Dont Drive For CR England!

Discussion in 'CR England' started by thattruckerdude100, Jul 30, 2018.

  1. thattruckerdude100

    thattruckerdude100 Bobtail Member

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    Jul 30, 2018
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    I was a Trainer at CR England. If the students complain, even if they lie on you, you get in trouble and you have no way out of it. The students can drive as wreckless as they want and you cant say anything or you are wrong!!! Even if you almost die, you cant say anything to the student or they'll tell your Training Coordinator and you'll be in trouble. They pay you $0.32 cents a mile for all miles on the truck as a trainer and you're barely getting 4000 miles a week, but as a trainer you will not get any sleep because the DM's giving you the load, DOES NOT KNOW how to schedule loads at all. They schedule these loads based on drive miles only they dont include breaks, showers, or fuel in these loads so they expect you to just go showerless and to get their load there on time. As a trainer you are fatigued most of the time because you are doing most of the work while your sleeper berth clock is running and then after your 10 hrs is up they expect you to be ready to drive 10 hrs after you're already fatigued and didnt get any sleep because your student is asking a 1,000,000 questions. Then, they talk to you crazy as if you are a child they are very disrespectful. They give anyone a CDL most people who get their license from CR England still cant even straight back correctly I know because I've trained several students who could not back in a straight line so how are these people passing? I've also caught several students on the phone texting while they were driving...which could have killed us both and others around us, and they did not FIRE these people and some of them still currently drive for CRE!! This company only cares about one thing, "THEIR FREIGHT" that's it!!!! The Trainers are not protected here at all and the students can do what they want!!! This place is easy to get your CDL because they pass anyone but thats about it! Every other company pays better and has better staff!
     
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  3. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    ***My reply. I don't have access to fonts, colors etc so I will use three as-tricks to address your concerns. You document the student's complaint into a journal. Date, time, location, what happened prior to student making a complaint.

    There is a grievance process many companies have for conflicts among Drivers, Dispatchers etc. Usually it will be resolved in some way possible that either improves employment or a bigger issue is uncovered leading to a dismissal, firing or requiring at least one party to submit resignation.

    If you have the student in a lie, document the evidence that proves that student is lying about a situation or allegation. For whatever purpose, both yourself and student no longer move forward one inch in that truck. Both of you must report to the nearest terminal to speak with the DM or Officer about the situation before it goes any further. If you two are under a load when the trouble comes up, you arrange with dispatch to hand or give away the load as a relay to another driver and then go straight to the nearest Terminal of your company and deal with this issue then and there as soon you two arrive.

    For all intents and purposes when a Student lies or makes false allegations about something you know to be untrue as a trainer then everything must stop then and there until the company hears evidence and hears both of you to decide what to do with the sitaution. The student may not be employed anymore, or given to another trainer or something.

    One way or another this must get resolved that day before you proceed any further with the student's training. If something comes up like this. You have to arrange with the Company Officer, DM or Operations Supervisor to resolve this and prove with evidence where possible to support your position that the student lied.

    Remember that when drivers lie about something in employment it cannot be good for anyone involved or in hearing range of that lunch counter story, accusations, lies whatever. You did not state explicitly here in this thread what the student said that you believe to be lie. So I have nothing to go on. Which leads me to decide that you as a Trainer and the Student's immediate supervisor identifying a problem, get this resolved today. And it WILL be resolved.




    ***IF student is doing something reckless or really stupid with you in that 18 wheeler as a trainer, get your camera out and video tape a short segment of student being reckless. Capture anything that student says, the gauges situation (Speed etc) and then pan slowly to capture the mirriors, front view and side windows etc. so that anyone will watch this and see what you are seeing the moment the student got reckless. It is absolutely your video, your phone, your property which will defend YOUR job when the company Safety sees this thing.

    If the student escalates to assault or tries to destroy phone or do something against you. You call the law and have them come out and deal with the student right then and there. Whatever the problem is has progressed way beyond simple grievance I wrote about in my first paragraph.

    Hopefully you will take certain actions to make the situation stop before anyone gets hurt or potentially dies. There are ways to kill a big truck provided you have room and good pavement without anyone around to disrupt or halt the ongoing reckless behavior of student. Sometimes a emergency message to your dispatch asking them to shut your truck down remotely and have the law coming your way right away will get through on the satellite. (There are certain lists of keywords in which a message flashes instantly to company people with power to resolve this right away. For example shots fired. You will have 5000 people paying attention to you right there right now as I have had happen before.




    *** Define trouble. Its already trouble enough. If you have according to my first paragraph documentation and a video in real time on my second paragraph plus actions that seek to prevent anyone getting hurt or killed and so on it further reinforces your position as a professional who is willing to do what is necessary to remove a unstable student displaying mental health, emotional or other serious issues with a 18 wheeler.

