C.R. England

[Trip4x4]

I am heading off to start classes on the 25th in Salt Lake City, Utah, with C.R. England. I realize it is a bit late to be asking for advice, and having seen quite a few threads dedicated to warning others about C.R. England, I'm wondering what else, if anything can be said? I am planning on being a company driver (I will not lease, at the very least, until I have more experience) for a year or more.

Has anyone gone through their program, and have any comments to give? What should I expect?

[repete]

I'll tell ya right up front , I've never driven for CRE But have read and heard to much for it NOT to be true! In reply to "what can I expect?" Expect to get bent over and don't expect a kiss! Crude but to the point CHECK THEM OUT SOME MORE AND READ EVERYTHING!!! It's not to late to say no thanks, give it a second thought. BOL

[VPIDarkAngel]

When (not if, WHEN) they ask you to lease, "Just say no."
I can't remember what thread it was, but I crunched the numbers for a guy who wanted to do the lease thing with CR England. With their numbers, he'd make (before taxes) $49k a year. That's doing around 3,200 miles per week. Drop that to 2,000 miles a week, and you get $13k per year.
I actually was looking into driving for these folks until I saw them mention this lease stuff. After that, I looked elsewhere. If all goes well, I should hit that $49k mark for this year (as a company driver) in 6-8 weeks.
Keep us posted on what materializes.

[homealone3]

My husband drove for crengland.
They will strongly pressure you to lease.
Be prepared to not get much home time.
He had just gotten his license when england hired him. England had him driving with a couple different trainers for about 4 weeks before he got into his truck alone.
He said the second trainer made life pure hell. He almost quit at this point many times. That trainer was a major a-hole.
When he first started driving he got very few miles. A month into driving he was able to get a regional position out of a Walmart DC strictly delivering to Walmarts and doing back hauls and he was able to get more miles.
Unfortunately the pecking order for loads went: Lease teams, lease solos, company drivers.
The turnover rate was as high for lease drivers as for company drivers.

The only ones that seemed to make good money were the lease teams or the lease trainers.
That is just my husband's perception.

His pay went from 43K to 42K to 39K when he quit. It just got too hard.

[coalregion]

I'll tell ya right up front , I've never driven for CRE But have read and heard to much for it NOT to be true! In reply to "what can I expect?" Expect to get bent over and don't expect a kiss! Crude but to the point CHECK THEM OUT SOME MORE AND READ EVERYTHING!!! It's not to late to say no thanks, give it a second thought. BOL

This pretty much sums up exactly my sentiments. I've read WAAYYY too much negative about these guys not to believe that at least 75% has to be true. If you do go remember these 8 words when they are trying to ram a lease up your posterior: "Never lease from someone who controls your miles" (A lease to me is just modern day sharecropping)

If you can afford it, pay for your schooling. You won't be an indentured servant to whomever provides it "free" that way.

[Mr. Ford95]

Everyone comes here and says they won't fall for the Lease/Fleece program. They are informed to run away, yet they go anyways and tell everyone here that we are wrong and don't know what we're talking about. Yet they come back here and tell us how everyone was exactly right after they've hit rock bottom.

You say you won't do their lease unless you have a year under your belt, your still setting yourself up for heartache and headache. It's a bad deal, your basically renting a truck from them that you do not get to keep if your lucky enough to finish your term there.

[VPIDarkAngel]

Ok, CR England was the thread I was referring to. Give that one a read.

[freebirdrfd]

Run Forest Run. C.R. England is only for desperate people.

[Steel Horse Cowboy]

Landline just did a big article on the lawsuit they have against them right now..... basically went along the lines of:

Guy got hired by CR and did his training..... at the end of his training, they told him it would be several weeks before they could get him into a company truck, but they had a few NEW trucks available for lease and they could have him on the road by tomorrow afternoon.

I guess it was bait-n-switch or something but I'm pretty sure it will be looked upon as predatory lending.

I think 16 people got in on the lawsuit.

[Steel Horse Cowboy]

Everyone comes here and says they won't fall for the Lease/Fleece program. They are informed to run away, yet they go anyways and tell everyone here that we are wrong and don't know what we're talking about. Yet they come back here and tell us how everyone was exactly right after they've hit rock bottom.

You say you won't do their lease unless you have a year under your belt, your still setting yourself up for heartache and headache. It's a bad deal, your basically renting a truck from them that you do not get to keep if your lucky enough to finish your term there.

yes, yes, yes..... to ANYONE wanting to start off as a O/O BUY A USED TRUCK YOU CAN PAY FOR IN CASH!!!!!!

Don't lease, and don't get a loan. I was able to make it and do well. trust me, the fact of never having to make a truck payment made those slow winter months much more bareable. And I also figured I could sell it if it got too bad.

Needless to say, I have since owned 6 trucks and I am currently back to driving the VERY 1ST truck I ever bought and making more $$$ now than i ever have in my entire life.

[Luzon]

I suggest that you copy this and the other threads regarding CR England and WHEN they call you in for the "Lease" conversation, pull the copies out and reread them just before going in.

Or,

Just say NO and go with another company and save yourself the grief.

[repete]

Any one hear from the OP? I wonder if he was really a CRE troll.

