BEWARE of CR England!

England is not forcing anyone to lease its all up to the individual. There are company positions available but you need to be at the right place at the right time. Also where you live determines if they can use you as a company driver or not.

A lot of my students come over and already are 1-2 months behind on their bills. They ask when do they start making a grand a week so they don't have to worry about their cell phone being turned off. Most lease because they are impatient and believe its easy to be a successful lease op. If it was easy and everyone was taking 100K home then everyone would be doing it.

If they don't have any company positions available go home and wait. While at home apply at local/dedicated route companies and you may get lucky.

When it comes to the lease I always use the donut shop example with my students. Basically I love donuts so let's say I goto the bank and ask for a loan so I can lease a store/equipment to start my own donut shop.

Well I really don't know how to make donuts so when I first start I am going to make a lot of mistakes and have little business. And its hard to run a small business by yourself so I hire an assistant (student) to help me. So after a few months of struggling my donut shop finally starts making a little money. Well after the first year I start getting to know the business and people better and things really start turning around.

For me, after putting up with CRE for almost 4 years, I am finally making a good paycheck. Yes I know I can make a lot more out on my own.

Also a lot of lease ops make the mistake of going home as soon as they lease. You don't get your donut shop up and running and then close for a week.

 

I won't be going owner-operator for at least a year. That will allow me to determine if the industry is the right one for me, save some money to put into a tractor, and collect some extra OJT money from the VA.

 

I was at the England yard in Burns Harbor (Portage, IN) last night and ran into a brand new lease operator at the fuel island. He was on his way to pickup his first student and this p2 trainer didn't even know how to fuel.

I tried explaining him the process and he snapped at me and told me he knew what he was doing even though he was using the secondary pump first. I told my student that I give that guy 3 weeks before he quits. I can tell he doesn't ask for help and will take out his frustrations on his student.

I don't understand why these newbies think leasing is so simple and the money will just start raining down on them.

 

My guess is because they are gullible to begin with and that is exactly what they are led to believe by the recruiter's blowing smoke up their #####?

 

From the numerous reports from C.R.E. trainees informing us that their trainers slept while the trainees were at the controls, it comes as no surprise that a graduated trainee didn't learn all that they should have learned. Maybe that new p2 trainer will luck out and get a trainee who knows how to fuel a Big truck.
I wonder if that new p2 trainer knows how to read a fuel gauge, or that there is such a gauge?

What a combination, --- inexperience combined with a bad attitude. If that new p2 trainer won't listen to the advice from a trainer, there isn't much chance he'll listen to a lowly trainee who tries to explain how to properly fuel a Big truck. Hopefully that new p2 trainer won't last too long.

Really?
I would'a guessed four to six weeks.
The sooner the better. The last thing this industry needs is inept trainers turning out improperly trained trainees.

How does C.R.E. justify allowing a bad attitude with a short fuse to be training(?) newBees? Needing a trainee aboard just so the leased driver can make the payments is inexcusable. Some people aren't cut out to be effective trainers in the first place, --- even if they have years of experience. Doesn't C.R.E. attempt to determine if a wannaBee trainer can handle the program and turn out trainees who are qualified and capable of making it on their own?

I doubt if the wannaBees show up for training with that thought in their mind. How they come to think what they think can only come from what they've been told by C.R.E. staff. What I don't understand is, why would C.R.E. put that notion in their head.? If it isn't greed coupled with a lack of concern, I'd like to know what it is. Considering that C.R.E. realizes a profit whether the leased driver wins, loses, or just breaks even, it sure appears as though C.R.E. talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.

 

Quantity not quality is what always comes to mind when I see these brand new p2 trainers. I always tell my students to be humble and keep your ears open.

 

To be sure we're on the same page, please define "forcing".
"Force" can be applied physically as well as mentally, and certain conditions can exist which will determine if force is present and being applied.

