6 months in / Company Solo OTR

I have heard and read many of the horror stories regarding CRE, but my story will be a little different. First off, I attended school at Fontana, CA, and don't have any MAJOR issues to discuss about school. Drug test, physical, background check, DMV check, all pretty much just as I expected. Others got bounced for "issues", reducing our class size from about 100 initial attendees to about 50 actual survivors, not including those that may have failed during Phase I & Phase II OTR driving.

OK, so the major drift of most CRE conversations is that people got conned into leasing, but I made it clear from the start I was not interested in a lease, and nobody EVER tried to convince me otherwise. Be forewarned, if you choose to lease, you better be a #### good businessperson, and you better love to either team drive, or be forced into being a trainer to survive and earn. I chose company driving because I don't want to own / lease a truck until I know whether this is an industry I want to be part of. Maybe one day, but if I ever do buy/lease, I'll go find my own vehicle where I can make the best deal and get the best vehicle for my money. There are lots of tractors out there...

As for the OTR training, my Phase I trainer was a complete liar, idiot, and a fairly bad driver. He resented me from the beginning, because I was already a fairly good driver (40 years driving an assortment of vehicles cross country & local). He nitpicked every opportunity he could, screamed as often as he felt necessary, then immediately fell back asleep. I tried to quit him after a week, but he talked me back into the truck (big mistake on my part - I didn't want to be a quitter, but he couldn't change his stripes...). I survived him, but have no intentions of ever communicating with him again. I severely criticized him during my evaluation of his training skills. He hated CRE, was a lease operator, and a generally bad person to be stuck in a truck with, for a month...

Phase II "mentors" were much nicer human beings, but both had anger issues (not directed at me). Both let me drive/perform as a second seat, without much issue. Phase I ran about 24,000 miles, so Phase II only required about 6,000 miles to upgrade to solo. I upgraded in a few hours at Burns Harbor (the hotels there were a joke, I stayed with family in Chicago, and just came one day to upgrade). While in upgrade, I got a call from one of the CRE fleets, asking me if I wanted to drive for them. I asked if I could start at the beginning of the week, since I'd rented a car to get to Chicago and back. They agreed. I returned to find a beautiful 2013 Cascadia waiting for me, with my first run being a shop load of truck tires to Salt Lake City CRE (what I'll call "the hornet's nest). All went to plan, and that's how I got just what I wanted from CRE. I was promised about 2500 miles per week @ .35/mile, and they have delivered on that MOSTLY, though my odometer would tend to disagree.

Posting this before it gets lost.. More to come.

 

OK, so where does the rubber meet the road with CRE??? Well, I'll say this, they are fairly big on safety. If you're a good driver, you'll do OK. If you're not, you'll get DQ'd (disqualified / fired). My first Phase II mentor was fired during my drive with him because he had three tickets, including one he got prior to CRE (red light camera conviction), one missed weigh station, and one MAJOR liile speeding ticket (through a construction zone = NO NO!). Honestly, I really liked this guy, but CRE DQ'd him because their lawyers could never have defended his record, had he gone out and hurt somebody with his truck (he was an independent contractor).

If you do you monthly safety videos, you get credit for them in the firm of full pay. If you skip them, you get a half cent mileage deduction. DO YOUR VIDEOS! Simple...

So what's the biggest bone I have to pick with CRE so far??? I have several, but THE MOST MAJOR ISSUE is how they calculate mileage based on Zip Codes, as opposed to ACTUAL miles driven, or ACTUAL GPS miles. By their using this Zip Code method, they guarantee that they can cheat you out of 8-15% of your actual just reward, meaning you drive all those extra miles for them, just to be sitting in the cab of one of their trucks. It's an out and out ripoff, but all everyone seems to ##### about is lease ripoffs (DON'T LEASE!!!), or how they got bounced, or how their training sucked, etc. I amazed that the bigger conversation isn't about how you lose every time you drive, based on their shorting you on your miles EVERY trip...

So I'm going to leave this point where it is. There is no defense anyone can bring forth that could explain to me the systematic ripping off of drivers, on each and every trip they run. And, please don't anyone come to their defense saying sometimes you win on mileage, and sometimes you lose.... YOU ALWAYS LOSE. I've got the odometer miles, the GPS miles, and their paid miles to make my case over and over. THAT is the biggest ripoff at CRE, not the leases (DON'T LEASE!!!!). Get it???

 

Well, as a Veteran, I owed them six months to pay off the school loan, and that point was reached a few weeks ago. So, now, why would I stay? Well, there is some stability. There is the fact that many/most other trucking outfits act/pay the same, even though the grass ALWAYSseems greener... I'll stay and continue with CRE for as long as it takes to build a drive history enough to get hired into an outfit that truly appreciates their drivers, in the form of good pay for good service (on time delivery, good care of equipment, proper reporting via Qualcomm, accurate trip mileage, accurate weekly "promised" mileage, etc ).

It should be pointed out that this Obam-e-conomy caused me to lose a job & a house (sold, thankfully!), so I'm actually happy to be producing, even if I'm not totally happy with CRE. My wife has vision, dental & health for the first time in decades (I always had the VA, and I'm an Agent Orange exposed, so they'll be taking care of me until I die, probably, even though my service already guaranteed me lifetime medical...).

There's good and bad in everything these days, and when I weigh it out, it's still better to be working, as opposed to sending out hundreds of résumés and being ignored because you're 60... The truck doesn't have a clue how old I am, fortunately...

 

See, that's what I'll be reviewing as I check out my option in the near future. I don't think trainees have a clue how it all works, until they've spent some time behind the wheel, processing the paperwork, watching their settlements for accuracy & fairness, and just generally getting a sense for how other companies behave, based on actual conversations with people, not just heresay. That 8-15% lost every trip will probably be my main reason for eventually moving on, not that I was treated HORRIBLY or taken advantage of (other than described).

 

I made a vow after I joined the Air Force that I would never recommend to anyone that they join (just didn't want to be the guy they remembered if things went South...), HOWEVER, for anyone that already wanted to join, I promised myself I'd be truthful in describing my experiences, both good & bad. The Air Force turned me into a fighter jet mechanic in less than three months of training, and I worked around the most advanced aviation technologies @ Edwards AFB for 2 1/2 years before going to Southeast Asia to help with the fall of Saigon. I learned tons in my 3 1/2 yrs of Air Force life, other guys went to jail... It's all what you do with the tools you are given, and how good of an attitude you can keep while you're being taken advantage of.