[Luzon]

Could be. If so, maybe he was just trying to figure out those voices in his head saying "Why did I go to work here again?"

[Mr. Ford95]

Don't think it was a CRE troll, no cheerleading going on for the OP to go whole hog with CRE.

[bentstrider]

Well, my three-year came up and this was one of the places I put an app into.
With not too many options at this point, I'll have to walk on egg shells with this one.

[Luzon]

Well, my three-year came up and this was one of the places I put an app into.
With not too many options at this point, I'll have to walk on egg shells with this one.

What do you mean by "my three-year came up"? And, in my opinion, the main thing to get out of this and other CRE threads is to NOT get sucked into their lease/fleece deals. Every company has their good and bad points - some more bad than others. Even at CRE one can have a decent run at a job if they are conscientious about things, develop good relationships with their dispatchers/manager, and do the job they're asked to do. Do what you're asked to do without much compaint and then in a year or two other doors will start to open up.

Some (many) will say that the people at CRE just don't care. There's probably a lot of truth in that but also one has the ability to work/operate/act in such a way that will make them stand out from the crowd. It's all up to the individual.

Best of luck,
L

[bentstrider]

@Luzon

I had an accident back in 2007, but people stopped caring about it, so I quit talking about it.
I'm just trying to get back into the game as a means of doing something I enjoyed and also, an easy way to get myself moved out-of-state.

[Trip4x4]

I went to Salt Lake City, and ended up failing my D.O.T. physical. I had blood O2 stats around 86, which, is very, very low. So, they ("Medical Professionals") were sending me home, and I decided to call Kaiser Permenente, my healthcare provider, and get a doctors appointment to find out how to fix this low blood oxygen problem.

I ended up buying a plane ticket on Southwest, and made it through airport security, and to the gate. I'm sitting there, and I get a phone call, from Kaiser, telling me to not get on the plane, less I care to risk a less than desirable flight, life-prolongingly speaking. At this point, I'm thinking to myself, oh great, I actually might just have something wrong with me, so I end up going to Intermountain Medical Center, where, surprisingly, my blood oxygen stats are in the normal range, sticking around 94%, which, considering that I'm from Portland, which is nearly a mile lower in altitude, and having a short time to adjust to the elevation change, is very good news. At this point, I've missed my flight, (Thankfully, Southwest was extremely helpful and friendly, even though they had to recover luggage from the airplane, which really is a massive headache for them) and now it's time to go find a hotel. Expedia time. So I get a hotel through expedia, and that mistake landed me in a "hotel" which really could be argued to be apartments, since, well, actually, it wasn't a hotel. It was apartments with nightly leases available....which also promised free airport transportation. Now, I think that this shouldn't be an issue. I was wrong. So, I call the front desk about 5 minutes before they "close" (again, not a hotel) to schedule my ride to the airport the next morning. I'm informed that I will have to come pick up a voucher for the shuttle. Great. So, I waddle off to the office, and get my voucher, call the shuttle company, who less than politely informs me in one of those "I just woke up" voices that the shuttle requires 24 hours notice. Now, it's about 11 PM, my flight is at 9:05. I'd be hard pressed to convince them that they should be picking me up. Long story short, I was sent home by the "C.R. England contracted physician", sent home for low blood oxygen saturation that likely didn't even exist.

The school/facility itself is not bad, it's comfortable considering, and it has some nice weekday services. The staffseemed to be pleasant and friendly, but then again, I was only there for 2 days, so I did not really have the opportunity to really get into it. I was lucky, I was placed in a dorm (cell) with some friendly guys (cellmates), who actually did give me some valuable tips and advice.

I've learned quite a bit in the short two days there, and it's likely I'll go back, unless I decide to do a different company, or, training here first. C.R. England seems to be a good company, but I do have a concern with the medical clinic they have there, it really does not seem that they are appropriately suited to be issuing D.O.T. Medical certificates. The lab techs themselves do not follow their own posted protocols.

All in all, not too bad, with one exception. Even before school starts, they begin the brainwashing process. Plastered all over the hallways, rooms, bathrooms, classrooms, break rooms, and common areas are advertisements, for Horizon Sales and Leasing. Before the program even starts, they're already starting to force feed you with nice pictures and those "results not typical" situations, minus of course, the lack of the 'results not typical' warning that should be mandated by law. The advertising that has been done has only ensured that I would not lease a truck associated with C.R. England, at least not right away, but I would not have a problem driving as a company driver for C.R. England.


For those who have concerns about the trainers, there's a simple solution. Just call your DM and report that your trainer tried to get you to sleep on the top bunk. Heh heh heh.

[Luzon]

Wow. That's quite an ordeal that you had there. I think that if it were me, it wouldn't have been my oxygen levels that would be of concern, more like my blood pressure.

And as you mentioned, stay away from that lease deal. Many times it's not what they do say, but rather what they don't say.

Keep us posted on your progress. It's always interesting to hear stories like this one.

Good luck.
L

[Scoe]

I, to my knowledge, have never had my blood oxygen checked during a DOT physical and I have had at least 30 of them. Just passed my most recent two weeks ago and pretty sure they didn't check oxygen level.