Crete Carrier Training

Hi guys! Thought I would post a training diary about Crete since it doesn't look like one has been done about this company in awhile.

Sunday, day before training began: The company rented a car for me to drive from Tulsa to the Dallas, TX area for orientation. I got a late start and didn't end up arriving at the hotel until about 9:30pm. The hotel is a La Quinta Inn and is pretty decent. Oddly is in Mesquite, which is about 20 miles away from the terminal in Wilmer.

Day 1, Monday: Got up about 5:15am, got ready and went downstairs for breakfast that the hotel provides. It was biscuits, sausage and eggs. Decent especially for free breakfast, but the coffee sucks. I loooove coffee so this was a bummer :)

Left for the terminal at 6:15 in the rental car. There were 15 others on the class, including not one but 2 other girls! We had an instructor and 2 human resources people that verified application information and had us sign paperwork. About 7 of us that had rental cars drove them back then took a shuttle back to the terminal. Took a urine drug test. Had a road test. We were given $5 McDonald's gift cards for lunch. We then shuttled to a doctor's office for Dot physicals and also had a hair drug test there. Then shuttled back to the hotel.

I had a sandwich for dinner and went to bed early.

Day 2, Tuesday: Got up same time, had breakfast, shuttled to terminal.

Today was a lot of videos and listening to the instructor. He talked about safety policies, workplace harassment, truck maintenance info, hours of service and some benefits stuff. We had Chinese food brought in for lunch. More paperwork and verifying info. We found out that about half of the class has to come Thursday for defensive driving. They said there are different reasons they require this; I'm required because I have no experience. I was surprised to learn that there are only 2 of us in this group that are brand new cdl-holders. They gave us a $10 gift card for dinner at Dennys. We got out of class at 4 but had to wait until 5 for the shuttle back to the hotel.

That is a lot to type on my phone so I will end for now.

Thanks toonces. Good luck.

Toonces wrote:

We found out that about half of the class has to come Thursday for defensive driving. They said there are different reasons they require this; I'm required because I have no experience. I was surprised to learn that there are only 2 of us in this group that are brand new cdl-holders.

It's quite possible that some of those drivers are there due to a mishap; accident, citation, critical event, over-speeding, etc. If you are comfortable with it, talk to some of them,...find out why they are there. You might learn something from the conversation; something you can tuck away for future reference that could perhaps save you from making the same mistake.

Good luck! Be the sponge and absorb everything.

I think I worded that poorly. I meant only 2 out of 16 in the orientation class were new cdl holders. Everybody else was experienced.

About half of the class had to do the defensive driving class. They said there were several factors, like accidents or your previous employer's Csa score, that could cause you to take the class.

But yes, I am trying to absorb as much as possible.

Toonces wrote:

We found out that about half of the class has to come Thursday for defensive driving. They said there are different reasons they require this; I'm required because I have no experience. I was surprised to learn that there are only 2 of us in this group that are brand new cdl-holders.

It's quite possible that some of those drivers are there due to a mishap; accident, citation, critical event, over-speeding, etc. If you are comfortable with it, talk to some of them,...find out why they are there. You might learn something from the conversation; something you can tuck away for future reference that could perhaps save you from making the same mistake.

Good luck! Be the sponge and absorb everything.

Day 3, Wednesday: Today we were officially hired! We got our employee ID numbers and signed more documents. The instructor talked about fuel stops, load assignments, trip info, hazmat , breakdowns, Qualcomm and tolls. Fried chicken was brought in for lunch. Another Denny's gift card for dinner.

I was given my trainer's phone number so I called her to see when she would be coming to the terminal. She said she'll be getting here Friday morning. She seemed nice but a couple of people kind of made a face when I told them who my trainer was, and that scared me a little. My instructor said she's very "direct". I just hope she's a good driver and a good teacher.

The trainer told me to make sure to have a blanket because she's going through menopause and will probably freeze me out, lol. So another girl from class gave me a ride to TJ Maxx and I bought a nice, thick blanket.