C.R. England and Sons, Inc. - West Valley, Ut.

I would drive for a company for a while before worring about the lease program.
You need to make sure that you like the company, that they treat you well and give you plenty of miles do not tell them that you are thinking of the lease program because they can set it up to were you get alot of miles and then drop the miles when you sign. I am going to start with my company in 2 weeks and I plan on driving 1-3 years before I think about buying my truck.
Most likely I will buy the one that I am driving with the company just so I know the history of it and what is going to need to be done to it.
I will not buy a truck that I do not know the history of too many things can go wrong.
That is another reason that you should drive for the company for a while to see how good the equipment is and make them pay for all of the repairs to get most of the worn out parts replaced before you buy the truck.

 

Mucho appreciationo on the insite and remarks..........I have a few friends that actually work at NASA, the pay isnt as good as we would all think and not one of them is TRULY happy, though they are all 20 plus year vets of NASA so to say they retain there peeps is an understatement. Janitor........hmmmm that thought never crossed my mind, I wonder how much a NASA janitor pays.........j/k

I actually have a long management and company ownership background, I am getting into trucking for what I hope to be all the right reasons. Not a huge need as much as a desire.

No false fantasies about grander or riches, it does however seem to be a profession where honest hard work pays off, as well there seems to be a comradery similar to that I have found through the years being a biker.

My wife calls it a Davey Crocket spirit.....

Anyhow, I have taken a position with another firm that offers similar opportunities as CRE without the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow techniques. Tuition payed for, similar pay plans but no push on O/O lease programs. Also I focused primarily on the training, contrary to CRE this outfit seems to really focus on the serious responsibility of training newbies. Also home time seems to be slightly better this report I received from actual drivers.

So now I have advise based on my research! If you want to know about a company you are prospecting try and talk to people working for the company, this is possible through any current drivers you may know, also through just hanging out at a local truck stop and asking a few questions.

I did my research in these ways and I certainly hope the time I have put in offers an educated decision.

Got to get over to NASA for my afternoon interview, Facilities Engineer I believe is what they are calling it.........(janitor)

Thanks for the help.

 

Tip, thanks for the advice........Though I been around the web for a long time now.......my last name is Highfield and I have no concerns about using it openly. The rest is not part of my name and I have no concerns about hiding in shadows online or in public life.

However I agree with you annonimity is a valuable commodity especially online. Thanks for the heads up! I tried to change my sign in name not sure why but I did, couldnt do it, maybe one of the moderators can tell me how!

JTH
Semper Fi

 

20 years as a toilet-bowl cleaner at NASA? That's no surprise. One would be lucky to work 20 WEEKS at a trucking company like CRE or Swift. Comparing what is supposedly a sensible job at a supposedly sensible company, a job where one supposedly works hard and supposedly gets paid for it, with a job at NASA will open one's eyes. A job at C.R. England and a job at NASA are both claimed to be "good", but which one is really good? You know the answer. Just look at turnover, which is the "old faithful" of indicators.

Good luck at your interview. You'll probably have to get on a waiting list for a janitor job at NASA. What is lower on the pole at NASA than a janitor, I wonder? Maybe I'll apply for THAT job. I bet I'd have to wait a year or two on even that one. May as well go to work in trucking at a company like Swift in the meantime. That job would be ultra-easy to get, and we all know why it'd be easy to get.

 

Now this post gave me a few giggles, thanks for the light humor. Unfortunately NASA's waiting list is long and the first opening will most likely be just after my retirement 25 years from now!

Taking the advice of many on this forum I have inquired of several recruiters, it does seem like the one constant is true of a few comments found on this forum.

If they are opening the door to inexperienced Newbies such as myself, there is a catch somewhere down the line. I suppose the smart choice is in finding the company that has the least ammount of negative feedback. I have a few more weeks before I commit to a company/school, any suggestions or directions to take.....

At this point I am avoiding Swift JBH & CR England, any news on Schneider, PAM? These seem to be the 5 that spend quite a bit of advertisement on recruiting inexperienced drivers, the several others I have inquired with seem to be closed to newbies.

 

Well, JT, my posts aren't really meant to be funny. Believe it or not, I'm telling it like it really IS in trucking. Yeah, I know it's hard to believe, but believe it. Are you sure you want to get into the trucking industry? There are other things out there you can learn to do.

But it sounds like you're getting wise and putting two and two together overall. Yes, companies that advertise a lot do have wide open front doors for newbies to enter. The big catch is there is a back door. That is the door through which the quitters exit so the newbies can have the jobs they get. Newbies should thank the quitters for being so kind. Better yet, the newbies should sit down and try to discover why exactly the quitters walk through those back doors and thus leave those supposedly good jobs in the first place.

The best thing a newbie can do is stay away from those companies that have back doors. Sooner or later, they themselves will be going through those doors if they walk through the front doors. And it's probably gonna be sooner. A good indicator that a company has a well-worn back door is a help-wanted ad that appears daily in a newspaper. Other indicators are crowded orientation classes, abandoned trucks out on the road, and lots of negative feedback on sites like this.

When you get really, really good at spotting a bad apple, you don't have to ask anyone how a company is. You will know what signs to look for and then observe those signs like an eagle observes a river. Those signs alone will steer you straight. Nobody tells an eagle where the salmon is. He knows how to find it all on his own. I wish we didn't have to be like eagles, but trucking companies are definitely not equal. You have to learn to dodge the bad ones.

 

TMC transportation, KLLM, Roehl, FFE transportation , ESTES, Central regrigerated Services and A Passmore and Sons and that's it. please some info or experience about these other companies, I'm trying to find my hubby another company, so he doesn't sign anything and leave the devil's companycr england)
any info I'll appreciate thanks.
now I'm gonna sleep, night everybodyXxxxXxxx! for my baby:smt058

 

One company on your list that is rumoured to be good is Roehl. One that is not on your list that is good, and I know they're good because I worked for 'em once, is Crete. And I also worked for Swift once, so I know the difference between a good company and a bad one. Crete is good. Swift sucks. That's a nice, easy summation of reality.

And while I was working for both Crete and JerryCo, I heard lots of stories from drivers about C.R. England. 90% of those stories were nightmares, meaning they're nothing but "Swift with reefers".

 

ok, what about these other companies? FFE transportation. This is what I know of. I was there for 2.5 years. Frozen Food Express. Home terminal is in Lancaster, Texas. No hazmat needed. They claim to be a full-truckload carrier . LTL service in the US and Canada
is what you will see. "FFE has a strict policy that says No LTL to newbies." Subsidiaries of FFE are Lisa Motor Lines, American Eagle Lines, Great Western Motor Lines. Lisa is a reefer hauler, the other 2 are dry van. Hope this helps.​