    The student can say whatever they like (And they will.) and the Company will talk to you (If this gets to where the Law gets involved, you two will be separated and both of you will be questioned as they decide what to charge whom with what offenses if any. And goes a long way to deescalating a situation.

    One day I actually had a loud arm waving argument with my spouse team driver near St Louis. It was a stupid argument where two people feed off each other's anger and the root cause is long forgotten and unimportant. Anyway. here I am driving a loaded 18 wheeler having potentially a domesitc shortly, what do I do? While I am working on the problem mentally, a detective undercover in the middle lane had paced us to watch me and wife through the side window, decided that enough is enough and pulled us over with lights and siren.

    He did not arrest, detain or do anything. All he did was come up had us come out of the truck on the grass away from traffic and asked us small questions about our trouble at that moment. Coffee and everything.

    In about 15 minutes he had both of us deescalated nicely. And we both were mentally defused and emotionally stable away from whatever the stupid little arguement was about. (That was forgotten and forgiven) He let us go on.

    I can tell you it was a quiet afternoon. One of our rules was that if one of or both of us have trouble somehow with the other spouse, there is a quiet rule in place until we both feel better. We don't say anything or talk. Whoever is driving has to be left at peace to continue to do it safely. We will talk this out later when the truck is settled for the night. (Which we did, and we made up and had a better day tomorrow.)

    Whoever that Lawman was he did us and St Louis a big favor doing what he did even though he was off duty etc. And I must admit that I was processing the problem too slowly because how do you resolve a domestic in a 18 wheeler at 70 mph? It's a first. And no one teaches anything for that kind of problem that potentially has the power to hurt, kill or arrest or whatever including both being fired from trucking for that reason.

    But it got resolved nicely.


    ***You trip plan a load given to you. If it has a appointment time and date that is NOT legally able to do, you get a new appot date and time beyond what you both can legally do.

    There are anti corection laws in place. There is HOS regulations you two must follow. Forget the miles for right now. Worry about being legal with every load.

    If DM does not know jack about scheduling, YOU DO. And TELL HIM that his appointment hour and Date is NO GOOD and you need at least this hour and a future date where you will get that load there legally.

    IF DM Pushes back and orders you to run illegal to be there at the old no good Appt date and time, do NOT move that truck a inch until you talked to both Safety Dept FIRST and then the Operations Manger second, name names and situation and say you will not be told to run illegally and you will not accept a flawed appointment time. That truck does not move until this gets sorted.




    End part one of two
     
  4. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    Mar 5, 2016
    White County, Arkansas
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    Part two of two.

    ***Follow enough tripplanning in detail to cover those details for the whole trip. You will know pretty well regarding the appointment date and time given to you. If it is a good appt time and date with plenty of time to be legal with ALL of those details and then some you are good. If it is NOT a good appt time and date to do this legally with ALL the details such as fuel etc. Then you contact Operations Manager and Safety before you proceed a inch. Explain to both carefully.



    ***IF you are tired. That truck goes no where. For both you and student it's time to be put into a hotel overnight. Park that truck, put the student into his or her room and get yourself a room. Settle in until morning. Make sure that if you two have a dinner or breakfast later or next morning, make yourself available to answer as many as the questions as you can. Answering questions is part of your job.

    Bottom line, if you are tired or the student is obviously tired then that truck MUST STOP and rest. Usually a good evening in a quiet hotel will fix that nicely without anyone risking any damage, injury, death, cargo OSD or accidents etc.

    ***If no one gives you proper respect and does not accept same from you, then you and the company no longer has a good healthy working relationship. You must leave to work for someone else before something really bad happens.

    ***If you identify a student that CANNOT meet minimum required standards as laid out in your company handbook. (When I trained with FFE, I had my spouse for 12 weeks, each day of each week laid out exactly what the goal of training is for that day. Once the spouse has mastered everything, she was given a pretty complete road test by FFE to see if she will be allowed to be solo, run with me as a team reefer driver or fired and sent home for failure to successfully meet the minimum standards laid out within the company that is required of all drivers for basic skills etc.

    If you identify CR England as placing that student on the road with his or her truck, Document that and act as a whistle blower with FMCSA. You will get a percentage of whatever fines and violations recovered against CR England by FMCSA and various labor boards in the affected employees/states. It could potentially come into a great deal of money for you.

    And you will have made possible in erasing or destroying a corrupt or bad rotten system which puts bad students into big trucks who have not mastered what is required of them to do the work safely. YOU as the Trainer is the first defense against truly bad Students who should not be in a Big truck at all.

    Believe you me when I say that I have personally met some students who did not make it a hour with me as a trainer. And sometimes students who have got a hold a truck as a Solo after training, come back a week later after destroying the tractor trailer in a proper bridge strike that should NEVER have happened. (Western NY one village on US 20 I think, they have barn sized signs proclaiming we must bypass it due to low clearance. You cannot take a big truck into that square for any reason, you wont fit. I bypassed that town. Later that day that ex student soon to be exployee did not bypass and struck the bridge. I learn about the issue at the yard a day later.





