Jewels

Re: Certified trainers?
 

Yeah they sure do. I'm not so sure as to what the specifics are but I spoke to a trainer (about all the extra $ he was making) and he told me that less then %5 of our drivers in our fleet qualify to be a trainer. So in other words they arent letting someone with 6 mos. experience train new drivers.

Exactly. That's why I like them so much. They keep me busy. As long as I run legal and make ontime deliveries they never bother me, even when I was a company driver.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but don't be fooled by the guys who want to try to tell you that smaller companies are always better. If you want to be friends with people in the office to get better loads...well by all means more power to you. I'm out here to keep my nose to the grindstone and work hard, not whine about not getting a load to Cali, or whatever.

"Courtin'"
 

Thanks, folks, for the good info. Crete and I are officially "courtin'"! I'm so excited I could just spit!
Again, thanks for the good news!
Jewels

I've only had one HazMat load in 8 months.

As far as the APUs go, they only have a handful, they are testing different manufactures to determine which one is best and if it would be worth the investment to equip the entire fleet.

Re: "Courtin'"
 

..


make an effort to go in and meet your dispatcher in person, you will have a much better relationship that way

I've been told by someone that I consider to be good authority that Crete will be going to the Thermo King Tri Pak APU in the next year or so.

When I was with Shaffer a number of years ago, their trainers had very stringent requirements. I would bet that Crete has the same or similar requirements. The first being that the trainer had at a minimum of five years safe, O.T.R. experience. Next was a minimum of three years experience with the company. Those two items alone stand out heavily when compared to what many other companies "require" of their trainers... :roll:

2 weeks of school and 6 months of driving is plenty, by then you know everything. :shock:

Sure wish I'd finished...well, you know...
 

:lol:
What high standards they have!

I'll certainly be sure to meet my dispatcher in person. It usually helps to affix a face to a name when it's someone with whom I'll be in contact on a regular basis.
Thanks for the insight!
Jewels

I love not having a fleet mgr...

Autoshift
 

Hi,i drive for Shaffer.Same as Crete, just reefer. Last time I was at
Crete in NE I was joking in the shop about autoshift trucks.
I got told they do have 3 right now, testing them out if they are better or not.
I hope for the best, I want one for myself.

Re: Sure wish I'd finished...well, you know...
 

Crete doesn't assign dispatchers to drivers. The one you get depends on what part of the country you happen to be in. Each region has its own dispatch team that you work with until you deliver the load you picked up in that area. Then they pass you off to the team that dispatches the area you pick up your next load in and so on and so on. I really like not having an assigned dispatcher.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: ROTFLMAO!!!

the owner of the company I work for is also the president, dispatcher, manager and shop and payroll supervisor. works out pretty well. there is no he said, she said. it's just him and what he says goes! He does have office help, but they have no say over operations. it will spoil you pretty quickly

Along with TMC I am also pondering Crete,
Crete has emailed me a response and I have a few questions please:

My question is about logs:

What if they dispatch you on a load and there is no way its gonna be on time due to the driver being out of hours for that day?

Example:Say for instance you just drove 9 hours ...dropped a load ...and had just enough time to make it to the next pickup and get loaded...BUT...now you have to take a 10 and this will most likely make it late to the final.

What is their view on this type of situation?

Thanks :)

you dont accept the load, message them that you dont have enough hours no problem. they will dispatch you accordingly. they will NEVER ask you to run illegal, BUT it's up to you to let them know what you can and cant do

Good deal

Thanks