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

WoW!! What amazes me here is that anyone would put any stock in any of these stories. I guess i can't expect anyone to put any stock in mine either but I will relay my opinion of CRE. If you get out of a 2 week cdl school and go to work for one of the big companies you need to expect certain things. Accelerated training, low pay during training, being treated like a number, etc etc. It's not personal, it's business. The turnover rate for these larger companies is 130% annually. They are not going to treat everyone with kid gloves with those kind of numbers since they are expecting you to leave anyway. I have been with CRE for 2 yrs and 3 months. I am in the lease program and am a qualified trainer. I average 6k miles a week sometimes 7k with 2 good trainees and make an average of 2k per week take home. I did this by having the right attitude, never turning down a load assignment, cultivating a relationship of mutual respect with my DM, and hard work. If your coming to CRE or any other company looking for the "easy road" stay home. This industry is not for the light of heart. I drive a 05 freightliner century the only maintenance I have had is a bad alternator, which I have seen go bad in most of the centuries very early, other than that I have not had one problem with my vehicle. Keep in mind that these are the creme Del a creme of horror stories and only one sided. The guy mentioned earlier that locked himself in his truck in Salt Lake because he was disgruntled, Read the articles the guy was mentally ill he had been involved in a standoff with California police a year earlier. He was also a Meth user, no drugs were found in the truck but he was an admitted Meth user. If you fail with CR England it is not because England failed you it's because you failed to meet the standards of a Company who will give you the opportunity to make a good living if you want to work hard. Don't knock a good company because your too lazy or too much of a [wimp] to work hard and spend some time away from home. You signed the contract. As for the 10 days at home to get your CDL.....What the hell were you thinking? They let you take home time before you go get your truck. Why would you go sign a lease then take a few days off to get your CDl switched over to your home state, when you could have gone home, taken care of all that then gone out to Salt Lake, got a truck and run hard for the first 3 weeks and got on top of the game so to speak. Again your mistake not theirs. CRE also does not charge you a lease payment the first week of your lease, so all those miles make you that much more money.....you spent your first week in the DMV. You can't be that smart and that was your downfall here not the companies. Good luck with whoever you drive for I don't see you having much success in this industry wherever you go.

 

So we have one C.R. England booster versus hundreds of people with bad stories? Who to believe? ummm, i'll go with the majority.

 

Why would that "amaze" you? I happen to be one of many people that value word of mouth testimony. Many people put stock in what others have experienced and have to say when it comes to conducting business with retail establishments, restaurants, or how good a movie was that they saw recently.

Why should it be any different, when it comes to something as important as choosing where they should and should not work?

By all means.

I see. So when I step into my local fast food establishment, because they are usually part of a big company, I shouldn't have any expectations to be treated like a customer, and instead should not be surprised if I encounter a snotty teenager, who may not care if I am waited on, that my food order is correct, and who couldn't count money if their life depended on it.

I'm sure that these people do not mean it personally, but that's become business as usual in those kind of places, so I choose to avoid them if that's the level of service I encounter on a repetitive basis.

That's a profound statement. And you know what? You have expressed EXACTLY what the problem is. Because certain companies EXPECT to have turnover, they have no desire to understand WHY they have turnover, and refuse to DO anything to reduce turnover, they instead run their businesses as if they were ranches, rounding up cattle on an open range, snaring them one by one, and hoping that they will not find a hole to escape through, once they have them inside that fence.

Well...here's something new and refreshing.

You take on 2 trainees at a time? I'll reserve any comment.

Yes...you Sir, are the model driver. I think another poster expressed the same sentiment in this thread already. You ought to start a fan club.

I really get red faced when people who have offered illustrations that they weren't treated with a minimal amount of decency, are typified as you coin it, in seeking an "easy road".

I don't think that most people enter this industry, expecting it to be the life of Riley. But some of them are not remotely aware of the potholes in the road that are just waiting to derail their journey into trucking.

