CRST left me stranded. I got on a bus for their orientation, after I was assured by their recuiting department that they make serveral trips a week to northern Michigan. That relocating is not required. So off I went. I had very little cash, of course relying on my 5oo.oo sign on bounus and the 400.00 a week check they were to give me when I arrived. I went through their orientation. I passed the skills test and was even offering to help their own kirkwood students. They had no clue most of the time. Grinding gears, taking out curbs, and scaring the instuctors. They liked my interaction with them (CRST). At the end of my orientation, I recieved insurance starting that morning,a comdata card,hazmat certification card, an employee Id Number and I was ready. We were watching a movie in class awhile waiting for truck assignments for each of us. I was pulled out of class and was told they could'nt hire me. I lived to far north in michigan. I WAS TICKED. NO MONEY AND 580 miles from home. I went to find my recuiter. He didnt exsist. They said he was a thrid party for the web only and cant get a hold of him. WHAT!!!!...Vice pres. Of operations I went. He said he was sorry and offered me nothing. He said the whole administration process screwed up. WE thought you lived somewhere down by Detroit. He gave me his card and said they will get me back home. NO money, no nothing. The ticket left me stranded 200 miles from home. I thumbed it for 80 of those miles and a state police officer gave me a ride the rest of the way home. I have no criminal record, I drove school bus for 6 years and have never had any accidents. I attended a six month trucking school and have spent many hours behind the wheel with a 3.65 gpa at passing. It was a national academic school. Oh by the way. Paul, my recruiters office, is right next door to the VP'S. I gave him a piece of my mind. They lied about getting a hold of him. Its just a promise all and give nothing to get new drivers there. You get trapped in a motel,no money,no transportation and you are at there mercy to even function normal. Even doing your laundry. One machine there for 40 people. STAY AWAY FROM CRST... AND this is not a one mistake thing either. Im number 86 that this has been done too. My room mate was from nothern Minnisota and the same thing has happened to him. They dont look until you get here and then they try to work out your location later.

this is to crazy man. If it is a matter of taking a tractor home they should have just made arrangments to have a personal vehical left at the yard. Man that suxx

Well atleast you found out before being out with as trainer for weeks and then told they couldn't get you home.I'd say CRST was just being Honest with you.

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SKULL, THE INTERNET GOD!

Hey there. CRST and I did the "we pay for school" and job is yours dance two years ago. I went through training with a close friend in a little sub-contracted driving school in Fontana, CA. A couple weeks in to our training we noticed that some things were not so sound over at the orientation building as we heard reports from other students staying at the motel. I followed up these rumors with my recruiter over the phone and was assured that it was all talk. I completed my course and went over to orientation.

At orientation I was treated in the same manner as my days as a private in basic training. Our HR guy was actually ex-navy. He opened the orientation with, "I don't know what those recruiters told you, but..." along with a handful of near curse words and obscene remarks. My friend and I were green and the other drivers were long time hood hoppers. They chided us and ribbed us during the first 30 minutes. But it wasn't long before they were whispering, near tears, asking us for counsel and prayer.

I listened over the next 8 hours to a nightmare presentation along with a ridiculous road test in a truck/transmission combo we had never driven before.

I went directly back to my school, which was merely a mile away, and reported back to them my concerns and experience. They sounded shocked. They promised to get to the bottom of it. They made phone calls. They pleaded with us to go back, (and please don't talk to the other current driving students). We called our recruiter. He said about the same as our school.

The next day, we went were going to head over for our second day of orientation. On the way we shot a call out to our recruiter. He sweet talked for a while, but I listened carefully to every word. And in the course of our brief conversation I observed him lying out right yet again. I thanked him and said we'd be going with a different carrier.

We drove to the school of driving instead of orientation. Our school said that they had actually contacted the president of CRST on his personal cell. He was speechless as she conveyed to him the list of our experiences the previous day. Apparently he said that caused an internal company/terminal investigation. We were later told that it produced at least an eight year scam going on with the terminal and who know else and for what profit we don't know.