    ***Video tape them texting, or talking on the cell while driving. Turn that video tape into the company safety. IF the safety is ANY GOOD that particular driver will be taken care of either with punitive punishments or firing.

    IF you identify a company that does NOTHING and the student or driver continues that behavior then you let the FMCSA know precisely including the video and the safety suit by name you talked to about this student violate. THEY WILL make sure that this kind of big time fineable behavior will be stopped.

    If a company CANNOT support you as a Trainer when a student seriously does things outrageously against the law such as texting or talking on cell while driving a 18 wheeler in front of you as a Trainer. Then you must understand there is no company behind you. YOU MUST consider moving on quietly to work for a better company that WILL support you against students or drivers who violate the laws in a serious way. And again as a whistle blower your videos and so on will earn you a percentage of all fines paid by CR England to FMCSA and related agencies when they get involved with this serious problem.

    If I told the student driving my 18 wheeler to put the phone down, turn it off into airplane mode and that student fails to do so, guess what. We hit the first nearest yard and out of the truck we go into the office, to Saftey first. In front of the student the safety man will be told by me what happened, how it happened and why the student did not obey my training instruction not to use cellphone while driving a 18 wheeler.

    One of the most constant simple test things a trainer does with a student is to give simple instructions now and then several times a day. As long the student demonstrates ability to comply with specific instructions for a variety of things, you have a good student who will be a valued driver.

    IF a student fails to comply or follow your instructions, then you do not have a student anymore. Take that whole tractor trailer and student to the nearest yard of your company and take him into safety or operations manger and explain to them carefully why this is not your student anymore. Have your video ready as evidence of that person's cell use on the highway while driving.


    Docuement that too. Once your unemployment and FMCSA, etc finds out about why you quit then you have quit for cause and will be protected by the State and get your benefits. Company in my past have been ruled against them when I quit for specific causes or reasons. They get really angry. Tough.



    ***Quit tonight. Find another better company. Document everything why you are quitting name names, dates, times and why etc. Turn that into the state's unemployment office. They will investigate with a very big light in places where there is no light.

    What you want to do, is to get away from the situation of a bad employer, bad students and so on, go home and decompress for a week. Do things you seriously enjoy in life. Do not worry about that silly trucking for right now. Get yourself healed up mentally and emotionally.

    Remember to follow up with the Unemployment office, Labor board and the FMCSA.


    Good luck.
     
  5. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    By the way 0.32 is not enough money in all the world with all of this aggravation. When I trained I was paid either 2000 gross which worked out to a little over 1500 net salary or a equivalent of .45 a mile while the student or spouse trainee got about .28 to 30 some cents a mile while training. If successful and they are hired as drivers they go higher in pay to the base structure for solo or team drivers.

    They paid .30 back in the 80's Don't try to make me think that in 2018 .30 is somehow a good pay rate. It should be a dollar a mile or at least 2000 gross for a trainer (Weekly). And the newbies should be paid .50 to start. Thay way there will be less aggravation and focus on the stupid miles. and more focus on being a quality driver.
     
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  6. Trucking in Tennessee

    Trucking in Tennessee Road Train Member

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    Nice post, but it should be mutually agreed you NEVER argue when driving. Very unprofessional and dangerous. I wonder about teams that are made up like that for that very reason.
     
    x1Heavy Thanks this.
  7. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    Change companies and don't be a trainer again.
     
  8. Opus

    Opus Road Train Member

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    Shocking.
    X Heavy, you really outdid yourself this time....
     
  9. Grumpy trucker

    Grumpy trucker Bobtail Member

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    Jul 26, 2018
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    Outstanding, and good info. Almost makes me want to come train for you all. 30 years experience, outstanding and blessed driving record. except enjoy my bed every night.
     
    x1Heavy Thanks this.
  10. S M D

    S M D Road Train Member

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    sacramento ca
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    Are you part of the group that always stopped on the shoulder of i80 Nebraska taking your 30?
    P.s I don’t move over and I honk every time
    Cre and crst always parked!
    At first I thought they were broken down but day after day multiple times a day. Figured it out That cre drivers and crst are just idiots.

    But instead of ranting find a job you’re worth working for.
    I run two trucks
    My driver gets 60 cents/mile all miles runs as much as he wants
    Takes home time as much as he needs.
    Good Companies exist. I was never a believer in mega carriers and comapnies where they train you like you’re in the army or where they put you with someone who can’t drive a lawnmower and expect you to bunk with them. It’s solo or nothing.
     
  11. TruckingCutie88

    TruckingCutie88 Bobtail Member

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    Aug 1, 2018
    Jacksonville FL
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    Wow.... Just when I thought about coming there for training. I hope this doesnt stop you from training future students like myself
     
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