Originally Posted by SouthsideTRKman

I'll tell you anything you want to know and I can tell you so far, Danc is on the money for the most part. Granted we all have different experiences but most of them are negative.

Originally Posted by 01sesedan

Wow, that sucks..

He has his CDL from a local school called Key Power. My brother indicated that it's not accepted and he'll have to go through the training again. Key Power was a 40 hour class, not sure if this is why. Not sure if there is a difference, he'll be doing van expidite, not sure if CRST has different divisions.

Thanks again.

Originally Posted by jl090507

Now that makes me wonder about CRST







I was going to ask one thing...
I am just waiting on the final phone call to start (well, start after I take a 20hr refresher) and I live in Waldorf, don't know what could be done about me being a newb and all...
(well that is if you felt like staying)

Originally Posted by didntitellu

Florida does seem to be an area where lots of companies dont like to hire from. But definately not impossible. As far as the 20 days out and 5 days home, that falls under the lies they give you. The first time he climbs in the truck and sends in his home time request he will get a message back that will read, "The home time calander is full for that period". No indication of when he might be approved. So he can send in another message and ask, usually wait a few days for a response. Eventually they will tell him when he will be allowed to go home. And rest assured that will never ever be less than 4 weeks (usually 6-8 weeks) since the day he sent in his original request.

You would think once you get home once you would fall into a normal 'rotattion' or cycle. Nope not gonna happen. It all comes down to when your dispatcher thinks he is ready for you to take a few days off.

Then once you get home he will call you 1-2 days before you were scheduled to go back to work and ask why you arent there yet. I just got myself in the habit of heading back to work the day before I was scheduled to be back. Otherwise once you do get back then that same dispatcher will treat you like you offended him personally and give you low miles and trashy runs. For example, I got one recently that picked up on Thursday night in Carlisle Pa at one of our terminals. It delivered Monday evening at 2 PM in Baltimore Md. Thats 75 paid miles. About 82 actual miles. Why in the world would that even be on the boards yet? Simple answer....dispatch revenge for my truck having broke down.

Pay...forget it!!!! In the first 7 months I grossed less than $6,000. And 90% of that was taken in deductions. As for reimbursments, they dont exactly do those. They will show up on your pay check yes. They will also be taxed, used for child support, health insurance you name it. They pay them ONLY when your income is too low to pay weekly deductions and they can hold all of your reimbursments so you get no pay at all.

Open door policy? Yes you can go into any office there and speak your mind. I wouldnt advise it! Tell them the truth and prepare to park for long periods of time. Ask them for better miles and your dispatcher will give you grief. Mine actually told me I made him look bad, he said he was already giving me 2000 miles a week....I was a team driver so thats 1000 paid each. Gave me attitude since I wanted more. I dont see the purpose of having a co-driver if we get less miles than a solo driver elsewhere would.

Maintenance. Absolute joke. I sprung an air leak on my tanks sitting at Little America truck stop atop the mountian in Flagstaff Az. They told the shop there not to fix it, and told me to drive it to Oklohoma City for repairs. Dead of winter, on a mountian, ice covered roads and they think you are going to drive down that mountian with your brakes in question!

I have been suspended for refusing to haul an illegal load. I have over $3000 (closer to $4000) in pay missing. They acknowledge they owe me the money but laugh yes laugh at me for asking for my money.

Friend my wife and kids literally ended up homeless over CRST. Thank god for her mother!!! When I told my dispatcher the troubles I was in and asked for money that was owed to me to help my family out he said he would look into it. SEVEN weeks later with me asking each and every day they offered me 7 days layover pay. "...to help your family but we are going to have to split it up over 2 pay periods so it looks better on our expense account". Imagine trying to tell my wife they offered me $280 instead of the $3000+ that they owed but had to split it up so their accounting looked better.

There are some good companies out there. But I beg of you to not let your brother go thru this nightmare. As I understand it Prime has a great training program, a lot of people hate Swift but they do get miles and get paid correctly and on time, US Express seems pretty good, Schnieder isnt all bad either. Truthfully any 'training company' is not going to be a great place to work. The goal is to find the lesser of all evils.

Have your brother look up the entire orientation class from August 30th 2007. That is the class just coming out of contract. His recruiter CAN do this, but he wont. Fact is out of 27 of us in orientation that week only 2 are left and we both are out of it tomorrow. Several divorced, one disappeared even his wife hasnt heard from him, most found local jobs at home, non driving jobs and are making payments to CRST now to pay off the school cost which btw is FAR more than they paid for our schooling. Guys working for Wal Mart because CRST gave them such a bad feeling of the trucking industry.

Benefits. How about this one. After they started taking out my weekly premuims they sent me a letter that my kids were not covered and would not be covered until next year because they lost a sheet of paper that had my kids birthdates on it. Then they send me another letter that said my wife and I dont have coverage other than ER visits for a year because we did not provide proof of prior coverage so they canot verify pre existing conditions. So we are out $87 a week for a year to pay for benefits we dont even have? Gotta love it!

These stories can go on for days. I encourage you and your brother to stop by any truckstop anywhere in the world and ask drivers. Any company that insterest you. Usually we dont mind taking the time to answer questions. Ask other CRST drivers, you will hear more of the same that I am telling you here. Never take one persons word for it. One person could just be a disgruntled employee. So please dont stop with just me. Assume I am angry and ask others. If you ask 100 CRST drivers you might find 1 happy guy.

Originally Posted by jash369

JL are you male / female?

Originally Posted by SouthsideTRKman

jl, I just teamed with a guy from B-more. Yes, I live in Calvert so Waldorf would be much more beneficial to me