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.

 

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!

 

Evertruckerr, your posts have been an inspiration to me and I would like to use you as a referral on my application to Crete. If you would send me your info, I would like to make sure that it is included when I submit it. I don't have enough posts yet to PM you, so it would be up to you to PM me the info. Hopefully I might be able to show you my appreciation for your detailed posts.

 

Evertrucker, outstanding post as always. Also thanks for answering my questions on another post. Spoke with one of the company's reps and it was looking good for a minute except for one thing(The School). A.I.T. school in Phoenix has this externship program, which is geared toward two companies only and would not work with other companies to completes my externship certification. What I'm being advise to do is work for one of the two for 4 - 6 months and apply elsewhere, which is BS when you are paying for the school. I've been in the Navy for 21 years and do not want to start a new career bouncing from one company to another. Any words of wisdom would greatly be appreciated. I'll be retiring and getting my CDL in two weeks and ready to get started. Keep the post coming, that are very encouraging for a newbie!

 

I'll agree with you. That is absolute BS. For what that school charges you to attend it (one of the most expensive in the nation), it is total crap that they are pushing you toward any employer (this is done solely for the kickback they get from said companies) and I am sure they are two companies with questionable reputations. Would one of them be Werner by chance. Please let us know what the two are.

Until I know which companies you are being pushed into, I can't really give my opinion, but I'm willing to bet there are much better companies to consider.

 

You definitely hit the head on the nail! Werner is one of their big contributors and Swift is the other. Both of them I'm trying to avoid at all cost and now that Crete is not an option, I've been looking into other companies that could work with me on the externship.

 

Hey Evertruckerr, I just found out some interesting info on the apu's. The only trucks that will ever see an apu are the 2007 model trucks. All new trucks will have the battery pack system on them. So if you get one of the new Cascadia or Prostars you wont have an apu. And the battery pack trucks will not have a way to hook up any appliances etc. Got this from my terminal manager yesterday. He said that when they do turn in my truck to try to see if they have any 07' units available and to try to get one of those. Leave it to Crete to screw the drivers with a cheap ass solution to the idling question. I should have known better than to think that they would actually do something nice for us for a change.

 

There are no shortcuts to the management bonuses......

 

Just a year ago, you were bad mouthing every driver who had problems and negative comments about Crete.

Guess it just took longer for the reality to sink in for you.

 

:roll: :roll:

that's not exactly fair-- the first 2.5 years at Shaffer weren't that bad at all-- things change-- a person's perceptions can change...

Where I'm at right now-- I could easily see myself getting on my hands and knees and begging Crete to let me come back-- with a whole new attitude--

but just like all other companies Crete has it's good points and bad-- overall,
pretty easy going looking now!