My Experience with CR England's Premier Trucking School in Richmond, Indiana.

I've read nothing but bad reviews about this school, but had a pretty positive time with them, so I wanted to write my own little experience on here.

I'd decided to use CR England as my in to trucking after passing many of their trailers on the highway. I called an England recruiter, and because they're always hiring, was basically told that whenever I was ready to go, they'd get me a bus ticket.

So I got my ducks in a row, picked up my prepaid ticket at the station, and had a nice 30 hour bus ride to the school. After after a chaotic first day of processing that got a lot of people sent home, I was also told that I would probably need to leave due to the paperwork I'd brought. You see, I was born overseas when my father was deployed, so I have 3 different birth certificates. I'd only brought 2 of them, and it turned out the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles would probably only accept the one that I did not bring. The school gave me a ride to the BMV office, where it was confirmed that my certificates weren't good enough. The school bought me a ticket home, and told me they definitely wanted me to return when I got the 3rd certificate. I got home, ordered the federal report of birth abroad, and then waited for a month to get it because the government shut down the day of my return home.

Finally it came in, and I got another ticket to Indiana. The first day was just as chaotic. Half the people were gone before the day was over, mostly over paperwork. A few more people refused to take the drug tests, and got to pay for their own ticket home.

After that, the instruction began. We hit the ground running, and did not slow down. Monday we covered general knowledge and Indiana's general driving license test, Tuesday we covered air brakes and combination vehicles, and on Wednesday an official from the BMV came to the school to administer the tests for a CDL learner's permit. It was literally that fast. If you failed any of the tests, you got to retake the ones you missed Thursday and Friday. If you hadn't passed by then, you went home. If you were like me and passed the first time, you got your permit on Thursday, studied the pre-trip inspection checklist, and then Friday you were out on the backing range.

The backing range was even more fast-paced than the classroom. There was a ration of approximately one truck and instructor to ten students. On Friday we were shown the straight back, Saturday we learned Offset backing, and on Sunday we learned the Parallel. After the instructor demonstrated the maneuver, the students got to try. If you were lucky and pushy, you might get to try each maneuver twice on the day we learned it. I only got to try them once, because I had a good grasp on the pre-trip inspection and the 4 point air brake check, so my instructor asked me to go over it with other students who weren't practicing maneuvers or watching other students practice. This was good for the other students, but not super great for me, because I memorize facts well but didn't pick up the backing nearly as quickly.

On Monday, we were moved into a road instructor's truck. More students had washed out at this point, so now the ratio was about 4 students to one truck. From Monday through Friday, we were out on the road from 7:00 AM to 4:30 PM, taking turns driving and learning things you can only learn by doing, like shifting and turning. After that, all that was left was the the Big Test to get your CDL A.

I failed my first test, by blowing the parallel. I never was able to get enough practice during the week, and couldn't get the hang of CR England's standard method for it, which involves pulling forward until the rear of your trailer is parallel with the front edge of the space, backing until the center of your trailer is in line with edge, and then cutting left and pulling forward to set up the actual back. I ended up just waiting until lunch when other students would get out of their backing trucks, then getting in and practicing doing the parallel my own way. I ended up having much more success doing the parallel like I would my own car.

With that practice, I passed the maneuver portion of the test, and made it to the road, where I ended up failing because I missed a gear, and in my panic trying to recover the gear, coasted around a corner without turning properly and dragged my trailer tandems over a corner. I lost my mojo, big time.

Fortunately, when I relayed this story to my former road instructor, he put me in touch with a couple of "Polishers", instructors who do nothing but help people waiting for their next test with their road skills. By the time my next test came up, I passed and was able to be hired by CR England.

That was almost a month ago. AS of Last week, I was finally put in a truck with an over the road trainer, so now I'm getting practical experience. Despite a few frustrating moments and the bad reviews I read, I'm glad I stuck it out.

In summary:

Pros of this school:
-You can get your CDL very quick. My total time was 16 days from first putting my foot in the school to walking out with my CDL.
-Instructors very willing to help you during their free time, provided you are clearly motivated and seek them out to ask.
-Bus ride and hotel paid for by CR England
-No tuition cost to the student if you hire on to the company after graduation.

Cons:
-VERY fast pace. If you don't put your nose to the grindstone and study/practice through your lunch, and then study more at night when you get home, you probably won't pass.
-Too many other students at first. Individual instruction not available without you taking the initiative.
-Once you get your CDL, you might need to wait a while to get on the truck. MAKE SURE YOU BRING ENOUGH MONEY TO EAT FOR AT LEAST A MONTH WHILE YOU WAIT TO START GETTING YOUR PAYCHECKS.
- 9 month contract to stay employed with CR England, starting /after/ your 2 months of over the road training when you are first hired.
. Before you call, be aware, you will speak with a recruiter and that recruiter's job is to convince you to go to the school. My recruiter was very nice, very professional, and told me pretty much nothing informative.

If you're considering becoming a trucker, please take my experience with a grain of salt. Everyone's experience will be different, and there may have been factors that I did not consider that made my experience better than the experience other people may have had. Nonetheless, thank you for reading. Experienced truckers, you may now begin telling me that I've made a mistake in my choice of company

 

As far as paperwork goes, it could be anything. Some people, like me the first time, simply brought the wrong document because the recruiter said it would be fine. Another thing we had to bring was two pieces of mail to prove our residency to the state, and the mail some people got wouldn't work. If you're woman, you need every marriage and divorce certifi ate you've ever had. If your middle initial is on your birth certificate or social security card but not your license, the state and therefore the school would turn you down. The Indiana BMV was weird about what it accepted, so it was hard to prepare everything with 100% confidence.

The school was willing to work with me the first time because I showed that I wanted to get the problem solved right away, but some people got angry, or just apathetic about it so the staff just told them they were disqualified and to pack their stuff. There were so many students coming in the first day that the school can afford to not care. If they sent home 90% of students , CR England would still be able to keep their driver force growing despite high employee turnover rates. I may have had a good time with it, but I could still tell that as far as the company was concerned, I'm just a pair of hands and feet that can move their vehicle. Standard large corporation stuff, unfortunately.

 

The pay is:

Upon hire, while waiting for an over the road trainer, you get $25 a day waiting pay. Basically just enough to eat off of, you're not making money unless you get on the TopRamen diet.

During the first part of over the road training, where I am now, you get $61 a day. That's not a lot, but you get it every day you're in the truck regardless of if you're under load or not.

The second part of over the road training is 12 cents per mile. Not much.

That's as much as I know right now. As far as the lease goes, there ain't no way in hell. I might buy a truck after I get a few years experience, but I will never lease from a big freight company. Talked to too many people at the terminal who are barely scraping by under lease.

 

I just asked my trainer, who says that being forced into a lease doesn't happen like it used to. He's been a pretty straight shooter so far, so I trust him.

That said, if England does try to pull that kind of shenanigan, I'll just wait until I get a company truck. I'd rather pull shifts at a Labor Ready than pay someone for the privilege of running a small business in an industry I know nothing about. And if they do wait 9 months to give me a truck, then as far as I'm concerned my contract is filled.

Although if I'm made to wait and it takes more than a 2 months, I'm probably gonna have a talk to someone in authority, and if that doesn't work I'll reconsider sticking with England. I like them so far, but I'm not going to go broke waiting just to get out of my tuition payments.