Crete Carrier Or May Trucking

Pretty much all set with Crete carrier to start in a couple weeks but am kind of looking at May trucking . May is building a new terminal not to far from Omaha so it will be close to home. They both seem to have nice trucks decent benefits. Any advice would be great

I've gotta say I don't know much about May trucking, but I've always heard awesome things about Crete. One of the biggies, and I don't know if they do this anymore or not, is they used to be one of the only major companies that would give you a choice of loads if there was more than one available at the time. That may sound like no big deal, but to me it would have been a really big deal.

Everyone after a while develops their own preferences for where they like to run and it isn't always going to be what you'd expect. Some people love running the Northeast. Others might dread going up North if they can avoid it. I've heard some people say they'll never leave Texas and I've heard others say they'll never enter it. You never know what people might want so it's awesome if you can give them a choice.

I never worked for the company myself but they were always on my short list of companies that seemed to have a really nice setup.

I worked for May back in 2012, and I was very impressed with the company. I went to orientation for 3 days and on the 4th day was out with a trainer. After training was done and I passed my final testing I was given the choice of 2 different trucks,I picked the 2011 Pro-Star. They let me go home for 4 days and I returned on the 5th day and got all my stuff in my truck,got rested up and on the 6th day were rolling. I noticed when I first started solo they gave me plenty of time to adjust to the way things worked. They would give me loads that were easy to get in and out of and some were drop and hook while others were live load and unload. I ran 11 Western,one day I might be pulling a dry van and the next a reefer. As time went on they started giving me 2 trips at a time, then 3. At times I sat for a day waiting for a load ,but as time went on I appreciated that day of sitting to get my stuff back in order. I was never denied my home time when I put in for it and was allways able to go home when scheduled. I was there 2 months and got a brand new Pete with 80 miles on it. Now there were times that I had to do over night runs which was ok. A lot of people complained about their idle policy which they do have a pretty strict idle policy,however when I was stuck in Northern Cali in July or in Rawlins Wyo in January all I had to do was call them or send a message to let them know what was going on. I never had any issues with idle time. At that time they had power inverters that they would sell ya on payments or if you had your own they would install it. All in all I had a great experience with May. Sorry about the long paragraph lol. What ever company you pick, be safe and remeber to have fun..

I've heard others say they'll never enter it (Texas).

I can't blame em haha.... Some really really bad drivers in Texas... and I'm not even talking between 4 wheelers and truckers, just between 4 wheelers we have some really bad drivers. especially san antonio. I swear san antonio puts drivers licenses in cereal boxes or something.

I've been driving for Crete for a year and a half, and they are one of the better companies to work for in the industry. Some of the negatives you deal with in trucking aren't really a company problem, but rather the nature of the industry. In other words, some things you will have to learn to deal with, no matter who you drive for.

If you have limited experience, Crete will start you out at .45 per mile to drive national, and .42 to drive regional. There are no problems getting the miles you want with Crete, and I rarely find myself sitting waiting for a load. In fact, some days they send me my next preplan a day in advance. Dispatch really works hard to keep the driver moving, and that along with a good pay scale is what you need to receive a consistent paycheck.

Hey Dutch, do they ever give you a choice of loads if more than one is available? That was always the thing that stuck out to me about that company. No other companies I knew of ever did that. You took what they gave you and that's that. But Crete used to send drivers two or three loads to choose from. I never understood why more companies don't do that, especially for their veteran drivers.

Some really really bad drivers in Texas...

Yeah but you also have the only drivers in the country that will move over onto the shoulder of a two lane highway and let others pass if they're holding them up. They don't do that anywhere else.

Hey Dutch, do they ever give you a choice of loads if more than one is available? That was always the thing that stuck out to me about that company. No other companies I knew of ever did that. You took what they gave you and that's that. But Crete used to send drivers two or three loads to choose from. I never understood why more companies don't do that, especially for their veteran drivers.

Some really really bad drivers in Texas...

Yeah but you also have the only drivers in the country that will move over onto the shoulder of a two lane highway and let others pass if they're holding them up. They don't do that anywhere else.

Brent, we still have the macro on Qualcomm for response, where they used to offer a driver a choice out of 3 loads. They just offer one at a time now, but since the macro is still there, I'm thinking it may be an option for some drivers who have been here for a certain length of time, or possibly an option for the trainers. They give the trainers some perks that our regular drivers aren't offered.

I decided to go regional about 6 months ago, and because of that, I rarely get a load somewhere that I am hesitant to go. Being regional, I do still get offers from time to time outside the Southeast, and I can turn those down if I want, simply because they are outside the southeast. However, some of them I am eager to take, such as the load I am running up just north of Wilkes Barre that is over 1200 miles. It is at a DC just off the Interstate , so it's an easy in and out drop and hook. I am scheduled to go home next Monday, so I know I will be heading right back out of the Northeast region, and back where there is less chance of ice this time of year.