We were confident that we didn't want to work for such a company. Our driving school HR person got nervous. We did the "class A" internet job search. Found about five companies with decent pay and records. We applied to Gordon Trucking. We went with them.


My driving school asked us to pay for the school as CRST was no longer obligated to pay. Of course we would pay. That's when we started to experience the nightmare of their company. They refused to show us a receipt of our school tuition and debt and who owned it. Basics right? Well after making payments for a few months while driving for Gordon I discovered from my wife that they hadn't sent us any information on our payment schedule. No response from them.

At tax time they didn't send a standard reporting form so that I could report my tuition on my taxes. When we quit Gordon to move to Hawaii, I spent 2 months on the phone with my company and theirs, some times on three-way, attempting to get them to send my "driving certificate" so I get my tuition reimbursement. No way. They wouldn't do it. So I wrote them off. And as I expected they don't have anything to say as the debt has never gone to collections nor have they produced any tax info on it. It also leads me to speculate that they actually wrote it off internally and just took CRST for some extra somewhere.

I love driving.

The Varmit

They have a truck going by my house in traverse city,mich. once a week. I stopped the driver and he said they dont like people from other schools. They have no way of making that extra income and no way of locking you into a 8 month commitment. You can quit on them anytime so they wont make the investment. Every person from their school gets the job. Only some schools that dont know better. HONESTY = TERMINATION WHEN YOU NEVER HIRED ME CRST. I GOT THAT LETTER TODAY along with your than you for completing your orientation and the 50.00 dollars. REASON...Lives to far north of hiring lines....Bull

Its easy to tell when a recruiter is lying.............. yup the same way you can tell when a politician is lying too!!!!



Advice for noobs....... MAKE the recruiter send every thing he is promising to you in writing. If you guys all do that eventually recruiters will clean up their acts.

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i agree with you brickman, thou my recuirer for CRST was very strait to the point, told me to do the 6 months and get out, you have to get started somewhere and then call me back and ill jump your pay to double, but i didnt listen to him, i had a good co at the time(i joined when the contract was 6 months ) . only way to get thou to CRST is to leave after your contract is up.. BUT DO YOUR CONTRACT !!!!
and in 8 months, turn your notice in, and leave. dont be a stupied SOB and leave your truck at a truck stop. trust me, i had a co-driver and he left in st.louis, later he called me and told me about how Swift wouldnt hire him becasue he left under contract and didnt turn the truck in. (and swift will hire anyone, lol)
Oh, and a great thing to have is a final paystub that shows your last Run. i still have mine from CRST, Collinsville, IL to Cedar rapids IA, 6-4-05
and i quit on the 4th. that way u can prove you turned the truck in!!!

Thats good advice.Save the paystub.NOW you have proof.

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SKULL, THE INTERNET GOD!

without money, no matter what !!

CRST definitely has a money racket goin. I went with them a few months after i got my cdl's. Of course, i was smart, i got my cdl's privately. Thats how they get people--say they will pay you to go to their school. LMAO they pay you alright. Well, i get through my training just fine--had the best trainer i was sure crst had. I made a decent pay even through training--then the hell came. I got teamed up with a guy outta their school. I was like ok cool--no big deal. When we finally get a legal truck--off we go. We also had one of the best dispatchers as well. Well first check comes--i am cool with it but my team driver is quite upset--for his first check comes up to a mere $12--yes thats right i said $12. So he was flipping out--of course i would have too. Well it seems, back then CRST starts their school people with .22 a mile--but they forgot to tell them--until their first year is up they will only get paid .11 a mile cuz the other .11 is goin to their schooling. So needless to say, those goin to their school is pretty much workin for nothin. He also had 4 kids to take care of--not sure it can be done on .11 a mile. They get people like this cuz you dont get your certificate until school is fully paid for. So, CRST wasnt a bad company to work for--we got the miles for sure but Just dont go to their school or you will surely get screwed! Good luck to all!