Grandma Debi did the CR England lease thing with Virgil

Anyone is allowed on this forum as long as they follow the rules set down by the site owner.

 

IMO anyone who bases their judjment of anything based on what the company states as fact will be fooling only themselves......for years I have searched BBB reports consumer reports and such and you had better believe that before leasing to a major trucking company I researched driver reports....we talked to drivers to see first hand what they had to say.......recruiters are just an means to an end...the end being hired/leased to a company.....no more no less take it in stride and always do your homework......if you do a good job in your homework you usually get an A......I don't know if Debbie and Virgil excist of not if they did I hope they make it if they are recruiters incognito I have enjoyed following the thread......Grandma Debbi we miss you please come back.....

 

Okay! Okay! Lil Blue Pony I am back!!!



Here I am with Grandma Debe an honest to God there are really two of us. She brought the coconut cookies from Italy and I made the tea and we finally recovered my password and here we are!!!

i'm very amazed at how many people read my adventures

Debe insisted that i write again so here i am and yes it has been an adventure and im home again and ready to get back in the truck with Virgil once again. he's on his way to salt lake city, UT to have a couple of days off and drop off his trainee and then pick me up this weekend. we have had a very full and fun year. and yes we are still with c r england we do for the most part like this co.

The secret to making money is pretty much take any and all loads they give you and don't be late and carefully very carefully review your statement every week stay on top of what you spend and what they credit you for we are always every week calling someone in payroll for something they forgot to add in but if you stay on top of it you will get whats coming to you.

My favorite part of this job is the driving and the sites and going off route and seeing the little towns and the victorian houses just love um and we've had some really fun and scary adventures. We wanted to see San Francisco so we went over the bridge we have 40,000lbs of butter on our load and we went site seeing but we did not realize the streets are very hilly and by the time we got to the top of devisadero rd we could not see the other side

so i told virgil if you are going down that i am getting out before i puke so he took another look at the sky cuz we could not see anything else and he finally agreed with me we should not try to go down what we cannot see so we turned left and went back down another street very steep very very slowly i thought the trailor was going to beat us down but we made it and laughed about it often big lesson learned but what a memory!!!!!!!!!


And on the east side of the country we had another scary heart stopping adventure. this was in new york and if anyone has ever driven in new york you know where I'm coming from. We were on our way to upper state ny and we wanted to get close to the water to see if we could see the statue of liberty which we think we saw but obviosly we couldn't get close enough to tell anyway we ended up thinking we were farther north than we really were and looked at the map and got off on route 1 and ended up right in the middle of the bronx and by the time we realized it we were facing a 11' bridge and of course we are 13' 6" so we panicked and turned left and then were faced with cars on either side of the road and very skinny roads and no where to go we drove a few blocks and went right and ended up under the bridge but it was a bit taller at this spot and we could only go forward we got stuck we could'nt go any further because the bridge kept getting shorter so we flagged down some police officers which were not to happy to see our situation and pretty much told us we shouldn't have done that and we also interupted there lunch but they did finally agreed to stop traffic for us and virgil went and measured the left corner of the bridge to see if it was tall enough for us to escape and he said it was and the police officers stopped the traffic and i've never seen virgil drive so fast in my life but guess what we are still here and still working for england and this was not too funny until we got free

By the way i am certified as a recruiter but i don't recruit not even debe would sign up i really don't push it cuz i really don't talk to to many people in fact we avoid the truck stops as much as possible we prefer nice quiet off ramps and rest stops or any out of the way places we can find.

Now on a better note the most beautiful place we've been to is pensecola florida the sands are sugar white and the water is turquiose green just gorgeous if you get a chance go see it and another is the columbia gorge between oregon and washington you'll love it although there are alot of beautifull places in this country.

Well grandma debe finished her tea and my grandsons eating all my black jelly beans so got to sign off now ta ta

GRANDMA DEBI AND Debe

 

Well i don't know if youv'e ever driven donners pass but i have many times i don't care for it the concrete roads are soo cracked the truck just rock and rolls all the way up and flys all the way down but the lake is really pretty by the way virgil sleeps this one out 4 times so far

 

Wow, you mean you got a check? It's all those hidden costs that'll kill ya. My hubby stuck it out 6 months and turned the truck back in. Unfortunately, it destroyed our credit by then. And CRE still has $86 showing on our credit report saying we didn't pay......which we did, and this was in 2002. It also took them almost a year to pay him his last check, which they took out $700.00 for detailing the truck along with the $86. What the $86 was for....I don't know. The truck was in better shape when we turned it in than it was when we got it. I agree with you though, you can run your butt off and still can't come out ahead with this outfit. My husband was not afraid of running miles. He hates sitting.

 

