Is C.R.England a Good School?Company?

My son went to the CRE school...had nothing good to say about them after driving for them for 6 months and 3 days off.

Check out Central Refrigeration, then are in Salt Lake City also and train.

As I "understand"...CRE, you are with a trainer for 6 months...low pay for 6 months. Central, you are with a trainer for 3-5 weeks and then head out as a solo company driver being paid by the mile.

If you are near a truck stop...spend some time there and see if any of the drivers will talk to you.

Bob

 

Not Shure if this will help but I went to swift academy in Lewiston Idaho I had heard a ton of negative things about swift but figured got to start somewhere so went got my cdl training and got on the rd I did move on after my year but who knows maybe you will like it if not it's a start tough it out get your experience that's the important thing good luck to you

 

anyone but them bro!!

 

They'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre great!

 

Speaking of Salt Lake, I sure miss seeing Stinky!

 

Hey, some of us still post for a while.

Braindonor, I signed up with CRE a year and some change ago, and haven't had a problem. I let it be known from the start that I had no interest in leasing. If you're not interested just say no. It works. You talk to some of these guys who went into leasing and failed or are failing and you usually find that they started out with no experience and already in debt. The leases at CRE are set up with a profit killing 14 cpm variable mileage fee. I believe that these are best left to those who have at least a year under their belts rather than fresh out of school newbies. Start company and build up some funds and skills/experience. CRE dangles a lot of carrots during training, to get you to sign a lease, but I never saw any sticks. Just keep saying no, or don't respond at all and at the end of training, tell them that you want to go company. You also hear these horror stories of company drivers waiting 4 wks for a truck, all I can say is that it took me 4 days and that included a weekend. They've kept me rolling and paid enough to keep me paying bills and building savings. It is what you make of it. Everyone has a gripe with one company or another, but most of those against CRE comes from leasers. As a company driver your upside may be limited, but as a leaser your downside is almost limitless. Just keep your head about you and try to get on with a good DM, check with drivers and you'll find out which ones they are. Mine has kept me rolling and not been stingy with the layover pay. Wherever you start, just work with it for at least the first 3 mo. Good luck

 

i know this is a necro post but i have to say something here.
This isnt exactly accurate.

I attended CR englands School in Utah back in july of 2012, and it was nothing like this poster describes.

first off, you have about a week of classroom based training before you even set foot in a truck, it starts with stuff you need to know to pass the CDL test at the DLD. once you have your permit you go out to the backing range where they teach you the basics of backing the truck safely. after this you take a state-required backing test. once you pass this test you start your road training, basically they have trucks that they ripped the sleeper out of and replaced it with a bench, and theres about 7 -8 people per truck who spend a few days driving around the city practicing upshifting, downshifting, starting on hills, controlling your speed, they put a ton of emphasis on traffic checks. england will drill the word 'safety' into your head until you are sick of the word. they make no effort to hide the extreme amounts of accidents the company has, and urge you to use those as an example of what NOT to do. the first 2 weeks of training are UNPAID, you need to bring money for food, theres a walmart less than a mile from the school and they run shuttles to and from there for a large part of the day.
once you complete your road practice you take another state-sanctioned test, this time a road test. if you complete this you move on to what they call 'phase 1 training'. up until this point, the school is excellent. im not going to sugar coat this for anyone, phase training is EXTREMELY hit or miss. the requirements to become a trainer for them are, well, lax. i heard horror stories about some trainers, and high praise about others. i was lucky enough to get paired with a cool dude who did his job as a trainer well. a female friend of mine at the school was paired with a creep who consistently commented on her body. phase 1 consists of your first real taste of OTR, 24000 miles worth about a month, you are largely treated as a second-seat driver, you take a full shift, are bound by all the rules and regs of a normal driver, and are paid a set rate a week(430 before taxes). phase 1 is to get you aquainted with the road operations, comfortable with pulling into your destination, backing to the docks, ect, basically the driving part. i have heard horror stories of people being kicked straight off the truck at a stop in some random town because they were too unsafe, or disrespectful, or otherwise pissed their trainer off(most of these guys are independent, so england cant really stop them). phase 2 was geared towards the business aspect and lasted about 14000 miles. you had to submit quiz answers via qualcomm during these.

When you complete that, you go back to the school and wait for them to assign you your own truck, or you can lease one. they cannot make you do this, thats a completely false statement. If your new to the industry DO NOT TRY IT UNLESS YOU ARE A TEAM. it is intensely difficult to stay afloat with fuel cost, truck cost, ect as a single driver, you really should not lease unless you are going to have a second seat.

they started me off at about 24 CPM, took them about 2 weeks to get me into a company truck(they use freightliner cascadias almost exclusively now, all fairly new, they take really good care of their trucks) and i ran dedicated runs for a walmart contract out of cheyenne until i left for personal reasons.


now to the part that caught my eye about this post.

first off, they hire you on before your training is finished, as soon as you pass your final road test, before you go out for phase 1 training. if you pass, you WILL be hired, what happens after that is up to you. if you dont plan on working for them, tell them AFTER you graduate, because they will not allow you to take the final road test if they find out you are not willing to go out to phase 1 training, and you will not have your CDL.

they do NOT take the money for the tuition out of your check UNLESS you leave before your 6 months are up. you sign a contract upon hiring stating that they will waive it if you work for them for 6 months from your hire date. if you leave or are fired before then, your check will be docked, if you stay with them for the 6 months, you will not have to pay a dime on it. England is not the best company on the planet, but they are nowhere near as bad as they seem to be considered. all in all they are on the up and up, with their only blemish being their sometimes lackluster phase trainers.

most of the negative stuff i saw before i went revolved around the lease program, the reality is, most of that are single drivers who tried to go all in before they knew what they were in for, and ended up screwing themselves.

 

Your Son had steady work for that long! I hauled aircraft parts for a month!

 

Don't like 90 day wonders. Everyone has to start somewhere. I like sumertime, less likely to make a mistake. You better be made of Steel. Man or Woman. You don't get the pleasure of a mistake. 80,000 lbs don't care.

 

My opinion on cr england is that they have a good training program, that's about it from what I can see. I am in their phase 1 training in salt lake city right now. Their refresher course want bad, but from what I have seen, after training, everything goes to crap after that. They well try to force your into their leasing program, and if you decline and try to be a company driver, you will be waiting around for a company truck. I have a friend who waited around for 3 months before he got into a company vehicle.