CRST worst company ever!

Everything thing you wrote was available to you before you signed on with CRST. Wish you the best.

 

A lot of people never find this forum until they become desperate and/or totally let down, and it's too late by then. But then some have to take what they can get.

I think it's fair to say CRST for the most part truly looks at new hires as nothing more then "slaves" and "junk yard dogs". They are not considered as fellow employees, let alone part of the "family" and this is really sad, but what is sadder is the CRST is not alone with this attitude. There are others. And if that's not bad enough, these carriers have found eternal life through the many puppy mills (CDL mills) and the never-ending supply of un-knowing sheep being led to slaughter. Maybe they'll get a month out of them, maybe 3 months if they are lucky, but it will cost them almost nothing once they get their government tax write-offs and various reimbursements and pay the sheep next to nothing until they walk back home, with whatever amount of self-respect they may have left.

I don't see how they manage to keep qualified trainers. They must live miserable lives having witness the misery they foster and enable. Much like the guards in Germany and Poland in the 40's, I guess they learn to deal with it as long as they are paid fairly well.

 

Thanks for sharing your story of another bottom of the barrel company. Hopefully this will help others to avoid what you went through. Good luck to you.

 

CRST is among the worst dirtbag bottom-feeder companies out there, right there with CRE, among others. What STexan says is true of so many of them, these days.

I see a few cheerleaders pop up for these companies, now and again and I can't imagine how crappy their lives were before going to work for these nasty crooks to be able to sing praises. I mean, really. Did their lives suck that much that working for CRST or CRE is a step up?

 

Thanks for taking the time to warn others.

 

That is what OTR trucking has become. A place to work when you can't find work or your bills reach the sky.
Do you know anyone who is raising there kids with the dream of becoming a truck driver?
It is the destination for the tired, poor and hungry masses who are desperate.

 

The Graveyard, OK maybe not.

 

There is a YT video of a former mng of CRST who got yelled at for failing to many people on the road test. CRST had to keep shortening the road test so that as many bodies as possible would pass.
All I cared about doing OTR was money and home time. Now we got people who are worried about what is included in the lunch they get in orientation? Really
When I went to KLLM in 1990 I had 1 week of behind the wheel training of about 2 hrs per day the rest of my 8 week school was all classroom or backing between cones. The 1 day greyhound ride to the KLLM yard in Woodland CA which consisted of 3 slip seated cabovers and as many trailers was bad. Then I was asked by the 1 dispatcher in the shack who paired me with a trainer if I was ready to go to work and after about 6 hrs after arriving in town I was driving a big rig. Went to Watsonville CA to pick up a load to Atlanta. Team driving. No orientation No sandwich no bull. Just 5 on 5 off for the next 2 weeks. Training was doing the job. 14,000 miles later and 2 weeks I was in my own rig for another 6 and never looked back.
I did not care what other people did or how long they stayed with the company. In those days you sank or swam. Now they got to worry if your trainer smokes, if they have soda and chips, How new the truck is, etc..
You see back then people did not drive trucks because they had to, They did it because they wanted to.
People like me did it because we did not fit into the 9-5 drone lifestyle and wanted the freedom and independence of the open road and being are own boss. And since they payed by the mile, the more miles the better. No can't, no won't, no I am out of hours or on a restart its illegal etc... please speeding is illegal to but I don't see any numptys complaining about that on these forums. It was show me the money and go. Was I unsafe? Hell no and I got jackets and the safety awards collecting dust some were to prove it. We were operators. A check call 1x a day and the rest was on us. Now they got to hold most of these peoples hands or they will have a nervous breakdown. I can't run that load my GPS does not work, how will I ever find the place without ending up in Mexico. My phone apps are not working please help for god sake.
Now you are in a cubicle on wheels with cameras and electronics calling safety a beep here and a beep there and someone wants a sit down. Dudes constantly monitoring and micromanaging everything even how much money you can make.
Sorry for the rant but the soda and chips catastrophe sent me over the edge.