CRST ok to start with

Yeah I read that. One guy had bad luck with a co-driver. The other basically stole a truck and his wife whined that they put it on his DAC.

As for sitting a weekend here and there, who doesn't do that?

 

You know, I've browsed this website for a while. I ALMOST let know nothings like like notarps4me and others influence me to make a huge mistake. I was one of the clowns that decided it would be an AWESOME idea to let CRST pay to train me. I guess that makes me stupid, right?

I'd like to think not, anyway. There are negatives, and they ARE the ones most people warn you of on here - dispatch after 11pm during the week and ANY time on the weekend, besides air freight. You will forget how to get to your house, because you wont be there too much, and you won't make a whole lot per mile starting out. You will have a co-driver. Many of our drivers don't take great care of their equipment, so if you get one of their older trucks (~'07-'08 is an old one for a co. truck, and you WILL get one starting out) you'll probably have trouble, but they WILL fix the thing.

CRST IS one of those places that has a corporate atmosphere, basically, you have to go along to get along, if you can do that, do as they ask, and do it safely and in a timely manner, you WILL, even at .22 cpm, even getting only half of the miles (like MOST other team operations by the way) make decent money. I was clearing around $500/week after I got with my current co-driver, and I was still making .22/mi then.

My FM is great, my current co-driver is awesome, and only lives about a half hour from me. I average about $750/week, running right around 5k miles to the truck. Now there are those of who will doubt this, and I more than welcome you to find me and ask in person, I'll be glad to show you I'm not a recruiter. If you're really that interested, I'm currently sitting at the petro in kingdom city, mo because we're darn near out of hours, and cant deliver our load early, and no one wants to have to do a restart when their fixing to be routed to their favorite place - home.

 

drive on there driver I have forgot more than you have learned yet...

 

I'm sure you have, hotdog. I've been doing this long enough now to know to take you crochety old types with a grain of salt.

It wasn't a personal thing, yours just happened to be the prominent name in the post. I'm not all gaga over CRST like it may have come across, but there are much worse gigs out there.

 

I love it when some rookie with enough stick time to be classified as a trainee tells me I am a know nothing.... Every now and then I offend somebody because I say something about the co they decided to train with. I do not get paid to help people find co's that are best suited for them. I offer my advice of what I know firsthand or years of being involved in this trade and talking to a lot of drivers. Just a year or 2 ago I did a restart at the pilot in circleville OH. There was a crst team beside me. One of them came over and was asking me about pulling flats. He was going with melton if he could ever get home. They had been out for several months and was scheduled to go south to take their hometime. They got a load to go back up in the N/E and they refused. For punishment they were told to stay put for the weekend. No pay. Crap wages when they was rolling.

Just because a person decides to let somebody "give them free training" and they are a few months into it doesn't mean squat on what they have to say. The fat lady has not had time to warm up to sing yet. Just ride it out and see how it unfolds. Another co I warn people about is CRE. I hear newbies buck up there too and tell me I don't know what I am talking about. All is well for them for a few months then I hear, I sure wish I would have listened, or they drop off the face of the earth and are to ashamed to acknowledge that time out here seasons drivers and some of us know what we are talking about.

Think about it. I am not a recruiter and don't get a dime from anyone who goes anywhere so what do I have to gain other than knowing that I have helped a new potential driver maybe survive long enough to last out here without bailing or getting their DAC so dinged up they can't ever drive again.
You go right ahead and call me a know nothing. Maybe some day if you last long enough you just might say maybe he had a clue...

 

notarps4me makes alot of good points about the companys he warns people about. he warned me about Crst I still think it ok place to start because if you can last 8 months here you can make it anywhere CRST is a joke I pull down 500 a week here it not worth the stupidity i have to put up with but i'll bid my time until July finish my contract and move on to greener pastures, I one thing I would recommend the most to someone thinking about coming to CRST is bring a friend with you someone you know and trust. playing the heres a list of names call until you find a co driver BS is a big joke.

 

Thanks for the kind words free2frog. I just hope you can move on to greener pastures. A lot of companies make it hard for you to get another job when you quit them. They gouge you coming in and gouge you going out. I reckon they figure if they keep you from going anywhere else you will come back to the substandard job.

They have figured out a way to keep drivers in their trucks.... I have known of drivers that started there. About starved, but got some exp and moved on; so hopefully you will be OK.

 

no problem notarps4me looking forward to greener pastures a lot of the older drivers have a jadded view of the big box cdl mills and i cannot blame them. and alot of them are full of ##### BUT if you sit down with one and show interest and ask the right right questions they are a gold mine of information. Weather it be short cuts on routes, or good cheap eats, Shops for repairs equipmet to buy. What most of these kids fail to relize is myself included when I started is that working for a cdl mill is about the same as illeagles coming over the boarder and taken jobs Were cheap disposable labor that drives down wages for everybody If I quit or get fired today there are 75 guys waiting to fill my slot CRST has 75-100 people a week come through Orinatation.

 

Well; when you are looking to get started and with the expense of schools one can easily start eyeing that company sponsored carrot on a stick. The only thing is going into trucking is nothing as to what one thinks it is and once you get a taste of it and find out just how expensive it was going the easy cheap route one then only thinks this may have cost me more in the long run. Problem is then with most you are in a dead end company called one way and that is all they care about them not the drivers. These companies view their soul indebted drivers as throw a ways. Complain, or get frustrated and they tell you this is one way. Quit we will gouge you even more for the schooling. They jack it up even more passing it off as they gave you a discount on training for staying. Leave and face the fury, plus the DAC that they are about to ding. Next co looks at you and says, so you quit your last driving job after just 3 months? Sorry, but we are looking for stable drivers.

When you tally up the low pay, headaches, failure rate and add all the other crap up that the co jacked you with what seemed like a good way to get started just went from about a grand to 5 grand. The other route of paying out 3 grand and getting off to a better start doesn't sound cheaper until you have invested yourself in to said co.

When I was a admin on another trucking site. There was a brand new wanna be that in his profile had O/O. Guess where he was going? CRE. I talked him out of it, but they had him baited and just about to reel him in. My point is you got off to a rough start, but it could have been worse. You could have been like many that lost everything trying to fulfill their dream. Some buy their way into trucking, others sell their soul and the debt is to great to bare.

The seasoned drivers that warn newbies off are not doing it to discourage them. They are trying to look out for them down the road. This is a cycle that just keeps on going full circle. By the time one figures it out it is usually too late.

 

A friend of mine was walking along one day and walking up to a bridge noticed a guy standing on the rail holding onto the cables and looking down. He ran up to the guy and ask what he was doing, and the guy replyed that he had all he could take and was going to end it all. Well my friend being kinda soft hearted talked him down so they could discuss his situation. They sat there and talked for about 30 minutes and then both of them got up and jumped!

Moral of this story:
Make your own decisions and if you screw up then jump by yourself!!!