[inmate1577]

I see fewer and fewer CR trucks on the road these days, compared to last year.
Something must not be right.
There is alot of badmouthing of companies on these kind of sites but rarely if ever do you ever see anyone who works for England.....defending them.

I think the problem with alot of people who apply at these companies is that they are totally broke and go for company paid training and expect to make that magical "60k the first year!" But never take into account that there are basic expenses when you are working out on the road.

And its always the same "nobody ever told me...blah blah blah"

[coastie]

Not to defend CRE for they are a bad Company. I'm not defending CRE, but trying to point out this could been with any company out there. Swift, P.A.M. Crete, KLLM, JB Hunt, and many many more.

Originally Posted by LostProphet

Long story short my trainer didnt bathe but maybe every 6 days.The smell began to grow putrid.MY trainer also would not teach or show us how to back or any kind of manuever.HE would simply put us on the highway and let us roll.After a week,i got off the truck and went back to california and requested a new trainer.

So you got a bad trainer who stunk. look around the Truck stops you'll see many drivers that way. You would seen that in all the Training companies. Not a CRE exclusively event.

I recieved a new trainer and completed my training with him after 3 more weeks.after you complete training you have to "upgrade" and complete a series of saftey meetings and instruction,where they all but force you to lease a truck.The cheapest truck payment you will recieve if you decide to do a lease is $625 dollars a week, along with many other deductions you will pay.Also,your pay during training is $50 dollars a day(and they take $75 dollars out of your check a week for your school payment).This money is paid out from your trainer to england,and england in turn pays you.You driver-trainer gets paid for ALL miles you drive.Basically you got a trainer getting paid for team miles while you get peanuts.

Upon completion of training you will go out for ANOTHER 3 weeks with what is called a "cat 1st seat.During this phase you will get .11 cents a mile for 3 weeks.The cat 1st seat is a new driver who has decided to lease a truck,so they put you on the truck with the cat 1st seat once again in a pimp/hoe type of role,but in this situation it can be dangerous because all cat 1st seats have less than 6mo experience.MY own personal experience with the cat 1st seat was,he would often try to get me to do most of the driving and he also took 3 days off and parked the truck in front of his house.which means,if the truck doesnt move,i dont get payed either.So i toughed it out and dealt with it.After 3 weeks i was done,i was assigned my own truck which, was a 395,xxx mile freightliner.

About 6 weeks after i went company and i got my truck,i decided to apply at u.s express. I took a few days off from work to attend there orientation at there terminal in california.I completed all of the orientation,but at the end when u.s express called england to verify my employment,CR england refused to give any reference or even acknowlegde the fact i worked for them.I hadnt worked long enough for it to have been reported on my DAC that i was in fact an England employee.So i couldnt work for u.s express at the time.I decided to just tough it out for a year with england to get my experience and go local.

Surprized CRE did not fire you then and there.

