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

I miss flatbedding. That is the best. No grocery DC's. Longer runs. Rarely any dock backing. Mostly day unloads. The customers actually want what you are bringing. You get some exercise. You can take pride in your work. Flatbedding is sweet. Well until you are tarping a load of dry wall in albuquerque and the wind is so strong that it throws you and your tarp off the load.

 

What does C.R. England tell you about that when you ask?
Or, does C.R.E. frown on such questions?

Driving for C.R. England reminds me of the guy who was constantly
banging his head against the wall ----
When asked why he did that, he replied,
Because it feels Sooo good
when I stop.

I realize that many folks see C.R. England as their ONLY hope of
getting into the Big truck truckin' industry, but I wonder if they
realize, that BECAUSE they go with C.R.E., they're actually facilitators.
C.R. England gets away with what they do BECAUSE those who sign
on ALLOW C.R.E. to continue getting away with what C.R.E. does.
If NObody signed on, how long do y'all reckon C.R. England would last?
Or ANY other shabby truckin' company for that matter.

If y'all ain't part of the solution
Y'all are part of the problem.

Who'll be the next in line?

Remember, Big trucks move freight.
And Big truck truck DRIVERS move the Big trucks
that move said freight.

A truckin' company can have 100,000 Big trucks and plenty of freight.
But without drivers, ............................................
those Big trucks are just dead weight.
However, a truckin' company without any drivers WOULD save a
bundle by not having to meet payroll.
Ya reckon.

 

I know what you mean. I have a wife and a kid to support and I agree with you so why don't I come to work for you. Why don't you and all the people that believe that, start a company that hires anyone, with any background and at any experience level. I am making a joke, but seriously if you know of a company that is not like that, that is hiring and will hire me, let me know. Save me the pain. These companies are what you make of them. I drove swift flatbed and did pretty well with them. I averaged over 12k a month, paid miles, not the odomoter. I complained a lot and got my job done in a profesional manner. Would I stay there forever, NO. But they served a purpose. I got my CDL. I got paid. I learned a lot. I would go back with them if they didnt have a hiring freeze right now. The people that need to stand up and do something are the experienced drivers. Newbees dont have much choice. Or how about the whole trucking industry get unionized and have the unions fight these battles. I gurantee a lot of companies would not get away with what they do if the union was involved.

 

Just in case any one else was wondering. That detention pay that was listed by someone else is for lease operators. CRE pays $16 an hour after 3. The recruiter had to go ask someone else. I think thats a pretty important issue especially with a reefer company.

 

It's good that you're joking.
Otherwise, it would appear that you think it's up to others to take care of you.
Which, of course, it's not.
Not to mention doing that would be exacerbating the existing problem.
There's usually a good reason WhY the better truckin' companies don't hire just ANYone.
It's because they want the better drivers drivn' for them --- and usually WhY they're considered a better truckin' company.

How does an inexperienced wannBee get the experience necessary to be hired, and retained, by the better truckin' companies?
Well, ....... that's something to consider BEFORE tryin' to enter the truckin' industry. Or any other industry for that matter.

I don't know you, what ails you, or what is causing your pain. Without that information, Dr. AfterShock cannot make an accurate diagnosis.
He'd need your complete medical and driving charts, first.

I think those companies are what they make of themselves. And those who drive for them are helping them do what they do.
If y'all don't stand for SOMEthing,
Y'all will fall for ANYthing.

How much of a difference was there betwixt "paid miles" and "odometer miles"?
And do you, as a newBee, consider the difference to be free miles?
Rather than gathering experience.

When first starting out in most ANY industry, y'all gotta pay your dues. But that doesn't mean y'all should bend over, forward, to make payments.
Then cry when it hurts.

A "professional" complainer?
If you were "averaging" over 3,000 miles a week, doing "pretty well" with Swift, why were you complaining? And why would you leave?
There are those, newBees AND seasoned Big truck truck drivers who would slide down razor blades into a vat of alcohol for a gig like that.

Since you're no longer with Swift, that's obvious.
Which causes me to wonder if you left Swift of your own accord, or if you were terminated? If you left Swift voluntarily, how wise was that?
If you were terminated, that speaks for itself --- and probably why other truckin' companies won't consider hiring you.

There are a LOT of applications on the truckin' company desks these daze. Ergo, it's not as easy to be hired as it has been in the past.
A blemished record gets applications placed in the circular file, post haste.

Supply and demand.
Simple economics.
Fresh donuts or day-old?
Same price.
Which would y'all choose?

