I wasn't. I'm really an intelligent person, but this is a new universe for me. The training coordinators are all sales pitchers. They're like "Would you rather make this much(lease) or this little(company)?" They really push for more lease operators. I've seen better lease programs at other companies, but not until it was already too late for me, and those other companies require a year or so of otr.

oh, this reminds me of a now defunct package delivery company i once worked for. i got hired as a "temp" driver, but it was really full time, and not a "temp" job afterall. from day one i was asked, "do you like this", do you want to have your own truck someday"? "we can *set you up* with a very good used truck for starters and get you going"............

glad i left there, as they "play around" with your delivery route, taking some areas away from you to give to another driver.

whenever there is "company involvement" with lease/purchase plans, they will always control your money making abilities...........

best to buy your own truck outright and go it alone, so that way, you can drop their trailer and skittle away fast............

2000 miles per week at (what you said was an average run of 800 miles) comes to $1760 at 88 cents per mile.

What were your expenses? I know the fleece was around $660.

Also, you took 10 days to get your CDL transferred. That is not CRE's fault.

You admitted:
I hear a lot of smear campaigns against CRE, but this makes you look bad too.

Unfortunately, you have been lured into the spiderweb. You are correct in stating that the exact problem people are facing today. This industry is plagued with slick salesmen that will say just about anything to close the deal.

CR England is and has been one of the worst companies out there for fleecing newbies.

Add about $1,055.60 in fuel costs.
Add about $125.00 for insurance.

Why go on? There's surely more, but you can see with that above, that the bank is already broke.

When this subject comes up I am obliged to offer a pearl of wisdom. There is NOT ONE lease/purchase program out there that will be skewed in the driver's direction. They are all created to put more money in the carrier's pocket, and to take that same amount from the driver who falls for it.

Ah, but they had him locked into a contract, and they were charging him for all of his fixed costs of being in charge of that truck. Totally ironic in my opinion, considering that CR England was operating inferior CDL training that they were cited for just a few months ago, causing immense and utter devastation to drivers that obtained training through them, when they had to retake CDL driving tests to reinstate their CDL's.

I looked up your posting history, and discovered that you are going to hire on with CR England. That's your choice, and far be it for anyone to steer you elsewhere, but let's be perfectly clear on something.

I read above an instance of a common complaint about that company, and one that makes me cringe. They expect the driver to make up for lost time, and a lack of planning in assuring that a load is legally dispatched.

Idling the truck is not going to cause economic harm. Short of no other way to be comfortable to sleep, this is perfectly acceptable, and does not in and of itself represent something that would break the bank.

Being late on loads is going to happen. There is no person on the face of this earth that can be on time, every time, and most of the time it is not the driver's fault. Anyone that says they are on time, every time, is either a consumate liar, or they are running illegally to do it.

Please...don't defend this company, until you have reason to do so. Your wake up call is coming. I hope you are not affected like so many others out there. I don't give you very good odds, because the statistics are against you already.

CR England is a bad egg, and they apparently don't care how much they stink either.

Let me relay a tale of CRE that has taken place across the internet for the last year and a half. A young guy has been on at least 3 other forums that I know of, and had repeetedly asked about going to work for CRE. And, he got the standard advice from people, that they are not one of the better companies to work for, and he could do better getting his training and his start elsewhere. Yet he became about as stubborn as possibly could be imagined, defending the company at every turn and making every possible argument that he could in their favor, despite never having worked for them or having even driven a truck before. This went on for bout a year, and he finally found another job, working as a laborer with a company that does railroad accident cleanup and recovery. He would be a laborer there, and they would teach him to drive their trucks, and he could then move up into a driving job.

This gig only lasted a few months, and then he was back on the various forums, once again all gung ho for CRE. And he finally signed up, going to their training this past summer. And lo and behold, part way through the training, he ran into problems that didn't sound to be of his making as much as it did theirs, and is back on the street.

Was he a large part of the problem and were his expectations unrealistic? Probably. But the fact remains that many people gave him advice and solid reasoning why to avoid that particular company and not to get involved with them.

In your case, they are taking you on in spite of what is a somewhat troubled record that has caused rejections from other companies. That may be charity on their part, and it may well mean that they figure they have you on a hook since no one else will take you on.

You need to go into this with your eyes wide open and realize that you are dealing with a company that is considered less than desirable, and not go blindly defending the virtues and values ofa company that as yet, you have absolutely no association with. if you make it through their training, get a truck, and get out on the road and manage to make it, then more power to you. In your case you will have beaten some pretty significant odds. If you manage to use them more than they use you, you will be able to count yourself a winner.

But you won't be able to come on here and blow sunshine up the fannies of the people here about how wonderful they are. They are too well know and too well studied a commodity for that to happen.

Remember the trucker last year that was supposedly in a standoff with police in Utah? it was in the news, and it was a CRE Lease Operator whome they drove into the ground until he was so broke he was literally grubbing on the side of the road for roots and berries to eat. They also cut off his fuel card when he tried to take the truck to them to turn it in, and called the police when the wrecker tried to tow the truck with him still in it. That's the CRE we all know and love.....

This brings to mind an old saying… If it sounds too good to be true than it probably is. I think that lugnut is only defending something that he/she knows nothing about and I only hope that the right decision is made based on research and not what some salesman is telling him/her. Lugnut please consider the expert advice of turbo and the information presented to you in this forum before you decide on a career decision of this magnitude. It may be one you will regret for a long time to come. I wish you the best in your endeavor.

__________________

Wow!!! I am completely blown away Burky.

And this....was the statement of the century....and that was the best post you have EVER offered on ANY subject. My hat is off to you.

I DO remember that case, but it had slipped my mind until you brought it up.

That last sentence is a classic....

Gosh, I can't believe what I am reading!!

I have read almost every post on roundtable, CAD, here, and ripoffreport.com that pertains to CRE.

There are MANY that say CRE is bad.

I only know of 2 that an actual driver for CRE has posted aside from the ones at ripoffreport.com.

Sure the lease is prolly a raw deal. I'll agree with that.

But how many COMPANY drivers for CRE have posted? I can't find but a few.

So for all you that "are in the know" please give me some links to posts by company drivers that got screwed by CRE.

You won't find many. The people that drive for CRE can't afford laptops or wireless connections, and they are almost never home to use the home computers. And very few people get on the internet and actually admit that they work there. It kind of skewers the data.