CRE: My phase 1/phase 2 driving experience

My Phase 1 experience:

My trainer made me drive when he didn't want to drive, had nothing to do with training and I was forced to drive regardless of how much sleep I'd had. As apprentices we're "not allowed to drive between 12 and 6am," but he forced me to if he didn't feel like it even if I was in the middle of sleeping. I should also note that I'd just gotten off a schedule of sleeping around 9 and getting up at 4am for school.

One night around 2 am near Amarillo, TX, I took a break because I was swerving all over the road. I'd been driving for 9 hours (EDIT: He could barely drive for 4 hours without stopping for a 3 hour nap) and decided that maybe I should take a 45 min nap. I told him this and he said OK. When I pulled over he said "OK, 15 minutes. Hurry back." I asked him what about the nap. He said for me to deal with it. Ok.. I got out and went into the bathroom. I was scared because I didn't want to kill us both by running off the road. he got out and followed me and kept giving me weird looks. I asked him what his problem was and he said "you, you're my ####### problem, get your ### back to the truck." At this point I was terrified. I'd been told never to drive while fatigued but he was trying to force me. I then refused to drive claiming that I didn't feel safe. He screamed at me and told me I was useless and a terrible driver and demanded for me to give him my phone, claiming that it was keeping me awake (untrue; I put my phone on silent when I'm asleep). By this time I was in tears, he was literally hulking over me and he's about 4 times bigger than me. I was shaking so I called my fiance who told me to get off of the truck because this man was obviously irate and violent and was attempting to take away my means of calling the police if anything happened, and call safety.

During the 4 1/2 weeks I was on his truck I was allowed 5 showers after begging him to stop.

When I reported all of this to CRE, my TC was very rude and asked why I was saying all this about her trainer. No concern about his conduct. When I was done with phase 1 I didn't know how to back.

My Phase 2 experience:

I got a GREAT trainer for this. He worked with my schedule and was not a dick, never yelled at me, taught me how to back more than phase 1.. (still not much), taught me about paperwork and trip paks, let me plan trips, etc. Only problem was that I was getting paid .11 cents a mile instead of the .12 you're promised (http://www.crengland.com/truckdrivingschools/index.jsp?page=timeline). When I brought this up they said it's because I was dedicated (I signed no papers stating that I would get paid less on a dedicated run) and that if I didn't like it I could get on another truck. I refused, not wanting to get another psycho like my phase 1 trainer when I had a decent trainer right then. I lost about $400-500 because of that.

I was yelled at again yesterday in the TC office in front of everyone and almost reached out and slapped that.. person. She screamed at me for taking hometime (7 days after 2 months.. I had to get my license and go to 4 doc appts), she yelled at me for misunderstanding a paper that said there were TWO phase 2 upgrade classes.. I could go to the 7am OR 12pm class.. apparently it's a two part class. This pamphlet did not say that, I had thought the classes were the same class at different times.

All said and done, I still don't know how to back and I don't want anything to do with this company. I, or anyone for that matter, do not deserve to be treated like this. CRE is a very bad company and they lied to me. They ARE comitting fraud and I feel used.. $3,000 later.

 

LOL I'm not leasing. I almost did, actually, then I read the reviews.. XD

 

You don't. You sit here, broke, unable to pay bills, getting screamed at by some ##### in the TC office and now having multiple panic/anxiety attacks because you don't even think you're READY to go on the road alone but you NEED THE MONEY because you're living off of CRACKERS and WATER in the main CRE headquarters.

I honestly want nothing to do with trucks. Ever. Ever. Ever. Again.

I want to go back to school.