Let's just say I am taking my CDL and I am out of here.

Fast Forward to today - road test day. I failed at my first try. I was downshifting and I was looking at the RPM's too much for my instructor's liking. So he decided to scream at the top of his lungs not to look too much at the RPM's and look at the road more instead.

Then he screams to make sure my RPM's are at 1100 before shifting.

Then he screams at me again for looking down at the RPM's.

He then (and this is a so-called professional instructor that is CERTIFIED by the state of Utah) lurches over from the passenger seat and covers my dashboard with his clipboard. Now I can't see how fast I am going or my RPM's - and it made it extremely difficult to shift while this guy's body was lying over the gear shift!!!!

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but I didn't think an instructor was supposed to do this kind of stuff to a student while he is DRIVING during the actual ROAD TEST. Is this in CR England's safety manual??? What's wrong with this man? Is he a drunk? Seriously!

His name was Andy. I don't know his last name. I never really cared to know it.

I do wonder if Utah is aware of his ways and I wonder how many other students he has done this to. I am thinking of filing a report, but I doubt it would do any good. This guy has NO BUSINESS being certified as an instructor and as someone who should stand in judgement of who is capable and who is not capable of holding a CDL. He obviously lets his own impatience get the best of him and is way to angry to be an instructor. To literally throw himself in front of my dashboard and physically block my ability to shift is simply out of line.

Especially while I am trying to pass a test!

The school itself... the room I had did not have a working heater. It smelled like dirty socks in a locker room.

The food in the restauraunt was OK, I'll give them that.

Sometimes I wonder if I did make the right decision. I drove a cab for 14 years and I left it to do this. I was making $150 a night after taxes and expenses. I worked 4 nights a week - took home 600. If I needed more money, I was always welcome to work any or all of my 3 nights off. Weeks where I worked 6 nights, I took home 900. 7 nights over 1,000.

And I was HOME every day.

I called my old boss and he told me to come down on Monday and he would take me back. I am seriously considering it.

I have my CDL if I ever want to persue something on those lines, but for now, thanks to CR England, my desire to become a trucker has diminished significantly. Yes, I can try another company. I got my CDL, but I am not sticking around here.

One of my roomates was here for 5 days while he waited for his truck to get fixed. No pay, but free bunking. Gee, how generous of CR England.

There was that one other poster - I forgot his name, but I did put him on ignore because of his arrogance. But I will admit ONE thing. He was RIGHT about CR England. (He wasn't right about me. I am not going to hire out of choice. I got my license and I am outta here - by choice).

I will let you all know if someday I do decide to go into the trucking business, but for now, truthfully, I think there is much more fun and interesting things that happen in the taxi business. And for me, anyway, the money is much better than England's 26 cents a mile. I put 200 miles on the car in one night and I go home with 150 bucks. That's 75 cents a mile and a lot less headaches. And I get to go home when my shift ends.

Not to mention no pain in the ### logs to fill out and DOT scumbags looking to fine me any chance they get.

It's just too much hassle. I apologise to all who were rooting for me. Again, thank CR England for putting the fire out.

Also, it's nice the way they sent so many of my classmates home because they didnt learn fast enough. One guy who was having trouble downshifting was put on another truck. The guy says to him "You have 20 minutes to figure this out or you're going home!"

20 minutes!

Needless to say, he didn't learn it in 20 minutes and the next day, he was gone. We called him "Alabama" because that's where he was from. He almost had tears in his eyes as he was packing up his things. A dream of becoming a trucker shattered by a bunch of pompous, impatient a-holes from CR England. My heart broke for him.

If anyone is looking to get their CDL from a trucking school.... PLEASE listen to me...

ANYWHERE BUT CR ENGLAND.

Matter of fact, I am still there now... I am sitting at my laptop in the corner right by the metal detector and laundry room. I am leaving tomorrow afternoon to catch a red-eye back to NY. I am also thinking of putting up an anti-CR England website - with ALL the anti-CR England tidbits I can find from all over the internet and place them all into one page for easy reference. I can make it so it will show up in search engines when would-be students go to do some more research.

I will do anything in my power to get as many would-be students to change their minds about this company. And trust me. I am very knowledgable with internet stuff. I know how to get the message across. I know how to get sites to show up on search engines like Google. When people do research on CR England, I will have my site show up for them with links to ALL negative things.

Granted, I won't be able to take down the 750 million dollar a year trucking company, but I sure can and will put a dent in their student enrollments. Trust me on that.

Behold the power of the internet.

RollingThunder

C.R. England seems to have more than their fair share of abusive trainers and/or instructors. I know.

I have to say I feel for you and im sorry your dreams got crushed and its pretty much how I felt too But I just got tired of all the BS in the industry and realized its not for me so I made my exit after 2 1/2yrs. I've said this before and I will say it again and many of people have said this too. Trucking is not for everyone, hell i realized it after 3 months but I kept doing it thinking oh this company will probaley be better, basically every company is the same just a different color truck but I mean that in a general way. Bright side is you have your CDL and you might get away without a mark on your DAC but dont count on that with CR England cause they will be more then happy to trash your DAC. If you can get out clean with your DAC I would take another look at companies dont give up yet. Like Central Refridgerated I know they do training or Schneider. Just dont give up because of one bad apple like CR England, atleast give it another shot to see if you actually like the trucking industry is all im trying to say, you never know unless you try, good luck

Hey RT,
can you take the time out of your anti-cr activities to share some of your taxi experiences.. i've been on the road 368 days with cr's sister Co. , saved a boatload of cash, and have thought about doing the axi thing when i turn in my lease in 4 months. any 'tips' would be Great! SB

Well; drivers have been warning newbies of this outfit for a long time. It amazes me of all the warnings and yet newbies still flock to this and then say I should have listened. All companies will have complainers, but when you read 100's of complaints it ought to set off a red flag. The only ones I have seen over the years say it is a good place is brand new drivers that don't know any better. Then I see where they took home 100 bucks that week and people say where do I sign up at?

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My childhood dream of becoming a truck driver turned into a nightmare!

Billy,

Do not give up and remember this happens to the best of us. I urge you to rethink your decision on truck driving. I know for a fact you can and will do better than England. Even though I am still a wannabe I have narrowed my choices to what companies i want to join. I would give it another chance.

Kinghunter

It has to be the nice shiny trucks that gets these guys, because it's definitely not the pay.

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"When one door closes, another opens".....Not!!!

Buck - fifty a day clear money and sleep in your own bed every night? Why would you even consider OTR, especially England..........

There was such tremendous negative information about that company when I was looking, I quickly decided to go elsewhere. Not that it was a good choice either, it seemed better. I didn't use a trucking company school at all, having determined early that the "deal" they offer almost everywhere is only a deal for the company. The trainee seems to make almost nothing while helping said company make thousands. Even general training through many major trucking companies pays very little to the soon to be "qualified" driver. All the while, the trainers themselves may hardly seem qualified to drive a big truck.

Billy, Unless you can clear 50K OTR, go back to your old job. Trust me on that. I just did those figures myself.

Kinghunter