CRST Training - Abuse, lies, and a truck with a cat!

you had it easy out there...I had a trainer (guy) who constantly made sexual innuendos and stopped 5 or 6 times every sleeping period i had. I told the dispatcher I wanted off of the truck and she said to go ahead and get off and consider myself fired..

 

Dam girl i hope you did consider your self fired
cause i sure would not have put up with one more day of that ####

 

I'm going to start my orientation with CRST on May 04, 2009. Anyone have any advice.
How much money I'm expecting after my 28 days period. A week, stimated.
When you get your time off, they drop you any where or on your state yard, so you can get your car.

 

Wow, I wonder if they're local devision is any better? I see a lot of Sterling day cabs pulling building materials on split-axle trailers.. thought about applying.. if the pay is decent

 

I must say that sounds like alot of the trainers at alot of these companys. I was fortunate to go through the system and i also had two trainers and I was lucky to have very good trainers. The first trainer went on and on filling me on everything about truck driving. So much that I could not absorb everything but I was able to absorb enough to help me in the future. My second trainer did not talk as much but took more time to show me how to shift better. Between the two I learned how to take abit from both and it was quite helpful. My experience with CRST was good, me and my partner took every load they gave us good or bad and did not complain at all...my theory was eventually we would get to be a respectable truck/team. In the beginning I think I talked to my dispatcher to try and get more miles and it did work out. After 6 months we were getting respectable loads and at 8 months it was gravy. Mostly coast to coast loads. Ended up going to another company later to be home more and it was ok. Be patient out there new drivers...it does not happen over night. [quote=shookup;231252]My husband and I decided we wanted to drive team together, so I went through trucking school locally (worked my butt off and graduated #1 in my class above 10 men), and we ended up with CRST. I cannot knock the company per se as my personal knowledge of much beyond the training program is limited, but their training program was the worst experience of my whole life. ​

I asked for a female trainer and was pleased that I only had to wait one day after orientation to get one. I got on her truck and within an hour dark clouds started looming. She announced, out of the blue, for me to not bother calling management with any problems she and I might have because "management never believes anything students say. They know you are all a bunch of whiney babies." She also announced that she used the Qualcom while driving and her cell phone (both of which are against company policy) and for me "not to think you will get me in trouble by reporting it because my fleet manager knows all about it." I never indicated to her that I would tell anythng, her choices were her choices as I saw it, but yet here were all these dire warnings and a hostile atmosphere right from the first hours. I was supposed to get 5 days of being in a "protective bubble" (from the company literature) wherein we would run as a solo, she would sit with me and teach me. Never happened. The second morning she watched me drive for 2 hours and then went to the sleeper, leaving me alone to navigate traffic in Nashville and Memphis by myself, which I did just fine. When I downshifted on an off ramp during her 2 hours of observation she informed me I was to coast on all off ramps and to stop signs rather than downshift. When I told her that went against everything I learned in school, she informed me that "things are done differently in the real world, just do it!" Basically she didn't want to put in time to make sure I was downshifting properly, which I was - I never had a problem with that. By the third day, she started screaming at me when I didn't understand something (never related to driving or safety mind you), and when I finally asked her to PLEASE quit yelling at me, she went off, screaming at me that it was "her “Fn” truck" and I was not going to tell her how to behave in "her truck." I explained I was not "telling" her but rather "asking" her, but my asking for the abuse to stop just made it worse. Her reasoning was her trainer had yelled constantly at her so she was going to do it to me. I could tell of many other incidents of this type and worse, but suffice it to say it was the worst experience of my life. I am a Christian woman who treats everyone with care and respect whether I like them or not, and I did so with this woman, but my kindness just seemed to invite more abuse. When I had to wake her up twice during one night drive to ask questions about a weigh station and a detour, she yelled at me that I was keeping her awake on purpose and I “wasn’t going to get away with it,” that she was going to make sure I got no sleep the next day too. I thought the point of being in training was being able to ask questions when needed on new things, but obviously it was not the case. Never were the screaming/yelling/throwing incidents about issues with safety or my driving (she yelled at me once because the edge of my pants leg touched the sheets on her bed as I was getting my bag). She said I was a good driver and a good student - no complaints about any performance issues, and we drove almost 11,000 miles (for which she got mileage pay and I got set student pay). After 2 weeks of constant hostility, ridicule, and abuse, I finally insisted that I be taken off her truck, and I was.

The company put me up for 3 days in Cedar Rapids, and sent me off again with yet another female trainer. Whereas the first trainer strove only for getting miles and taught me little and didn't care what I learned, this second one was obsessed with my training. When she learned how little my first trainer had taught me (from my telling her) and that we had not driven any secondary roads, she got very upset and slowed us down to a solo truck level. She would not let me drive on secondary roads for fear I would "get us lost," without any evidence to suggest I would other than my lack of experience on them to that point. She did her routing totally different than the first trainer, and I had trouble grasping it, but she would not move the truck until I did the routing, so we would end up behind schedule, and she would sit there and yell at me (which slowed me down even more). She would throw the map in my lap while driving and start barking things for me to look up, and if I had trouble with the multitude of road numbers she would throw at me, she would grab the map out of my hand, throw it and scream "You are no GD help to me!" I was back in hell again. If we hit a major city or a secondary road as it was my time to drive, she would continue driving and change the logs and drive on my time because she was convinced I could not do it (even though I had done just fine with my first trainer and had even driven through Los Angeles just fine on my third day!). Because she would drive on my time she would get overly tired and would shut the truck down and report to dispatch that it was because of me, even though she was the one making all the decisions, and I was more than capable of doing what she was denying me. Even as abusive as my first trainer was, she never had a problem with my performance and was even going to ask that I be released from training early because I was doing so well and was such a safe driver. Even my backing, which I struggled with in school, was acceptable to my first trainer, but the second one insisted that I do it her way, and I struggled again with her. And the second trainer had a cat on her truck, and even though the cat was a good cat (as cats go), it was a constant struggle to step over food and water bowls, deal with the smell from the litter box, and sleep scrunched up because all the bags, etc. were on the bed. Again, another element making another nightmare experience.