But I recall you said you "have a wife and kid to support". Yet now you're saying you had no choice but to go with C.R. England?
What did you do wrong?
Actually, you DID, and DO, have a choice.
And you made one.
Was it a bad choice or a good choice?
I reckon only time will tell.
But I recommend you don't resort to "complaining" at C.R. England.
Once on the OTHER side of the metal detectors, where your complaints can be expressed, there's NO tellin' WHAT they'll do to you.
Can you afford another job-hop on your record?
And do you think C.R. England doesn't KNOW that?
And, knowing that, how far of a stretch of y'all's imagination is it to figure out they'll use that against y'all?
By then, y'all may NOT have any other choice.
C.R. England HAS put an end, or at least a roadblock, to many of their driver's drivin' careers, as well as their personal lives.
I doubt they'd bat an eye to do it to y'all, too.
Plenty more, it seems, where y'all came from.
A captive audience, if you will, ---- or won't, as the case may be.

You got your CDL, you got paid, but what did you "learn"? How to jump ship and "complain"?

Perhaps you've already told us, but would you refresh my aging memory --- WhY did you leave Swift in the first place?
Especially if C.R. England was your ONLY other option? :smt017:smt102
Out of the pan and into the fire?

Uhhhhh, ....... HeLLO!
The "experienced" drivers ARE standing up.
We're TRYING to WARN y'all what these shabby truckin' companies are like,
and what they're well known for doing to newBees,
and even seasoned drivers who believe the devil will deliver as promised.
Jump into a den of rattlesnakes, and there's a good chance y'all will get bit.
~~~~~~~ CaN YoU HeaR Us NOW?!
Are y'all listening?
I wonder.

"Much" of a choice is better than NO choice.
Ya reckon.
Y'all DO have a "choice" to learn from experienced OTHER'S mistakes and to heed their warnings about shabby truckin' companies.
But WILL y'all?

In other words, have the unions fight YOUR battles FOR you?
Last time I checked, the unions are made up of members who follow a leader. You wonder why experienced drivers "don't stand up"?
Are you standing up?
And if you were a union member, WOULD you (stand up)?
Or just be content that you've found that pot-0-gold at the end
of the rainbow?
Talk is cheaper than newBee wages.
Try mentioning "union" to C.R. England.
They might be receptive.
Then again, they might have their armed guards usher you OFF
of their property, as, it seems, is often the case.
Chew 'em up and spit 'em out.
BurP!

And, if more drivers such as yourSELF would "stand up", there'd be no need for a union to do it FOR you.
WhY do you expect others to do what you're not willing to do?
YOU should be responsible for your OWN destiny.
Why trust that to ANYone else?

If you gather more experience, you'd probably have a chance to join a union truckin' company. But before you have union dues to pay, you'll have to pay the non-union dues. That includes, but isn't limited to, keepin' your drivin' record clean for several years. If you think finding a non-union gig is hard, wait 'till you see the waiting list, and hoops, y'all have to jump through, to land a union gig.

When unions go on strike, there are those who cross the picket lines,
chanting,
HeY!
I have a wife and kid(s) to feed.
I'll take your job while YOU try to improve conditions, for ME.
Thank you very much.

It's one thing when starry-eyed newBees fall for the tactics of these shabby truckin' companies, and quite another when experienced drivers do. Or, for whatever reason, sign on. For every driver who does fall for the bovine excrement spread by those shabby truckin' companies, or ignores it --- it blazes a trail for other, unsuspecting folks, to fall into the pit, thinkin', If THEY'RE doin' it, it must NOT be ALL bad.
As they follow the leader(s) to lemming leap.
Watch that first step, it's a doozie.
Goin'
D
O
W
N
.
:smt077
Sign a pact with the devil, and reap what'cha sew.

Will the circle EVER be unbroken?

 

How many times do we see this tho? The warnings are there. Still they flock to the slaughter. It is always I know what I read, but..... or it is the only option I have or.... doesn't matter what who or when. Some are bound to come on here complaining that we are not helping them. They go and what happens? They end up in the wittness protection program. Never to be seen or heard from again.... heavy sigh... then comes the next poster... Well I am going there anyway........

 

If you honestly think that a union is there to help any employees then you had better take a serious look at the union companies that are going right down the tubes. The auto industry is begging the govt for a bailout, and this is due to the fact that they cant compete based on there curent union contracts, what is there union doing? NOTHING, in fact it is complaining that they have already taken all the concessions that they are gonna and they arent budging. That's fine I'll honk at ya when I drive by the unemployment office.(and that WILL happen BTW, when those companies decide to go bankrupt anyhow to renegotiate their contracts).