I've been around this industry for many years now, and if I didn't ENJOY what I do, I wouldn't do it. There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to expect that in order to be successful within this industry, that you have to lower all of your expectations, and have to take crap all the time in the course of making a living.

Trucking is not for everyone. That much I will give you. The job is chalked full of factors that can make it difficult on a good day. What makes or breaks a trucking company in my estimation is how they address the issues that they have control over, if they attempt to do so. Some go to great lengths to lessen the negativity that surrounds the job, while others sit on their hands and adopt the attitude that the driver will just have to deal with it, because it's not affecting them either at the moment, or ever.

Now I know this because I've worked for both kinds of companies over the years. No two have ever been the same, and each had their fair share of problems as well as points that made them appealing as well. But, when the negative outweighed the good, it is and was time to move on.

I'm sure that you didn't purposely leave it out, but I'm quite sure that you've had other maintenance performed on the truck, such as regular oil changes and services performed on the truck as well. The alternator would represent an "unexpected repair issue".

I will counter that with the following:

When you call a company recruiter, who is charged with selling you the prospect of a job or associate position with the company, those words are just as often, "one-sided" testimonials as well.

Whether it is through reading an advertisement in a publication, or speaking with a company representative, they will paint you a picture of complete utopia, and will not very often if ever, explain what is on the flip side of that coin that they are tossing into the air.

You are absolutely repeating an assertion that was offered in the press, and all but refuted by Gordon Lambert, who is or was Vice President of C.R. England Inc., at the time this took place.

I quote:

""I want to talk to him and see what in the world happened," said Lambert. "He had been easy to work with and doing well."

Lambert was frustrated with the varied reports of local news and stories of the driver being high on meth.

"There were no reports of drugs being found, or the trucker using," said Lambert. "He was charged with a misdemeanor. You'd think if he'd been high on drugs it would have been more than that."

Source: TODAY'S TRUCKING NEWS FROM LAND LINE ONLINE

As to your assertion that this man was supposedly mentally ill and had been involved in a police standoff a year earlier, that doesn't stand up to a means test, because if this were remotely true, CR England would have surely found this in the course of a background check, wouldn't they? Or does this mean that they were lax in their checks, or had lowered their hiring criteria?

I'm sorry, but you apparently do not have any idea what you are talking about.

That's a complete load of crap, and there is more than enough evidence out there, AND in this thread, to completely refute that statement.

Geez...look at the last exchange. I wouldn't get all high and mighty about CR England's "standards", if they DID hire a man with mental instability and a criminal history of resisting police intervention.

I don't have a clue what YOUR standards are, but my standards exist between atop of where the earthworms live and where the angels fly.

That's a great point, but it really falls short in explaining the issues expressed by those who have found that company to be completely lacking in terms of acceptability. The issues expressed are not all in regard to working hard and not getting home, which by the way is an issue that DOES matter to some, and the fact is, that company is KNOWN for not adhering to their hometime policies.

Maybe you don't have a family to come home to. Maybe you don't even have a home. Maybe you're completely full of crap and sit behind a desk all day, and you are another of the many moles that come into this forum to defend a defenseless company. You see, when the first post out of the box for a new member consists of language like yours, that is usually the case.

CR England was spanked by the Feds over the very issue that demanded him to get home and to convert his CDL to one in the state in which he resided. That is a Federal Law.

He did what he had to do, to keep himself a law abiding citizen. God knows you can't depend on CR England to help a driver to remain legal. There's enough court testimony out there on that issue to prove that they have no interest in seeing that a driver is compliant.

I suspect that he had no choice but to sign the lease before he went home to take care of getting his CDL transfered as it should be. He only had 30 days in which to do it, to be in compliance with the Federal laws, because he was not compliant as it was.

The letter of the law does not allow a state to issue a non-resident CDL to anyone but those that are domiciled in a foreign country. The practice of issuing CDL's to out of state residents that are domiciled in THIS country is expressly prohibited, and every person who is allowing their initial CDL to be issued in a state where they do not actually live is playing with fire. Giving false information on a CDL application, including an address where the driver does not actually live, is a crime.