Well here I sit at Cr England, Burns Harbor. No bulletproof glass here, a security guard, but he don't seem to be so busy that he can't shoot the bullony with you. We had almost 100 people in class. Every class of driver in there, Phase II, Trainers, Company, Leasers from 6 mo to 3 yr and a few returning drivers. So I had quite a few people I could talk to about the system and how to work a few angles. I saw drivers returning trucks everyday, all leased, all less than 6 months in thier trucks. I have heard the stories for yrs about England, but with the economy the way it is reefer seemed a safe bet at this time.
Now the first thing to keep in mind is that I have been "around" trucking my entire adult life. I ain't no dang newbie fresh out of school but I have been only driving for a few yrs. I have been thru a couple companies alrdy so I know what a oreintation class looks like and what a good one might look like. As I have said b4 I've worked for Celadon and a few others. I have driven differant trucks, frieght and been with trainers but nvr really been trained or run team.
That being said, here is my opinion of CR England thus far. The orientation, although a joke compared to the others is well put together and well structured. Do they push the lease program? I don't think they "JAM IT DOWN MY THROAT" as stated in several forums. Do they make it clear? They make it crystal clear, that that is what they what you to do. Do leasers seem to have a priority over company drivers? I guess I would have to agree with that statement. I am sitting watching BRAND NEW 2009 Frieghtliners heading out of here with guys so green that thier roots still show. They have $$ in thier eyes, desperation to get to work and support the family or whatever thier needs are, and doing whatever they have to do to fullfill a dream. Now I don't know what they get tought while these guys are in Phase II training exactly, but I am told they are trained how to run the truck as a business.
I had the pleasure to room with a former leaser/trainer who was very helful in my decisions. Here is just a little advice he gave me...if they offer it and it envolves money....DO IT! Weather it was cleaning windows and mopping floor for the wknd while your truck is in the shop, DO IT! It your busniess, for godsake don't sit on your butt and whine about it. Do some repo, shuttle drivers to hotels whatever it takes. That includes training phase II drivers, taking drivers to repo trucks across country, shuttling trailers around area, 100 mile trips, fuel programs, recruiting at schools ect ect ect. Get the idea? Don't sit and whine about it.
Second, fuel programs only work when you make them work for you. Heck thats what they are there for! Watch those pennies and like someone said in here, watch that weekly statement. Use it to be informed, what is going on, but most importantly and I can't state this any better than to say. If you can save .01 on a gallon of fuel...DO IT!
Third, Don't jump a 3 yr, 18 month or a 1yr lease if you don't know what you are doing. You are setting yourself up for nothing but failure. If you don't have a couple $1000 alrdy to sustain yourself and live off than step back and rethink things.
A lease deal here is a busniess adventure not a trucking job. You can drive a truck, but if you have NO sence of busniess than what r you thinking? Take some busniess classes, even if they are online. Do you think you could run a gas station, a warehouse or an accounting service? Thats what you are doing by jumping on a lease program! Also just becuase you see someone driving a brand new Pete, KW, International or Volvo. It doesn't mean you can!!!! These are all special order trucks leased on a awards program that they have. If you get on it, then earning points is reletivly easy as all you have to do is mind your fuel program, attend safty meetings held once a month, no accidents, ect. You know the right things. No special hoops to jump thru.
Just because they offer you a lease program, with a shiny New truck, doesn't mean you can run it.
I am coming here to be a company driver and company driver only. I am at the end of orientation and they tell me there may or may not be a truck for me. Fine, Ive had to wait for a truck b4, even drove7 guys in a van 14 hours in 90 degree heat with no AC to TX for one. So nothing new there. They say if I want, I can go home, 1000 miles and wait for a truck there and they will pay for ticket back home. Nothing was said about who pays for me to come back, but I can handle that. Maybe a week, maybe more, but it is better than sitting in a hotel for that long. It all part of the game and its no big thing FOR ME!!!
Now I will add, I was rather disappointed in a couple things thus far.... Orientation...is not paid for!!!! You get a bus ticket here and a hotel room. Some are nice rooms, some are not so nice rooms. The CR England hotel for Burns Harbor appears to be a hole. But they also use Super 8, Days Inn, Econo Lodge and Spring House. They don't supply ANY meals!!!! The hotels for the most part have breakfast of some kind or a resturant.
As for CRE, Burns Harbor in general. I can tell you that your background is checked with Chicago Police Dept and you ARE interviewed by them. I watch guys leave, refusing to talk to them. The facilties are modest, comfortable and modern by standards. Driving range is on the property as is fuel, shop and offices. There are 2 BUSES that run the hotels everyday and shuttles at the terminal.
So there you have it thus far. If you want to come for the lease program, then come prepared. If you want to come as a company driver, leave your expectation at home. The final thing is, if you come here just to drive a truck for the experiance...do it somewhere else. Just because you get the OK from a recruiter, YOU ARE NOT HIRED!!!!!!! I had "FRIENDS" leave as late as Thursday, because something went wrg with, drug test, employment backgrounds, criminal backgrounds or accidents from years ago.
The things I have heard on here is not all BS, but you have to take where it comes from. Disgruntled people usually, rumors and uterlly uninformed bulloney heard from a friend of a friend of a friend.
This is a TRAINING Company from what I see, but Training for a busniess and as any busniess it is going to consume you. You can't go home everywknd, you will need to trainee (ur wife don't count) second seat needs to generate money and as a team the second person can be a drain. You will have to pay that person, but they will drive more miles than you can alone, thus generating more income than a team would. I guess that is all I can add. Good Luck to you all!

 

Great info... I was planning on joining CRE but with all this info I think I will look elsewhere.

 

sxty9gto...well said.....and a point every driver or O/O needs to listen to...if they offer you money/a load take it....even where I am drivers sit and wait for a load going where they want to go picking and choosing in this climiate will ensure bankruptcy most certainly......can't add anything he said it right......a lot of guys have stars in their eyes thnking they can make it big but have no business head on them......we have people come to us with the same dreams get a truck and go broke......it takes hard work sacrafice and not buying every little piece of chrome your heart desires......at home it means cutting back as well ya gotta make it work if your are gonna buy a truck......think SACRAFICE first and a little money later...lol wouldn't have it any other way

 

Wow sounds like they have doubbled there class size since I was there .
Seams they are practicing there bussness plan more miles , more miles , more miles
who cares if you make a few cents per mile as long as you get lots of miles and so what if there isn't enough miles for all as long as the coumpany gets there miles.
With there 90 day training program PAYING drivers penuts to sight see , low balling freight they need lots of fresh meat to work for penuts.
Would you PLEASE post your wages for ALL to see .
I Hope that companys like ENGLAND fold in these hard times that are with us now.