i drove in the oilfields here in cali. Um as far as driving while training you get a flat $350/week. But you will run hard after your first week usually. My advice is befriend someone in school or orientation to become your co-driver, atleast then you will get to know them since you will be living with them in close quarters. I had a damn good co-driver and we still talk. Im only offering to train my friend as being a trainer is not for me lol. But if you and your co-driver can do like 12 hour shifts it works out. Now you may be thinking thats illegal as you can only run 11 hours. With 14 hours of on duty time this setup allows a 1 hour break for food and to stretch. My co-driver ran from 7am to 7pm. I took over at 7pm. If you want to buy things in the truck stop save up your points on your rewards card when you fuel. And talking about reward cards. Get one from every fuel stop (ie 1 from pilot, ta ect.) That way you get free showers with every refuel and you get 1 point for every gallon with 100 points = 1 dollar. If you have any more questions I will be more than happy to answer them. If you have yahoo messenger or aim you can message me at xphasethisx and I will do my best to prepare you to be on the road! Im not the best, matter fact Im far from the best. But I have made a lot of mistakes that Ive learned from (none involving accidents lol) Just ending up where I shouldnt have been hah.

I am a at aol judith colletti so you can email me.... That would be great... I am getting paid by the mile for my training.... .22cpm.... not 350 weekly... That is only for their students.... It is weird and yes I checked it out... There is also a perdiem so I will proabaly still be collectting unemployment to make up the difference....

it is interesting to here that you would like to work for them again... So many people say such nasty things on this forum about CRST and other companies...

i want to drive stay busy and drive some more... I am concerned about jumping in the truck with a stranger but if that is what it takes.... Thanks for any advice... Email me and will talk

oh ok so im assuming you already have a class a then? Yea the per diem i hated. Every company has bad things said about them. Ive had a few things I didnt like with CRST but then again I was learning and most of it was money issues. 1 week would be good and the next week not so much. The thing that kills you is sitting at the shipper, if its a drop and hook its all good but I hardly seen any of those.

I am not bragging but I have a class a with all the endorsements.... hazmat doubles triples and tankers.... i also have a passenger endorsement because right now I drive a school bus to suppliment my unemployment....

That why I wrote this post because for a few months I will be going backwards in the money game....That is alot to give up... I also have a 16 year old that i really don't want to leave behind... But I can't find a local job and I have to work...

I have to bite the bullet some time RIGHT?

its hard especially when you have family at home. Yea I have all endorsements except passenger. I may or may not get it but not sure. But hazmat is good since CRST requires it. If you have any more questions im gonna be online for awhile watching the forum!

Yeppers!

I regret waiting after I got out of school, but then I don't have any kids at home. Just a boyfriend and 3 dogs, lol. Of course you could always wait it out and take a refresher course. Maybe by then the miles will be getting better.

well you have the holiday season coming up here soon, so it might pick up a bit. I just have a girlfriend back at home that will make it hard to be out on the road, but its the only job I can get right now. The oilfields have been slowing down a bit

I am back,,,,, Thanks for the conversation... I will let you all know if i make it to orientation on Sunday...

I got a letter from unemployment and I am on my last extention only 13 more weeks... I assume after that I am finished... If so CRST is looking good and the last 13 weeks will help suppliment my low wages for the 1st 6 months especially if the perdiem is high.... So I am figuring I might get to keep half of my unemployment money for the next 13 weeks....

We'll see... Thanks again and any other information or opinions are appreciated.

Come on Judith you will be there. Look at the pay scale for the first couple of months. If unemployment will make up the difference I would think it would be better to not use a week or two of benefits as opposed to having benefits run out and taking a pay cut for a couple of weeks

Unemployment will eventually run out.
Also, when I was unemployed, it was nice for about 3 weeks to be home watching TV, doing things around the house, tying up loose ends, etc. But after that I needed to get back into the grind. I needed to get back to work.

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