Answers from a driver who stuck it out. 1 year with CRE

I am sitting here at the WVC yard, waiting to go out with phase 1 trainer. I have been here since the 19th. In my two weeks here I have heard negative after negative. Also some positive. Before I came here I did do a lot of research. What I see is this: Most people come here thinking it going to be easy and they will be making big bucks right away. From reading a lot on this very forum, I kind of knew what to expect, from CRE, and the trucking industry in general. When you get your CDL and begin your career, you are in an ENTRY LEVEL POSITION. I you were to start on a construction crew, and you had never so much as swung a hammer before, would you expect to be paid as a foreman??? I'm here because the school was free, with a 6 mo. Commit( plus 50$ admin fee). CRE is a huge company, that has been around for 90+ years. They know what they are doing. They are making bank. They are not here to make your wildest dreams come true. If you accept that, you can get a start in this business, you just need to step very carfefully, and don't make mistakes and you will get that start. I have talked with people who are making a very good life here. It's just not that easy to get there.

 

I'll admit, we coulda moved on after driving company and may have gotten in with a different company that probly would have paid us more for what we are worth, but since we only had 6 months, we decided to lease when they told us they were cutting back on company drivers. Not only that, but we could have just signed a 6 month demo lease and left with a year but again, we chose not to. We were still happy with CRE and signed a three year lease.

With only 8 months left, do we regret doing it? Of course not. Sure, we could be making more somewhere else but we're fine with what we earn here. CRE has still been good to us so we don't see a reason to cut bait anytime soon.

 

Glad to see some people on here with some positive comments about CRE. Keep up the good work fellas and maybe we'll see you out on the road.

 

You must be the master of patience and determination.

 

Agreed, to an extent, people just need to have more of an understanding on what they are getting into and most importantly, read the contract before you sign it.

You may be right for the most part but I believe the number of company drivers they need at any given time depends on what the current freight situation is.

But on the other hand, if leasing is strictly what CRE desires, they could be like those companies that only employ owner operators and lease operators.

Funny thing is, if you can manage to accomplish this, you'll do fine..... Well, youll have a lot stronger of a chance of success.

 

Frankly I don't see how that's true. The numbers are making my calculator reboot. Even if he was getting huge fuel discounts, he would still be deep, deep in the hole every week with only 54cpm left to cover fuel, insurance, payment, taxes, etc. For most people that amount barely covers fuel. Are you sure there wasn't some kind of fsc on top of that 84cpm rate?

 

Sure your not a recruiter??