Many wannaBees show up for orientation nearly broke. Of those, many have no real desire to be Big truck truck drivers and have never entertained any thoughts of becoming one, --- until their job went south, or east, leaving them unemployed with no jobs in their field available.
Enter C.R. England with what could be the answer to their woes. Little do they realize that what might eliminate their woes will wind up adding to their woes ten-fold. More bluntly, they need money and they need it NOW. Along comes the sales pitch from someone with C.R.E. who could sell porn to a nun, relating how being "their own boss" by leasing a Big truck will put them on the fast track to financial security, and they take the bait (that isn't "forced" upon them).

It would be nice if C.R.E. recruiters would mention that to prospective candidates right up front instead of using that fact for leverage after the dotted line is signed. When informed that no company Big trucks will be available for several weeks, or longer, and considering a wannaBee's desperation for a positive cash flow to feed their family and keep a roof over their heads, is it any wonder why they'd agree to a lease? You can say that isn't "forcing" them to sign up to lease, but there are those who'd beg to differ. IMO, C.R.E. prefers those betwixt a rock and a hard place because they're easier to take advantage of.

Were/Are the wannaBees made aware of that fact prior to orientation? Or was that sprung on them once they're committed?

Gee, I wonder who put that notion in their head?
What you've related about "a lot of (your) students" makes my point, and illustrates what C.R.E. considers the ideal candidate to exploit.

And again I ask, who put that notion in their head?
HaiL yes they're impatient. Have you ever been unemployed, flat broke, --- unable to make payments and about to lose everything you've worked for, --- including your family? Do you know what that feels like? Have you ever been desperate?

Perhaps that sounds too good to be true to you and me, --- and should sound the same to a newBee, but consider that they're down to just hoping that there's some slight chance they've been told the truth, something that seems to be foreign to C.R.E.

"Lucky"?!
"Go home and wait"?!
That's assuming they have a "home" to go to "and wait".
I seriously doubt they were informed that a "wait" is possible. And I seriously doubt that a wait is really necessary. They're being told they have to "wait" is a form of "forcing" someone to make a decision that they hadn't planned on, and probably wouldn't make had they been made aware of the possibility. They can't afford to "wait".

That's a bit of a stretch, ...... but I'll go along with your example.

OK, but were you talked into starting a donut shop by someone associated with the donut shop industry, or did you make the decision all on your own? What lending institution would loan money to start a business that you know nothing about?

By "help" (you), do you mean exploit?

Congratulations!

Just imagine how much "better" you'd do if you got rid of your "assistant".
In your example, an assistant would require compensation for their work. How much are you, as a trainer for C.R.E., paying the company for the privilege of having a trainee aboard to help you make ends meet? Would you have trainees if you could make ends meet without them?
When I was a driver trainer the company paid me to train them, --- I didn't have to pay the company to train their new hires. The way C.R.E. has it set up, the leased operator seems to be as desperate as their trainees.

You had the luxury of being in a position that allowed you the time to succeed. If, when you first started, your home was in foreclosure and your family hungry, do you suppose you might have been a tad more anxious to find success? Would you appreciate empty promises? For some four years is a lifetime.

If your raw supplies for donut making were supplied exclusively by only one company as agreed to in a signed contract, and for whatever reason said company decided to cut your supplies by one half, thereby creating empty shelves, how long would your donut shop last?

Could your good fortune at C.R. England be clouding your ability to see what's really goin' on there for others? Are those who don't succeed at fault every time? Can/Do you just brush off the numerous stories that relate identical descriptions of wrongdoing by C.R.E. that have been the same for many years? Do all of them lack "good work ethics" and "spend too much time sitting in truck stops playing on the internet"? I wonder who "forced" C.R.E. to hire them? And if they weren't "forced", why were they hired in the first place?

 

That, my friend, is excellent advice. :smt045
I think I'd include eyes and mind as well as ears.

 

Not just supplies - but training, building, equipment, insurance, maintenance, employees, and oh yes ... CUSTOMERS.

You can never compare a lease program to any stand alone small business - small business "owners" are free to choose these things from competing providers. They can solicit and choose customers, screen "employees", set operating hours - and not least of which ... set rates charged.

 

Doesn't that alone speak volumes about this company?? Good grief......he's a 'trainer' and doesn't even know how to properly fuel his own tractor?? What qualifies as a 'trainer' at this company?