I am reposting this here after the wide response on facebook.
On September 23, 2010 I was sent a private message on Facebook regarding a female student who had been thrown off a CR England Truck in Binghamton, NY. The comment was a cut and pasted from a veteran male driver named “Kris” who had met the woman as the events were occurring to her.
Through Facebook we were able to obtain the woman’s phone number from “Kris” who had stayed in contact with her. The following is the original post he put as his status update:
“Meet A CR England driver. She was in training had 2 weeks left. Her trainer kicked her out the truck in Binghamton NY. She has been telling her TC. what was going on . He told her to suck it up. Her trainer was a male driver. When she called them 11:00 pm they told her she was on her on. If thats how they are going... to treet their drivers then we need to let all know. Do NOT DRIVE for CR England !!!”
I called the woman and she returned my call the morning of September 25, 2010, she has since been fired by CR England was living in her car and had no money. Her name is “Nancy” and she detailed for me what had happened. Let me advise that “Kris” had also sent an email to CR England about what he saw and despite them abandoning Nancy the previous evening, CR England did contact Nancy after the email was received from Kris.
Here is what I have gathered in my notes from talking to Nancy:
Nancy’s Mother was trucker and encouraged her to give it a try thinking she would enjoy it. She attempted in 2002 and worked for 8 months at Covenant Transport on a team truck. She was in a team with a male friend but as he wanted to make the relationship more serious she decided to get off the truck and returned to her job at Boeing.
Unfortunately due to layoffs Nancy no longer has a job at Boeing. She is from the Huntsville, Alabama area.
According to Nancy training at CR England goes something like this: Students go to Salt Lake City and do 2 ½ weeks on the yard which she felt went way too fast. CR England pays for the school and takes $55.00 per week from the students check to repay tuition. Nancy says first phase went well and first phase trainer was awesome. She went to CR England where her Phase One Trainer gave her high scores; Nancy said trainer was great and he would vouch for her. She said the TC was not very friendly.
(*** I asked Nancy about the personality & professionalism of each person to get an idea of the climate so my notes on this are included, these are general perceptions, also I do have the names of these people I have just not included them in full at this time.***)
After Phase one of her training Nancy was assigned to Trainer Coordinator (TC) named Trace, a femalewho assigned Nancy to a truck with Martin B.Martin was not a trainer
According to Nancy, at CR England you can opt out of phase 2 training and lease your own truck and/or train which is what they high pressure you to do. If you go solo, they “starve you” which is a term in trucking where they do not give you miles and leave you to sit.
Nancy had no desire to lease, she wanted to continue learning. She had the offer to become a trainer to another student after just 6 weeks driving time. She did not want to do this so they put her with Martin B. who they were trying to starve out. He agreed to take her and at first he was nice. He told her what a wonderful woman she was but within 4 days she says she had to escape.
Martin, she said became “psycho”; he was emotionally abusive and did not like people at all, especially women. Nancy was not allowed to use the Qualcomm. He would not let her do her logbooks, he violated HOS and had her drive in times it violated hers. He was a dangerous driver and she was afraid. Martin cussed frequently at Nancy but also was brushing up against her and grabbing her around her waist when they would try to pass each other in the cab of the truck. At night time when they were both in their bunks, Martin would tell her to come join him in his bed and that she was soft and warm.
Because his temper was increasingly erratic, Nancy began packing her stuff to get off the truck. There was a squabble about the keys that got very heated and the manger of the Flying J Truck Stop in Pennsylvania called the police. The manager offered to be a witness for Nancy of what occurred with Martin.
CR England (CRE) got a motel room for Nancy so she could get off the truck. Nancy’s glasses were damaged during this incident so she returned to Alabama and then was routed to Salt Lake City where CR England is based to file an HR Report which she did. It was 3 pages long. She says her TC Trace was dismissive of what had occurred and was smug to Nancy when she asked about further documentation. Nancy advised the TC that she not only had a witness, she had a journal of all the events. At that time the TC made no further remarks.
