CR England

I offer the following report for those who want an honest review of CR England (CRE). I truly believe that CR England is the trucking industry’s ethnocentric “Mormon Mafia.” This company has absolutely no concern for the safety of their drivers or the motoring public. Their only concern is profit. I could go on for pages, but I hope this report will suffice to keep people away from these cutthroat vermin.


Recruiting - Their recruiting department is so poor that students are often misinformed about what they need to bring to school and have to be shipped back home to get the appropriate paperwork, and then back to school at CR England’s expense. This means CRE often foots the bill on three bus tickets for a single student. This is money that could go into improving the company and the earnings of drivers but do not expect suggestions to be heard. Never mind that as much as 75% of candidates will be eliminated in the first few days because they were not properly screened out. CR England doesn't care about sending people on a roller-coaster ride that goes nowhere.


Training/School – CR England’s schools could be called “mills” or “assembly lines.” CRE ships several hundred students to its five schools every weekend. CRE is happy to recruit the most incompetent individuals and put them behind 80,000 lbs of high-speed death. As a Phase 1 Trainer (i.e., Senior Trainer) tasked with training graduates of their schools, I have witnessed this first hand.

CRE’s trucking “schools” do not teach truck driving and backing. They only exist to teach the minimum skills necessary to pass the CDL test. This means that students report to Phase 1 Trainer trucks having virtually no understanding of truly how to operate the vehicle safely. This then translates to the Phase 1 Trainer having to go on little sleep for at least the first week the student is on the truck for 30 days of real-world training. This subsequently means the Phase 1 Trainer must push himself—against everything he’s been taught about fatigue—to run miles so that he can make a paycheck.


Student Accommodations – Unlike companies that care about their future drivers, and will at least provide one hot meal a day while in school or orientation, CRE provides their students only with lodging, transportation to and from school and transportation to the local Walmart. At the Salt Lake City school expect to sleep in a military-style bachelor enlisted quarters. That means you’ll be bunking with a random selection of other trainees in a small room. Expect schools to have one or two microwaves for 50 – 100+ students. Expect overflowing trashcans and small bathrooms not fit to accommodate dozens of persons. At Salt Lake City, you’ll be greeted with their expensive in-house restaurant, convenience store and laundry facilities. These people know full-well that most of the students are scrapping by in this economy, and they don’t care. . .not one bit.


Safety – CR England doesn’t care about your safety or anyone else’s. They mask their lack of concern by sending an obnoxious, almost comical volume of safety messages to each truck daily. Examine their practices and it becomes clear CR England cares nothing for safety.

I reluctantly accepted a student that was kicked off another Phase 1 Trainer’s truck for safety. I too kicked him off of my truck after a few days for safety. A few days later I received a message stating that my former apprentice was cleared for safety by CR England. CRE’s safety evaluation consists of less than 5 miles of driving, not a single lane change and not a single grade. You would think a Phase 1 Trainer should have the final say on whether or not the student is fit to operate a dangerous vehicle considering days or weeks are spent with that trainer. Not the case with CR England.

I have had apprentices who barely possessed the intelligence to flip burgers report to my truck. Other trainers have had students who literally could not read a lick of English. How did these people get a Commercial Drivers’ License? CR England.


Corporate Interaction – At CR England a chasm separates their blue-collar workers (drivers) from the corporate staff. The desk workers have a low opinion of drivers and will speak to you like you are the lowest orgasm on the planet. What do you expect? Yes, CR England recruits some quality people, but among them, they bring in an ocean of unwashed, ignorant filth. The desk workers observe the language, smell, appearance and behavior of the hundreds of lowly creatures they recruit into their “mill” and naturally believe that drivers are little more than a step up from street scum.

Expect some worm at a desk to speak to you like you’re a dunce, regardless of how many years you’ve been in trucking or been with CR England. Expect corporate employees to threaten to sabotage your DAC report, as they did with my former student when he said he was going to drive the company truck a few hundred miles to the nearest yard because he had a family emergency that they didn’t care about. Expect corporate employees to lie to your next employer and claim anything from abandoning freight to consistently driving off route or any other lie they can come up with. This is not an exaggeration.


Improvement/Growth – CR England is not interested in your recommendations. On a recent conference call, a driver pleaded, “Why don’t you ask the drivers instead of making decisions only at the corporate level?” The host of the conference call said, “We are asking the drivers. That’s why we have these conference calls.” Preceding her statement, she kept reminding callers not to offer their opinion of a new policy because it was going to be handled at the corporate level. Note the contradiction.

CR England is always restructuring and implementing policies to the detriment of their drivers and students. This is because, in the eyes of CR England, drivers are bottom-feeders and warm bodies used to haul freight. Your opinion means nothing.


Lease – CR England has one of the worst, if not thee worst, lease programs in the industry. There is currently a class action lawsuit against CR England for its unethical and deceptive lease program. I paid $518 a week lease, plus .14 variable milage ($350 - $700 a week for 2,500 – 5,000 miles), $280 weekly insurance, .07 maintenance account ($175 - $350 a week for 2,500 – 5,000 miles), $45 weekly permits. You will pay upwards of $5,000 a month to operate a leased vehicle. In order to make the kind of money you’ll need to make to justify being away from your family, you’ll have to risk your life training CR England’s endless stream of poorly prepared, often incompetent students. You’ll have to work yourself to the bone each and every week. Some very few guys succeed in this.

Expect that regardless of the revenue in your maintenance account, CR England and Horizon Truck Sales and Leasing will fabricate every excuse to keep thousands upon thousands of dollars you accumulated.

Keep in mind that CR England is a reefer carrier. Reefer loads tend to be heavier than dry freight. You’ll be paying for the fuel, and unless you can sustain 7 MPGs or better average for the week and run 5500 miles or more with a student, your paycheck won’t be worth the time you invested or the risk you’ve taken.


