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

Always stay away from the slc yard. They can put a work order on your trailer, stop dispatch you, random drug test, take away your empty trailer.....so many other things. I used to like to use the wash bay there but just avoid that place at all costs.

Last time I was there was doing laundry and I got into it with some loud mouth rookie. His phase 1 trainer kicked him off his truck after a week. The student said he was going to sue England for not treating its employees right. Told him if he had that kind of money to spend on an attorney he wouldn't be working for England. He got all offended.

 

The last load I took I avg. .70 cents a gallon with the rebate program, now I LOL at the other drivers who talk to me about how they save big on the cap program and how I should get back on it.

 

A total of 90 days of training, when you already had some experience? That sounds kinda excessive, and they actually charged you $500 dollars for this "refresher" training?

I was seriously considering CRE, but after hearing that, I'm going to say no. I don't have $500 to hand over just to get back into trucking, and I don't know if I could stand being with trainers for 3 months, when I'm already experienced, even if it was a few years ago.

 

A lot of companies are like this. It doesn't matter if you have as much as 10 years prior experience. If you've not been a OTR driver for longer than a certain time, they won't bring you aboard unless you take a refresher course.

My father in-law was gonna have to go through this as well with a company he wanted to get on with. Even though he had quite some time of driving experience in the military and, about three or four years experience driving belly dumps and end dumps doing local road construction with an asphalt and materials company, that wasn't good enough.

Now, on the other hand, he didn't have to take a refresher to get on with First Fleet a couple of years ago so it proves that some companies make people take a refresher and some don't.

 

I really wouldn't have an issue with the refresher training, if they weren't charging for it. To me at least, if you have verifiable experience, just time on a truck with a trainer for maybe 2-3 weeks would be livable. Other than that, I'm reluctant to be stuck with someone again for weeks to months on end.

 

Hey 451 johnson, I am going to Burns Harbor next month to start my class. I have read everthing I can find on the internet on CRE. I have also read the horror stories you find when you google CRE, pretty scary! I have no expereince and want to be a solo driver. I want to drive on the east coast. Career change, the kids and the wife are gone. Do you have a word or 2 of advice?