During the duration of my employment,i was constantly lied to about loadtimes and my disptach didnt get me home for thanksgiving after i put in for it 6 weeks in advance.
Welcome To Trucking, CRE and many other companies only promise to try to get you home.
the majority of my loads with CR England were 40,000lbs plus loads with alot of north east.You will deliver at odd times,you will have to deal with alot of lumpers and you will have to get alot of washouts.I was never paid for my orientation with england.they constantly "lost" my lumper receipts that i turned in with my trip paks and would try to charge me the driver for the expense.
Nothing new, was your logs right? many compaines will not pay you the expenses if your logs does not match.
IF you go with this company you WILL LEARN ALOT about truck driving,merely because you are often forced to problem solve your own situations.The road service dept is a joke,and you better have a cell phone because all they will do is give you a local dealership to get towed too.You will have to call them up,along with the tow company.I was averaging about 1700 miles a week during my employ with CRE,which doesnt constitute much because when i started with them,they were paying .24 cents a mile.The good thing about england though,is that theyre a huge company with alot of drivers,so if you need something like logbooks or extra trip paks youll always run into another CRE driver if you need to bum some off them.
1700 miles you must P.O. your DM. As for the 24 cents a mile you knew that before you signed the dotted line. it clear as a bell
What alot of people also dont know is a few years back a lease operator commited suicide in his tractor while sitting at a shipper.ALso,about 2 years ago,england was audited by the D.O.T for issuing CDL's to drivers from instructers who werent even certified to do so.All of the drivers who recieved there CDL from CRE during that fiscal year had there CDL's recalled and made null and void until they returned to there home state and retook the exam at the DMV.After a year of 0 accidents and 0 citations i went to ABF,and i havent looked back.I did this because at the time i was desperate and didnt have any other options so i signed on with CRE and went through all this.In conclusion the only people who lease trucks from CRE are people with bad credit and have been sold on the "own your own business" lie they tell you.When it all boils down to it,its not your truck,youre an england employee just like everyone else,and when you realize what youve done its already to late.
All of the Lease Programs of the companies are like that just about. very few would be the exception, which I know none my self. That the only real Grip I would have with CRE in general other than short fall out of pay amount. But that well known.
They will lie to you and try to cheat you,MAKE COPIES OF EVERY RECEIPT,and make copies of all your bills,because they will "lose" something at sometime or another,and make you pay for it.Good Luck.

I'm not a recruiter, nor am I driving for CRE. least not know. Yes I started off with CRE and went through ther Training program. But from what you stated they increased the training since I went through with them. So you got more training I did. I did have a great Trainer with CRE, not all are bad. After my trainer released me, he left and went to the Brothers Pride Trucking.

After I left them, I found out I was making money, for I had more money than I thought I did in the bank. My wife and I survived nearly a month paying bills till I got my 3rd job after leaving CRE. Ileft CRE and went to work driving for an Outlaw outfit that I did not make that much with.

Yes my DM and I had a few words, and then I went back and showed him I was a worker and made up for it. Till I got home.

[inmate1577]

One of the problems is that many new drivers let themselves be bullied by the company they work for. Alot of these dispatchers and trainers are ex-military and still live in the military mindset(I'm not dissing the military) and will tell someone who is new that "this is the way it is"
and the new guy.......accepts it or the new guy is formal military and still is in the mindset of "I'm told what to do and I do it"

Me, I'm not former military , I'm former Union and I told them to "eat (insert expletive)"

After that things ran smoothly. :wink:
One of the best pieces advice I got from a fellow co driver was "dont let them push you around" and I havent. When I'm due for TAH, I let them know. I dont accept any loads that infringe on that time, or deliver on the day I'm supposed to be home. As they say , I'm the "captain of my ship", so actually I'm Capt. Bligh. :lol:

[LostProphet]

Originally Posted by coastie

Not to defend CRE for they are a bad Company. I'm not defending CRE, but trying to point out this could been with any company out there. Swift, P.A.M. Crete, KLLM, JB Hunt, and many many more.

I'm not a recruiter, nor am I driving for CRE. least not know. Yes I started off with CRE and went through ther Training program. But from what you stated they increased the training since I went through with them. So you got more training I did. I did have a great Trainer with CRE, not all are bad. After my trainer released me, he left and went to the Brothers Pride Trucking.

After I left them, I found out I was making money, for I had more money than I thought I did in the bank. My wife and I survived nearly a month paying bills till I got my 3rd job after leaving CRE. Ileft CRE and went to work driving for an Outlaw outfit that I did not make that much with.

Yes my DM and I had a few words, and then I went back and showed him I was a worker and made up for it. Till I got home.