I respectfully disagree. CR England should not have forced or even have allowed him to sign a lease agreement until he was 100% compliant with all the rules and regulations that he, as a driver is supposed to honor.

Sooner or later, an Attorney or two will pick up on that legal point, and stick it to England to legally negate any contract that a driver will have signed.

And from then on, it's a downhill slide into bankruptcy.

The fact is, there are many former CR England victims that have went on to provide fantastic livings for themselves and their families. They overcame adversity, triumphing over their losses, and put that company squarely where they belonged. Where is that?

In their rear view mirror.

 

WAY TO GO TURBO!!!

You know, i was reading this guys post, and thinking to myself, here is the one person who is really pleased with CRE. How can his experience be that much better than other people's? Still scratching my head about that one...

 

After reading these posts, I was contemplating going up to one of drivers who come to where I work to get loaded to ask them about their experiences with CRE. And desobre just because you change trucking companies doesn't make you a failure. It just means there is a better opportunity for you elsewhere and you recognize a shipwreck when you see one. My husband is older than you and he jumped ship from JBH. He is getting good miles (average of 2800 miles) and gets home when he is promised. So there is a brighter tomorrow. Just don't stick with a company just because it is "comfortable" and I use that word loosely. Trucking is hard enough without having the company you drive for against you.

 

Yeah, I've had enough. I've an attractive offer w/smaller firm and expected to attend orientation soon. I have enough fuel to proceed to one of their yards, a secure one with maintenance and local dispatch offices, but of course they want me to surrender truck to SLC while under load. My only concern at this point is my DAC. I pd my dues and want out. Anybody know the precise criteria wch constitutes abandonment?
They won't reply to my arguement that a secure facility, with guard house, maintenance and dispatch, is not abandonment

 

DSOBER- you'l want to make sure you return that truck/trailer to one of their yards, turn in the keys to the terminal manager, and have that person look through your truck after you clean it out, and document any damage to the truck that was there when you picked it up! You need to do all this to ensure that CRE cannot put an abandonment on your DAC. And take pictures of anything you need documented, so you have proof to refute any BS they may try to pin on you.

 

I may be too late. They may be setting you up.

Quitting while under dispatch is a fairly recent, but damaging charge that DAC is reporting, and some companies consider that almost as bad as some of the other things that companies come up with.

If at all possible, don't quit while under a load, unless they ELECTRONICALLY dispatch you accordingly and instruct you to do so. Take the truck wherever they tell you to, to terminate, and be prepared to find your way home from wherever that is, if they abandon YOU.

Try to get a signature on paper for everything you turn in. This includes even any paperwork that you give them...even your final logs. Photograph the truck completely, inside and out, when you have it cleaned out. Pay attention to anything that they may use to charge you with damage, such as tires, paint, interior....everything. If you can get a picture of the brake linings on each axle, so much the better. You never know what they may try to do, or charge you for, after you have left.

I would draw up a simple statement on paper, outlining that you are ending your employment on good terms, and that you feel that you have satisfied all of CR England's terms for doing this as they desire, and try to have a company official sign it.

 

OHHHH!!!!! Me & hubby made the exact same mistake you did!! Bail out and it sounds as if you know not to do it again! England made all the $$$$. We almost starved to death & still paying back tazes on England!!!! We were only coming out with $50.00 a week after all cost on the lease program & other's that were driving for company only werent getting any miles because they werent leasing!! We were in the worst nightmare a person could imagine!!!!!!!! The story goes on & on!!! We moved to Oregon and now making over $4.000.00 a month driving for a local truck company. Let me know if can help!

 

Like i've said in many other posts.....lease purchase agreements with any company is a bad idea and the only ones that make money is the company. My husband make the mistake with JBH of all companies......we are digging our way out financially and still may have to file bankruptcy. These horror stories are true and I hope those considering LPA's find them and wake up before they end up in the same boat.