Comments By Mike B.

I really look forward to reading this and keeping up with the updates! I really enjoyed the one you had on Eastern Freightways.

Hey Icecold. Glad you hopped over here to follow along. Hopefully I have some good stuff.

Did more than I had to do for my road test, literally just did a walk around, pointed out that one of the marker lights were out, checked the tires, king pin and that's about it besides a 3-4 mile trip. Maybe it would've been different if I didnt notice the marker light, might have been a test? Not sure. Some of the other folks had to do a partial pre-trip, a full blown one and even had to show they could back.

So not sure how they decide who has to do what.

Nonetheless, you're going to love it at Crete. Been here a few months now, and have been having a blast. Always keeping me busy.

I was wondering the same. I think it really just depends on who you have for a road tester. My guy was cool. Old school no BS tell it like it is style which I appreciate. During the pre-trip he was like "yea you know what you're doing lets move on. Coming from doing local with tight turns and small streets I was expecting something of the same. Turns down here are actually made for trucks, which is nice.

Crete's hiring process seemed to take a little longer than others. From the 1st phone call to the actual pre-hire was a little over a week. They gathered all necessary documentation then passed it along to safety to verify several things and see what, if anything was needed for me. I.E. A trainer, camera etc.

They put me in a rental to drive down instead of a bus ticket, put us up at the Quality Inn (typical 2-3 star hotel) Breakfast is provided at the hotel, Lunch is ordered out at the terminal, a salad or sub and a dinner certificate for the Middlesex Dinner, which is right behind the hotel.

Day 1 was your typical orientation. Paperwork, Drug test, Paperwork, Hair Follicle test, Paperwork, Physical, Videos and a road test which consisted of a pre-trip, couple and uncouple, road test and backing into a hole on the lot. I came into this a little nervous about the backing since I've been in a day cab for the last 18 months but nailed my setup and slide it in with no pull ups. More videos. Everyone that works at Crete has been very helpful and pleasant so far. Current drivers acknowledge you instead of snubbing you.

I believe we were done by 15:30-16:00. Back to the room, got some dinner, watched the remaining 16 laps of the race (which took about an hour) Crazy wreck at the end. Hope Newman is ok.

Back to the terminal at 7:00 tomorrow for a full day of classroom stuff. It's almost like a vacation because when I was driving local I was getting about 5 hours of sleep a night and was up at 2am. HaHa

Welcome back to all that have followed my old thread almost 18 months ago when I was with EFW's and to anyone new coming upon this thread looking for a true day by day, Buckle up... OK that was a little dramatic. Here is the link to my old thread My Day by Day Experience with Eastern Freightways

Back in July of 2018 I left EFW's flatbed division to take a local job with Palmer Dedicated Logistics. At that time period in my life it was needed. I enjoyed most of it. Physically I think it was harder than flatbed at we touched 99% of each carton on every pallet, delivering to well known clothing stores as well as a few other miscellaneous sores.

Anyways, this is about Crete. I can get into why at some point but the timing was right. I spent the last 2 month researching, calling, talking with drivers etc. trying to figure out exactly which way I wanted to go. Lease purchase, purchase, company driver.... In the end I decided the best path was with Crete.

So here I am in Mechanicsville, PA sitting in the hotel at 5:30 am getting ready to starting over. We have to be at the terminal for 7:30 to drop of our rental car and start the day.

I will do a review of the day either tonight or tomorrow morning. Again, thank you for following along with my journey.

It would be nice if you would take the time, when available, to point out your highs and lows from your previous gig. Might help some folks out :)

I will do so. Thank you

Hey all. OP here. Yes I went/took a local job for the last 18 months. There wasn't much to post, well, maybe there was. It has been an interesting time with a few ups and downs. The job I had became very repetitive with the same stories day after day. Some good as well as some bad..... I enjoyed my time being local but have decided that this is a good time for me to come back to the North East dedicated Dry van route. As of this writing it is Saturday night and I am heading for orientation tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to picking up where I left off 18 months ago. Tomorrow night I will create the thread and start the journey. I'm hoping you all will come back and follow the day by day experience. I enjoyed chatting with you all and learning from each of you. It helps to keep the mind busy. So till then......

Mike

Hope the new gig works well.

Chris

Thank you Chris. I believe it's a step in the right direction for this period of my life.

Good luck with the new position. I hope it works out as well as you're hoping

Thank you Rob. So do I. I really wanted to keep my Class A experience going and not have to go or start with B

Mike

So if I follow your posts, assuming today is your day 40? They are going to have your truck until Monday at the earliest? Did they give you a loner? If my math is correct, that 5 days of not turning any wheels? Reminder, lol, its gonna be brutal up here the next few days, welcome NASCAR!! Woohoo

Chris

Hey Chris.

Sorry day 40 was last weds. the 11th. They has nothing planned for me on Thursday the 12th and the windshield needed to be replaced so I was down Thursday and Off on Friday and would of been down this past Monday unless they had a loaner in Concord and I'm not sure if there was one kicking around or not. I did see that it was Nascar weekend. I used to watch but haven't had the chance over the last 2 years so I've fallen behind on where they are and when. I've been a few times and it has always been a crazy time

UPDATE

So as I've mentioned in the past I've been having some thoughts about being out here. After talking to a couple of other drivers it seems that they are starting to push Saturdays and I like my weekends and after the week they wanted me to work Saturday and changed it for me, last week all of my runs were min runs under 300 miles. A small punishment for not wanting to do Saturdays? Maybe, Maybe not. Another driver was going through the same thing so...

Anyways I've been looking for something local which is tough to get into with only 4 months experience and I live in a pretty small area so there are not many options but after several applications the calls started coming in. I talked with 1 company and set up an interview and road test for last Friday. Everything went great except for backing. LOL going from a sleeper and a split tandem flatbed to a day cab and 53' box proved to be a bit of a challenge. Did the drug test and got my MVR. I had things lined up in case this doesn't work out and had given my notice last Thursday. They left it up to me as far as when I wanted to get done.

I decided Friday afternoon that I was done. I went down Saturday to clean out my truck and the windshield was not done so I would have had to sit Monday anyways if not Monday and Tuesday reaffirming that I had made the right decision.

I got the call Monday! Offered a driving position. Local, dedicated, M-F, home every night and weekends, $21 hr, 45-55 hours a week, overtime after 8 hours, smaller company 45 trucks. I'll be covering the West Lebanon, NH to Burlington, VT routes. and I start Monday the 23rd. I call that a win.

So unfortunately this thread will be ending and I'm not sure if there is any interest in a local gig thread or not. I'd like to do an unedited overall summary of working for Eastern Freight ways. The good and the bad.