No offense but i could really carless about what you think.The reason i made this post was to give people who are interested in the company a first hand perspective on what somebody who actually spent a year with the company went through.Did you spend a year with the company?probably not...Thats why I really could care less what you think.Im only interested in people who have first hand experience.And why would CR ENGLAND fire me for looking for another job?they have the highest turnover rate in the industry.OH and i also noticed YOU HAD A COMMENT ON EVERYTHING I SAID EXCEPT THE FACT THAT THEY GOT AUDITED FOR ILLEGALLY ISSUING LICENSES,isnt that convenient,could that have happened with any other company too?as you remarked earlier in your post?i think not.Good day

[inmate1577]

Yeah...but alot of people have spent a year listening to former employees complain about CR England.

Your not the first, you wont be the last. And no matter HOW MUCH INFORMATION is available warning people to avoid CR England they'll go work for them.

Then in about year, they'll be here complaining about CR ENGLAND.

[LostProphet]

And thats fine.However,alot of the posts about CRE were from people who didnt complete the program,and alot of what was posted was hear-say.Just contributed my .02 was all.Everyone here is probably an adult and make there own choices in life,i posted what I went through as an individual,not how it "could of happened" at another company,or what i heard someone else say.This is just one mans personal experience with a company,nothing more,nothing less.If I at the time had access to a site like this or something similar to it,maybe i would changed my decision.However i did get good experience,and I have a fantastic local job.God bless

[silvan]

Originally Posted by Mr. Ford95

His concrete experience was prolly driving a mixer in the dead of winter with no heat or middle of summer with no AC.

It was the dead of winter, which didn't help anything, but I'm just not a ready mix kind of guy. I could write a long message about why I hated the job, but it wasn't because the company was anything but nice to me. It's just not my cup of tea.

[coastie]

Originally Posted by LostProphet

snt that convenient,could that have happened with any other company too?as you remarked earlier in your post?i think not.Good day

Read thiese Boards you will see many otheres saying about the same thing you said about CRE about many other companies. So YES it can happen. Read threads about JB HUNT, Swift, and 100's others. CRE does not have a moloply over being a bad company.

Also you will see one guy complain about a company, then another come and Brag about the same one.

You had a bad experence with CRE like many others, my self included, but CRE must be doing something right cause they have Drivers who stay with them years after Year.

My Point is that what you experence could just as well happen with ABF or many others. Where other Drivers may not.

[LostProphet]

Originally Posted by coastie

Read thiese Boards you will see many otheres saying about the same thing you said about CRE about many other companies. So YES it can happen. Read threads about JB HUNT, Swift, and 100's others. CRE does not have a moloply over being a bad company.

Also you will see one guy complain about a company, then another come and Brag about the same one.

You had a bad experence with CRE like many others, my self included, but CRE must be doing something right cause they have Drivers who stay with them years after Year.

My Point is that what you experence could just as well happen with ABF or many others. Where other Drivers may not.

#1 It couldnt happen with a 100 other companies,because 100 other companies simply dont train.#2 the drivers you will see who are with CRE are either contractually obligated through a lease they signed,or they have a horrible safety record and cant get on with a better company or they are new to the industry.Why would a individual stay with CRE when they could easily make MORE money at another company doing the same thing,but for more money?And the answer to that is because CRE will take drivers other companies wont.CRE is doing something right though,and what theyre doing right is they are the easiest route to getting a CDL,whether you are qualified or not.Each student is $3000,A large portion of there gross revenue is through there training,and thats not an opinion,thats a FACT.Thats what makes them somewhat different than thee others,the way they push the lease program,the enormous amount of students they have,the enormous amount of turn over rate they have.whats funny is,i remember one week I got 15 consecutive redlights on my pre pass to pull into scales.got 5 level 3 inspections,even tho my truck was spotless,with not one piece of trash on the dashboard.whats that tell you...god bless...

[coastie]

LostProphet


Just read the other stories about companies. You will see it does. happen, not to just training companies. but all. Everyone has Drivers who has ahad a problem and they come on these forums and complain about it. Back 7 years ago, I may have been the biggest, but now I seen what was truely happening. My attitude. Good luck... I'm sure we see you complaining about another company soon.