I would like to let the cat out of the bag so to say about this Training School they offer.

I was set to attend the school here in Dallas. Some of the recruiting claims are out right lies, and some are not....

The Good first.

1. The school has the lowest accident rate for the company (all 4 school locations)

2. Plenty of trucks to train on....

The bad.

1. The hotel... well the school will tell you that they don't own the hotel which is true, however they do have a contract with them and don't plan to change anything. The rooms are outdated, and are no where near clean. If you can avoid it stay out of the hotel. The night I checked in they gave me a dirty room and told me they could change me to another room, however I would have to pay for that room. The school officials don't care at all.

2. The school, hmm where to start. They have 3 buildings, all of which are old and have roof leaks. The range, well its not a range, it is a gravel pit for the backing range and then frontage streets (actual roads) for the driving range.

England starts you at 26 cpm, and you have to ride for 3 weeks with a trainer after completing the 2 week school. After the 3 weeks of riding with the training, you return to the same bad hotel and wait (sometimes a week) for an upgrade to the CAT program. CAT is where you spend 4 weeks riding as a second seat to a Lease operator and they try to push you into a lease. Once you complete the CAT Program you return again and wait for an upgrade to a solo truck, or choose the lease program.

I walked after dealing with the school for a few days and decided to go with another school. C1 in Fort Worth, TX... I start school on Monday and should be in a truck Solo in 6 weeks instead of 10 weeks.

PS.. if you drive to the hotel, I recommend driving to the school each day. If you have an emergency or you are booted for the physical, you will sit there for the rest of the day waiting on the bus....

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WCD

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snipers change history!!

Sounds about par for the course from what I have read about CRE. Read around the forum under the good trucking companies section, there are some better one's for a beginner to start our with!

Best of luck and thanks for your service to our country!

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Typical CR England---flakey bunch of monkeys...
Central Refrig has a school near Tx stadium

Sorry you had a bad experience with CR England. Mine was great here in SLC UT. I was treated well even though they were busier than a 3 legged hound dog with a back full of fleas!

Sorry to hear yet another horror story about CRE. I wish that I had found this web sight before I decided to give them a try also. If you would like, read the story I posted a few weeks ago about my dealings with them as well. I'm glad you figured it out before finishing the training and getting tangled up in their lease program. Trust me when I tell you, it's not only the recruiters that lie to you at that company. Anyway, you can read more about what happened to me on my thread, it's a little long but it gets pretty entertaining as it goes.

Good luck with the new company. Sounds like they are a little more willing to get you to work without playing all the unnessesary games.

Yeah I looked into Central as well, but there are requiring me to go get the physical before I can attend the school. Plus they want the VA to release me on a medical wavier to sit in a truck when I have a bad ankle.... The VA told me to get them to do the exam and clear me. Got tired of running in $#!# circles....

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WCD

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snipers change history!!

I looked over your story the night before I went to the school, and was thinking about it the whole time I was sitting there...

The Recruiters tried to pass off the hotel as a Great place (2 or 3 Stars).... My dad has been trucking for 28 years and he warned me that the hotel would most likely be a dump.... Company recuriters are no better then Military Recruiters....lol

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WCD

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snipers change history!!

Trained at the school in Mira Loma,Ca..the hotel there was a haven for dope sellers.Cops in there more than the students, Plus first night in this fine place i got a call on the phone letting me know what room to go for a
"date" or whatever..
but then again my entire dealings with CRE were bad from the start.

When I was there in Indiana for orientation, I had a roommate like yourself that was there for the driving school. He explained to me that they had taken his license on the first day. His regular license was from IL but they had to cancel it and have him retake the drivers test for Indiana. Did they take yours too or was it already from TX. If so, than I guess you are lucky because you could have wound up leaving without a licence at all like a lot of people who try to drop out.

I'm glad you had a chance to read my story, I hope it has had an impact on some of the students.

You should have come here BEFORE cr england. We would have been happy to enlighten you to there practices.
I talked to them for about a second and a half. I have 13 years driving but they were advertising dedicate runs in my area. The way I see it you can't go wrong with a dedicated, most problems come from dispatchers. Not much dispatching in a dedicated run.
Well I couldn't get them to give me a solid answer on anything and they just kept pushing to get m to orientation. I told them I wouldn't consider there orientation without a set run agreed on and put in writing. They basically hung up after that.
I doubt there is any dedicated. Have heard to many stories of drivers going through orientation only to find the runs they were interested in don't exist