CRST and the LIES and "pay"

Really great company for those who don't like to drive much. This past pay period my co-driver and I got a total of 2000 miles!!! Two weeks in a row we show up to a delivery on a Saturday then wait till Monday for a load assignment and here it is Monday night and no load assignment. Oh we got one around noon then a couple hours later it got taken away. At this very truck stop there are no less than 5 CRST trucks, one other team I have spoken to is in the same situation where they are waiting for a load assignment. During orientation in June we were told there is plenty of freight. Here it is the height of the freight season and here we sit. If I average out my gross pay since June it averages around $400.00/week. If you like sitting, low pay, anticipating a load CRST is the company for you.....

 

And that of why I left as soon as my contact was up. As a truck we were lucky to average 4,000 miles a week and we were an airfreight dedicated hazmat fast truck, which meant the moment we were free, we were put at the front of the line for planning to get us moving. Usually we would start the week preplanned on 2-3 loads so we knew when our next one was as soon as we delivered or if we weren't preplanned before we hooked to the load we would have a load assignment within 24 hrs of dropping the load we were on.

The only suggestion I can make is keep you fleet manager updated on a regular basis with your eta to the final. Usually if you divide your total miles to final by 50, that'll give you a very good approximation of how long it'll take to get to your final.

The 50 is basically your overall average speed. So if you average your actual drive time with all your stops, fueling, driver swaps, showers (yes you must shower!), food, potty breaks, you should be able to maintain an average speed of 50mph. We would actually average about 55mph but we still used 50 for all our trip planning.

For example, if your load is 2200 miles, it should take you about 44 hours or less to get there. When you leave the shipper, send a message to dispatch updating them on when think you'll arrive, not just the stupid macro 4; prebilled and loaded. Send a freeform message and if your regular FM is gone already, resend the message the next day he is there. What this does is let's the planners know when you'll arrive and means they can start preplanning you on a load.

Also, it helps if you send a message 24 hours before you arrive at your final asking if you have another load yet and reminding them what time you'll arrive at your final. If it's just before the weekend let your FM know and ask if he has a load ready for you before he goes for the weekend. I would usually send the message around 10 or 11 in the morning central time on Friday and by about 3 I would see a load on the QC.

Hopefully that will help you get some better miles and get you through your contact without being broke.

FM's like communication, send something on a regular basis updating them on your progress. Even jokes and random stuff you see in the road is good to send them. I had a great relationship with my FM. He still emails me about random stuff even though I am gone.

Build a relationship like that and you'll get the miles.

 

Yup I knew it was a bad place to work for

 

This has nothing to do with building communication. This has to do with a company which touts itself as having "plenty of freight." A company that has plenty of freight has plenty of freight. It would make no sense for a company which has plenty of freight to keep trucks sitting waiting long periods for loads. Load planning is that entity which works on lining up loads for trucks, hence the term load "planning." I have worked for some other major carriers and I can tell you I never sat this long with any other company. My co-driver and I operate efficiently and get to deliveries on time even when the shipper is late loading or some other delay happens. No driver expects to do this type of work for the type of weekly pay that I have been getting since June. As far as communication goes we communicate just fine....

 

No need to bite my head off. I was trying to give you advice on how to get more loads since that is what worked for me and my codriver before I left in June. Communication has a lot to do with it at CRST. The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

We rarely sat in areas where other drivers have been sitting for days because we would send messages and call on a regular basis seeing if they had load for us.

All I am trying to do is tell you how the rules of the game work there at that cruddy company so you can try and survive without going broke or at least make above the poverty line.

Since it sounds like you aren't under contract with then, why don't you leave for a better company?

Good luck

 

We are....

 

You are under contract or looking for another company?

 

I can tell you that from my experience your assumption about communication equating to load assignments is a faulty assumption. I get along great with my DM. He says he appreciates our efforts and we know we are performing to our maximum potential. We send all appropriate messages in a timely manner. We communicate and have a good interaction. Someone who does not work for CRST reading this needs to know the truth so they can make an informed decision. I wasn't biting your head off. I disagree with your premise because I have some experience and am reporting my own experience.

 

I also talked with his supervisor yesterday and asked why we were sitting and she told me around 3pm that she understood and was working on getting us a load going toward FL and at this writing on Tuesday morning around 7am cdt we have no load assignment. Hopefully someone considering working for CRST will read my experience and use it as helpful information....

 

My co-driver and I are looking at other companies... and no we are not under contract....