CR England from a refresher course perspective

Well, I got my CDL at swift many years ago, but ended up only working there a few months, due to the poor economy I decided to give it another shot so I went to CR England for thier free refresher course, six months ago.

First, about the free part, it was for me, but apparently it isn't always, if they tell you it would cost anything I wouldn't bother, there are other companies offering this sort of program.

The schools are not the best, more of a factory than anything, I would say it is worse than swifts school but, as a refresher you are only there for a few days anyway. The accommodations vary dramatically depending on which school and how many people were there. Women got female roommates at least and if there were an odd number you would get your own room rather than being forced to room with a guy or anything.

Most of the school is just orientation, and driving from truckstop to truckstop. We each had to park once, backing up. That was the only time we did any backing, if you need work, they are probably not going to give you range time since the students trying to get thier license are so many. There is the theory that your phase one trainer will cover this, that is a bit dubious.

Some people wait for placement to a phase one trainer, I did not. In fact I was placed well before my paperwork was finished I had been there five days when I was placed. The phase one can be a company or lease mine was a lease driver.

It was apparent that the phase one training was a bit of a scheme, basically my trainer backed to the docks and did all the parking, where I was there to just add a few thousand more miles a week to his settlement. The one problem here is that lease drivers can refuse loads. Any load routing me back to a school for the phase 2 training was refused by my trainer.

Basically there was the worry that the next student might be terrible, so I was being held onto until the I made arrangements to get off at a school in the middle of our route. After I did that I went on to a few more days of orientation and another road test before phase 2.

Phase 2 is another team scam, but this one is also an advert for the lease program, the person I was with had not want to train, but by being a lessee found that this was basically a requirement to make the truck note.

It is interesting to note despite all the pressure to lease, at no point did anyone attempt to obscure the facts about the lease program, the numbers are there in black and white on the paperwork you are given and all of the lease drivers I worked with said it was a bad idea. Why people lease with them is beyond me.

So when I finished my phase 2 miles I got off at burns harbour, knowing that I was not even going to talk to the dm, nor ask permission from my phase 2 trainer, I told him not asked him what I was going to do. I still ended up doing a few thousand miles more than I needed to, but not over double as I had with phase 1.

If you work for CR England you have to be proactive like this. My dm called and had a few choice words for me, but despite her curses and threats I had already understood that the business culture was like this and her words had no validity. I was right, upon checking into burns harbour, I was given a home weekly dedicated route starting at .38 a mile.

On this route, my dms work in a building I freely access, no metal detectors here. The equipment is mostly peterbuilt and kenworth, mostly ten speed despite the fact otr it was always the cascadia or century with 8 gears. About 3/4 of the work is drop and hook. The miles vary between 1500 and 2500, at no point will you be getting the 3000+ miles on my route.

So to recap, cre has always paid me on time, and the right amount, and generally been okay to work for. However, if you are an otr company driver they will do anything they can to make you a trainer, or a lease driver or both. Some people claim they will go so far as to drop your miles till you can't afford not to lease or train, but I cannot confirm or deny this. What I do know is people on the dedicated side seem to have stable mediocre jobs, and that is exactly what I was after.

So CR England, not terrible or great, just kinda mediocre.