When I finally finished my training, she went over my review with me in detail and said the only area she was concerned about was my map reading and routing, but she said she was not going to fail me on it, just for me to continue working on it, which I have during my home time. We filled out my review in great detail, discussing every element and how I felt I had done, and we filled out that I had passed everything and she was releasing me to co-driver status, but I made the mistake of getting off the truck without my signed copy. When hubby and I called in after our 6 days of home time to get our truck assignment and get going, we were informed that my second trainer had failed me and that I would be required to go out for an additional 2 weeks with yet another trainer. She told them that I could not find road signs on secondary roads! I NEVER missed a sign on a secondary road or made a wrong turn, (the few she let me drive on with her sitting with me), but she did twice during deliveries and we had to backtrack. She said several things on her evaluation (the one I obviously did not see when I got off the truck!) that were total falsehoods. I tried to tell management that, but they said they had to go with what she said, and since I didn’t get my copy, I have no proof that I actually passed. The only explanation I can come up with for her lying on this is that she knows my husband and I were very excited about working together, and she and her husband no longer do, so maybe that is it. I just don't understand it.

So at this point, after going through over 4 weeks of total hell with these 2 trainers, I have given up. I told CRST that based on the past 2 trainers, I have no comfort level whatsoever that who they would send me out with on the third time would treat me with any level of dignity whatsoever or not lie as the second one did. I'm not asking to become best buddies with someone and have "Oprah moments," but I simply don't expect to be verbally abused and be forced to deal with extreme hostility in a small cab for 2 weeks and especially not to put in all that work only to be failed because of outright lies. I can learn nothing with someone standing behind me while I'm driving literally screaming and cussing at me and throwing things, especially when it does not relate to my driving or safety whatsoever. I told them I would not go through it again and gave them my resignation, which I know means the end of my driving career and our hopes of driving together, but the experience was so horrible that I would rather give it up then try it again. What is ultimately unfair is that I have talked with other students who passed training and were not even taught routing (her main issue with me). I am required to go back for 2 weeks to relearn routing with someone else (who will inevitably have yet another system for doing it) when other people weren't even taught it the first time and are now out driving.

I apologize this is so long, but believe me, this is the condensed version. I just had to warn other people considering CRST that their training program is a total joke. My husband's experience, though not as severe as mine, is similar. I have yet to hear of one good training experience with them, though there has to be some I would think. I’ve talked to many other people in my circumstance at the Cedar Rapids hotel and at terminals, and of all the people I spoke with I have encountered one person who seemed like a decent trainer for them. I even overheard one trainer tell his student that he HAD TO sleep in the top sleeper bunk when the truck was moving, not the trainer’s bottom bunk! And the biggest lesson I learned is if you get a passing review from your trainer in writing as I did, be sure and get a copy before exiting the truck or you will have no proof if they backstab you as mine did. Had I gotten my copy I would be out co-driving with my husband right now instead of looking for another job. [/quote]

 

My experience with them (back in the cab-over days at CRST). In 1996 I went through truck driving school on their nickel, had one trainer for four weeks, actually a knowledgable guy, at the same .22/mi split. I can't believe they're were still paying that pathetic wage in '07! The deal back then was you had to stay with the company a year and they would waive the student loan. But after three months of teaming with strangers in slip-seated, cramped cab-overs I'd had enough. I went solo with another carrier (CRST was teams-only for us new guys).

CRST told me they would send me a bill for the Driving School costs ($3500) which I gladly agreed to pay for. In fact CRST agreed that I could make seven payments of $500 and be done with it. However, five weeks after quitting, instead of a bill I got a collection notice from a company in Colorado. I went back and forth with the collection company (waste of time) trying to explain my situation. I made six payments, including a $1K final payment to get it cleared off my record, but it remained on my record for another year before finally coming off. Long story short: CRST tarnished my credit report with a deliquency rating. My DAC even showed unpaid schooling owed to CRST.

I don't blame the Collection Agency, scums that they are, as much as CRST for not honoring the payment plan we agreed to. So, if you're inclined to leave CRST early, or any company for that matter, make sure you have a written agreement with them to pay off the student loan or your credit and DAC may be harmed.

 

I am really sorry to hear your stories. I did the CRST training back in the mid 90's and had a great trainer. Did not attend their driving school but I was fortunate to hire in,test, and on the road. My trainer told me his rules for his truck when we started and from then on it was a great adventure. My how things do change.

 

my husband went to their training went on the road for the 6 weeks he told them up front he is moving to Washington State they said no problem we will get you a driver out there to team with and never heard another word so had to start all over do another 8 weeks of training at a new company...grrrr...CRST dropped the ball and screwed us out of a lot of time and money with big promises.

 

Crashed Rebuilt Schneider Truck