The next truck that Nancy was put on by Trace was with another driver who again was not a trainer. Nancy was on the truck with Thomas H. and he agreed to take her because he was also being starved out and needed miles. During the 10 days Nancy was on the truck with him, Thomas quit because he got another job with different carrier. Thomas did not like CRE. Nancy and Thomas got along fine while she was on the truck with him those 10 days. He is the person who picked her up from the incident at the Flying J in Pennsylvania after she got off the truck with Martin. They were routed to Alabama to get her glasses fixed and then they went on to Salt Lake City where CRE is based.
The next person Nancy was put on a truck with was Shane B., he was actually a trainer. He had a “Driver Manager” (DM) but she was only on his truck 7 days when she slipped at a fuel stop and fell, bruising her ribs. She had to be taken to the hospital. Nancy was only prescribed Motrin but she was required to return to SLC to file a workman’s comp report. Shane had to go on without her to deliver because he had a truck payment to make.
During the periods that Nancy was in SLC she had run into a trainer a few times who offered to train her and she agreed.
She said this trainer ‘Vince B.” had been with CR England about 8 or 9 months and was formerly with the Air Force. At first he was very friendly and nice.
Vince told Nancy that “What happens in this truck stays in this truck”, Vince is from Las Vegas. He is also married but made mention to Nancy he was separated. Nancy made it clear that she was not entering trucking for a relationship; she says she does not even permit her ankles to be seen in public. She has not been in a relationship for many years and she does not wish for one.
Vince told Nancy he was willing to take her on the truck because she is attractive. He also insisted she take the lower bunk because of her bruised ribs. Once she got into bed he pushed in with her and raised his arms across her breasts. Nancy told Vince she was “not about that”.
Once Nancy rebuffed the advances of Vince he became obsessed, controlling. He was OCD about the carpet and went on and on for her to keep it clean. Vince began calling his Wife and trying to patch things up and was on phone constantly. While at shipper and receivers and driving, Vince would not stop using his phone and Nancy said that it was unprofessional and unsafe. Vince complained about Nancy having to keep returning to terminal for her blood pressure tests and in one case on her last scheduled visit to get her medical card the load they were under was mysteriously taken or swapped from them.
REGARDING BLOOD PRESSURE: Nancy says that she never had problems with high blood pressure prior to going to CR England. Before Nancy arrived in SLC for training she took a DOT Physical in Alabama and passed it perfectly. When she arrived at CRE they required her to take her DOT Physical and she showed high blood pressure from their Doctor. The CRE Doctor prescribed her medications to lower her blood pressure and required her to continue seeing this Doctor. They also gave her only a temporary medical card. The CRE Doctor is elderly and Nancy stated that his hands were a little shaky and he may have touched her inappropriately but she thought it might be because he was not a steady hand. Nancy had not reported this to anyone but had made a joke of it to Vince at a time when they were still getting along. When Nancy kept being required to return to the terminal for these recurring blood pressure checks, Nancy joked to Vince that the Doctor probably wanted to feel her up again. Vince took it upon himself to report this to CRE. Nancy was called by CRE about this remark and they wanted to know if she was alleging harassment of the Doctor and she replied “No”. In any case, the Doctor kept her on the Blood Pressure medications and tested her regularly. Her test kept coming up 140-190 every time CRE Doctor treated her, every 3-4 weeks they would want to retest her. At the time of the final test when they were scheduled to return to SLC and the load was swapped, Nancy said she felt that Vince did it because he wanted to see his Wife in Las Vegas so he had manipulated the situation. Nancy’s card was going to expire in 4 days and Vince took to task to having her mail transferred to Las Vegas to his house. At first CRE did not want her to see another Doctor but because the card was expiring and the load had been swapped they had no choice. Nancy went to a DOT physician and passed, her Blood Pressure was fine and she was given her medical card.