Also you may want to google YRC(Yellow-Roadway Corp) and learn about their current financial woes and how they are right now negaotiating with the government on a bailout package because they are going down the tubes and FAST. I saw the letter that the Teamsters sent out to it's members and it said that they were working with YRC and trying to protect union jobs and pensions(which BTW, is a lot of the problem). Once again, I will honk when I drive by the unemployment office when they are there and Im working. I hear drivers spouting off this stuff about a union all the time, and obviously the one's who are have never been in a union. The drivers that are in unions are not happy about their union right now, because--thanks to their unions greed and stupidity--a lot are looking at the last days in the companies that they are in. Several of the union trucking companies have already went bellyup this year and their drivers have lost everything including pensions and pay and what did the union do for them? That's right(your a smart guy)NOTHING!

Once you are in a union, you will find out that you have no say so on anything including pay, benefits, and pension. The company sides with the Union more than 90% of the time in greivance processes, since if they cannot agree the grievance goes to arbitration and arbitrators are expensive($10,000+ per greivance for most)and the loosing party usually pays the bill, and neither side is usually willing to come up with that cash.
The only things that a union will do(take it from me, I was in one for more than 5 years)is the following:

1. Make sure you make a decent wage(not necessarily a fair one) the company I drive for pays better than a lot of union trucking outfits in the area and they pay worse than some, that is why I say decent, and not fair.
2. Try to keep out alien and undocumented workforce.
3. When you get laid off they will help you file your unemploment. Big deal-I can do that myself

That is pretty much it, and those 3 points are subject to negotiation and such also. Oh I forgot to include the part about how they take about 5%-10% of your money every month for "dues". And BTW, they are not required to tell you what those dues are for and what they cover--you pay or you dont have a job--that simple. IS THIS REALLY THE KIND OF STUFF YOU WANT AND ARE ADVOCATING???

Im glad that I dont work with you--I 've been in the union, and Im not planning on being back in it. This is just furthermore stuff from somebody who has never been a union member, knows nothing about it, but thinks that it is a good idea because they heard some guys that have been retired for 20 years talking about it, or they listened to some other drivers that dont have a clue either.

 

So many times that I've lost count.

YuP.
And even repeated, over and over and over, ........ again.

I like the, but I have a positive attitude.
As though others don't.

Uhhhhh, ....... I'm goin' out on a limb here, and guessin' that their positive attitude changes for the worse?

I've never heard it put that way, but that's an excellent analogy, Mr. Tarps.

And go they go -----
and I often wonder WHERE they went.
Or if they ever arrived.
Or even know WHERE the HaiL they ARE.
WE'RE still here though.

HeY!
WaiT!
C.R. England just sent me an E-mail,
promising me the Sun and the Moon
and the stars above.
Hmmmmmmmm.
How 'bout it folks?
Should I take 'em up on their offer?

I mean, I COULD be the first to report
a successful relationship with C.R.E.
Might even consider their lease option.
Whattdaya thank? :smt102

Now, all I want to read are POSITIVE replies.
Nothin' negative.
If I don't read what I wanna read, I'll just shoot the messenger,
and disregard the message.

 

You all make some good points. I am currently in a Union right now. So yes, I am well aware of what a Union can do. I jumped ship at Swift on my own accord to take care of a sick wife. Your right that was my choice. When I said experienced drivers should stand up. I was talking about people that have a choice on what company they can go to. The way I look at England is it is a stepping stone to get to a company that is good. Believe you and me I did not wake up and say I really want to drive for CRE today. They are my last choice. No one else will take me or they are no hiring. CRE will, so for that I give them credit. Because even though the dont offer much. They are offering a hell of a lot more than anyone else is.
The reason I complained at Swift was to get those miles. I found drivers that were driving half the miles I was. Because, they would sit in the truck stops waiting for the magical load ferry to bestow upon them the miles. The only person that is looking out for the driver at a company like swift is the driver. I left swift a year and a half ago. When the Economy was much better. Who would have known that Swift would have a hiring freeze. I appreciate all of your words of wisdom. Like I said I know full well what I am getting into. They are my only option for now. Just sitting back and doing nothing is not an option for me. So I will take the only option available, grin and bear it until I can gain enough experience to go somewhere else.
CRE is not promising me the moon, that is for sure. I am expecting nothing more then a job, some experience and a small wage. That is what I expect, not much. When I start with them I will check in with you all and let you know how it is going. I seriously doubt you will hear anything you have not already heard. There's not going to be any "We told you so" because I know full well what I am getting into. I can put up with it for as long as it takes. I love truck driving, I miss it, its a great career. And I am going the only place that is hiring someone with little experience out of California right now.

 

CANGST, I wish you good luck and the
BEST of success.
Sincerely.