My CRE Experience, the short(er) version

I did my school in Spartanburg, SC. The school itself I'd rate 3.5 out of 5 stars as I had a couple of really great road instructors (Mark & Carson).
I don't rate it 5 out of 5 due to the severe lack of organization exhibited by the decision-making part of the staff and the poor conditions of the berthing quarters for students (although they were Ritz-Carltonish compared to the hell hole in Salt Lake City(SLC)). Thankfully I live only 45 minutes away so I was able to commute every day (and was told that I would be reimbursed for my gas expenses).

When it came time to fly to SLC, the school didn't have enough vehicles to get everyone to the airport and not everyone was able to make the plane. My wife stuck around to see if I could get a seat on one of the vans (which I didn't) and drove me and three other students to the airport. Ultimately 18 out of the 29 of us made the flight.

We land in SLC, and figure out the there is no representation from CRE at the airport, no vehicles waiting to take us to the terminal, nothing. After an hour and a half of wandering around the airport asking questions and attempting to contact CRE someone found a rental car clerk on her lunch break who had delt with CRE students before and was able to get us hooked up with a ride to the terminal.

Arriving at CREs terminal, it's quite impressive from the outside. On the inside it's a world of armed security, metal detectors and misinformation. The berthing quarters are small rooms with bunks for 12 (yep, twelve) students with 12 lockers that are 1.5 square foot large to put all of your belongings in.
The room I was assigned to was dark, dreary, and smelled strongly of urine and vomit. I immediately turned around, went back the the desk clerk and turned in my key, got the telephone number of a taxi service and the hotel where they put overflow students. I paid for the first three nights at the hotel out of pocket and eventually figured out how to get CRE to issue a voucher for the remaining 11.

Getting a trainer was a more difficult experience than I had anticipated. It seemed that the CRE staff at SLC were no better than those in Spartanburg as far as organization is concerned. In-processing should have taken all of 4-6 hours (IMO) and ended up taking 3 days. My trainer was allegedly in N.Cali and should arrive in a day or so... I heard that same BS for a week and a half. I (supposedly) was being paid at a rate of 50.00 a day to sit on my bum and according to one CRE staff member I should be #### happy about it.

I ran into a Central Reffer recruiter at the Wal Mart one day while in SLC who tried to get me to come work with them... In retrospect I wish I would have. Central is a 10 minute walk down the road from CRE.

In an effort to keep this bearable to read, I shall conclude. My experience was nothing short of hell on earth. I know that this post probably doesn't reflect that, but I'd be typing for hours if I included every BS thing I had to endure with CRE. Ultimately, I did get a trainer which I eventually learned to absolutely despise. (up until that time I'd gotten along with pretty much anybody and everybody).
I never saw my reimbursement for gas expenses (368.47 worth) and to date I've only been paid 241.50 for 4 weeks of driving and 2 weeks of sitting on my bum at 50.00 a day (which I should be #### happy about). Needless to say I've since moved on to another company.

In conclusion, DO NOT drive for CR England. The above was my personal experience with CRE. I'm sure that there are drivers out there (however few and far-between) that love CRE, but I'm not one of them.