Vince became increasingly controlling and began telling Nancy when she could eat, smoke and take a shower. Vince took Nancy’s shower points card from her and when she wanted to shower he would tell her “No”, he told her when she could take a shower and she rebelled by telling him off. Vince then called CRE to report her for not obeying him. Vince began reporting that Nancy did not shower at all. He began reporting she was a terrible driver and that she was unsafe. Vince also regularly threw Nancy off the truck and she spent many nights sitting in the truck stops at tables waiting to be let back on the truck by Vince.
When Nancy complained to her TC Bart he told her the following over several occasions when she asked for guidance: “Do what he tells you”, “You need to suck it up” Or ‘You need to cowboy up” regarding being told to get off truck regularly, Nancy was told by Bart “He can do that”, “He can banish you if he feels threatened” “If he banishes you from the truck you must get out”.
In a final blowout Nancy went to send a ‘S.O.S” on the Qualcomm to assistance from CRE and Vince grabbed the unit and kept tearing her hands away from it. In the scuffle for the Qualcomm, Vince got a scratch from Nancy’s finger nail and called the police and called the nightshift manger of CRE “Kristy” or “Kristin”. Vince began screaming he needed protection, that Nancy was insane and that she was abusing him. He was screaming ‘Please Help!”
No charges were filed by the police. The CRE representative “Kristy” told Nancy to get her stuff off the truck and that she would not be giving her an express number to pay for a motel. “Kristy” also told Nancy that she was “On her own”. Nancy tried to beg for help and called several hours to CRE but was disconnected and transferred back /forth and put on hold from 10pm to 2 am.
It was during this time that the veteran driver “Kris” appeared. He saw and heard that Nancy was being deserted by CRE, and he posted on Facebook and sent an email.
It was in response to this that someone from CRE finally called Nancy. One person was her TC Bart offering transportation to Alabama where she is from but Nancy’s car was parked in SLC. The other call was from HR dept. and they told her to return to SLC to come to HR and make a formal complaint.
Nancy rode the greyhound from New York to SLC and upon arriving she was interviewed by HR but it was after they had interviewed Vince. Nancy had not planned on bringing up the incident where Vince got into the bed with her because she felt that “so many women cry wolf and she felt that no one believes you”; she had now had 3 incidents so she did not want to say anything. Vince though had told HR that Nancy was going to report him for harassment and that she was a liar and she was crazy etc.
HR asked Nancy questions about what Vince said and she said yes it was true but she did not plan to make something of that, it was his temper and him throwing her off the truck that was the problem.
Nancy was told by HR they were doing an investigation and right away she was sent to take some skills tests. Nancy had not showered now for 5 days and had not had proper rest. She said they had as many as 8 Women housed in a room at CR England in Bunk Beds and the facilities were filthy.
She had just traveled across the country on the Greyhound bus and she was distraught. She had cried much of the time. She was tired, hungry and confused. She had been off the truck about ten days when this occurred and they made her take a skills test which she failed.
Nancy said she felt she did bad because she was an emotional wreck and could not concentrate. Also, during this phase 2 of training which is supposed to be conducted in 90 days, she was never taught to adjust her tandems or to back up the truck. She was being pushed to test out in skills that she was never properly taught to be sent out on the highways.
CR England failed her and fired her that day. She felt they were very glib and that they intentionally set her up to fail. She was just 2 weeks short of her graduation date yet she had not learned the skills she needed to operate the truck, nor to take a skills test.
Once they told her she was fired they told her they were giving her Greyhound bus ticket back to Alabama but she told the person in HR department that she had a car and needed gas. They refused and told her they would not give her money for gas to return to Alabama. Nancy ended up going to another person in HR named Dennis who got her $200 to get back to Alabama from Salt Lake City.
Nancy does not have a residence; she is now living in her car. She would like to get her training completed and get back to work trucking. She would like something with Dry Van.
I have given her some things to get her going and we are trying to get her back on track. I will be circulating this account to people who will be interested in this.
I have changed some of the names to give CR England a chance to address their mess. Thanks to Jan Mc Carter & Kris Pendergarvis Sr. for caring about fellow drivers and students to get this word out. Let’s make a difference people and start sticking up for one another.

Desiree