Company Drivers – Expect to take home $500 - $550 a week solo. CRE’s company drivers are among the lowest paid in the industry. Expect to be treated like garbage.


Become a Trainer – To become a Phase 1 Trainer, you’ll need 6 months experience and then you’ll have to take a 5 day course in which you’ll be paid $125. Yes, your lease payment will be paid by CR England, but what exactly are you supposed to do with $125? Every time you get a student you’ll hope and pray that this guy isn’t going to get you killed or severely tear up your truck. The horror stories are too many to count.

For the record, apprentices will earn $61 a day. Of that, as their trainer, you will pay them $37. Yes, you will pay the majority of the apprentice's income. . .in exchange for teaching him, allowing him to tear up your truck and ultimately putting your life at risk. In 30 days, you will have paid the apprentice over $1,000.


Truck Service Center – Expect CR England’s uncertified mechanics to tear up your truck after waiting days just to get in. No, you will not be provided a place to sleep while your truck is in the shop. No, you will not be compensated if they fix one thing and end up breaking something else. No, you will not be compensated for waiting days to have the most insignificant thing fixed.


Equipment – This is about the only thing good about CR England. The tractors are all newer models. However, expect to pull a variety of great trailers and old ones. A bad trailer can drop your Miles Per Gallon by as little as .5 to as much as 2 solid Miles Per Gallon. As an independent contractor, you’ll foot the bill on fuel. There is good news though, instead of making CR England more lucrative for drivers, CRE recently had a new trailer washout bay constructed, they’ve done some remodeling at the corporate office and they’ve purchased an entire fleet worth of brand new trailers.
[HR][/HR]

http://www.crenglandclassaction.com - If you leased a truck from CR England / Horizon Truck Sales and Leasing you may be owed damages for being the victim of unethical and deceptive business practices.

http://www.crenglandlawsuit.com - If you were a CR England student who was paid less than minimum wage you may be owed several thousand dollars in damages.

 

The guys who make money with CR England train. They have a high tolerance for incompetence and personalities that are hard to deal with. These trainers have the ability to relax and sleep well with a student behind the wheel or can otherwise go on just a few hours of sleep each day. They often run 6,000 miles per week and knowing the lanes and the shippers/receivers, they know which loads to reject.

I know two such individuals. Each have had one student fall asleep behind the wheel. Larry said, "When we went off road it peeled the tires like an orange. He tried to claim he didn't fall asleep but I knew what happened." Another guy, Dave, told me, "He parked my truck in the trees. We would have gone over a short cliff if the tandems didn't get caught on a tree stump." Larry was two weeks from paying his truck off free-and-clear when a student let the RPMs reach 2800 and blew the bearings right out of the engine. Then he got screwed around on his engine replacement. Since Larry knows how to game the system and get himself home every week, and since he has a high tolerance for idiots, and can go on little sleep, he makes a lot of money. As he says, "I make CR England work for me," but he'll be the first to tell you what a horrible company they are. Dave had two students who couldn't read. One American and one foreigner. After another parked his truck in the trees, he decided to quit training.

When both of these guys leased their trucks, you could reduce your variable mileage through an awards program and as trainers, if your apprentice went on to lease a truck you'd get .01 for every mile that new lease drove. In other words, CR England used to be more lucrative. Now it just gets worse by the day.

Making money with CR England can be done, but the percentage of those making great money is so low, it is not something I would recommend.

 

This is again why I say CR England doesn't care about safety. They are only interested in moving freight cheaply, and thus the reason why their schools operate as mills.

Good CR England trainers will run between solo and team speed the first week the student is on the truck. You invest a lot of time in the student and prepare him to run hard during weeks 2, 3 and 4. It is in those latter weeks that you're supposed to see a return on the time you invested in the student. Keep in mind that during week 1, none of your expenses have magically disappeared, you're paying the apprentice $37 a day [whereas CR England pays the student $24 a day on the truck for a total of $61 daily]. . .plus you're probably buying him some food because these guys were only making $25 a day sitting in a hotel, waiting for you to arrive.

My experience is that I would size up a student and either remove him from the truck in the first week or he would quit on his own. This means I never see a return on my investment. . .and it's really bad when you kick off two students in a row. I've done that several times. This is the key reason why I quit.

With my second to last apprentice, we only ran 3,400 miles. I really needed to focus on him and CR England was threatening to take away my trainer status if I kicked more guys off the truck. I would have kicked him off day one because he couldn't shift and was clearly not cut out for trucking. If he missed a gear, he would simply come to a dead stop on an exit ramp or in the middle of traffic and start all over. He stalled the truck 6 or 7 times on Pennsylvania back roads because he couldn't handle grades. I'm not one to make fun of someone's intelligence, however, this guy had no business behind 80,000 lbs of death. In Chicago, my ex-girlfriend met him and in under two minutes she sized the guy up as not having the intelligence to be a truck driver. How did this guy get a CDL? I recorded my instruction to prove to CR England that I had been patient with the guy, and that he just couldn't handle it. Thankfully, he decided trucking wasn't for him so I didn't have to break the bad news to him. My check was $420 for risking my life and giving it my all to help this guy.

My last apprentice was good, but we only ran 2,700 miles due to being held up in Laredo and at other shippers/receivers. I wasn't great on fuel mileage (idling the truck in 103 degree weather in Laredo didn't help) but it wasn't horrible either. My last check was $55. That's when I decided it was over. Even when I mentioned I didn't have enough money to take care of my boys or pay my phone bill, CR England tried to get me to take another load. . .down to Laredo (and after I told them I would never go down there again).