Except for the pay early in my driving time with crst where I didnt make much money, everything else you said was totally opposite of my experience. I am not going to hype CRST up but I can tell that I never had a problem getting my truck fixed, and the ac was the only problem I ever had, mine stopped working in the mojave desert. And you could buy fluids on the fuel card or get them at the terminals, along with wiperblades. All you had to do was ask for them, so I have no idea why your girls had trouble with these things. Also when I gave my 2 weeks notice the only thing they did was run the heck out of my truck up to the day iI wanted to be at the terminal. And no problems with the pay either. As a matter of fact a few months after i left i recieved a check for like $150 for moneys that i didnt even know they owed me.

I just finished orientation a little while ago. Dont want to say when because i heard they monitor this site. Out of the 97 poeple who should up with me on a sunday, only about 50 made it through the first four days. Most failed because of the driving test, which was pretty easy if u can make a right hand turn without hitting the curb! Which tells me, if they cant make it through that driving test then they shouldnt be on the road anyways! I had a room mate that failed out because he failed some of open book written test and the driving test. Me and my other roommate tried to help him on his written test, thats when we found out he couldnt read! How did he make it through the state test?
I have been out on the road not very long, my trainer is a good person but a terrible trainer. I had to loan him money the first few days we were out. He does not have a map, truck stop guide, cooler, hammer or a broom. He makes me go borrow anything we need. Good thing i brought a map with me. He panicks in traffic, and is terrible at directions! I have to plan all are trips which i dont mind, because it is good practice for me. Loads are very slow in coming!!! Oh, ya he puts all the credits at fuel stops on his pilot card so he gets all the perks. then charges me to use the shower.
He also complains about me sometimes missing a gear, because they want us to always double clutch. Which is fine with me, except he always float shifts and grinds the gears and cant find them. So i asked to help him how to do better, he didnt have a answer because he dosent know how to double cluth.
Oh, well got to go, he's waiting for me to clean the truck floor, he got chocolale and food all over because hes a slob.
Cant wait to get this training over with, so i can get in a truck with somebody i like.
Oh, well. No more venting, i just got to suck it up and finish my training. good luck to all that go to this company.

Sounds like typical CRST -fighting over Pilot Points to see who gets the free giant burrito and a shower.

I would be careful about borrowing money to this bum, but at least you are not 3-4 in a cab with a CRE fleece trainer in the summer heat.

Willy 248 you must have the trainer one of my girls had. The man was a joke. He didn't teach her a thing during the entire training period. His only "training" was to tell her it was her turn to drive and he promptly retired to the bunk. He would sleep the whole time she was driving and she would have difficulty waking him up at the end of her shift. He ate huge amounts of food and would then be to sleepy to drive so he would park the truck at a rest stop and go to sleep in the seat. She would wake up to find they had been parked for several hours and were now running behind schedule. She was in the final week of training when he actually went to sleep behind the wheel and ran over a road sign. At that point she told him she was done, sign off on her training, and she was getting the heck out of the truck. He got mad and told her she had to finish four more days of training. She told him in no uncertain terms what he could do with himself and the truck. He was supposed to bring her back to her home domicile at the end of her training but he refused to do it so I had to drive 245 miles to pick her up. When they got to the truck stop where he decided to drop her off he ask her not to report him for going to sleep behind the wheel. He then gave her a good review and signed off on her training. She did talk to the company about him, out of concern for his safety and that of future trainees, and they told her they had never had a complaint about him and that he was one of their best trainers. As far as she knows the company did not even look into the situation to determine if the man might have a medical condition that was causing him to fall asleep. I am thankful she made it through training without them having a serious accident.

-and that is really the sad part --> He probably is "one of CRST's best trainers"

No he is not! I had 2 trainers when I was their and both were very good. Different types of people and different training techniqes. CRST is not the best company in the world but some of what I hear and read is rediculous. Some people would complain if they won a million dollars, and were paid in dollar bills.

I had two girls who went through training at CRST. One had a terrible trainer, the other had an excellent trainer who spent a lot of time teaching her how to drive safely, to do trip planning, to manage her log in order to maximize her drive time, and her trainer shared information that you only get through years of experience. Once the girls were through training and started driving team the one that actually received good training was able to train the other one. And they did luck out and get a good dispatcher so things went fairly well. I hear from other drivers that CRST has made some changes for the better over the past year. For their drivers sake I sure hope so.

I hope so too, I am going back to do the L/P at the end of next month!

Finished my 8month contract with CRST. Im in a 20/10 man team now and running about 6k-7k miles for myself a month. I usually run airfreight loads such as conway, UPS, and R&L carriers. Still getting paid .33 cents mile. After taxes and health average 1500-1800dollars a month. Not very good pay for a OTR driver but like everyone one is saying blame the economy and dispatcher.
If or when the economy picks up I hope to see a 200dollar increase every month at least, hopefully. If no increase in pay I'd better look else where or just stay for experiance and avoid jumping to company to another.

Can any experianced driver recommend a good O/O and company driver in the wester area. I hear LandAir is good as i have ship for them terminal to terminal.


CRST Driver, Fontana

my husband and I have been with crst for 2 months our first mistake was getting our pay on a comdata card. first trip was to ny and the tolls we had to get advance and cant seem to get it paid back it is worse than a credit card. they take your pay until the advance is paid back then you have to get advance to eat because you didnt get a pay then it starts all over again when i got home and checked our pay stubs the charges were unreal they even charged us for the rental car that they set up for us to go to orintation and the one for us to get to our truck after training was over. They never told us that we would have to pay this back. we get miles but never see any pay much our truck is in the shop now for the 5th time in 6 weeks. We have been married 22 years and if we are at term. in cedar rapids and truck is in the shop we have to stay in seperate rooms. even if we are the only ones in the room. My trainer had only had a cdl for 1 year and only wanted to go to truck stops and meet men. they pay you .22 cent a mile and you split the miles so that is really .11 a mile I have had 1 pay in 2 months that has loaded the rest has went for things that i have been charged for. I have to stay until i have enough exp. to go else where. if you are thinking about this company think hard and put pay in bank not comdata